The Borderlands series is similar to Fallout,
and many other RPGs, in that there are a ton
of different ways to play the game: you can
use different classes, you can stick to a
single type of weapon, you can only use weapons
from a single manufacturer.
But there is one challenge that’s… different
as it removes an important part of the game.
Can You Beat Borderlands Without Using A Shield?
The first decision we need to make is what
class to play as.
Lilith is almost universally considered overpowered,
but to be honest I never really liked playing
as a Siren.
Without a shield, health regeneration is crucial,
which is why I chose Mordecai.
After getting off the bus, I followed Claptrap,
changed my colors to blue and yellow, and
got into combat for the first time.
While I only have 100 health to begin with,
it’s not uncommon for enemies to drop health
vials, so getting through the Bandits and
entering Firestone wasn’t difficult at all.
Then I rescued Claptrap, killed a few dogs,
and got the Medical Vending machine back online.
Something happened here that occurs a few
times throughout this run.
If you don’t have a shield and you buy one
or pick one up, it will automatically become
equipped.
Right now, it’s easy to un-equip it before
it has a chance to recharge, but in the heat
of battle it’s not so easy.
After killing a few Bandits and meeting T.K.
Baha, I found Baha’s stolen food, bought
a few grenades, and was off to Skag Gully
to kill Nine-Toes.
Not long after entering Skag Gully, I leveled
up to level 5 and could finally send my combat
parrot out to strike down my foes.
I fought my way through more skags and bandits
until I reached Nine-Toes, who died in about
5 seconds.
I went down for the first time fighting one
of his puppies, killed the second one rather
quickly, and it was time to spend my 2nd skill
point, also known as the first skill point
to actually matter.
The skill I’m after is Riotous Remedy, which
regenerates up to 3% of your health per level
over the course of 7 seconds.
But 5 points must be put into the Gunslinger
skill tree first, so I opted for the Deadly
skill, because more critical hit damage is
always a good thing.
Back in Firestone, I tried to take out Bone
Head even though he was 6 levels higher than
me.
It went about as badly as you could have guessed.
I needed to level up a bit before I took on
Bone Head again, so I went back to Skag Gully
to do a few side quests.
Collecting the 8 Bladeflower Seeds was the
hardest part of this run thus far, primarily
because fighting multiple high-level Skags
at once is not the easiest thing in the world.
I found that sitting back and sniping everyone
I could was the best way to go about this.
Who’d have thought that the best way to
not take damage was to not take damage.
Show of hands, who saw that coming?
Alright put your hands down, you weirdos.
With the seeds in my pants, I killed Scar
to retrieve TK Baha’s leg, found the 2nd
Data Recorder, turned in the missions, got
myself up to level 10, bought a new shotgun,
and was finally ready to take the fight to
Bone Head.
This was actually really annoying because
I thought I was nailing him with headshots,
but they were going right through him.
After a few minutes of popping our from behind
cover, I killed Bone Head, killed his friends,
and caught a ride.
After I ran over a few small animals, I hit
level 11 and put the first point into Riotous
Remedy.
From here on out, every time I kill an enemy
my health regenerates.
Now that I can actually stay in combat for
a little while, I spent some time doing a
few side missions to level up again, I tried
to kill a level 17 Badass Raider at level
12 and was promptly slaughtered.
I turned in the missions, didn’t level up,
and was off to Arid Hills to get Sledge’s
Key, find the parts to a Sniper Rifle, and
kill Moe and Marley and Me.
No matter how many times I play Borderlands,
there’s always one weapon part that I can
never find.
But I found it and despite being underleveled,
I ventured inside Sledge’s Safehouse to
find a key.
It didn’t help when I missed 3 near point-blank
headshots in a row.
I eventually fought my way through the Bandits
and Psychos, saved the life of a worthless
claptrap, and was fingertips away from the
key I so badly wanted.
Believe it or not, killing the level 16 Roid
Rage Psycho at level 13 without a shield is
not the easiest thing to do.
The small upside is that he doesn’t regenerate
health when you die and his grenades aren’t
too tough to dodge once you get used to it.
Several deaths and a couple dozen shotgun
headshots later, the giant freak died, I had
my key, I left the safehouse, and off to kill
me some doggies.
They were both annoying to deal with, what
with all the other Skags and whatnot.
So I enlisted the help of some nearby Bandits
and Psychos who were more than happy to die
for my cause while hid behind a building.
Then it came down to Marley and Me.
Once again I accidentally equipped a shield,
which was promptly removed, the Clifford wannabe
was slain, and I was off to the Lost Cave
to gather Shock Crystals.
I spent about 20 minute in there and leveled
up 2 times to prepare to face Sledge.
But before that, I stopped by the Arid Badlads
arena to take part in the Circle of Death.
You get to kill dogs and run the risk of being
torn apart by wild animals?
Fuck those Golden Retrievers at the dog park,
this is where the party’s at!
I was 1-2 levels ahead of everything I was
facing, so this was more time consuming than
challenging, to be honest.
Onto the Headstone Mine, the push towards
Sledge was easy, all things considered.
At the Mine, I discovered something that would
be a cactus in my ass several times throughout
this run: turrets.
Their individual shots don’t do much damage,
but the endless barrage is a real bitch to
deal with.
A rocket launcher is recommended here.
Sledge also turned out to be rather prickly.
The space you might him in is confined as
hell and his attacks do a ton of damage.
Normally you could take a shot or two then
hide behind cover to wait for your shield
to recharge and to it again.
Can’t do that here, though.
I tried sucking off his life with my grenades
but it wasn’t too effective.
What I eventually did was use a rocket launcher
and use the few structures inside as cover.
Take a shot, hide, reload, then do it again.
It took 20 rockets, which do up to 452 damage
each, and a few combat rifle shots to finish
the big boy.
The rock hard fight was worth it though, because
when I turned in the mission to not a real
Doctor Zed, I got something that will take
everything you think you know about anything
and turn it on its head.
I got a class mod that can regenerate health.
Not only do I now regenerate 2 health per
second, but I am healed up to 15% of my max
health per kill over the course of 7 seconds.
Before heading to the Dhal Headlands, I found
some Combat Rifle parts, picked up some skulls,
found Bruce McClane, pretended that I care
for the environment by picking up liter, and
went back to the Headstone Mine to blow some
shit up.
Then I spoke to a claptrap and finally entered
the Dhal Headlands.
The first thing I did in the Dhal Headlands
was head to Skagzilla’s pen.
Surprisingly he wasn’t at all difficult
to kill.
Maybe a dozen shots to his face flaps and
he died.
Next, I cleared out a bunch of Bandits from
Lucky’s Last Chance Watering Hole with an
SMG I found in Skagzilla’s carcass, rescued
Lucky, flipped some switches, got the Fast
Travel system back online, and got half a
dozen new quests to complete.
On the way to the racetrack to run over Scythids,
I took out most of the Outriders necessary
to draw out Mad Mel, then I killed the 50
Scythids, destroyed a few fuel tanks, and
went down into a cavern where upgraded to
a much better class mod that doubled my health
regeneration, and fought the Guardians for
the first time.
After turning in the side missions I’d completed,
I fought Mad Mel with the same strategy I
used when facing Sledge.
With Mad Mel now deceased, I could finally
enter New Haven.
And once again I went straight for the side
missions.
The first mission had me killing Mothrakk,
which isn’t too difficult if you take cover
in the Catch-A-Ride station while your health
recharges, I checked on T.K.
Baha, who is now dead, and went to the Tetanus
Warrens to gather corrosive shards and to
kill King Wee Wee.
I also repaired a Claptrap and upped my inventory
to 24 slots.
Before heading into the Rust Commons West,
I used one of my Golden Keys to open the Golden
Chest.
The combat rifle I got was pretty solid, but
I was hoping for a revolver or a sniper rifle.
Still reeling from that disappointment, I
tracked down some parts for Scooter in Rust
Commons West, found the parts for an SMG,
cleared some pipe, got fucked by a giant bird,
then killed that bird, picked up a few more
of Patricia Tannis’s journals, and found
Ms Tannis.
You might be wondering why it seems like I’m
just sort of glossing over everything.
It’s because 1) there’s a lot of stuff
to talk about, and 2) the majority of the
enemy encounters weren’t really that difficult.
Back to the game, after turning in the side
missions, I destroyed a few ammo dumps for
Marcus and went to Crazy Earl’s Scrapyard.
I killed Bandits and Spiderants for Crazy
Earl, repaired another Claptrap, and found
myself a stupid powerful sniper rifle.
The one I’ve been using does 267 damage,
but this new one does 360 damage.
Of course, it fires 89% slower, so between
the horrible fire rate and me being several
levels higher than everything I was fighting,
it wasn’t all that useful to me.
After I placed a few charges, I opened a chest
and found my first Legendary weapon: a Dahl
Bloody Anaconda.
It was a bit disappointing, though.
Not only was the level requirement 10 levels
lower than my current level, but it did 77
less damage than my current revolver.
But it was more accurate and fired twice as
fast, so it wasn’t worthless.
And I did use it for a while.
I then did another mission for Marcus and
pick up two dozen bottles of booze in Treacher’s
Landing for Crazy Earl, got the Bounty Board
in Rust Commons East set up and decided that
I didn’t feel like doing more side missions,
so I was off to kill Krom.
The turrets guarding the entrance to Krom’s
Canyon were as horrible as I expected them
to be.
The enemies in the same area were at my level,
which was great because it had been a while
since normal Bandits had posed any sort of
a challenge.
At Krom’s Canyon, I decided to find the
10 cans of Skag meat for Crazy Earl before
I dealt with Krom.
This was more troublesome than I thought it
would be, primarily because there’s a level
of verticality in Krom’s Canyon that isn’t
present in many other parts of Borderlands.
Also the fact that you’re dealing with at-level
enemies, and quite a few of them at that.
With another Claptrap saved, I opened a chest
and found my first Eridian weapon: the 10110
Cannon, the most powerful weapon I’ve found
thus far.
I couldn’t use it yet, but it would come
in handy later on.
I even used it to kill Reaver.
With Reaver dead and the cans of meat found,
I had to backtrack through the canyon to get
to Krom.
Krom has a turret, which had the potential
to be annoying.
Luckily I had a sniper with a good zoom and
there was a big rock I could hide behind.
Krom was easy to kill.
I made my way up to his platform, got the
Vault Key fragment, and jumped off a cliff
because I didn’t feel like backtracking
through the canyon a second time.
I then turned in the missions, and my next
objective was to find Taylor Kobb.
But before that, I spent a lot longer than
I should have trying to remember how to lower
the bridges in Rust Commons East.
Eventually it came back to me, I talked to
the requisite Claptrap, literally sucked the
life out of Jaynis Kobb, and I entered Old
Haven.
This was quite the challenge, at first.
The Crimson Lance soldiers are more formidable
than your run of the mill Bandits and Psychos.
They have physical shield, are tough, and
can lay down turrets.
Once I got the hang of how to deal with them,
I shut down the Crimson Lance’s smoke signals,
tried to figure out where this mission marker
is, gave up after a few minutes, activated
two beacons, and experimented with a class
mod and a pistol that drained 20 shots in
about a second.
I wasn’t going to use it because the class
mod didn’t have any health regeneration,
but it was still cool to see.
Then I went back to the Dhal Headlands to
find buried Bandit treasure!
It sucked.
The mission description says “There is also
a kick-ass gun”.
That’s a lie.
It was all shit.
The only redeeming quality was that the pistol
on the left vaguely reminded me of a 1911.
Before dealing with the last Kobb brother,
I sunk a few ships in Treacher’s Landing
and picked up some fish.
Taylor Kobb was far worse than Jaynis because
he’d installed turrets, the bane of my existence.
When the turrets were destroyed, I used my
Eridian Cannon to rid the area of a Badass
Bruiser and the other Bandits.
I used patented life-suck technique on Taylor
Kobb.
It wasn’t effective as it was with his brother,
but my suck was good enough that it was easy
to finish the big Kobb.
From his chest I found a fantastic new Sniper
Rifle that was better than my current sniper
in almost every way, I turned in a few missions
to level up, and with my new rifle in hand,
I went to face a mysterious challenge.
The Rack Hive.
My new sniper did significant damage to the
beast when critical hits landed.
Once I had whittled its health down enough,
I killed the giant monstrosity with a revolver
to raise my Pistol Proficiency to level 10.
It didn’t drop anything too interesting,
though.
After I gave the key fragment to Tannis, I
went back to Old Haven to retrieve her claptrap,
which was easier than my first run through
Old Haven.
From there, I made my way to the Salt Flats,
killed a few Bandit patrols, and fought my
way up to Baron Flynt.
The shotgun I’d been using for a while made
quick work of Hanz and Franz.
And slipped and fell off the goddamn excavator.
With a new lease on life, I damn-near took
off Baron Flynt’s head with a point-blank
headshot from a sniper.
Then came the twist.
Patricia “Giant Worthless Cunt” Tannis
lied to me.
The Crimson Lance arrived, I stepped on a
mine while trying to save a claptrap, found
an Eridian Shotgun that would soon become
my favorite weapon, and pushed through a cave
system in an effort to find Tannis.
I thought I had her, then Master McCloud and
his Royal Guard ambushed me.
They definitely had the potential to be a
real challenge, but between my life sucking
grenades and a corrosive rocket launcher,
they went down rather quickly.
I then had to fight through Crimson Fastness
to save Tannis.
It was here that I realized how great the
Eridian Thunder Storm really was.
Even the Badass Engineers could be taken out
with just a few shots.
Back outside, I was at the Crimson Enclave,
and had to activate 3 transmitter consoles,
all the while dealing with Crimson Lance soldiers
and Guardians.
It took about 25 minutes to get all three
consoles activated, and I died a few times,
but it wasn’t to difficult.
After I turned in the transmitter console
mission, the final push began.
The end is near.
I have to find Commandant Steele before she
does something stupid.
On the way, I killed a Lance Infantryman who
dropped my third Legendary weapon.
It’s not bad, it does have a huge magazine,
but I have rifles that do more damage and
are much more accurate.
Not really worth using, to be honest.
I went back to the Salt Flats, fought my way
through The Descent, found a combat rifle
that was better in every single way than the
Legendary one I’d just found, and arrived
at the Eridian Promontory.
The Eridian Shotgun I found earlier really
shined here.
By this point, my Eridian weapon proficiency
was up to level 8, making my Eridian weapons
actually usable.
This is another area that can be time consuming
to get through if you choose to fight all
the enemies, which you probably should since
the Guardians give thousands of experience
each when they’re killed.
By the time I arrived at the Vault, I was
about 75% of the way to Level 36.
I was also interested in fighting the Destroyer,
as Gearbox had said that they made the fight
much more challenging.
After the cutscene, the final battle began.
My Thunder Storm was plenty effective.
Not long after the fight began, I was milliseconds
away from death when I fired a shot as the
screen faded to black, and I was back in the
game.
I then pulled out a Legendary rocket launcher
I found earlier, but didn’t mention, and
promptly fucked up the Destroyer in a few
shots.
The Destroyer did a self-suck back to its
own dimension, Angel revealed that the vault
won’t open for 200 years, and I beat Borderlands
without using a shield.
To be perfectly honest, this run was quite
a bit easier than I thought it would be.
Once I started getting the ability to regain
health, things got easier.
The few spots that were tough, I think, would
have been tough even with a shield.
And that’s gonna do it for this video about
whether or not you can beat Borderlands without
using a shield.
If you enjoyed the video or learned anything,
leave a Like.
If you didn’t enjoy the video or didn’t
learn anything, leave a Dislike.
Follow me on Twitter @MittenSquad.
My name is Paul of Mitten Squad.
Have a wonderful day.
