Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
"Roland said we gotta have an exit strategery just in case he ever disappeared, hence all the fuel cells and whatnot. Bummer, though — he really wanted to meet ya. Raiders ain't gonna last without some new blood, and given how you shot them bandits up I'd say you and blood got an extra-special relationship. Like cousins takin' a bath together. Hahaha... oh."
— Scooter
Once the Vault Hunters reach Sanctuary, Lt. Davis informs them that Roland, the commander of the Crimson Raiders and former Vault Hunter, has been M.I.A., and requests you to help Scooter install the power cells in the city's main engine. Scooter has two, the third one you must buy it from Crazy Earl with Eridium.
After installing the Power Cells, you'll find that the engine stalled. Then Scooter tells you there's no choice but to look for Roland, and sends you to your first destination: Frostburn Canyon.
This main story chapter unlocks missions in two new areas: Three Horns - Valley and Southpaw Steam & Power. These new levels host the side missions "The Name Game", "Assassinate The Assassins", the "Medical Mystery" chain, "No Vacancy" and "Neither Rain Nor Sleet Nor Skags", as well as the following Badass Challenges:
- Three Horns - Valley: "This Ain't My First Rodeo", "Cult of the Vault"
- Southpaw Steam & Power: "Boss Run", "Cult of the Vault"
This mission, the related sidequests and challenges, and the "Three Horns - Valley" and "Southpaw Steam & Power" levels show examples of:
- Arbitrary Mission Restriction: One of the first quests Dr. Zed gives the player is to take out a Mad Scientist non-doctor. The player must use the E-Tech weapon that Zed gives, and must kill X number of bandits with it. As it's fairly early in the game, its ammo usage of 2 rounds per shot chews through the limited supply of ammo quite quickly—especially since the weapon isn't particularly powerful.
- Assassin Outclassin': In the "Assassinate the Assassins" mission, you do this. You get bonus points for killing each one with their preferred weapon.
- Call-Back: Dr. Mercy, from the "Medical Mystery" mission, who's located in Three Horns - Valley, is a Nomad Bandit... and uses a "Generally Hospital" sign as his shield. "Generally Hospital" is a location from the 1 DLC The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The psychos in Southpaw are distinctly darker than the rest, with their conversation having overtones of rape or Death by Childbirth.
- Deadly Doctor: Doc Mercy, a brutal, insane Bandit doctor who loves hurting a lot more than healing. Much to Dr. Zed's chagrin, however, he's actually a licensed surgeon with a real medical degree.
- Development Gag: The "No Vacancy" quest has you restore power to a motel truck stop by repairing its generator. The three components you need are a Gearbox, a Valve, and a Steam capacitor. Scooter then makes an in-universe application of this trope, narrating allusions to the development process of the game from the 3 aforementioned parts. Plus, the statement where "the steam pumps used to run on a different power source, until people complained and they changed it." is an allusion to how the PC port of this game now runs on the Steam matchmaking system instead of the more problematic GameSpy system used in the first game. In addition, this isn't the first time a Gearbox and a Valve were used to solve a particular problem, though thankfully this time the mission doesn't involve a boss.
- Disc-One Nuke: Doc Mercy, the boss of one of the first sidequests you get in Sanctuary, has an increased chance to drop the Infinity pistol, which has great stats in addition to its unlimited ammo gimmick and is absolutely devastating in the hands of Salvador. As long as the user can make good use of the signature spread pattern, it's a mainstay until its damage is rendered ineffective.
- Don't Explain the Joke: One of Claptrap's missions in the Happy Pig Motel area of Three Horns - Valley has you destroying a bandit encampment's furnace so the bandits will "chill out." He explains not only the joke, but the entire concept of humor!
- Claptrap: Since I still don't hear you laughing about "chill out", you must not understand humor in general. See, humor is based on subverting expectations, often through play on words. According to this formula of humor, my "chill out" comment was literally the funniest thing ever said by anyone.
- Dressing as the Enemy: With Ellie's help, you get to fool Flanksteak in opening the Bloodshot Camp's gate by imitating their Bandit Technicals.
- Foreshadowing: During "Assassinate the Assassins", each target drops an ECHO device containing a message from Handsome Jack as instructions for people on trying to get one of his bounties, specifically for the Siren Lilith. To dissuade bounty hunters from just painting a woman's arm blue and turning in her corpse as "evidence" he says there's only six Sirens in the universe. More importantly, he also says he knows who three of them are. At this point in the game the player only knows two of them, Lilith and Maya. Plot Point! Actually you know all three, you just don't realize it. It is later revealed that Angel is a Siren... and Jack's daughter. It is especially well done because there were lots of hints in Borderlands 1 that Steele was also a Siren, so returning players would assume she's one of the three, and might not think there's anything else behind the comment.
- Game-Breaking Bug: After killing Doc Mercy, he drops a quest item. For some reason, this can clip through the floor, forcing you to quit the game so it spawns where Mercy spawned.
- Lampshade Hanging: The "No Vacancy" mission, wherein you turn the power at the Happy Pig Motel back on. Scooter guides you through the motions, and at one point asks if it's weird that he knows what you're doing over the ECHO communicator.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One quest in "Three Horns - Valley" involves finding a steam valve and a gearbox. During the quest, Scooter says the steam pumps used to work on a different power source, but people complained so they switched over. Borderlands used Gamespy's multiplayer matchmaking system, which nobody liked, but 2 has switched over to Steam's. In addition, this isn't the first time a Gearbox software involved valves, steams and gearboxes in something related to Valve Software.
- My Beloved Smother: At the entrance to "Southpaw Steam & Power", you come across three psychos who are arguing with each other over which one actually killed their mother, and by doing so, proved which one she loved the most... and caused the most pain.
- Numerical Theme Naming: The targets of "Assassinate the Assassins" are Oney, Wot, Reeth, and Rouf (One, Two, Three, Four).
- Self-Deprecation: During the mission "No Vacancy", you have to find (amongst other things) a Steam valve. When you grab it, Scooter drops this line:note Scooter: Oh hey, you got the steam thingie! These pumps used to run on a different system, but people complained so's they got switched over.
- Self-Made Orphan: Three psychos in "Southpaw Steam & Power" talk about killing their mother, seemingly arguing about which of them dealt the deathblow. Rakkman pointedly denies killing his own parents — it's not clear whether this is a lie or not, but the fact that he has to bring it up in the first place suggests this is all too common among bandits (and that someone else killed them before he could).
- Stealth Pun: While Assassin Oney's name plays into the Numerical Theme Naming of the Southpaw assassin quartet (and it not being an anagram is chalked up to him being spectacularly unimaginative), it gets a second meaning with his unique drop being a pistol called the Judge
. - Story Breadcrumbs: Part of the "Assassinate The Assassins" mission involves hearing ECHO recordings about Jack and his knowledge of Sirens.
- Timed Mission:
- "Neither Rain Nor Sleet Nor Skags" in Three Horns - Valley has you delivering five packages in 90 seconds, with 15 seconds added to the timer for every package delivered.
- The "Boss Run" challenge in Southpaw Steam & Power requires you to kill all four assassins in less than 10 minutes.
