Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
"Vault Hunter... you're all we got left. Jack killed Roland. He killed Bloodwing. But he is NOT gonna kill Lilith. Jack still needs time to charge the Vault Key – you just need to find out where this Warrior is buried. There's only one place on Pandora that'd have that kinda info: the Hyperion Info Stockade. Get there."
Mordecai
Angel may be gone, but so is Roland, and Lilith's been captured, along with the Vault Key. It's up to the grieving Mordecai, Brick, and the Vault Hunters to think of a plan to take down Jack and prevent the Warrior from being unleashed. So you're sent to Eridium Blight.
Meanwhile, Jack, still grieving for the death of his daughter, rescinds the bounty on the Vault Hunters, wanting to be The Only One Allowed To Kill You, threatening to kill those who dare to kill them as well.
Handsome Jack: Handsome Jack: People of Pandora... my daughter is dead. Murdered. By the Vault Hunter. So I've decided, I'm rescinding the bounty on the Vault Hunter. If you should kill that child-murdering son of a bitch before I do, I will find you. And you will regret denying me my vengeance.
Once the Vault Hunters reach the Eridium Blight, their next stop is the Arid Nexus. However, Jack denies them the access to the area, raising the bridge. So you go to the Sawtooth Cauldron in order to make your way through the Sawtooth bandits in order to steal explosives from them. But it won't be easy. The explosives are located atop of a tower only Mortar has access to, and he won't lower the bridge. So Brick suggests to destroy Mortar's prized Buzzard, the Boombringer. And, if possible, do so without looking at the explosion, so you look badass while doing so. This enrages Mortar, who lowers the elevator and faces you at the lowest end. You dispatch Mortar, and take the elevator to the top. Once the Vault Hunters reach it, they dispatch the rest of the Buzzards circling the tower. Once that's done, the way to the Hyperion Info Stockade is clear.
These missions take place in the "Eridium Blight" and "Sawtooth Cauldron" areas, however, there's another area unlocked, "Ore Chasm", which hosts the Hyperion Circle of Slaughter. These areas are home to the sidequests "Hyperion Slaughter" chain, "The Chosen One", "A Real Boy", "Customer Service", "Kill Yourself", "To Grandmother's House We Go", "Capture the Flags" and "The Great Escape". In addition, the sidequests "BFFs", "Bearer of Bad News" and the "Monster Mash" chain, while being performed on Sanctuary, are unlocked by this chapter. Finally, these areas house the following challenges:
- Eridium Blight: "Tie Clip", "Can You Hear Me Now?", "Pipe Dreaming", "Cult of the Vault", "Bring Out The Big Guns", "Save the Turrets", "'Twas Slag Killed The Beast" and "Vault Hunter vs. the Volcano".
- Sawtooth Cauldron: "Cult of the Vault", "Race to the Top", "Haiku Hitman" and "Happy Camper".
- Ore Chasm: "Cult of the Vault".
The mission, the related sidequests and challenges, and the "Eridium Blight", "Sawtooth Cauldron" and "Ore Chasm" areas provide examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: In "A Real Boy", a malfunctioning Hyperion loader desires to become human. Its plan to become human, unfortunately, consists of asking you to find it clothes and then bandit body parts to wear, since humans have lots of clothes and limbs. Then it realizes that this is Pandora, and a vital part of being human on Pandora is killing other humans, so it tries to kill you. Subverted; after you shoot it a bunch, it realizes it is feeling pain, concludes that it must now be human since humans feel pain, and happily stops attacking you.
- Backtracking: The last part of the "Monster Mash" quest chain given by Zed around Chapter 16, wherein you have to return to the Frostburn Canyon and hunt down the Spycho. For context, this quest takes place exactly after the events of "Control Core Angel", when you are doing missions in late-game areas such as Eridium Blight and Sawtooth Cauldron.
- Bearer of Bad News: One of the first post-"Control Core Angel" quests taking place in Sanctuary is named as such, with the player being said bearer. The bad news in question is Roland's death.
- Become a Real Boy: Parodied in the "A Real Boy" chain, where you help a robot become a human. Except not really.
- Call-Back: The achievement for killing Donkey Mong is called "Definitely An Italian Plumber", a call back to the achievement "My Brother is an Italian Plumber" in the first game.
- Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: One sidequest involves four people in a Mexican Standoff, all accusing each other of having stolen a stash of money, and you're instructed to identify who the thief is based on their testimonies and the fact that three of them are liars while one tells the truth. You could puzzle it out through logical deduction... or by the fact that one of them is carrying a backpack full of money.
- Continuity Nod: The end-of-mission text for the Monster Mash questline refers to his brother, Dr. Ned of The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, a DLC for the first Borderlands:"If you think Zed's creepy, be happy you never met his brother."
- Contract on the Hitman: One optional mission has Handsome Jack (in the throes of a Villainous Breakdown) contact you and offer you a nice reward to kill yourself. He instructs you to go to a specific cliff and throw yourself off of it. Alternately, there is a phone there which will contact a suicide hotline, which tells you "Thank you for calling the Hyperion Suicide Prevention Hotline, Handsome Jack regrets to inform you that you are a coward". Whatever you do, it doesn't really matter; the Hyperion New-U station will instantly resurrect you if you die, taking a portion of your money but earning you 12 Eridium as a reward; Jack knows this, he just wants to watch you die for kicks. If you call the hotline instead, you get no Eridium, but triple experience for the quest.Handsome Jack: Enjoy your nothing, idiot!
- Defeat Means Friendship: Loader Mal stops attacking you once you beat him down badly enough at the end of the "Real Boy" sidequest in Eridium Blight. He's one of the very few enemies you can absolutely only fight once per playthrough because of this.
- Driven to Suicide: You, in "Kill Yourself". In Eridium Blight, Handsome Jack pays you to jump off a really tall cliff. You can comply and get a lot of Eridium (and get called his bitch), or call the Hyperion Suicide Prevention Hotline to get more EXP instead (and get called a loser.)
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: "To Grandmother's House We Go" involves Handsome Jack invoking this trope by sending you to check on his grandmother. He sounds rather concerned for her and doesn't seem like the usual jackass that he normally is. Then he subverts it by revealing that he hired some bandits to kill his own grandmother, and just wanted you to check and see if they did the job. Even better: since you killed them, he doesn't have to pay them anymore! Given that said grandmother has a buzz-axe in her house which is said to be used as a "disciplinary" weapon, Jack may have a Freudian Excuse for wanting her dead.
- Evil Is Petty: "Kill Yourself" has Handsome Jack giving you a mission to kill yourself, knowing full well you'll respawn; he just wants to humiliate you.
- Fission Mailed: "Kill Yourself" is a mission given by Handsome Jack. He has chosen a spot for you to commit suicide and gives you the choice of doing or not. It's hilarious, regardless of the outcome.
- Gladiator Subquest: The Ore Chasm area hosts the "Hyperion Slaughter" chain, which takes you to the Hyperion Circle of Slaughter where you have to hold it against waves of Loaders, Constructors and even Hyperion personnel.
- Gone Horribly Right: The "Monster Mash" chain involves getting Rakk and Skag parts for Dr. Zed. Later they turn into Skrakk, or flying skags. The final part of the quest has you kill a Spycho, or a psycho combined with a spiderant.Zed: Y'know, if you think about it, this is really all ''your'' fault.
- Hold the Line:
- The Hyperion Circle of Slaughter mission chain involves the Vault Hunters surviving wave after wave of enemies until all waves are cleared.
- The "Capture the Flags" sidequest in Sawtooth Cauldron requires you to defend three generators, one located in each of the three bandit camps, twice: first when the respective bandit camp's flag is lowered, and then when the Slabs flag is being raised.
- Humans Are Bastards: Parodied in the quest where you help a robot become a human in Eridium Blight - his ideas of what it means to be a person are rather... off. Although this being Pandora, it's quite understandable how he came to those conclusions. Some of the stuff he says is still pretty surreal, given that Pandora is a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with brain damaged psychopaths...Mal: Hi! I'm human! I eat food, and desire things! I'm in credit card debt and have a wife for whom I feel nothing!
- Honest John's Dealership: One late game quest given by Marcus is all about how he conned an idiot into buying an (admittedly quite good) gun at an outrageous price, and you retrieving the $9 change he gave too much.
- Hybrid Monster: The "Monster Mash" questline ends with you hunting down skag/rakk hybrids, or "skrakk", and later a spiderant/psycho hybrid ("Spycho"), created by Dr. Zed for God knows what reason. You also helped him make the monsters in the first place by bringing him body parts.Zed: If you think about it...this is really all your fault.
- King Mook: King Mong is a really huge Bullymong.
- Knights and Knaves: One of Marshal Friedman's missions has you trying to figure out which one of four robbers (Sam, Lindy, O'Cantler, and Lee) took all the money for him-or-herself. Friedman explicitly tells you that only one of them is truthful and the others are all lying. The culprit is Lee, the only one who didn't try to accuse anyone else; the truth-teller is probably O'Cantler, who accused Sam of lying but not of stealing the money.
- Luck-Based Mission: "Hyperion Circle of Slaughter: Round 4". Wave 5 starts off with nearly a dozen EXP Loaders, which aren't so bad if you just run from them - they'll catch up, stand still, then explode. But as they die, they're replaced with
RPG Loaders, which can spam high-damage missiles at you. If two or more do this in a row, no matter WHAT your health is, it's going down fast. Plus, it keeps other player from reviving you if you play co-op. - Mexican Standoff: The mission "BFFs" has a group of four people in this state because they can't figure out who stole their cash.
- Mob War: The Slabs versus the Sawteeth (who had their own emblems and flags despite having the generic appearance of the "bandit mooks" you've faced several times). Their feud is told by Brick while you are on your mission of stealing some heavier firepower.
- Mood Whiplash: The entirety of the "Bearer of Bad News" sidequest. If you ever want to see how the people of Sanctuary would act when you take the pep out of them, this quest has your answer.
- Mordor: The Eridium Blight is pretty much one big Expy of Sauron's realm itself, complete with a blackened wasteland, volcanoes and lots of lava. The Easter Egg that's unlocked by playing on True Vault Hunter mode onwards emphasizes this. You need to bring a ring from Claptrap's house in Windshear Waste all the way to a certain point in this area, and the path itself is full of dangers and enemies capable of putting you into "Fight For Your Life" mode, and you aren't allowed to use Fast Travel, a vehicle, or dying.
- Out of Character: In the side mission "Customer Service", Marcus narrates that he had been drunk on a certain night, and that caused him to act against his shop's tagline. He gave refunds to his customers.
- Permanently Missable Content: Players have only one shot at completing the challenge "Save the Turrets" in the Eridium Blight map and it's right at the time when the Vault Hunters have to protect Claptrap, who's hacking the entrance to "Hero's Pass". Didn't you earn the Badass Points from this challenge? Too bad.
- Pop-Culture Isolation: Kai, in-universe."Pandora is crap! Nobody's heard of me here! Hell-ooo, five billion EchoCAST subscribers?!"
- Portmanteau: In the "Monster Mash" sidequest line, Dr. Zed experiments in combining two creatures into one, giving the result with this naming theme. To be specific, the skag-rakk hybrids are "Skrakks" and the spiderant-psycho hybrid is "Spycho".
- Protection Mission: Part of "Capture the Flags" requires you to protect three generators, each one located at each of the bandit camps, while you're raising the Slabs flag or dropping the respective bandit camp's own flag.
- Pungeon Master: The Innuendobot in "Ore Chasm" has been reprogrammed by Moxxi to constantly make double entendres, which he absolutely hates doing.
- Punny Name: The "Ore Chasm", a Circle of Slaughter area run by Moxxi, and staffed by the Innuendobot.
- A Rare Sentence:Brick: Now that you've got the laxative, it's time to find some explosives. That may be my favorite sentence I've ever said.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Brick promotes one against the Sawtooth bandits.Brick: My boys have been fighting the Sawteeth for years. They've handed dozens of Vault Hunters to Jack, once the pay got good enough. So you kill them all. And you smile while you do it.
- Sadistic Choice:
- "Rakkaholics Anonymous" is all about gathering rakk beer for Mordecai in The Dust so he can drown his sorrows, and ends with you giving it to him for a Sniper Rifle, or to Moxxi so she can get back at Mordecai for not paying her enough attention during their relationship, and get a healing SMG.
- "Kill Yourself" in Eridium Blight has you committing suicide for a huge stack of Eridium or calling the attention line for just a bunch of XP.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Kai, an ubernerd who thinks he's the biggest star there is. He may have 5 billion ECHO Cast subscribers, but he laments that hardly anyone on Pandora has heard of him. Marcus recognized him... as a sucker he could easily rip off, selling him the Evil Smasher for $2 million.
- Spoof Aesop: In one of the side missions, you help a group of people figure out who stole all the cash among them. If you shoot the correct person, one of the surviving members states that they hope everyone learned something. Another member replies that yes, they did learn something - that the guilty person stole the cash. It's the guy with the cash sign on his back.
- Stealth Pun: Brick has you kill a bandit leader who he's been at odds with for a long time. The bandit's name is Mortar, and together their names are a play on the phrase "Brick and Mortar" (referring to the building material, not the explosive).
- Story Breadcrumbs: The "Haiku Hitman" challenge has you collecting ECHO recordings scattered across Sawtooth Cauldron that tell the story of how Zer0 came to Pandora.
- Suicide as Comedy: "Kill Yourself", a quest in which Handsome Jack literally orders you to kill yourself. Complete with suicide prevention hotline if you decide not to go through with it. When you first get to that spot, a random bandit is jumping off while screaming "I'M GONNA BE RIIIIIICH!". Apparently Jack offered this quest to a lot of people.
- Surprisingly Easy Mini-Quest: A quest in Eridium Blight simply requires you to step off a cliff (or not).
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Dr. Zed asks you to obtain some bits of animals for him for unspecified purposes... resulting in this:
- Dr. Zed: (fake polite) Nice to meet you. Here is a large pile of money, just because I like you. This is a gift, and in no way payment for rendered services that neither of us will discuss publicly.
- Timed Mission: "Customer Service" requires you to collect five refunds scattered across Eridium Blight.
- Unflinching Walk: Invoked. One mission in Sawtooth Cauldron has you destroying a bandit leader's prized Buzzard to lure him out of hiding. The bonus objective is looking away from the explosion — while you don't have to actually walk away from it, you're encouraged to. The bandit leader gets especially upset if you do it, too.Brick: You'll look like such a badass.
- What You Are in the Dark: The quest "Kill Yourself", given by Handsome Jack in the Eridium Blight. His proposition is simple: kill yourself by throwing yourself off a cliff, and because Death Is Cheap, he'll reward you with a not-insignificant amount of Eridium, at the cost of being Jack's bitch. Or, you can instead opt to call the Hyperion Suicide Prevention Hotline at the same location, and forfeit the Eridium payday in favour of experience. No one but you and Jack will know what choice you make: take the Eridium and sell out just because Jack offered you enough money, or refuse, and keep your pride at the expense of the ever-useful, upgrade-purchasing Eridium.
