One thing that the Gearbox team is good at doing is ensuring that everyone’s favorite looter shooter is running as seamlessly as possible, or at least that they’re keeping an ear to the ground with regards to what the Borderlands 3 community wants changed. You might remember our rundown of the patch notes from earlier in the month (March 5 specifically, in case you forgot), but it looks like there’s been another update to the title and of course, corresponding Borderlands 3 hotfix notes. Here’s what we know this time. 

Borderlands 3 Hotfix Notes March 12 Patch

For those wondering what’s the latest to change when it comes to Borderlands 3 in the lead-up to the Hammerlock and Jacobs DLC that’s going to drop in about a fortnight, it looks like there has been a fair amount of stuff shifting under the hood. There’s a full list of what’s different as per the official Borderlands 3 website, and we’ve reproduced it here for you. To ensure that you’re applying the hotfix and that you’re on the same version of the game as everyone else, kick about the main menu until the game notifies you with a “Hotfixes Applied!” pop-up and voila!

GENERAL

• Addressed a reported concern that was causing Typhon to sometimes be a potential blocker in “Shadow of Starlight”
• Addressed a reported concern that the Jabbermogwai was sometimes not dropping loot at the correct rate

CHARACTERS

We’re looking to go over each of the Vault Hunters to identify any inconsistencies in gameplay. Some of these concerns will have to be addressed via patches, but for issues such as incorrect values being listed, we’re able to adjust in hotfixes.

• Removed the Gunner’s “General Winter” minigun damage penalty and Cryo penalty.
• Adjusted the Gunner’s “Exploding. Bullets.” skill to match the current damage output, which was sometimes higher than stated on the skill description
• Addressed an issue with the Beastmaster’s “Furious Attack” skill where it was sometimes rounding its values and making the skill description and damage output appear inconsistent
• Addressed an issue with the Beastmaster’s “Hunter’s Eye” skill where the skill description was sometimes showing values from incorrect fields

LOCATION RE-BALANCING

This adjustment will only affect new characters as we continue to improve and balance progression. We’ll first implement this change on Friday, March 13 for PC players on Steam and Epic; players on all other platforms (PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Stadia, and Mac) will receive these improvements in a patch coming later this month.

We found that new players were consistently entering certain areas over-leveled for the content they were playing. This occasionally trivialized those areas, as enemies were sometimes much weaker than intended for that point in the game. We also found that some side missions later in the game were largely ignored because of these balance irregularities. These balance changes bring the enemies up to the average level that we see players hitting in these locations.

• Various areas and side missions on Nekrotafeyo should now match the average level of players
• Enemies in The Anvil should now match the average level of players

WEAPONS

Sickle

• Addressed a reported concern that the “Boom” prefix was sometimes not receiving the buff from last week’s hotfix

Boomer

• Increased weapon damage

The Garcia

• Increased the Fire Rate
• Increased the number of projectiles shot

Hellfire

• Increased weapon damage
• Increased the Damage Over Time amount

Hyperfocus XZ41

• Increased weapon damage

Linc

• Increased weapon damage

Nemesis

• Increased weapon damage

Nimble Jack

• Increased weapon damage
• Added 100% Bonus Critical Damage

Ogre

• Increased weapon damage

One Pump Chump

• Increased weapon damage

Roisen’s Thorns

• Increased weapon damage

Sawbar

• Increased weapon damage
• Adjusted the timing of when the three projectiles split to be sooner

SkekSil

• Increased the Extra Projectile Damage

Tankman’s Shield

• Increased the Maximum Damage Cap by 200%
• Increased the percent damage awarded per kill

Now that you know what we do about the latest Borderlands 3 hotfix notes for the March 12 patch, you should be able to go down the list and make sure that your concerns about Vault Hunting were dealt with. We’re personally happy that it looks like the team is going to be doing some comprehensive balancing work when it comes to the different classes, so we’re pretty excited to see how that pans out with future patches when Gearbox has a little more to go on. Need a hand with anything else in Borderlands 3? Check out these other tips and tricks that we’ve put together for Vault Hunters just like you in our dedicated guides hub for the game:

• Boomer Borderlands 3 Guide – Legendary Weapon
• Borderlands 3 Garcia Gun – Getting This Legendary Shotgun
• Borderlands 3 Gigamind Guide – Getting the Smart-Gun XXL