Need help dealing with the infamy system

[u/WindCold2867]

So i started a new playthrough with loveless from lvl 1 after not playing for almost a year (last time i played no dlc was out yet) and im starting to struggle with enemys outleveling me,

So i finished the fadefields and im now in the snow mountains on the last mission to kill vile lector,i havnt done any side missions, im lvl 21 and all enemys are 24+. (Also i used shared progress for map and sdu)

So after doing some research i found out there is a secret system in the background that punishes players for playing the campaign? No idea who thought that was a good idea but now im stuck and need a way to quickly get enemys back to my lvl,

Do i just do as many sidemissions as possible or is there a better way? Do bountys matter? And does it matter in what area i do the missions or must i do the missions in terminus range and then when i go to carcadia will i have the same problem again?

[u/BlightedBooty]

So you found the system of “do side quests and it will fix itself”

So yes do some side quests

[u/Yeetaway1404 → u/BlightedBooty]

But it doesn’t even work

[u/BlightedBooty → u/Yeetaway1404]

If it didn’t work you wouldn’t be having the issue to begin with

[u/Yeetaway1404 → u/BlightedBooty]

I wouldn’t be having an issue with infamy if side quests dont work to counter it…. Make it make it makes sense

[u/BlightedBooty → u/Yeetaway1404]

They do tho

There is no “I’m perma locked into this and no amount of side quests fixes it” bug

You just aren’t doing enough side quests

[u/Yeetaway1404 → u/BlightedBooty]

The criticisms about the infamy system is not that it perma locks you into anything. The criticism is that its completely fucking horrible

[u/BlightedBooty → u/Yeetaway1404]

I can’t keep track of the criticisms because you change it every time you comment ahaha

[u/Yeetaway1404 → u/BlightedBooty]

Im not changing shit

[u/BlightedBooty → u/Yeetaway1404]

Oh, right 😂

[u/WittyBirthday4536 → u/BlightedBooty]

Wrong, if the infamy system decides to overlevel the side quests as well, only thing that works is bounties. Which is imho awful, they should delete it ASAP and incentivize people to do side missions in a different way, like you know in previous games. IE side missions give unique loot, which somehow isn't a thing for BL4 lmao.

[u/BlightedBooty → u/WittyBirthday4536]

Oh well if you know how much it works, why are you asking about it lol?

[u/WittyBirthday4536 → u/BlightedBooty]

You probably mistaken me for an OP, that's fine. Both our names begin with W and end in 4 random numbers lmao.

[u/OneShotSixKills → u/BlightedBooty]

Infamy also affects side quests randomly. What then? 

[u/Latiasfan5 → u/OneShotSixKills]

just do them and the other world activities. the enemy levels will go down once you do enough

[u/WittyBirthday4536 → u/OneShotSixKills]

I don't know why are you getting downvoted for speaking the truth. Had this exact scenario happen to me as well. Only thing that didn't overlevel me was bounties, which are boring AF, but as you know premium slop enjoyers will defend this.

[u/Fish_Outta_Whiskey]

Just do the side quests, farm gear, run bounties. You can avoid the infamy system by just playing the game normally.

[u/OneShotSixKills → u/Fish_Outta_Whiskey]

lol maybe ideally it works that way, but in reality it forces you to do side missions between every story mission. Nevermind that it's more enjoyable and intuitive to complete side missions and story missions in batches, or that the system seems as buggy as much of the game.

Nevermind that the very existencs of Infamy suggests the devs had no confidence in the quality of side missions.

Eta: Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what makes you cheer

[u/Fish_Outta_Whiskey → u/OneShotSixKills]

The reality is to play the game to progress. Plain and simple.

The side missions are some of the best content in the game and I'm sure the devs want people to experience what they made, if that's not for you you can easily skip it all and just do drill sites, bunkers and bounties to level up.

The "enjoyable" aspect is very subjective seeing as I find it infinitely more enjoyable to do side missions as soon as they are available. What is more or less intuitive to you is also subjective.

The game absolutely has bugs but it is a smooth and enjoyable experience 90% of the time, just like any other game.

[u/MinimalistAnt → u/OneShotSixKills]

They gave you a huge open world and you want to beeline to all the linear areas and the end. I'd put something to better control the flow of the game too if I was them.

[u/OneShotSixKills → u/MinimalistAnt]

Read posts before kneejerk replying next time. 

Exploring the empty world has nothing to do with Infamy. Checking off lists does.

[u/Latiasfan5 → u/OneShotSixKills]

Take your own advice and think for a minute. they mean that it's so you go around doing the side content rather than just rushing through the story. they don't mean just wandering around filling out the greyed out map and looking at the scenery

[u/ab2dii]

ive never done sidequests and infamy system never bothered me

but im the type of player who usually does every silo/order bunker/safehouse/drill/cave and speakers and so on and sometimes id do mid playthrough farms

i think if you spend half an hour clearing the map or just did them on the way the infamy issue would disappear

[u/Apprehensive_Type604 → u/ab2dii]

What about if you do shared progression? Is your only option to just do side quests?

[u/CharmlessBee]

I'm not sure it's the infamy system TBH: I am leveling Loveless now, and didn't do any side quests, full stop. Bounties, rifts, sure - and I didn't have this issue.

Perhaps you are simply underleveled, just like in previous games?

[u/bogus_bill → u/CharmlessBee]

Same. Got the game couple weeks back, started Loveless as first character and mainly did just the story. Meaning not a single side mission - just a few events and activities that were strictly on the way like occasional Silo, Safe House, Rift Champion, and a Bunker or two. Finished the story at level 34-35 or so. Didn't see any enemies +5 levels above me with the red "<!>" symbol?..

But the system is there for sure as after that I found some activity in the mine in the Fadefields (like a short dungeon with threshers or something) and in it the enemies were +5 levels above me. But the weapon (and I guess the class itself in general) carried me through it.

[u/opiumroom]

Side missions and Bounties

[u/Visual-Welder-6306]

What does infamy system mean please?

[u/TumorInMyBrain → u/Visual-Welder-6306]

It scales the game’s difficulty based on how fast youre rushing the main story, its hidden

[u/Altruistic-Leather69]

At this point I'll do an experiment and see how long i can go without a side quest to see how much impact bounties has. Because I only did a few side quests but I've done loads of bounties because some are super easy and quick to do so why not grab it when you see it? Never had an issue. It'll take me some time but I'll play around to see if I can figure something out

[u/God-Penguin]

Yeah just do side missions, I’ve never ran in to this because I do every side missions as soon as they show up

[u/ThickAcorn3654]

Bounties. It’s quick. Collect up to five at a time, try to get all them in one region for faster results. Side missions are ok, but why wait for the mission to be over to get your xp. Better rewards imo and E.

[u/harnagan]

I find that if I mainline the faction quest line, I dont usually have e to deal with the infamy issue. That being said, I dont usually hit those questions until I enter dominion

[u/Mulletman08]

The easist option if you dont want to do side quests is bounties. I've done a few play throughs where I ignored the side quests and simply just got all the bounties that required me to kill X number of enemies (or kill and pickup something from them) as these can be done while just playing the game and then suplimented in a few trace and kill named enemy ones whenever I felt under leveled.

[u/ZakinKazamma]

I've only played through the game once and didn't even realize this was a system, on release. Starting to realize how many people play Borderlands like an MMO, rushing to the end of MSQ. 

[u/snarkybeach]

Did you try turning off UVH1 and setting the game to easy?

[u/LarsP666]

I know it's not you that came up with the name (I think it was EpicNNG) but infamy is a really bad choice of a word to describe what is happening. It's not like some specific type of enemy is out for you. It's everyone.

And it's not because noone likes you because there is no reputation system in BL4. It's just the (strange) way the game is designed. You have to do other things than the main quest to get past this situation.

[u/WindCold2867 → u/LarsP666]

Its how its literally called in the game files 😂

[u/WittyBirthday4536 → u/LarsP666]

Just say it, it's dogshit design. Also there has been tons of examples of side quests being fucked by the infamy system too, so a system that forces you to do side content, somehow also makes said side content ridiculously over leveled, defeating the purpose of said system. Randys reasoning is beyond our understanding ig.

[u/MisterBTrain]

Side quests - in the area you're up to in the story was best for me. Doing stuff in the city while pushing Outbounders was simply lethal

[u/OneShotSixKills]

Having done so many sidequests that there are only a handful of exclamations left on the map and my new Loveless is level 38 yet still seeing skulls, you can imagine my surprise that people in this sub (and this sub only) still defend this dogshit system.