Bock bock, bock bock Bockaw!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 01:25:05 PM

Cluck-Trap is Here!

Somehow everything is better when Claptraps can't talk except in chicken squawks. Cluck-Trap has been unlocked and is ready to terrorize you in the Arena. We suggest some incendiary weapons to fry it up nice and crispy. Cluck-Trap is free to all True Badasses!

The Robot Revolution continues in champion form with the newly revealed Boxing Champ Claptrap.

This unique model and bounty is a double stretch goal. Unlocking it will give all True Badasses one free Boxing Champ and add a Boxing Champ to the Robot Revolution, just in case you need a tag-team matchup in the arena!

Borderlands Demos at PAX

PAX Unplugged is going strong and we've enjoyed meeting so many people excited to take a look at Borderlands in person! There's still one day left, so if you're at the show, make sure to stop by.

If you weren't able join us for the livestream earlier today, here's a handy link to watch the replay!

MISSED TODAY'S LIVESTREAM? 

If you couldn't join us Saturday, December 11th for our livestream,  you can connect with the event live in Twitch at 3PM EST here.  Join us for conversation about Borderlands with host Tommy Gofton from SSG, John Kovaleski from Monster Fight Club and some surprise guests. Or connect up and watch it later!

Zane Unlocked! Visit us at PAX!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Dec 13, 2021 at 12:40:01 PM

King Wee Wee and Zane Unlocked!

You've unlocked a new bounty and a new Vault Hunter today for all you True Badasses!

He's the most terrifyingly adorable bounty you can hunt. Well...maybe that's Skrappy. So, close second.

A new Vault Hunter is always cause for celebration!

We showed the next several stretch goals that come after Zane in yesterday's update, so today we're just going to reveal a fan favorite that is on their way...

Oh yes. FL4K's hunt has begun and we're going to have the opportunity to unlock them as a free model and then have the opportunity to level up for some badass sidekick models as well. We can't wait!

Visit us at PAX Unplugged!

That's right folks, we're going to be at PAX Unplugged in real life! Come demo Borderlands: Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery IN PERSON! You can also check out some other cool Monster Fight Club stuff like Cyberpunk RED: Combat Zone and Tentacle Town!

Hope to see you there!

One Million Explosions!!!
over 2 years ago – Thu, Dec 09, 2021 at 03:57:29 AM

Badasses We Salute You!

You always hope a project you've worked on so hard will do well. There is always that moment of trepidation before hitting the "Launch" button on a campaign. We are truly humbled and thankful for the incredible support you've shown for Borderlands: Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery. 

With this milestone we are excited to unlock Roland as a free model for all you True Badasses. It is a special thrill to be able to see all four of the original Vault Hunters unlocked and ready to take to the Arena.

It's hard to believe we're just about to close our first week and are zeroing in on unlocking Zane and all his tech. We can't wait to show you even more cool content as we enter the next two weeks of the campaign! The path ahead is rich with freebies... and we are barely a week into this campaign! 

Learn all about Campaigns!
over 2 years ago – Wed, Dec 08, 2021 at 01:27:31 AM

Greetings Vault Hunters!

As we march towards unlocking Roland, lead game designer Justin Gibbs has taking sometime out from game designing to provide us with some insight on one of the most BADASS parts of Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery--

Campaigns!

I am thrilled to be designing Borderlands: Mr. Torgue’s Arena of Badassery! Today I would like to talk a little bit about how both scenarios and the campaign system will work.

Typically, Borderlands: Mr. Torgue’s Arena of Badassery will be played as a series of individual games called scenarios that link together to form a campaign. At the end of the campaign, the Vault Hunters will face a boss. (In the case of the core box, Psychoreaver, but you may choose different bosses, if you have them, to diversify play.) If the Vault Hunters defeat the boss, they have properly entertained Mr. Torgue and they win the campaign! If the Vault Hunters fail to defeat the boss, they will be left as gut-stains on the arena floor (i.e. they lose). This is a cooperative game, so all players win or lose together.

 Scenario Basics

Each scenario is broken into five sections: Set Up, Spawning, Special Rules, Victory, and After The Scenario.These sections outline how to set up, play, and win the scenario, as well as what happens after the scenario (which usually changes depending on whether you won or lost). Each and every scenario is chocked-full of enemies who want to break your faces, set you on fire, and use your own limbs to beat you, while you shoot and explode your way to victory. However, this is a cooperative game, and part of the fun of a cooperative game is getting together with your friends to strategize about the best way to work together to win. So, while there is always combat and explosions, there are also goals that encourage you to work together.

For example, in the Explosions Extravaganza scenario, there are a number of explosive tokens on the board that the Vault Hunters will need to pick up and bring to the various enemy spawning points in order to blow them up to win (all while gunning psychos down before they make meat paste of your face, of course). As another example, in the Divide And Slaughter scenario, two Vault Hunters need to find and operate controls for some closed doors, allowing the other two Vault Hunters to slip through once they open. However, as soon as the Vault Hunters are separated, Mr. Torgue  shuts the doors again and sends a few heavily armed and armored Goliaths at one group while he sends a horde of psychos and tinks at the other group. So you need to strategize about finding the controls for the doors and who will take which route and is best armed to deal with each separate threat. These are just a few examples, but I hope that I have highlighted that, while the scenarios are stuffed with combat, explosive barrels, and dismemberment, they also lend themselves to a group that can work together and strategize.

Playing a Campaign

The campaign in the core game consists of 14 scenarios. Supplemental campaigns will typically contain anywhere between 8 and 12 scenarios. Scenarios are played in narrative order. However, not every scenario will be played in every campaign, since there are multiple paths to take; so you will likely play between 6 and 10 scenarios in one full campaign (leaving lots of room for replay value, as not every playthrough sees every scenario). This is where the “After The Scenario” section of each scenario becomes important. After the scenario, this section will tell you how to proceed next. For example, after the first scenario, Welcome To The Arena, you may choose to proceed to either the Explosive Extravaganza Scenario or the Dismemberment Depo scenario (I want to stop for a second here and note that in Dismemberment Depo you get a Badass token when you destroy an enemy that represents its severed limb and you win by beating other enemies with it for Mr. Torgue’s amusement, but I’m getting off topic). Depending on which scenario you choose, you will progress along a different path of the campaign and experience different scenarios.

Typically, whether you win or lose will have an impact on the campaign as a whole. Sometimes winning the scenario will get you a new legendary weapon or allow you to visit the Bounty Board. Other times, it will determine what scenario you play. If you do poorly, Mr. Torgue will start to send you on menial (or ridiculously dangerous but entertaining) tasks. For example, if you win the Dismemberment Depo scenario, you move on to the next scenario in the campaign. But if you lose, you have to play the Make Me A Sandwich scenario where… Mr. Torgue makes you fetch him a sandwich (while enemies try to shoot and blow you up, of course). This is a bit of a “catch-up” mechanic because, if you please Mr. Torgue with a delicious sandwich, he rewards you with awesome loot that will hopefully allow you to do better next time and sends you to the next scenario in the campaign. But… if you continue to fail, Mr. Torgue will eventually get bored and send the Psychoreaver at you before you’re ready so he can be amused by the mess it makes of you (but, hey, maybe you’ll survive? Maybe.) Regardless of how you get there (hopefully well-armed) you will eventually face the epic boss battle that determines whether the campaign was a success or failure.

Difficulty

Before I go, I also want to touch briefly on how difficulty is adjusted. Vault Hunters will gain new skills (either by winning scenarios or from random enemy drops). After the scenario, you will add one higher tier card to the announcement deck (and discard one random lower tier card from it) for each skill a Vault Hunter gained. The announcement cards are what determine how the enemies act in a scenario. So, as the low tier cards are replaced with higher tier cards, the enemies attack more often, get bonuses to strength, etc.

Another key component of balance is the “Slaughterlight". Some announcements will tell you to “activate Slaughterlight.” When this happens, flip the spotlight token to its red side. Each scenario will outline what happens when the Slaughterlight is active (maybe enemies get bonuses to strength, increased damage, etc.) NONE of the starting tier 1 announcement cards activate the slaughterlight. However, the earlier scenarios actually have some nasty slaughterlight effects. This is to allow you to replay the campaign with a fully equipped group of Vault Hunters (and their accompanying, more difficult, announcement deck). Or to start one of the new, supplemental campaigns with the Vault Hunters that played their way through the original campaign already! Also, because of difficulty being handled through the announcements, this allows you to play a one-off scenario with ease. If you don’t want to play a full campaign, just pick the scenario that looks fun, and use the starting, tier 1, announcements and it will be relatively balanced (relatively because, of course, some scenarios are harder than others).

Oh, did I mention random events might drop mini-bosses on you? And you can play bounties in between scenarios to quickly target a mini-boss for some cool loot? Maybe another day. This is getting way longer than I had planned.

I look forward to hearing from you and getting the opportunity to playtest this blood-soaked game with you! Until then, EXPLOSIONS!!!!

-Justin

Thank you Justin for the overview and examples! The next question of course is what scenarios and campaigns are you getting?

LOOT-SPLOSION!

We're dedicated to providing you with enough game content to keep you playing Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery for -- well, for a loooooong time. So we decided to move a planned stretch goal forward a bit and unlock our campaign supplement stretch goal to celebrate what a jaw-dropping success this campaign has already been!

The Loot-Splosion Campaign Supplement will collect ALL unlocked digital content into one volume. It also includes an additional two complete campaigns! Loot-Splosion will be added to both Arena Casualty and True Badass pledges.

PRINTED OPTION!

We know that many of you prefer your content in printed format. So we are providing an affordable add-on for backers who want a print copy.

Right now we're estimating the page count at--at least--48-pages, but since it's still in development the exact page count may change.  This will be the perfect compendium of scenarios and campaigns to keep you coming back to the Arena for extra carnage!

Available  Scenarios and Campaigns

You've already unlocked, and have available, a surprising number of scenarios and campaigns. Some of them are physical print rewards while others are digital format, which will be available to both Arena Casualty and True Badass pledges in pdf format. Here's a breakdown of all of them so far:

• Ravenous Wattle Gobbler Scenarios - Digital
• Steve the Psycho Scenarios - Digital
• Crumpets and 'Zza Campaign - Digital
• 2x Loot-Splosion Campaigns - Digital
• All Bounty Scenarios - Print (Bounty scenarios have their special rules printed on the bounty card and use an existing scenario map layout.)
• Core Game Campaign - Print
• Skags at the Gates Campaign - Print
• Robot Revolution Campaign - Print

Wait. Wait. Wait! Robot Revolution!?

 Yes. Robot Revolution!

 You asked, we deliver! Prepare yourself for the Robot Revolution! This expansion is here to kick some can!

Beware filthy humans! This brave and loyal minion of the Robot Revolution has taken up arms and is about to lay waste! All backers at the True Badass pledge and above receive a free Partisan Claptrap miniature, as well as Enemy Card to include him in your missions. With it, you've also unlocked the Robot Revolution Add-on. This bounty expansion add-on includes 19x heroes of the Revolution, as well as bounties and scenarios. $45 ADD-ON.

Robot Revolution is a full expansion, including a veritable swarm of claptraps (19), brand new hexes, over 16+ game cards, and a printed campaign.

Okay! That was a LOT of update. Thank you for reading and lets get Roland!

Psycho Tinks and path to Roland and Zane!
over 2 years ago – Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 10:18:25 PM

Tinks have overrun the arena!

That's right Vault Hunters, you've unlocked the Tink Camp and along with it a free Psycho Tink for True Badass Pledges. 

If you love shooting Tinks for Loot as much as we do, you can expand your Tink collection with the Tink Camp Bounty Expansion. This expansion includes: 1x Loot Tink, 4x Psycho Tinks, 4x Shotgun Tinks, plus bounties and scenarios for your game.

Here comes Roland and Zane!

We're almost to 1 million and we are just blown away. Let's mark the occasion with Roland and his Scorpio Turret to complete True Badasses' collection of the Vault Hunters who started it all!

Seems that now that we have all four original vault hunters and some itty bitty psychos we should take out a bounty on King Wee Wee!

After Wee Wee, Zane is preparing his gear to challenge the arena.

Let's get it Vault Hunters!