History YMMV / BorderlandsThePreSequel

* EndingFatigue: Overlaps with ThatOneLevel. The story reaches its climax after killing Zarpedon, saving the moon, and [[spoiler:destroying the Eye of Helios]]. Instead of ending, the game introduces the final chapter. This starts out with an entirely new area, teeming with new and powerful enemies (and a miniboss consisting of waves of them). At the end of that area is the below mentioned RK-5 boss fight. Again, instead of ending, the game introduces ''another'' new area, now stocked with completely overpowered enemies. After making it through that gauntlet, there's ''another'' new area, again with more annoying enemies, and even a mini-boss out of nowhere. After all that, several hours of gameplay later, you finally reach the final boss... see SNKBoss below.

* SNKBoss: [[spoiler:The Empyrean Sentinel, which is a SequentialBoss after a OneWingedAngel sequence]], it is fought in a small circular arena, and so many damaging areas that it feel like playing BulletHell as a FirstPersonShooter. This is topped by the fact that if you or all your party died, you have to start from the beginning of the first sequence. Though somewhat mitigated by gorgeous scenery design and memorable bosses, it can be strenuous to make it through all of it in one sitting, especially since Jack's character arc is more or less complete.
** [[spoiler:The raid boss mission available afterwards with Tiny Tina is just a replay of the final boss fight but with an "invincible" version of it.]]
** [[spoiler: 5H4D0W-TP, the final boss of "Claptastic Voyage"]] can certainly qualify as this to those that can't deal with being swarmed by multiple enemies, It's made even worse due to the fact that he regenerates his shield over time so you constantly have to be shooting him while dodging all of the other enemies that are attacking you.
*** ECLIPSE [[spoiler:(5H4D0W-TP's second form)]] can be absolutely devastating as well as extremely frustrating, it is pretty much Saturn v2 who can also fly. Have fun avoiding its missiles, lasers, and electric balls that follow you AND the bugs that constantly spawn during the entire battle, oh and not to mention the arena you fight ECLIPSE in is full of lava so watch your step!
*** EOS [[spoiler: (5H4D0W-TP's final form)]] is easily and without a doubt the hardest boss in the whole game, it takes the form of a [[spoiler: corrupt Helios]] that circles around the map with turrets and missile launchers attached to it which are complete bullet sponges and have just as much health as the boss itself. The part that makes this boss fight super hard is its Eye Laser that represents [[spoiler: The Destroyer's eye]], it has a huge blast radius and can down you in a second, not even Athena's shield can resist its damage. You'll most likely be fighting EOS for a good 15 - 30 minutes since it's a 3 phase battle and replenishes its shield each time it disappears and spawns a bunch of enemies.

* EndingFatigue: Overlaps with ThatOneLevel. The story reaches its climax after killing Zarpedon, saving the moon, and [[spoiler:destroying the Eye of Helios]]. Instead of ending, the game introduces the final chapter. This starts out with an entirely new area, teeming with new and powerful enemies (and a miniboss consisting of waves of them). At the end of that area is the below mentioned RK-5 boss fight. Again, instead of ending, the game introduces ''another'' new area, now stocked with completely overpowered enemies. After making it through that gauntlet, there's ''another'' new area, again with more annoying enemies, and even a mini-boss out of nowhere. After all that, several hours of gameplay later, you finally reach the final boss...[[spoiler:who has '''seven forms''']]. Though somewhat mitigated by gorgeous scenery design and memorable bosses, it can be strenuous to make it through all of it in one sitting, especially since Jack's character arc is more or less complete.
** [[spoiler:The raid boss mission available afterwards with Tiny Tina is just a replay of the final boss fight but with an "invincible" version of it.]]

** [[spoiler: 5H4D0W-TP in "Claptrastic Voyage"]] can certainly qualify as this to those that can't deal with being swarmed by multiple enemies, It's made even worse due to the fact that he regenerates his shield over time so you constantly have to be shooting him while dodging all of the other enemies that are attacking you.
*** ECLIPSE [[spoiler:(5H4D0W-TP's second form)]] can be absolutely devastating as well as extremely frustrating, it is pretty much Saturn v2 who can also fly. Have fun avoiding its missiles, lasers, and electric balls that follow you AND the bugs that constantly spawn during the entire battle, oh and not to mention the arena you fight ECLIPSE in is full of lava so watch your step!
*** EOS [[spoiler: (5H4D0W-TP's final form)]] is easily and without a doubt the hardest boss in the whole game, it takes the form of a [[spoiler: corrupt Helios]] that circles around the map with turrets and missile launchers attached to it which are complete bullet sponges and have just as much health as the boss itself. The part that makes this boss fight super hard is its Eye Laser that represents [[spoiler: The Destroyer's eye]], it has a huge blast radius and can down you in a second, not even Athena's shield can resist its damage. You'll most likely be fighting EOS for a good 15 - 30 minutes since it's a 3 phase battle and replenishes its shield each time it disappears and spawns a bunch of enemies.

** The final boss is extremely simple, with majority of their attacks easily avoidable alongside being a very big target with obvious critical hit spots. All you have to do is remember Face [=McShooty=].

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While Claptrap has always been a BaseBreakingCharacter, reception for the character as Fragtrap has been almost universally positive. This may have to do with the story adding an element of tragedy to the character. Also, the fact Claptrap is a difficult but rewarding character to play. [[spoiler: Watching him get betrayed by Handsome Jack after serving him faithfully the entire game is also heartbreaking.]]

* TheScrappy: Pickle is quickly becoming this, most of the hate being directed at his voice and accent and him stealing your money every time you complete a quest for him. The fact he has little impact in the story besides one mission which could be given by Janey Springs or Moxxi doesn't exactly help.

** The Meriff. Is he a TooDumbToLive ObstructiveBureaucrat who is passively allowing the genocide of Elpis or simply a weak-man terrified of the gun being pointed at his head by Colonel Zarpedon? He suffers severe self-loathing for skimming from a local food bank charity drive but, by Pandoran standards, is a saint since much of the money DID go to the charity.

** The People's Liberation Front is a RightWingMilitiaFanatic organization that thinks they can solve all their problems if they just get enough guns to start a revolution and lead the disenfranchised to rise up. [[spoiler:Actually, they're a parody of SeriousBusiness TrueArtIsIncomprehensible artists who think a few weird art pieces will fix everything.]]

* FandomBerserkButton: Say that you hate Janey on Reddit and prepare for the thousands of downvotes that you will be riddled with.

** SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped

** As demonstrated above under Anvilicious, Mr. Torgue, or at least this characterization of him. Some players will agree with that political stance, others wont. It's pretty cringey regardless, and really makes you wish for the old EXPLOSIONS AND CURSING Torgue. And speaking of cursing...

** {{SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped}}

** {{SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped]}

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Athena has achieved a level of popularity consistent with the original Vault Hunters despite only appearing in a single game and one DLC, to the point that she returned in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheBorderlands'' and [[spoiler: can be even recruited to fight the Traveler in the final episode]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Athena has achieved a level of popularity consistent with the original Vault Hunters despite only appearing in a single game and one DLC.

* CrackPairing: Zer0[=/=]Athena. A pair of stoic sword-wielding assassins with iffy social skills, it would seem like they were made for each other [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight if they'd ever exchanged a word]].

** Janey Springs. Those who like her tend to find her funny and an {{Adorkable}} lesbian. Those who are annoyed by her find her a one note character established and defined by her homosexuality and little else. (It doesn't help that Hammerlock, while gay, isn't very overt about his orientation like Janey is). [[spoiler: And what ''really'' didn't help matters is when Scooter was killed off in ''Tales'' and Janey effectively took his place as the comedic mechanic.]]

** Janey Springs. Those who like her tend to find her funny and an{{Adorkable}} lesbian. Those that are annoyed by her find her a one note character established and defined by her homosexuality and little else. (It doesn't help that Hammerlock, while gay, isn't very overt about his orientation like Janey is). [[spoiler: And what ''really'' didn't help matters is when Scooter was killed off in ''Tales'' and Janey effectively took his place as the comedic mechanic.]]

** Janey Springs. Those who like her tend to find her funny and {{Adorkable}} lesbian. Those that are annoyed by her claim that she's a one note character who allows her homosexuality to define her (It doesn't help that Hammerlock, while gay, isn't very overt about his orientation like Janey is). [[spoiler: And what ''really'' didn't help matters is when Scooter was killed off in ''Tales'' and Janey effectively took his place as the comedic mechanic.]]

** Janey Springs. Those who like her tend to find her funny and {{Adorkable}} lesbian. Those that are annoyed by her claim that she's a one note character who never stops talking about how she's gay (It doesn't help that Hammerlock, while gay, isn't very overt about his orientation like Janey is), which she doesn't do ''nearly'' as much as they pretend she does. She only ever brings it up when it's actually related to what she's talking about. [[spoiler: It being revealed that her and Athena are dating made it even more split. And what ''really'' didn't help matters is when Scooter was killed off in ''Tales'' and Janey effectively took his place as the comedic mechanic.]]

* GoodBadBugs: The "Yellow Sniper" glitch, (bonus points for being caused by a "glitch" weapon type.) Using a glitch Jakobs sniper rifle from the Claptastic Voyage DLC has a chance to switch to yellow mode on reload, giving it rapid-fire, auto-fire and chance to not use ammo. This is standard for glitch weapons, but the true bug comes into effect if the player switches to another weapon when the sniper rifle is still yellow: any weapon used will gain the benefits of yellow mode and fire at an unbelievable rate (as if using one of the old turbo buttons.) A properly specced Nisha exploiting this bug can destroy (ThatOneBoss ECLIPSE/EOS) in ''seconds.''

* BaseBreaker:

** The game being centered around Handsome Jack is another BaseBreaker, with some fans feeling that this game is going to try and downplay his later heinous actions. Interestingly, BRICK brings this up in the first few minutes...and Lilith straight-out calls BS on Handsome Jack EVER being sympathetic.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While Claptrap has always been a BaseBreaker, reception for the character as Fragtrap has been almost universally positive. This may have to do with the story adding an element of tragedy to the character. Also, the fact Claptrap is a difficult but rewarding character to play. [[spoiler: Watching him get betrayed by Handsome Jack after serving him faithfully the entire game is also heartbreaking.]]

** The Concordia People's Liberation Front are a group of bloodthirsty environmentalists, representing groups like PETA who care more about animals and the environment than people. Once said animals turn out to be ugly, though, they turn their back on them.
** The Concordia's People Front parodies limousine liberals, well-off progressives who only support the cause because it's popular, refuse to take any actual risk, and pat themselves on the back for every tiny victory (like putting up posters).
** The People's Front is a RightWingMilitiaFanatic organization that thinks they can solve all their problems if they just get enough guns to start a revolution and lead the disenfranchised to rise up. [[spoiler:Actually, they're a parody of SeriousBusiness TrueArtIsIncomprehensible artists who think a few weird art pieces will fix everything.]]

** The People's Front is a RightWingMilitiaFanatic organization that thinks they can solve all their problems if they just get enough guns to start a revolution and lead the disenfranchised to rise up. [[spoiler:Actually, they're a parody of SeriousBusiness TrueArtIsIncomprehensible artists who think a few weird art pieces will fix everything]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** Colonel Zarpedon is a subtle case of this as, either way, she's a [[AFatherToHisMen A Mother To Her Men]] who is a WellIntentionedExtremist but some fans question whether she's actually justified in believing the destruction of Elpis is the only way to prevent something ''much worse'' from happening. Given the amount of Eridian technology and side-effects she's showing, it's likely she knows more than anyone else about their technology. A few people reject her NotSoDifferent from Jack due to the fact the latter wants to be known as a hero while Zarpedon just wants to help people. A minority opinion is she ''really is'' a monster as they don't believe destruction of a planet can ''ever'' be justified.

** Nisha Kadam is a straight-up sadist, but she got hit with this trope as well when she mentions that she got bitten by her own puppy, which was infected with space rabies. It's also heavily implied she was [[AbusiveParents abused by her mother.]] As well as that, she's a much more quiet and actually slightly more reasonable person in Borderlands 2, which is set 3 years after the events on Elpis. Could she have had clawed back some rationality, or did she just need to act more Sheriff-fy when running a town?

* AnticlimaxBoss:

* BestLevelEver: The level where you storm the Hub of Heroism and clear the station is pretty much awesome. So is the fight on the Lunar Launching Station, which is nicely designed.

** On the gameplay side, many are crying ItsTheSameSoItSucks, while others enjoy the gameplay enough to let it slide.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Handsome Jack gets this from some fans. Some of it is deliberate, since Jack's arc is about developing from moderately reasonable to a BigBad. However, as the game shows Jack's StartOfDarkness, many fans have decided Jack did nothing wrong. They ignore his KickTheDog moments or choose to believe they were justified/excused by the trauma or pressure he endured, even blaming the heroes from the previous games for Jack's mistakes, to the point of denying Jack any responsibility at all. Which is confusing, [[spoiler: given that before the game even starts he'd imprisoned and used [[AndIMustScream Angel]] to manipulate the original Vault Hunters get a hold of the Eye of the Destroyer and construct a giant [[WaveMotionGun death ray]] with the express purpose of killing people with it]].

* GoddamnedBats: Lost Legion Engineers. They will throw wormholes (which pulls you in), turrets or shields while you fight if you don't kill them quickly. The last can be particularly nasty if you're in Fight For You Life. They can easily descend into DemonicSpider territory in True and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: A common complaint is that the gameplay is that, minor differences like the new weapons and the OZ mechanic aside, it's virtually similar to ''Borderlands 2''... which was nearly the same as ''Borderlands 1'' itself. The writing faced similar criticism for going to the same well for jokes (modern pop culture references and internet memes). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rODiTthXPvY Total Biscuit summed it up here.]]

** RK-5. A giant flying jet, he will constantly spawn powerful Eridian and Lost Legion allies. What makes this worse is that it is very hard to hit him, the area is extremely large, and he does a stupid amount of damage with both his lasers and his nukes. If you're put into FFYL you better pray you're playing co-op or you have an enemy nearby to shoot--and not a Lost Legion member way over on the other side. Many players have pretty much quit TVHM because of this. It certainly doesn't help that he taunts you the whole time with the same three lines, so often, the case of the first 5 minutes of the boss fight is going into FFYL by an Eridian Guardian and hearing nothing but [[MostAnnoyingSound "I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU VAULT HUNTERS! I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU VAULT HUNTERS! READY FOR A MISSILE MASSACRE! DIE DIE DIE!]] as you try to shoot a Lost Legion Sniper from the other side of the arena. And if you fail to revive, you have to endure a 15 second elevator ride before you can re-enter the arena. It's very common to die to RK-5, spend 15 seconds in the elevator ride, only to immediately get downed again. To make matters worse, it hits right in the middle of the EndingFatigue section, and the fight is at a point where it's easy to miss sidequests, leaving you underleveled for an already-frustrating fight. From a plot perspective, you don't even have a good reason to fight it; the Vault Hunters point out at the start of the fight that they could just run past and enter the Vault, but Jack insists on taking it down, paranoid that it could return to stab him in the back.

*** EOS [[spoiler: (5H4D0W-TP's final form)]] is easily and without a doubt the hardest boss in the whole game, it takes the form of a [[spoiler: corrupt Helios]] that circles around the map with turrets and missile launchers attached to it which are complete bullet sponges and have just as much health as the boss itself. The part that makes this boss fight super hard is its Eye Laser that represents [[spoiler: The Destroyer's eye,]] it has a huge blast radius and can down you in a second, not even Athena's shield can resist its damage.You'll most likely be fighting EOS for a good 15 - 30 minutes since it's a 3 phase battle and replenishes its shield each time it disappears and spawns a bunch of enemies.
* ThatOneLevel: The last 4 areas, Vorago Solitude, Outfall Pumping Station, Tycho's Ribs, and Eleseer, are rage-inducingly hard. To wit, Vorago Solitude contains the Lost Legion Eternals (who have a tendency to regain all their health unless they haven't ascended yet, otherwise they will try to ascend and heal themselves the first time at low health) in large, open areas, which is practically begging to get your sorry ass laser-sniped. It also has a boss fight consisting of several waves of difficult enemies. A short hall after that fight leads to Outfall Pumping Station, with RK-5, a difficult boss in its own right. [[FromBadToWorse Following this]] is Tycho's Ribs, where the Eternals are accompanied by Eridian Guardians, [[LightningBruiser fast, hard-hitting, durable]] enemies that love to show up in groups and change elemental affinity to screw you over. [[UpToEleven THEN]], you get to [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Eleseer]], which ditches the Eternals, but introduces the [[MookMaker Ophas]]; ALL of their variants, combined with new, flying Guardians. [[spoiler: What waits at the end is a [[FinalBoss Final Boss]] with [[MarathonBoss SEVEN FORMS]] (in actuality, four human-sized forms which count as one fight, followed by three [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant]] forms which count as a separate battle).]] At least the [[SceneryPorn Scenery Porn]] and the [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome Visual Effects of Awesome]] mitigate the frustration.

** "Pop Racing" is one for those who like to get all the optional objectives, as this particular has an optional objective which is extremely easy to miss- beat Napykins time on your very first try, which means if you screw up once you can never get it without starting a new playthrough(saving and quitting counts as failing the objective) unless you exit to the dashboard or Alt-F4 before you fail until you get it right.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While Claptrap has always been a BaseBreaker, reception for the character as Fragtrap has been almost universally positive. This may have to do with the story adding an element of tragedy to the character. Also, the fact Claptrap is a difficult but rewarding character to play. [[spoiler: Watching him get betrayed by Handsome Jack after serving him faithfully the entire game is also heartbreaking.]]
** Pink-quality weapons as well. In the previous game, pink-quality denoted Seraph weapons - which were agreed to be somewhat uncreative, thought to be rehashes of legendaries, and had a reputation for being underpowered early in their introduction. Though thankfully, that was hotfixed, but they never truly shook the reputation. Pre-Sequel reassigned the color to the DLC-exclusive Glitch weapons, which acted more like a counterpart to E-Tech or Luneshine weapons: otherwise ordinary weapons with a unique graphical effect and the potential to activate one of several glitch effects during battle, such as multi-shot or a built-in Amp shield effect. They're agreed to be one of the most useful classes of weapon thanks to the glitch effects.
* RonTheDeathEater: Some fans believe [[spoiler: Moxxi, Roland, and Lilith]] are [[spoiler: responsible for Jack's StartOfDarkness.]] They believe that if [[spoiler: they hadn't betrayed Jack]], he never would have turned evil. [[spoiler: Lilith]] gets the worst of this [[spoiler: due to scarring Jack's face.]] This ignores Jack was already planning to take over Pandora via giant orbital laser and admitted it to their faces, that he had already [[spoiler: imprisoned his own daughter and used her to manipulate the events of the first game so he could build said orbital laser]] and that Jack repeatedly shows that he enjoys killing and is totally self-obsessed, and the fact that [[spoiler: he outright murdered his head scientists in cold blood because one of them suggested the ''possibility'' that there could be a mole for Zarpedon among them]]. This said, the fact that [[spoiler:Lilith is called out on her behaviors by her friends]] in the final cutscene does show that this isn't entirely the case.
* ScrappyMechanic: Averted with the Oz Kits and the gameplay mechanic of using oxygen sparingly. The inclusion of Oxygen and Oz Kits and needing one to survive is not frustrating in the slightest, contrary to many people's thoughts on it prior to the game's release who considered it both tedious and annoying. Thankfully, the directors took great pains to remove the frustration from the mechanic.
** A significant number of bosses and unique enemies within quests do not respawn, yet still have Legendary drops or skins/heads tied to them. If you don't dashboard or Alt+F4 after killing them, you'll never get another shot at them. Even worse if they are part of a plot quest, since there's no way for you to farm the Level 50 version of them. Since Borderlands pretty much revolves around farming specific bosses and enemies for their best and rarest loot, this has made many people quite unhappy. A patch released in March 2015 made these bosses and enemies respawning, except for Zarpedon, who had her loot pool added to the Sentinel's instead.
** Fragtrap's action skill is hated to near-base breaking levels, to the point where if someone shows up in a game as Claptrap, they will often be immediately booted (or if hosting, abandoned). The randomness of his action skill as well as the uncontrollability of many of the results (firing two copies of your in-hand gun until it wears out, using all your ammo; bouncing constantly and making it difficult to aim (while reflecting bullets at the same time); tossing grenades in random directions which can damage other players). But four Fragtraps coordinating their action skills, getting a good combination of them, can be devastating.
* TheScrappy: Pickle is quickly becoming this, most of the hate being directed at his voice and accent and him stealing your money every time you complete a quest for him. The fact he has little impact in the story besides one mission which could be given by Janey Springs or Moxxi doesn't exactly help.

** Admit it, despite how terrifying and disgusting they are, the sight of an Ophas tottering around slowly made you giggle a bit.

** Deadlift, the very first boss, can quickly become this in either mode. He has an obscenely powerful shield that will require a shock weapon to down in good time, and his shock balls will quickly whittle down both health and shields. Made worse by the elevation that makes finding enemies for a Second Wind very tough, not to mention them being able to boost away out of range and sight. And god help you if you go into FFYL on an electrified floor; you'll respawn with so little health, it'll more or less put you right back into FFYL automatically. Most of this can be attributed to him specifically teaching players about elemental weaknesses and low-gravity fighting, though, as detailed in WakeUpCallBoss.

** The "Lab 19" quest is given by the ECHO of a scientist's last words warning of an unspeakable horror, leading to a sealed section of the labs with a vault requiring a constantly-changing combination code. Nakayama and Tassiter both warn you in the strongest terms possible that you absolutely must not release what's sealed inside. What lies inside is [[spoiler:a clone of the Destroyer... who is the size of a coffee table. Dr Nakayama admits that it's his fault it's so small. Admittedly, in this case the trope is invoked deliberately for laughs.]]

** [[spoiler: 5H4D0W-TP in "Claptrastic Voyage"]] can certainly qualify as this to those that can't deal with being gang-raped by multiple enemies, It's made even worse due to the fact that he regenerates his shield over time so you constantly have to be shooting him while dodging all of the other enemies that are attacking you.

* Anvilicious: As in the ''Tiny Tina'' DLC for the previous game, head writer Anthony Burch continues his tendency to occasionally use fan-favorite character Mr. Torgue to scream about GUNS, EXPLOSIONS, AND VERY SPECIFIC OPINIONS ABOUT SOCIAL JUSTICE at the player.