How to Get a Head

After the first season of expansions, Borderlands 2 was still doing well as a game. Fans were playing, interest was high, and expansions were still selling really well. The game had proven to be a hit, giving fans of Borderlands everything they wanted in a sequel, and then some. As such, Gearbox elected to put together a second season of content, creating what were known as “Headhunter Mission Packs”, short missions featuring new locales, hosted by known characters, all to provide more fun, more content, and more bonuses for long term players looking to get a little more life out of their game.

In total there were five holiday themed Headhunter packs, featuring short missions that players could work through in an hour, each. As a reward, the players got really silly heads they could apply to their characters, but the real goal wasn’t so much the new cosmetics (although those were fun) but having new areas to explore through, with extra bosses to grind and more enemies to kill. Borderlands 2 was all about the grind, and these new mini-expansions provided the opportunities to do just that.

With all that being said, not all of the Headhunter packs were equally interesting, with some providing more fun and amusement than others. Here are the five, in order or release, with thoughts on how they stacked up as a collection:

T.K. Baha’s Bloody Harvest

Making his return after first appearing in The Zombie Island of Dr. Nedd, the zombified T.K. Baha is here to guide players through a Halloween-themed adventure. The evil Pumpkin King is spreading his magic, and the players have to go around the town of Hallowed Hollow, fighting skeletons and other creeps and crawlies, all to find the key to the Pumpkin King’s pumpkin patch and awaken the beast so he can be killed. And then there’s a secret boss added in as well that players can unlock and fight, too…

Aesthetically this mission is great. It takes many of the assets from Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, remixing them and crafting something spooking and haunting. The skeletons from that expansion make a return here as well, and they are appropriate monsters to fight, adding to the ambiance. Yes, it’s a lot of reuse, but it’s used well for this mission pack, giving players more of the fun, gothic vibes they crave for the season.

With that said, the mission itself isn’t that interesting. The players are tasked with wandering around, raising enemies, killing them, raising more enemies, killing them, as they go out and loop around a sprawling, but not that interesting, map. There’s also a required jump to fetch an item that is pretty annoying, and if you miss it you have to do a full loop of the map again just to get back into position. That’s not a particularly enjoyable obstacle, and the missions would have been better without it.

Overall this mission pack is less exciting than it could have been. While it is nice to see zombie T.K. Baha return (even if it makes you question the expansion’s place in the continuity of the series), you wish he could have been part of a more interesting adventure. But at least he’s not making you collect hundreds of brains, so maybe that is a slight improvement.

The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler

Fresh off the exciting adventure in Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, the head of the Torgue corporation himself, Mr. Torgue, has a mission for you. Having set up shop in Gluttony Gulch, his company has brought in the invincible Wattle Gobbler, a massive, birdy beast. He wants you to gather the ingredients to make a pie that will weaken the bird, so that you can then go out and kill the beast, all in time for Thanksgiving. Oh, and his grandma is there as well, and she’s like to tell you a story…

I like this mission pack a whole lot more than the previous one. Yes, it’s another fetch quest (as, really, all of these are), but it’s a more engaging one. The layout of the area, designed like a massive kitchen, is easier to navigate, and there’s a solid variety of enemies on offer to kill (bandits and varkids and other weird things). The whole flow of the mission feels strong, and it’s a good place to come in, lay waste to enemies, and power up any character you’re looking to grind. Plus, the boss fight against the Gobbler (along with a few other mooks thrown in as well) is pretty fun.

This pack nails the tone and theme really well, and knows better than to overstay its welcome. It’s one of the best of the Headhunter packs, but an easy mile.

How Marcus Saved Mercenary Day

In the town of Frost Bottom, the holiday celebrations have been ruined because the shipment of guns that Marcus sent has somehow gone missing. Exploring the area within, especially the town of Gingerton, it’s revealed that evil snowmen have been causing havoc all under the guidance of the bad Mister Tinder Snowflake. The heroes have to help guide the shipment down to the town, and then find a way to get Snowflake’s attention, all so you can teach him the true meaning of the holidays… through violence.

This is another solid Headhunter pack, even if I wouldn’t consider it the most memorable of the set. Frost Bottom is a bit big, and the path through the mission sends you hither and yon as you take care of fetch missions and escort runs. It takes a bit of time to get to the final confrontation with Mister Tinder Snowflake, and players wouldn’t be out of line thinking this pack feels a bit padded just to hit the hour long length.

However, there are things I do really like. The aesthetics are solid, taking the wintery theme of some of Borderlands 2’s stages and expanding upon the assets. The new snowman enemies are fun to fight, and add some needed variety, and the boss fight against Mister Tinder Snowflake is solid, leading to a bunch of goodies you can get from the ammo train. The rewards are great, and the boss fight is worth grinding, meaning that once you’ve gotten through the mission once, there’s a lot of end-area replayability baked in.

It’s not a perfect mission pack, but this one delivers where it counts, making it a solid mission to run when you’re looking for a good place to grind levels and gear.

Mad Moxxi and the Wedding Day Massacre

The Hodunks and the Zafords are at it again. While Mad Moxxi was trying to arrange a wedding for members of each clan, the two sides started fighting, leading to an all out clan war at the Rotgut Distillery. The Vault Hunters are tasked with heading out into the area to find the ingredients needed to make a love potion, all so that they can get to the two loverbirds to see each other again. And once love is in the air, who knows what magic might blossom… or it’ll lead to bloody violence. Knowing this series, it’s probably the latter.

This is certainly a weaker expansion, although I think some of my hate for it stems specifically from the fact that I hated the “Clan War” missions back in the main Borderlands 2 game, and that hate carries over here. The mission is a bit of a slog, with you heading out into a couple of large, looping areas to collect the pieces you need, but it’s not the worst setup possible. But when you add in these two stupid clans, and how much effort you’ve already had to do for them in the past (for not much reward), well, we all probably could have done without ever seeing them again.

It doesn’t help that Moxxi isn’t even really all that funny this time around, with her sexy schtick wearing real thin. Overall this is an expansion that probably needed more time in the hopper, but it would have been even better if it featured any other characters than the Zafords and the Hodunks. Let’s all hope they never return to Borderlands again.

Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax

Crawmerax the Invincible was the special final raid boss of the original Borderlands, and many players loved fighting the boss (especially if you found that one area where you were all but invincible during the battle). Having a mission that functionally acted as a sequel to that encounter is nice, in theory, but it would have been much better if we didn’t have to have Hammerlock along for the ride.

The Crimson Raiders have come to Wam Bam Island for a bit of fun in the sun. Or they would, if it weren’t for the fact that the island has been overrun by pirates and islanders, all of whom are looking to cause trouble. Worse, Sir Hammerlock has gotten himself into a spot of trouble, catching the ire of the natives. They want to use him as a sacrifice to their god, the Son of Crawmerax, and Hammerlock would prefer not to be a giant beast’s meal. You need to head through the area, finding a way to gain access to Crawmerax’s lair, all do you can take the beast down for good.

There are few things I needed less than a sequel to Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt, and yet here we are. Hammerlock is a character that works best in small doses, as his expansion proved, and he is no more enjoyable here as a character than he was over there. I get the idea behind using him, as he’s a big game hunter and there’s no bigger game than Crawmerax. Unfortunately bringing him in also brings in all the problematic aspects of his expansion as well.

Yes, we’re talking racism. The native islanders are back, and the game does nothing to soften their racist stereotyping. Adding the pirates in doesn’t help at all as they are also annoying to fight, and they remind you that Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty also exists, and it was boring as well. All of this is stacked onto a mission that makes you travel all over its expansive area, performing annoying tasks for little pay off just to get to the final fight. And that final fight against the Son of Crawmerax is more annoying than enjoyable.

Really, the best part of this expansion is a single treasure chest near the start of the area that is generally packed with great loot. In my playthroughs I skip this storyline entirely and just raid the treasure chest until I have everything I need. It’s more enjoyable that way.

Final Thoughts

That makes two really solid headhunter packs, one iffy one, and a couple of pretty mediocre adventures. Considering these were all sold cheaply ($2.99 a pop each when they were released), that’s not too bad. An hour here or there for three bucks is a decent exchange rate, and for those that are worth replaying (or, at least, grinding in) you have a lot of incentive to continue visiting these areas. It’s not perfect, but for the price these were decent enough value. Just find the parts you like and avoid the rest.