











We’re back! The batteries are recharged and we’re ready roll into 2017 at full speed. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and that you’re as excited as we are to start off the New Year! This week, we’re focusing on regrouping and getting back into the groove. Before the break, we promised you that we’d come back with lots to share. We’re still knocking the rust off this week, but hang tight, because next week is going to be a busy one.

Since we’re going be flooding your ear and eye holes with more info than even Boldur can block, we thought it would be good to get everyone warmed up. What better way to do that than to announce a new rotating game mode. It’s no secret that the community loves some of the quirkier game modes the Battleborn tends to rotate in and out of the game (we’re looking at you Chaos Rumble). With that in mind, our team has devised a few new modes that will offer some opportunities for us to “spice things up a bit”.

The first of these new modes is called “Bots Battle” and it will make its shining debut next Thursday (January 12th). Bots Battle will be a limited time game mode and will run for at least a week. Players will be able to team up with 4 other players to take on 5 vicious, bloodthirsty bots. Incursion, Meltdown, and Capture modes will all be included in Bots Battle and best of all, you’ll be able to earn full XP, full credits, and complete your challenges while you’re at it!











With Battleborn’s Winter Update close at hand, we don’t have any new hot fixes to share this week. Not familiar with all the big changes coming in the Winter Update? No problem; we’ve got you covered. We’re excited to be bringing LOTS of new improvements to Battleborn along with several community requested features. Feel free to let us know what you’re most excited about in the thread below!











In this week’s Community Spotlight, we touch base with our friend @MentalMars in an effort to learn a little bit more about an underrated aspect of Battleborn – the visual effects. Yesterday, we partnered with him and Gearbox Software VFX Artist Ash Lyons to bring you a list of some things you might not have noticed about the visual effects in Battleborn. Check out the list of “VFX You May Have Missed” on MentalMars’ website. If you’d like to know more about the process of developing these unique effects, we’ve got lots more info on the Gearbox blog.











We’ve got some lore for you this week, and as you’ll notice, it contains Oscar Mike’s email address. Make sure to send him lots of pics of cute kittens.





[Transcription of shipwide communications aboard the UPR ship Nova]

OSCAR MIKE: Kleese! It’s Oscar Mike here. I found this AWESOME clip of a scalewolf pup walking around like a person, and I was gonna send it to everyone as a holomail attachment, but there’s a MAJOR problem. I’ve been HACKED, bro! I can’t open my holomail stuff!

KLEESE: Oscar. I’ve told you time and again, before coming to me with every little thing, first manually induce a full capacitance flux sequence via the primary power coupling.

OSCAR MIKE: Right. Uhhhh… I got everything up until “first”, then you lost me.

KLEESE: Bottom of your station, right hand side, that is, the same side where you hold your gun, there’s a large button. Push the button, wait five seconds, then push it a second time. Off, then on again. Also, PLEASE refrain from gumming up Nova’s PA system with your inane blathering, this channel is reserved for emergency address only.

OSCAR MIKE: That’s what I’m saying, there’s an emergency with my holomail address! My contacts, my newsletters, my fact-a-day messages, this is seriously HECKED UP. I’ve been hacked to heck!

KLEESE: [prolonged audible sigh] What is your holomail address?

OSCAR MIKE: “BRO-M83.1101@rdcnet.mik”

KLEESE: Let’s have a look then, shall we?

OSCAR MIKE: It’s B-R-O –

KLEESE: – YES, yes, I get it, you’re very clever. While you were busy struggling with your spelling, I figured out your issue. You weren’t “hacked”, your account has been suspended and archived. There’s a note here, it seems that the administrator finally caught wind of your persistent violations of the “official communications only” bit of the terms of service.

OSCAR MIKE: Wrong! The only dudes with admin access are the Mike High Command, and all the other Mikes have been SUPER-gone for pretty much ever.

KLEESE: Well—

OSCAR MIKE: They’re gone and never coming back, Kleese, and you’ve gotta accept that, like I have! You’ll never see or hear from them again, no matter how close you guys were before, no matter how much fun you had shooting Varelsi faces or swapping stories or playing rock-paper-airstrike. It’s in the past! There’s no use dwelling on those guys, just appreciate the bros you’ve got, instead of crying and writing poems about bros you lost.

KLEESE: Ohhhkayyy, or, HERE’S A THOUGHT, instead of opening up WAY more than I’m comfortable with, you can submit a support ticket to contact the administrator directly.

OSCAR MIKE: …You can do that?

KLEESE: No, YOU can do that, I’m done with IT for the day. Have fun reconnecting. HA!







Like we said above, next week will be busy to say the least. That’s because we’ll have TWO livestreams coming at you. Hey, we told you there’d be lots to share, right?Next Tuesday (January 10th), we’ll start the week by bringing you the much-anticipated Beatrix Reveal Stream. New Media Manager Elisa Meléndez ( @elisarockdoc ) will be joined by Character Designer Kevin Powell and Associate Producer Anthony Nicholson and they’ll be ready to spill their guts on Beatrix and answer your questions. Who knows, we may even have a special guest or two.

We won’t be giving you much time to cool down after the Beatrix stream because on Thursday (January 12th), we’ll be bringing you the Oscar Mike vs. The Battle School Reveal Stream. Our panel, who’ll we’ll announce next week, will be chatting about the next Story Op for Battleborn and even giving you a sneak peek of the action.

Both Streams will take place at 3pm PT (6pm ET) on their respective dates. Make sure to head over to the Gearbox Software Twitch channel and give us a follow. That way, you’ll know exactly when we go live. You’ll also be eligible to win a Battleborn MEGA Code – a special SHiFT code that entitles you to all kinds of awesome loot. We’ll see you Tuesday!