Borderlands Addon question

[Ranorak]

First of all, thank you to everyone that suggested Borderlands for a splitscreen Co-op game.
So far, it's a blast.

When I got it I also downloaded all the DLC, the 4 addons.
My friend and I are just level 20-ish and we just finished Zed's zombie world addon.

However, we were kind of worried we might over level our selves with the addons and thus ruin the main game somewhat.

Thus I ask ye, Escapist. What is the level requirement or order to do the DLC in, or should we focus on the main game?

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I'm fairly certain the enemies and loot drops scale based on your level.

So am pretty sure you can do it however you want. If you do rush through the story you can just do a new game plus mode with harder enemies as well.

 

[Ranorak]

Ah, great to hear, thanks for the info!

 

[newguy77]

I'm fairly certain the enemies and loot drops scale based on your level.

So am pretty sure you can do it however you want. If you do rush through the story you can just do a new game plus mode with harder enemies as well.

I think that's only the main game, because I tried Secret Armory at level 20 and everybody was in the 30's. Needless to say I quit after a couple of minutes.

 

[Caveworm]

Original game (duh). XP.
Dr Zeds Zombie Island.
Mad Moxie.
General Knoxx.
Claptrap revolution.

Far as I am aware that's the order. I would suggest playing the main game first, which gets you to about level 35-40 ish, I think. Zombie takes you up to about mid 40s. General Knoxx you have to be at least level 50, if I remember.

I did not play Mad Moxie-as it looked quite boring-but an odd thing happened after I played Zombie Island and moved on to Knoxx; Knoxx didn't scale with my level. Not sure what I did really. Once I selected it 'play through second', it did scale. Odd or me being a tard, not sure. Knoxx minions were all level 35 after I had finished Zombie Island. Ended with a level 43 character after Zombie...

 

[Hisshiss]

The main games levels are decided at a certain point when you get to a given area I believe, since the DLC is all reached by teleporting to its special area, their levels are set the first time you go there.

..I think. Its been a long time.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I'm pretty sure that a patch was put out after the GOTY edition that addressed scaling somewhat.

 

[Tharwen]

I didn't think it scaled, hence the point of levelling up to kill elite enemies.

Although, I'm finding the Zombie Island DLC to be just the right level for me so maybe it does. Nevertheless, my epic overpowered shotgun can cut through anything in seconds.

 

[Uber Evil]

Second and third playthroughs scale correctly. First is static levelling. This goes for everyone. Second playthrough might just reset the levels though. I know the third is dynamic scaling with your character.

 

[SilverStrike]

Zombie DLC scales appropriate to level, not sure about Moxxi's, the Armory doesn't scale, and neither does Claptrap.
Also, the campaign really doesn't scale.

The emphasis on campaign being my annoyance from playing first playthrough, then secret armory, and then second playthrough being many levels below me.

So, yeah. Zombie is the only one to scale. Maybe Moxxi.

 

[itsausernamewhatofit]

first, good choice with borderlands. second, some of the dlcs contain spoilers for the rest for the game(if you care) and shouldn't be played before the rest. The enemies don't scale but their drops do for the most part. I actually played alot of online with some friends all over the place and got to a higher lv than i should have been at the part of the story i was at but didn't see a problem and it was still, for the most part, a challenge. I'm lv 78 now and I still run into challenging parts and still enjoy myself.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Yeah, the difficulty scale in this game is fucked. My advice is to play the main game, then play Knoxx. Or play the main game, then Zed, then re-play, then Knoxx. (the other DLC are a little questionable.) Basically talk it over with your friends and figure out how much Borderlands you want to play. Knoxx is the best part of the game IMO - fun enemies and lots of tEh LeWts. You don't get a lot of XP playing Moxxi so you can basically do that whenever you want.

There's a lot of threads on this on Gearbox's forums that go into this much more in-depth.