While the Borderlands franchise is known for its PvE gameplay, there has always been a fun dueling mechanic in the series that allows players to duke it out for rewards and glory. In past installments, players could wager money and loot on a duel, and the winner would take all. While Borderlands 3 features a new shared-loot mechanic for players that don't want to fight over loot, players looking to play in a more traditional way will still be able to fight over powerful gear whenever they like. During their GuardianCon panel, Gearbox developers also confirmed that the game will feature a new Free-For-All dueling mode that will let the four new vault hunters face off to see who comes out on top.

While many Borderlands 2 players are familiar with dueling, whether for testing out guns on friends or trying to duplicate items, Borderlands 3 is upping the chaos of dueling by allowing up to four players to duel at one time for likely hilarious results. With the new in-depth character skill trees coming to the game, players may want to test out skills on the fly against their friends to see how they work.

On the other hand, players may want to fight over a new legendary that just dropped from a boss, letting the most powerful vault hunter walk away with the new weapon. Regardless of the reason, this new free-for-all duel is going to be chaotic in the best ways possible.

Free-for-all duels weren't the only thing shown off during GuardianCon, however. Gearbox also showcased the brand new ping feature that will allow players to tag gear, chests, enemies, and many other things for easy in-game communication. Quality-of-life changes are abundant in Borderlands 3, and the ping system is just the next step in the evolution of the series. Players will also notice much smoother movement, including sliding and mantling, as well as loot retrieval and many other changes.

While many players used dueling in Borderlands 2 to duplicate weapons, dueling in Borderlands 3 may be much more fun to just mess around with. While it would be surprising if Gearbox let players continue to duplicate weapons in Borderlands 3, whether through dueling or mailing loot to friends, fans won't know until they boot up the game this fall and dive into a duel for themselves.

Borderlands 3 releases September 13 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Gearbox