In BL1 and BL2 on normal (playthrough 1) and TVHM (playthrough 2) the levels of the missions were “set in stone” (to the best of my knowledge). In UVHM (playthrough 2.5) every mission was based on the character’s level.
Does this continue in Borderlands 3?
It’s probably more complicated in BL3, but I just want to know.
In bl3 we only have nvhm and tvhm. The latter difficulty is pretty much redundant since as soon as you activate any level of mayhem mode there is no difference between the two, plus everything scales to your level.
If you enjoyed the level progression through multiple playthroughs of the previous BL games, then be warned, that is not how BL3 works.
At the end of the first playthrough you will be in the mid-L40s. If you do the Circles of Slaughter and Proving Grounds as part of your playthrough, you’ll be very close to the level cap. As Tramonto says, you can move onto the endgame difficulty system (Mayhem Mode) immediately after completing one campaign playthrough.
Even if you choose to play TVHM for the few skill pointrs remaining, it is much easier than BL2 and TPS. Even BL1 PT2.5 is harder.
BL3 now focuses on endgame rather than campaign play.
There is actually a big difference that the game doesn’t tell you: in TVHM, element matching is different than in normal. You are penalized harder for not matching elements against enemies, but you’re also rewarded with more bonus damage for properly matching elements.
To my knowledge that’s only relevant outside of Mayhem though. Mayhem always has TVHM elemental scaling even if you are technically on normal mode.
Roughly speaking, you get the same experience in normal mode, but once you finish the story there you unlock Mayhem mode which is basically BL3’s take on UVHM. TVHM is technically harder than normal mode outside of Mayhem but really, it’s just a method to get campaign quest rewards at max level with Mayhem scaling.
