These mooks will make you and your team work HARD in order to earn your loot.
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Main game
- Suicide Psychos, EXP Loaders, and anything that can kill you or drop your shields in one hit. They're hard enough to kill before they reach you if they're charging straight at you, but if they come from the sides, you are fucked. And since these guys blow themselves up to kill you, if they do manage to do that and no one else is around, you can't get second winds.
- HOT Loaders deal an Area of Effect damage when they die but do not self-destruct unlike EXP Loaders. They can however, whittle down your HP with constant burn damage. Like the other examples, it is advisable to stay away from a HOT Loader as soon as you see it down to its last health.
- Constructor bots are basically large mobile weapon platforms with an obscene amount of health which are able to shoot powerful laser beams, heat-seeking rockets which are impossible to avoid unless you're hiding under something (and sometimes not even then), and even fire a NUCLEAR BOMBARDMENT at you. They are also surprisingly mobile, as they're able to use their boosters to jump large distances in order to reach you. Oh, and while they're doing all that, they'll also be constantly constructing other turrets and Loaders which will chase after you. To top it off, they're often flanked by repair drones. Without a corrosive weapon, they're almost impossible to deal with.
- Badass Constructors take all the problems listed above and crank them up. Fortunately, there's only about 3 or 4 of them in the entire game.
- Threshers are large tentacled worms that have a tendency to make your life hell when they show up. They can attack from a distance, move underground to keep you from damaging them and pop up right next to you, and many of them have elemental properties that cause extra damage. Their weak spots — their six eyes and the pods on their tentacles — are almost impossible to hit, and their AI is designed to surround and ambush you. There is a reason why this game's first Superboss, Terramorphous, is a thresher.
- Wormhole Threshers are especially bad: they generate fields that suck you in, grow spikes, and kill you before you even notice what's happening. Guaranteed they'll kill you a bazillion times the first time you go into the Caustic Caverns unless you have a Spike Shield, since every tick counts as a melee attack, in which case it'll die to your spikes instead.
- Hyperion Hawks. These guys pack rocket launchers and if you don't have a good shield that protects you from explosive damage, they can send you into Fight For Your Life in one hit. And they're worse in TVHM and especially UVHM, where their rockets are a One-Hit Kill if they so much as graze you.
- Stalkers, the purple bat-looking things that crawl on the ground, can lunge at you from 50 feet away, shoot darts from damn near across the map, and turn invisible for short periods of time. And as a bonus, they come in packs of 7-8 and are one of the only creatures on Pandora with shields. Hope you've got a Shock Weapon or a turret that's good at crowd control! There's a reason they're referred to as "Invisible Assholes!" by in-game signs. Spike shooting Stalkers like to go either out of your field of vision or places you simply can't reach, and use the arc of their spikes to keep you at bay without exposing themselves to any danger. Yeesh.
- On the second playthrough, they still cloak themselves whenever they have their shields up, they still run in packs, the still spaz around far too much to be able to critically hit, or even easily hit in general, depending on your weapon, but now they do a silly amount of damage, and most varieties are tough as nails.
- Crystalisks can be this, if you're not careful. They have a mass of HP, damaging attacks (particularly their big exploding crystal, which can be shot out of the air if you're good), and if you don't aim at their crit spots their thick hides will repel your bullets, possibly right back towards you. Oh, and don't even think of trying to use elemental damage against them, because it won't work; the sole exception is Explosive damage, which actually manages to penetrate their hide and do extra damage to their weak points. Thankfully, melee attacks shatter the crystals in one hit each, but that means you have to get within stomping range of a ten-ton rock monster. Crystalisks get a lot harder to kill in UVHM, however — the boss versions in particular are virtually impossible to kill solo, as you simply can't damage them much faster than they heal unless you have a dedicated build just for them. And to top it all off, they weren't originally hostile in-lore; they're just really pissed off at the Dahl corporation abusing them for money. Their one redeeming factor is that they drop crystals that are worth a ton of money; the question is whether it's enough to pay off all those respawns.
- Lab Rats if they aren't taken down fast enough. Let them get close and they'll hit you with their laser eyes, which can bring you down from full health and shields to around 10% health. And if you let them run rampant, they'll steal your loot.
- Tunnel rats must be taken care of immediately. Otherwise, in addition to stealing your loot, they will bury it and make it unrecoverable.
- ION Loaders are an absolute bitch to deal with. They project electric shields that can't be penetrated by any projectiles and last an obscenely long time, entering their range shocks you to death in a couple of seconds, other Loaders are smart enough to huddle in their shields, and unlike other Loaders their joints do not count as weak spots and their eye is harder to hit. If you go down while one of these is active, kiss your Second Wind goodbye.
- PWR Loaders can also be a pain. Using their forklift arms, they can spin their forks like propellers and deflect bullets back towards you when you shoot them. The only time you can get them to stop spinning their forks is to either get far away from them, or get up close into their melee range, but getting far away may not be possible, while getting up close may result in taking some melee damage for a chance to take them down.
- The Wildlife Exploitation Preserve level is FILLED with both skags and stalkers. And it ends with That One Boss. In True Vault Hunter Mode, it is total hell, with one often facing Rabid Stalkers/Skags, Super Badass Fire Skags and Super Badass Corrosive Skags at the same time, before facing a boss in an arena that is frequently filled with Skags, including Super Badasses at times.
- From TVHM, Goliath Blasters. They dual-wield rocket launchers. And unlike you, they have unlimited ammo. Although shooting off their helmets makes them drop the guns, you probably won't see them before they kill you. Heavy Nomads are a slightly lesser version as they only have one rocket launcher, but you can't make them drop the launcher by shooting their helmets off. RPG Loaders are the worst in this regard, though. They have a launcher and the same shoulder missiles as the JET Loaders.
- The Loot Midgets, which are somewhere between this and Goddamned Bats. They aren't too tough, but you almost always run into them in the midst of a firefight, or after you've just been through one. It's a huge pain ducking behind cover and opening a chest in an effort to get more ammo, only for a midget to pop out and blast you in the head with a shotgun.
- The Super Badasses frequently encountered in True Vault Hunter Mode. They can kill you in two hits, run much faster than you, flail around too much to be able to hit critically reliably, and have an unreasonable amount of health.
- And if a Super Badass Nomad just happens to show up with one of those maniacs, you'd better have a lot of good elemental weapons and grenades on you. Thankfully they're slow, but unlike the regular shielded nomads, they don't have a hole in their shield you can exploit.
- Rabid Stalkers and Rabid Skags on True Vault Hunter Mode. Both move fast, have a lot of HP (the Stalker has its shield on top of that), hit hard and fast, and never stop attacking. You'll need a shock and a fire weapon respectively in order to deal with them properly, and are guaranteed to be put into Fight For Your Life at least once if you don't go all out against them from the start.
- Varkids in True Vault Hunter Mode. The small ones are still easy to kill, but if you let them turn into badass ones, look out. And even those can morph into a super badass one. If multiple ones show up, you're in a world of hurt unless you have a good team of players with decent corrosive weapons and can focus fire on one at a time. If you thought Caustic Caverns was bad the first time around, wait till you see it in TVHM. This gets turned up a notch in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, due to wanting players to face Vermivorous more: Varkids have a MUCH higher chance of evolving, and evolve faster. If you're not looking to face the raid boss, you better clear the buggers out of there fast, or else you will face an army of giant armored bugs filled with HATE.
- Armored Maniacs. You know how Psychos love to get in your face and beat the crap out of you while you're dealing with enemies at mid- to long range? Well, same deal... except these have armor that lets them soak damage like a Sham Wow. Averted if you have a good corrosive weapon on you and remember to use it on them. Alternatively, you can try to go for headshots, since their heads are just as exposed as ever and you'll get the critical hit boost to boot. Still means you need to go out of your way to swap weapons on the fly.
Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty
- Cursed Pirates. When they hit you, they rapidly heal themselves. If you aren't doing enough damage to kill them before they reach you, you probably aren't doing enough damage to keep up with their healing.
Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt
- The savages, which aside from the Triggerman all don masks that make headshots impossible. Fighting them is always a battle of attrition.
- Then there are Badass Savages, who have big shields that mitigate a lot of damage thrown at them, and beyond that are just pure bullet sponges. Fire is essential; failing that, a good shock weapon.
- A subset of these already annoying guys is the Witch Doctor. They are capable of sending long range darts of whatever element they are at you, propelling themselves into a devastating, bulletproof tornado at times and taking a surprisingly large load of punishment before falling. Oh, they also buff up other savages and heal themselves. Phaselock runs out on them as fast as on bosses, too, so the only way to get them out of a fight is to kill them.
- The worst are Vampire Witch Doctors, as their attacks drain your health and replenish their own, making it very difficult to cause enough damage to kill them. Furthermore, their attacks can heal regular Witch Doctors pretty quickly if they manage to connect, and he's almost untouchable once he disperses his form into a flock of Rakk.
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep
- The Grand Duke of Ork. Unlike similar enemies that can evolve (like Varkids), they can easily level up themselves and other orcs nearby before the player even knows they're there. The player can either run away (and hope it doesn't follow) or grind away at an enemy 5 levels higher than them.
- There are also the Skeleton Seers. Notable not only for their powerful electricity-throwing spells that can quickly deplete the player's shield, but also their utter refusal to be pinned down. This makes them near-immune to any melee based character (Bloodshed Zer0 and most Krieg builds) as well as Deathtrap, as they will run the minute you get anywhere near them. And worse, in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, their Healing Factor means that if you spend too long trying to get them to stick around, they'll be healed up and ready for vengeance.
- Archers have pinpoint accuracy, a high rate of fire and a horrible damage output; most wear a helmet that has to be knocked off to allow you access to their critical hitbox.
- Skeleton Archers are just cruel, and you meet them in the very first fight of the DLC. In addition to having the same attributes as regular Archers, their arrows can immobilize you on hit to make you a sitting duck for every enemy nearby.
- Immortal Skeletons carry Resurrective Immortality thanks to the ethereal sword that stabs them. In addition to taking them down, one must manually remove said sword in order to vanish them for good, otherwise they'll resurrect and continue the fight.
Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary
- New Pandora Snipers fire off high damage shots in rapid succession. Making matters worse, they have a Badass version that has disgusting damage output and the ability to cloak.
