I Just Spent My First Hour in Battleborn

Battleborn Open Beta Open Beta General Discussion/Feedback
#1

…and I have absolutely NO idea what I’m doing! (Did someone just yell “Bingo!”?)

  • It was fun!
  • It was colourful!
  • It was frantic!
  • It was confusing!

So can someone explain? I did the first story solo, but there really wasn’t time to take things in. How do you make buildables, for example, and how do you know when you can make them? How do you figure out what’s what in your helix when you get a level-up while playing? I do not want to try PvP mode until I have more clue about the basics - I’d be an absolute liability. So please help out an old N00b!

#2

never did solo
pc you click R to build. if its a multiple choice, there different costs, and you click Q, E or F
you can make them when its not already built/deployed
in your helix, you press 1 and play til you know whats what. for example, montana has conflicting moves that if you dont pay attention basically wastes a level if you click wrong. you can stop your gun from overheating, then a few levels later you can get increased health regen the more it overheats. conflict.

#3

You can view the characters helix in the command (under solo story at main menu)
Once in the command center choose the character you want to look at and click on helix.

#4

Buildables can only be made at predetermined areas. You’ll know you can make a buildable there because it’ll be a metal disc on the ground and you’ll see a hologram projection of the sort of buildables you can create there. The hologram also projects the Shard cost of the buildable. Shards are the game’s currency (those orange floating crystals you see here and there - punch them, shoot them, even just running into the small ones will pick them up for you) during PvP and PvE - you use them to create buildables, and to activate Gear that you have added to your character’s Loadout. Loadouts can be customized from the Command menu at the title screen, but you’ll need to get Gear first, so just play some story missions until you’ve picked up a few loot packs which will give you random gear when you open them in the Command menu later on.

Once again we come to the Command menu. While the helix upgrade menu during a mission does tell you what a particular upgrade will do, you have little context presented to you if you are still learning a character’s skills. So, visit the Command menu and read up on the skills of a character you’re interested in trying before you jump into a mission with them - you can also check out the helix ladder for them in there. At the end of the day, experimenting is probably the best way to see what you like and don’t like in a character, which is why I usually play a story mission or two with a new character before trying PvP.

#5

I’m still learning myself but what helps me a little is in pvp online never push forward by yourself, you will die alot. Always stay with your teammates and just gang up on enemy players. also if you dont understand the in game upgrades(the 10 levels thing.) Just always pick blue or always pick purple. It looks like one side is purely for damage and the other side is for health.

#6

Thanks all! More questions:

Am I right in thinking that you can’t change your helix choices easily while in a match or mission? Are they changeable?

I unlocked a gear loadout at the end of the mission, but it wasn’t clear whether the items you pick are then perma-equipped, or whether there’s some button/key to activate them? (I’m on XB1 btw, so it would be controller buttons for me)

I noticed a few boosters while playing, such as the health, movement speed, and cooldown ones. There was what looked to be an overshield? The shards I got. And… there was something else? Currency?

On the buildables, I saw the holographic build points, but either I missed some clue as to how to use them or I didn’t have enough shards, because there didn’t seem to be any way to interact with them.

Another clue I may be missing - I kept seeing red text saying “Challenge failed” but I wasn’t aware of a challenge. Are these like the BAR challenges in BL2/TPS, where you basically have to know about them ahead of time if you want to make sure you complete them, or is there some call-out clue to them in-game?

#7

Am I right in thinking that you can’t change your helix choices easily while in a match or mission? Are they changeable?

Your helix resets after every match/mission. So you can pick different helix every time but once you’ve made a choice in the match/mission, it’s set for the remainder of that game.

I unlocked a gear loadout at the end of the mission, but it wasn’t clear whether the items you pick are then perma-equipped, or whether there’s some button/key to activate them? (I’m on XB1 btw, so it would be controller buttons for me)

You need to put the gear in a loadout and then you activate it in the match. Nearly all gear has a shard cost to activate. On PS4 you have to push the left d-pad and then it will bring up your three pieces of gear and each will have the button prompt over them glowing if you have enough shards to activate.

I noticed a few boosters while playing, such as the health, movement speed, and cooldown ones. There was what looked to be an overshield? The shards I got. And… there was something else? Currency?

The credits are to buy loot packs in the gear screen of the command menu.

On the buildables, I saw the holographic build points, but either I missed some clue as to how to use them or I didn’t have enough shards, because there didn’t seem to be any way to interact with them.

The shard cost is circling around them in big numbers. Your current shards are on your HUD, bottom left corner I think? Can’t remember, sorry. You walk up to them and you’ll see the button prompt to build them which is square on PS4, not sure about XB1.

Another clue I may be missing - I kept seeing red text saying “Challenge failed” but I wasn’t aware of a challenge. Are these like the BAR challenges in BL2/TPS, where you basically have to know about them ahead of time if you want to make sure you complete them, or is there some call-out clue to them in-game?

These are ridiculously easy to miss but yes, sometimes when you enter an area in a story mission a challenge will appear in the top left corner and a timer. You basically just have to learn where these are, at least in normal mode, they seem to be the same challenges every time in the same areas. For example, when the Varelsi first appear in Void’s Edge there is a challenge to collect 1000 shards in 30 seconds. Which of course means you need to leave Wolf to hunt some of the big shards around the edge of the map.

#8

Have you ever noticed how dismal the credit rewards for those challenges are? Last one I did was 25 credits. You get more from just opening a chest :laughing: