Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
Handsome Jack: Attention, people of Pandora! Handsome Jack here, offering a million bucks to whomever brings me the head of the Vault Hunter who just arrived in Liar's Berg. Oh, and I'm still offering a reward for Roland, the mass-murdering leader of the Crimson Raiders. Good hunting, bandits!
Captain Flynt: A million bucks?! Alright, boys — this is Captain Flynt! I want you to find that Vault Hunter and bring 'em to me! NOW!
— Beginning of "Cleaning Up the Berg"
After getting rid of Knuckledragger, the Vault Hunters traverse the Southern Shelf, eventually reaching the second NPC after cleansing the bandit population out of the area: Sir Hammerlock, "Hunter, Gentleman, Scholar", who puts Claptrap's eye in its socket. Afterwards, they receive a threatening message from Handsome Jack, president of Hyperion Corp, one of the Borderlandsverse's Mega Corps, who also put bounties on the Vault Hunters' heads. Two more bosses await on the way, who are looking to cash in that bounty.
The new areas revealed in these chapters are Southern Shelf and Southern Shelf - Bay, a side mission only level with no fast travelling. The new bosses of this area are Boom/Bewm and Captain Flynt. The levels also are home to the side missions "Handsome Jack Here!", "This Town Ain't Big Enough", "Bad Hair Day", "Shielded Favors", "Symbiosis", and the last part of the "Cult Following: Lighting the Match" mission. It also houses the following challenges:
- Southern Shelf: "Cult of the Vault", "Fireproof" and "Make Boom Go Boom!".
- Southern Shelf - Bay: "Cult of the Vault", "I Can See Your Corpse From Here", "Midge-Mong Has No Friends" and "Vault Hunter on Wire".
These chapters, these side missions, these bosses and both areas of Southern Shelf give examples of:
- Amusing Injuries: During Claptrap's time as Flynt's prisoner, he's subjected to all kinds of tortures that the player gets to hear via ECHO Communicators.
- Anchors Away: Captain Flynt uses an anchor as a melee weapon; he mostly strikes it against the ground to create far-reaching shockwaves.
- Antepiece: A sidequest has Angel teaching you that electric barriers can be shut down by shooting at their power switch, which is conveniently just positioned behind the barrier, open for a shot. While this simple quest teaches you how to shut the barriers down, you will find more electric barriers in the later parts of the game, but with their power switches being located far from the barrier, requiring some corner-checking and Backtracking.
- Backtracking: "Cult Following: Lighting the Match" is obnoxious, as it forces you to trek through the entirety of the Southern Shelf again in order to burn a sectarian executor. You're doing these quests right before Angel and Jack force the heroes to lift Sanctuary off the ground.
- Bad Boss: Captain Flynt loves to torture people, and has no qualms about using his own men. It's implied that he would go easier on them if he had Claptrap to play with, though.
- But Thou Must!: Toyed with, but never fully invoked, by Hammerlock with the "Symbiosis" quest. He'll still talk to you even if you don't do it.Hammerlock: Would you care to do battle with a midget riding piggyback on a Bullymong? If your answer is yes, please go to the Southern Shelf and defeat Midge-Mong for me. If your answer is no, you are sad and I have no desire to speak with you further.
- Call-Back: Captain Flynt is actually related to Baron Flynt from the first game, as shown from an unused audio clip.Captain Flynt: I'm still offering a reward for whoever brings me the head of the man or woman who murdered my brother, Baron. Yes, his name was Baron. It wasn't a title. Our parents were douchebags.
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Cargo Ship: Near the tail end of "Best Minion Ever", Hammerlock says that Claptrap once attempted to integrate with a random fusebox. - Collection Sidequest:
- "Handsome Jack Here" requires the players to find three ECHO logs in sequence that detail Helena Pierce's final fate after the destruction of New Haven.
- "Bad Hair Day" requires players to collect Bullymong hair and then deliver it to either Hammerlock or Claptrap.
- Cutting the Knot: Invoked in one early sidequest. At one point, a required fuse is placed behind an electric barrier. Claptrap suggests ridiculous methods such as running through the barrier fast, but Angel tells you to shoot the generator instead to remove the barrier.
- Disc-One Nuke: Boom and Bewm have a chance to drop the grenade mod Bonus Package. This lets you throw a grenade, which explodes into more grenades, which, in turn, explodes into a few more grenades! One grenade equals 15-21 explosions that will rip clusters of enemies (or one big, slow-moving enemy) to shreds. The damage potential for this grenade mod is so high, it can outclass regular MIRV mods ten levels above it. Making this even better is the fact that both Boom and Bewm can drop it, effectively doubling the chance of it dropping (and potentially - but extremely rarely - giving you two copies).
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Jack taunts the Vault Hunters early on by talking about the diamond pony he bought. It's not a statue, by the way: it's an actual living breathing pony with a diamond body.
- Expospeak Gag: Hammerlock utters "Ah, fecal matter!" to express his displeasure at the Liar's Berg bounty board not working.
- Flare Gun: Flynt's Tinderbox behaves exactly like one, firing low-arcing projectiles that deal laughable impact damage, but near-always sets targets on fire for massive Incendiary damage.
- Flipping the Bird: Claptrap does this to Sir Hammerlock after his optic surgery. Claptrap doesn't have a middle finger, so he has to do a bras d'honneur instead.
- Foreshadowing: During "Best Minion Ever", Claptrap is confounded by stairs, requesting you to reach the upper point of an elevator in order to get him into said level. It comes into play at the beginning of "The Talon of God", the final story mission, when you're in Eridium Blight, just managed to Hold the Line, and the path to Hero's Pass is composed of... stairs, Claptrap's biggest weak point.
- Giver of Lame Names: When you enter to Liar's Berg, Handsome Jack talks about how he's recently bought a horse made of diamonds that he wants to call "Piss-for-brains" in honor of the Vault Hunters. Later on, he settles on "Butt Stallion".
- Hero Killer: It's revealed during the last ECHO recording of "Handsome Jack Here!" that Jack headshotted Helena Pierce.
- Horse of a Different Color:
- Handsome Jack claims to have a living pony made of diamonds, which he named Butt Stallion in honor of the Vault Hunters.
- Midge-Mong, in Southern Shelf - Bay, is a psycho midget riding a bullymong (a four-armed alien ape thing), and the commentary makes a clear reference to Master Blaster.
- Human Sacrifice: "Cult Following: Lighting the Match" has you take a midget to Captain Flynt's mechanical fire-spewing dragon in order to be burned alive. The midget in question is more than willing.
- Just You, Me, and My GUARDS!: The "Midge-Mong Has No Friends" challenge in Southern Shelf - Bay is all about preventing Flunky Boss Midge-Mong to summon their Bandit allies to the fight by defeating them before they do so.
- Knight of Cerebus: Handsome Jack. In a game filled with Comedic Sociopathy and Black Humor, Jack sets the tone very early on by an ECHO recording of him laughing as he describes the noise Helena Pierce's head made when he blew it off. It was merely a foreshadowing for something much, much worse later on.Jack: Ohoho man did - did you see her head?! It was all like PBBBPTH! Ahahaha...hoohoo...
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Courtesy of Sir Hammerlock, near the tail end of "Cleaning Up The Berg".Hammerlock: I see our fearless leader Jack is looking for you. Charming fellow, isn’t he? Spouts drivel about bringing peace to the frontier, then shoots unarmed men, women and children like it was going out of style. Bah – I'm spouting exposition again, aren't I? Apologies!
- Overly Long Gag: During "Best Minion Ever", after defeating Boom/Bewm, Claptrap stands in front of a gate expecting you to blow it up with Big Bertha, a huge cannon, while explaining what he wants you to do in order to avoid harming him. Naturally, he never actually moves away so you may induce Amusing Injuries. The lines he says for this section below almost take a whole minute to say.Claptrap: Just blast this gate down, but DON'T do it until I get out of the way. Understand? If you shot the gate now, that could do some serious damage to me! So don't do that! I'm just standing here to show you the area you should shoot after I move away, which I will once I am totally convinced you understand the instructions I am relaying to you! Do you understand? I know it's kinda complicated, but just stick with me okay, when it's okay for you to shoot this gate with the cannon, I'll say something like 'SHOOT THE GATE WITH THE CANNON, NOW!' But that was just a test, right. You didn't shoot the gate when I said that, which was good. 'SHOOT THE GATE WITH THE CANNON, NOW!' Also another test. You're doing me proud, minion... actually, I'm getting bored. Just shoot the gate now for realsies.
- Right Behind Me: After getting his eye restored by Hammerlock, Claptrap says
:Claptrap: This glacier's full of nothing but murderers or jerkbags, like that Hammerlock dude!Hammerlock: I'm standing right here, "dude". - Sadistic Choice: "Bad Hair Day" has you collecting Bullymong hair for either Sir Hammerlock's hat or Claptrap's mohawk.
- Schrödinger's Gun: During "Handsome Jack Here!", if you try to destroy the ice block on top of the house near a vending machine (the location of the second ECHO log) before the audio of the first ECHO log even finishes, the ice block will respawn, with a chance of spawning additional cash.
- Story Breadcrumbs: The "Handsome Jack Here!" sidequest details the fall of New Haven and death of Helena Pierce.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: During the "Handsome Jack Here!" sidequest, it's revealed that Helena Pierce was murdered by Handsome Jack.
- Suicide as Comedy: The sidequest "Cult Following: Lighting the Match", which, while taking place after Lilith is uncovered as the Firehawk, roughly a third into the game's story, is actually performed in the Southern Shelf level, involves helping a particularly fanatical midget committing suicide via immolation. The same questline also says that other Children have been killing themselves through incineration.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: During "Best Minion Ever", Hammerlock comments that an elevator you need to use isn't working because of damage caused to its fuse box when Claptrap tried to "integrate" with it. He is immediately interrupted by Claptrap commenting what a kidder ol' Hammerlock is and to not think about the fusebox. After you retrieve a new fuse box, Claptrap again comments on how this quest has revealed nothing worth repeating.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Played for Laughs. Claptrap subverts this trope after you kill some bandits on the way to Captain Flynt's camp.Claptrap: What are you doing, minion? Those were people you just killed, with lives, and families, and... Ah, I'm just kidding, screw those guys!
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Not only are Baron Flynt from the first game and Captain Flynt from the second brothers, but those are their real names, not titles.Captain Flynt: Our parents were douchebags.
