Borderlands 4 has an invisible scaling system, working against the player in the background. It levels enemies above the player, controls the frequency of events in the game, and so much more. This is an overview on how it works.
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Borderlands 4's Infamy Difficulty System - Explanation/Overview
Discussion
Beginner
Late Game
Bosses
Mechanics
Overview
What Is Infamy?
Working in the background of every player's game session is a difficulty setting beyond what you can actually see, and it's scaling the world around you as you progress through the story of Borderlands 4
This is a forced, and very deeprooted mechanic designed to push the player towards completing side & main missions amongst other things all throughout the world.
Below you can see a rough idea of how the game looks at specific activities, and their affect on this hidden system. Please note that these numbers are not the final number, and as such it does not strictly mean you are looking at the absolute best method, just because you see a high number.
Every time you complete one of the above activities (which are broadly named) you will receive progress to the overall Infamy ranking system within the world, which in turn makes enemies that were previously too difficult to fight, just manageable.
This means that in Borderlands 4, simply going away to get some extra levels for a fight no longer works. If you choose to ignore the Infamy system, the game will punish you for it. Enemies will continue to scale with you, unless you make a forced progression to the max level, or beat the game.
What Does It Affect?
Infamy affects a lot of distinct parts of your game. From what we're able to see in the files, we know that at the bare minimum, it plays some form of role in the following:
- Enemy/Boss Level
- Enemy/Boss Trash Mob Spawn Variance
- Main Enemy Spawning Variance
- Enemy Modifier Appearance Chance
- Random Event Spawn Chance
- Potential NPC Spawn Threshold
- Potential Radio/Dialogue Changes
This is a major finding, as none of this is properly telegraphed to the end-user, something which causes mass confusion.
To go a little more in depth: Enemies who are being scaled by the Infamy system will ALWAYS outscale the player, until enough progression in the system is made. This is not an optional mechanic.
How Do You Level Up?
As stated earlier, it's only possible to naturally progress the system by completing activities in your game. This includes things like Bunkers, Silos, Side Missions, and also Main Missions.
What's unique about this system however is that going off to complete missions in Carcadia after ignoring them previously, may not have the desired outcome.
From what we see in the files, it would appear that the best way to progress the ranking, is to start from the bottom. Begin by completing side content in Fadefields, and only then move on.
Shared Progression Makes It Worse
Because your Infamy is not directly stored in your save file, and is instead generated on runtime based on activity completions, turning on Shared Progression, will have a direct impact on your game.
But it may not be what you're hoping for...
Some players have reported that after turning the system on, it made the system WORSE, and they subsequently had a harder time in their story playthrough. This is important for you to take into account during your sessions.
Conclusion
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