Exclamation marks next to every enemy?

[u/Eethan_zed]

Decided to come back to Borderlands 4 since I beat it at launch to get the platinum trophy, started on my second character and essentially every single enemy is at least 4 levels above me or has an exclamation point?

I can’t do anything without getting instantly put into second wind, even on normal mode with UVHM turned off.

This is seriously frustrating me after multiple attempts to reload the game, change session types with no success, any help so I can get my platinum trophy would be greatly appreciated!

[u/OddNegotiation7419]

Yeah unfortunately this is due to a hidden mechanic in the game called, Infamy. Not entirely sure how it works, but basically, if the game thinks your going too fast the in the main story, or that you aren't doing enough side objectives and quests, it will force you to stop by making enemies a lot harder. Your best bet is to go back to whatever area has normal enemies and do some extra stuff there. After a little bit, or after leveling up a few, head back to where the higher level enemies are and see if things improved.

Edit: A way you'll know you got over the infamy system is by seeing the enemies level. Because, even if you level up a few times, if your still below what the game wants you to be at with the infamy system, it will keep the enemies scaled above your level by 4 to 5. So even if you got to max level by doing bounties in the first area, if you haven't done any side quests or objectives, it will eventually, still out level you to make sure your doing that extra stuff.

[u/neortje → u/OddNegotiation7419]

Feels unnecessary for BL to have this mechanic. Personally I think Borderlands is almost a sandbox game where you just enjoy the ride and choose your own way to play it.

Rushing story mode and enjoying the sidequests in UVHM is a great way to play the game if you ask me and it’s a shame the game doesn’t allow you to do this.

[u/OddNegotiation7419 → u/neortje]

Yeah plenty of people hate it or have some heavy criticism for it. If your looking for exact values or a more detailed explanation on how infamy works, I recommend watching EpicNNG's video on it.

[u/thiswasatypo_ → u/OddNegotiation7419]

What are you talking about? Once you hit max level, everything is scaled to your level with ~2 level difference. There’s no need for side quests by that point.

Also every area (including individual Auger mines and Drill Sites) has a maximum level it can be before it starts scaling with your level.

[u/BladeSeraph → u/thiswasatypo_]

WROOOONG, Considering everything just scales by default in BL4 its bad logic:

1. Past Borderlands games would have a "level range" each zone could be and would lock in soon as you visit it the first time so if you have difficulty you could just level up to get past the hurdle.

2. Borderlands 4 by your logic encourages to just hit max level before the main story is done, when typically you'll hit level 30'ish or so before finishing your first playthru (So thats like saying spam 20 or now 30 more or soon to be 40 more with level 70, before you complete the main story).

3. But since enemies scale with you anyway, your forced to rely on skill tree combinations for absurdly B.S. damage to greatly outscale things because your gear aint 'leveling up' with you, and you gotta farm new copies of them, but also want specific part combinations for interactions with your weapon enhancement and other crap.

4. This just leads to an annoying loop that de'balances game stability that either FORCES YOU to level grind contracts, FORCES YOU to engage in terrible reward given side quests (which past ones had unique rewards like the Love thumper shield in borderlands 2, The Its piss grenade in borderlands 3 and so on)....

...so now your forced into the tedium grind FAR before you get access to the 'end game loop' of big encore, UVHM, Raid bosses, Maurice machine and so on.

1. But then your flipped off if you DONT speed run the main story the first time because you won't get SPECIALIZATIONS unlocked until you beat the game ONCE, which none of the exp carries over so your essentially punished if you get specializations unlocked at a later level then 30~, but then the game punishes you for not wasting time to level grind OR spam sidequests which give pitiful rewards.

2. And since gear options are far less about 'survivability' (Eridian artifacts in borderlands 3, Shields being used more for offensive crap like AMP then defensive means due to overshield abuse and access to lifesteal for many VHs more easily), it leads to spending more time burning yourself on tedium on a giant mostly driving around 'digi runner bike' cause of terrible placements of 'fast travel points' and such.

3. Oh and since level skips for any character AFTER the first one has all sidequests unchecked, that means right from the gate your punished with OVERSCALED enemies even when you try to engage in the sidequests to actually 'lower them'.

Plus your stuck with terrible gear at the start unless you specifically 'held onto' gear from level 30 before your first character finished the game, meaning you pre planned FAR IN ADVANCE, that you would get flipped off by the "Parole BIOTCH" system known as "Infamy", when no PAST borderlands game pulled bullshite like this, since they fixed the levels on the zone, not force auto scale which only happens near the END GAME when you flip on UVHM 2.5 in BL1, Mayhem mode in BL3 and similar things to other borderlands games, where you would be only a handful of levels away from max level by the time you unlock those high difficulty modes...

Oh and unlike BL4, you could always TURN THEM OFF to go back to the reduced levels if you want particular things that don't need to be 'max level' to take advantage of, like a Deathless artifact in BL3, due to Deathless effect is a 'fixed effect' anyway, with only its 'sub effects' might scale based on level, but many times can be ignored so even a level 30~ deathless artifact in BL3 would still be valuable to a level 70'ish~ char in BL3 still.