History Borderlands2 / TropesDToN

* MommasBoy: Taggart was one of Hammerlock's exes and was very close to his mother. Prior to his death, he was looking for his lost Mother's Day gift (which was hand-made) and it does initially look innocent since Henry earned Taggart's admiration by [[MamaBear teaching him how to survive]]. However, as the mission progresses, Taggart's behavior sounds more and more [[OedipusComplex oedipal]], whether it was intentional or not on Taggart's part is uncertain. At the end of the mission, the shield can be found under the name of [[SexualEuphemism "Love Thumper"]] and it has the inscription [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny "If thumping you is wrong, I don't want to be right"]]. Aside from the shield name, Taggart has a [[KnuckleTattoos knuckle tattoo]] of the word "Mama", he named a stalker after his mother, and [[IWantMyMommy he dies yelling "mommy"]]. The quest completion notice is mockingly blunt about it:

* MommasBoy: Taggart was one of Hammerlock's exes and was very close to his mother. Prior to his death, he was looking for his lost Mother's Day gift (which was hand-made) and it can be found under the name of [[InnocentInnuendo "Love Thumper"]]. While it does initially look innocent due to Henry earning Taggart's admiration by [[MamaBear teaching him how to survive]]. However, as the mission progresses, Taggart's behaviour sounds more and more [[OedipusComplex oedipal]], whether it was intentional or not is uncertain. As shown by the aforementioned [[SexualEuphemism "Love Thumper"]] shield, the [[KnuckleTattoos "Mama" knuckle tattoo]], how he named a stalker after her and [[IWantMyMommy how he dies yelling "mommy"]]. The most damning piece of evidence is the shield inscription [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny "If thumping you is wrong, I don't want to be right"]]. The quest completion notice is mockingly blunt about it:

** Vladof promotes its weapons as a tool of revolution against the MegaCorp evil - despite being clearly just as corporate and ruthless, and having shiny, high-quality finishes, even though they're supposed to be made by angry factory workers.
*** Made more evident in this DummiedOut [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91CUC7F37IU Vladof-Brand Vending Machine]] quote: "[[EatTheRich TO HELL WITH CAPITALISM]], [[ByNoIMeanYes EXCEPT IN THIS CASE!!!]]"
*** If you listen closely, ''Vladof isn't even a company''; it's a ''brand'' of the "Kaliloff"[[note]]Sounding out the name, quite likely inaccurate[[/note]] corporation's weapons.
*** Also in a meta sense, Vladof weapons are the ''most'' expensive to use thanks to their outrageous ammo consumption as compared to more efficient weapons such as the more powerful Torgue, accurate Hyperion, or both in the case of Jakobs, brand ones.

* DummiedOut: [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Borderlands/comments/11dxbt/getting_the_lore_right_now_with_47_more_than_26/ Various little bits of dialogue, but ones that explain SO much:]]
** Angel and Jack are the ones manipulating the New-U system to keep the Hunters alive throughout the game: Angel to take down Jack, and Jack to make sure he kills you himself [[spoiler:after you kill Angel.]]
** Captain Flynt mentions that he has a bounty out on whoever killed his brother, Baron. Other than that cut line there's no mention of any relation between the two.
** Borderlands released official ringtones [[http://www.borderlands2.com/us/#downloads (free to download from their main website)]] featuring voice clips from Moxxie, Torgue, Claptrap, Tiny Tina, and Sir Hammerlock. The files consist of nothing but dialogue spoken by those characters, almost all of it (Tina doesn't have any of her DLC dialogue, but everything else is there.) This includes some dummied out dialogue, such as Torgue telling you to go down into the sewers and kill rats, and more of Tina's conversation during the tea party that never made it into the game.
** Moxxi was originally supposed to be involved in Fink's Circle of Slaughter, located right before The Fridge. There was also suppose to be another turn-in NPC named Captain Cabrera, who was later used in the Slaughter Dome DLC. She also has unused Tip Jar lines.

* FallingDamage: Averted as you don't take damage no matter how high you fall within the map area. This gets played in "The Vaughnguard" quest of ''Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary'', where you get to demonstrate to Vaughn's new recruits that you won't die from jumping on a tower. But this trope takes effect when the new recruits jump, and get [[LudicrousGibs squashed]] when they hit the ground.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Jack seems to be under the impression that whether you're good or evil is entirely down to aesthetics: if you look great, have a lot of money, and live in a shiny, shiny city, you're the good guy, and good guys always win. He doesn't really seem to understand the difference between order and chaos, either, because while he mentions he's trying to clean everything up, that's in between fits of mad laughter over how hilarious it is to blow people's brains out and speeches about how mining-induced volcanoes are "the definition of awesome!"

* JackOfAllStats: Tediore gun parts are this compared to other guns. While each gun brand has it's own unique qualities about them which give their own strengths and weaknesses, the guns themselves can be made up of multiple parts from different companies. Grip, Scope, Barrel, Body, accessories. While a Torgue barrel on a rocket launcher will greatly increase the damage of the weapon, it'll also decrease all the other stats such as reload, recoil, and accuracy. Besides the body giving a faster reload, Tediore parts gives neither any positive benefits or negative drawbacks to weapon stats.

** On the Bad end we have Hyperion and Bandit guns. Hyperion guns are sleek, futuristic space age guns with excellent statistics and sleek gimmicks, are made by the resident BigBad, and their names are stark, faceless corporate babble such as "Customer Focused Innovation". Bandit guns, meanwhile, look like random junk cobbled together with two straps of duct tape and the will of the Almighty, are made by the local AxCrazy people who want your head, and have garbage statistics except for their gigantic clips.
** On the Good end we have Jakobs, guns made by {{Honest Corporate Executive}}s with firm values and fair business practices. Unlike Hyperion, their guns are [[{{Retraux}} 19th century-like]] and with no frills whatsoever, and their names are traditional, cultured Chinook words; and unlike Bandit guns, their guns have exquisite top notch craftsmanship and have excellent stats but small clips.

** Tediore weapons are thrown at enemies when reloaded, whereupon they explode. The more bullets in the clip, the more powerful the explosion. The explosion also has whatever elemental effects the weapon carries, if any. This leads to such hilarity as firing a single shot and then beaning an enemy with a thrown pistol, which then blows him into ragu sauce. And then doing it to his friends.

* NostalgiaLevel: Arid Nexus - Badlands is basically the starting zone of the first game after Hyperion got their hands on it.

* NotWhatISignedOnFor: The Hypersion Engineers will say some of these lines when fighting you.

* DifficultySpike: The Arid Nexus/Badlands feature a substantial boost to all enemies' deadliness. Not coincidentally, this is when you start to meet Hyperion's [[BadassArmy professional troops]] and large numbers of SGT, WAR, JET, and Badass Loaders.

* FullHealthBonus: This game introduced Amp Shields to the series. They provide a large boost to damage when your [[RegeneratingShieldsStaticHealth shield energy]] is full, but also deplete a significant amount of that energy when the boost activates, meaning you only get one shot and have to wait for your shields to recharge before using it again. In this game specifically, The Bee is a legendary variant that provides the amp damage at no energy cost, allowing for multiple consecutive shots of boosted damage for as long as you can avoid actually getting hit. It proved to be such a GameBreaker that not only was The Bee itself {{nerf}}ed, but several of the weapons people would use with it ''also'' got nerfed, and shotguns as a whole got a major nerf when used with Amp Shields.

* FullHealthBonus: The Bee is an [[RegeneratingShieldsStaticHealth energy shield]] that gives a damage boost to your guns while it's fully charged, but it also has a fairly low capacity for its level. Normal Amp Shields can also provide this bonus, but only for one shot, as [[CastFromHitPoints using the damage boost costs a significant portion of your shield's energy]].

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Most legendary (orange) items are like this in that they tend to be better than any other weapon of its type in the game, but two items in particular stand out: The Bee (an amp shield without the CastFromHitPoints factor, allowing its massive damage boost to apply until you take damage) and the Conference Call (a shotgun that spawns additional bullets when it hits something or travels a certain distance). The Bee drops from an optional late game mini-boss; the Conference Call from the final boss (though both can drop elsewhere, just those two have the highest chance of dropping each item).
** Turning it UpToEleven, if you have The Bee equipped while in a vehicle, any bullets you fire from that vehicle will include amp damage. However -- unlike how it works in normal operation -- taking damage does not cancel the effect, giving you limitless amp damage as long as you're in the vehicle. This only works for bullet damage, so the vehicle that takes the best advantage of this is the Machine Gun variation of the Runner.

*** The "drawback" to Infinity is that it fires in an infinity symbol pattern. But against Loader enemies this is perfect. Put your crosshair in the middle of their chest and you can hit both of their shoulder weak points with a minimum of effort.
** With the addition of Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, Pearlescent weapons from the first game have returned, essentially making them an Infinity Plus Two weapon. Depending on what gun you get, it may or may not be ''better'' than an orange weapon, but it will be powerful in its own right.

* InterfaceScrew: Certain enemies - skags and spiderants, specifically - have subclasses with special attacks that can and will obstruct the player's vision for a couple seconds if they connect. Aside from the inherent {{Squick}} factor of getting puked in the face by an angry alien dog, being unable to see a thing can spell quick death on higher difficulties when surrounded by an entire pack of critters. [[OhCrap Or a badass or two]].
* InterfaceSpoiler: In the "Matter of Taste" sideqest from the Campaign of Carnage DLC, Torgue calls you back after killing the first target, implying the mission to be completed. However, the mission objective doesn't change to "Turn In", which is the usual message that appears when the sidequest is finished. Instead, [[spoiler:Torgue changes his mind and commands you to go back and kill the other reviewers after one of them broadcasted a message that he didn't agree with]].
* IronicEcho: Lilith is fond of teleporting around, surprising enemies, and killing them. She [[CatchPhrase most commonly says]] "Sup." while doing this. [[spoiler:Handsome Jack later teleports in behind Roland and shoots him in the back, greeting a surprised Lilith with "Sup."]]

* ItsPersonal: Invoked on both sides. [[spoiler:After Handsome Jack kills Mordecai's Bloodwing, kills Roland, and kidnaps Lilith, Mordecai and Brick are hit hard by the events and they swear they will make Jack pay for what he did. After you kill Angel, Jack gets extremely angry and promises he will kill you himself.]]
* ItsRainingMen: The giant H-Station in the sky isn't just for show. It can launch supply crates and robots straight at your location, all the way from the MOON.

* EyeScream:

* {{Foreshadowing}}:

* {{Japandering}}: Animated Actor Claptrap did this at some point, as seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajXad9gYrWw here]]

* LamePunReaction:
** "Since arriving on Pandora you have been mauled, shot, stabbed, and frozen... and yet, that pun hurts worst of all." The mission in question is called Arms Dealing. You get a bunch of actual human arms for Doctor Zed. Get it? Arms dealing?

** The "Uncle Teddy" mission has you collecting T.K. Baha's old ECHO logs for evidence of Hyperion stealing a gun design of his. T.K.'s neice Una notes that he "kept all his ECHO correspondence -- like a lot of people on Pandora, evidently", lampshading the fact that you find these things everywhere and they seem to be recording near-constantly. One mission even has someone saying (literally) "Here I am taking a walk, talking into my ECHO recorder and enjoying not being torn apart and having my gun broken into four pieces -- (skag roars) OH GOD THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW!"
* LaResistance:

* LargeHam:

* LighterAndSofter: Any of the DLC quests and areas, [[spoiler:which chronologically set after [[KnightOfCerebus Jack]]'s death.]]

** In one side quest for Tiny Tina's DLC, players are asked to help Claptrap get a beard and charge up his wand. After fulfilling those quests, he then decides to cast some spells to test out his new toys, by summoning and defeating a demon. Said demon turns out to be sentient brooms not unlike those seen in ''{{Disney/Fantasia}}''. To make matters hilariously worse, every time he tries to dismiss or weaken them, he ends up making them even stronger, forcing you to deal with ever more powerful minions.

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: Jakobs has an unique sniper rifle whose flavor text is "Bison bison had had had had had bison bison bison shi shi shi". It looks like a word salad, but in reality, it's a mashup of three language grammar puzzles: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo one where repeating eight times "buffalo" results in a gramatically correct English sentence]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher one where inserting the right punctuation on a sentence that repeats "had" 11 times makes it meaningful]], and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den a Chinese poem that, when read out loud, sounds like "shi shi shi shi shi shi"]].

** Jakobs guns eschew any such thing as modern technology and elemental damage in exchange for pure, hard statistics.

* JumpScare: The Mimic monster in the Tiny Tina DLC will quickly teach you to open up certain types of chests from as far away as possible.

** Constructors are what Jack sends after you when he gets really serious about killing people. They're big, heavily-armored floating replicators that can digistruct a small army of loaders and turrets, and making mooks isn't their only attack, either. They are also armed with huge cutting lasers, missile volleys, a ground-pound if you try to get too close to them, and the Badass ones launch tactical mini-nukes at you. Their one weakness is shooting their eye, which disrupts how they construct new loaders, but you still have to dump a ton of bullets into them.

** Witch Doctors in ''Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt''. Frustratingly, not only do they heal ''themselves'', they also have many other tricks at their disposal, like leveling up other enemies (for instance, making a Savage Warrior into a Skilled Warrior) or turning into tornadoes
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: "Dr." Zed, is a subversion, as he constantly reminds you of his lack of a medical license. Doc Mercy is a straight example, a bandit doctor who is far more interested in causing wounds than patching them up, but he at least has a medical license.

** The Gunzerker playstyle is all about this, with twice the gun putting out four times the bullets with the right skills. One of his ultimate skills grants you faster firing speed and faster reload the longer you hold down the trigger. Another skill gives him the ability to prolong gunzerking duration as he kills.

** The slag mechanic is exclusive to ''Borderlands 2''. This is because Slag is a by-product of Eridium processing, which is an activity that only takes place in this game as Handsome Jack is pouring all of Hyperion's resources into tapping the newly formed Eridium; refining all that Eridium produces a lot of Slag, enough to pollute the entire planet with it, and you can use it because in this game it's ''everyhwere''. It doesn't show up in ''Borderlands 1'' because it only started forming once the first Vault was opened, it only shows up in a few select occasions in ''The Pre-Sequel'' because it had been only recently discovered ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard a few bosses use it, but you can't]]), and it doesn't show up in ''Borderlands 3'' because the major factions are too busy fighting each other to refine Eridium.

** Oh so very, ''very'' much with [[spoiler:Roland's death. He's been tanking gunfire from assault rifles and constructors throughout the entire game up to this point. One shot from a pistol into the back, and boom, dead]].

* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Hyperion is a stark, faceless megacorporation that wants your money, and Marcus is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive a cut-throat trader who likes playing dirty]]. This is why dying costs you 7% of your money, and also why Marcus's ammo costs a percentage of your money instead of a fixed amount.