Battle of the Looter Shooters in 2021: Which one is for you?

The Grind – Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 takes the cake here. With the recent reworks of dedicated drops, gone are the days where you have to mindlessly farm the same boss for everything, causing burnout. Drop rates aren’t the best, but on top of the dedicated drops comes anointment rerolling which is an absolute game changer. Before, you had to grind weapons and gear with specific stat rolls, but that’s been cut in half. Now it’s mostly the gear you have to do that with, but you can also trade with friends and other players via reddit groups like r/PandoranRedCross or r/Borderlandsguns.

2. Warframe

Warframe has an interesting grind. You basically have to grind everything from mods, Warframe parts, weapon components, and materials to craft weapons and frames. However, everything has dedicated drops, boosters exist, and you are also given the option to trade with other players or outright buy items. While the other two can be argued as being predatory “time savers” which have become dirty words in the gaming sphere, do know that those aren’t needed to do so. The grind can definitely be tedious in getting specific rare mods or mission rewards with drop tables specifying that rare drops have a 1% drop rate. RNG can be a cruel mistress, but luckily as you grind for certain things in the game, you’re indirectly farming up materials that you may need for other things you want down the line.

3. Destiny 2

Destiny 2 has always had its significant highs and lows with grinding. The lows often overtake the highs because of things like repeated missions, random and not guaranteed rewards, and now the transmog system. It is finally satisfying when you get something you want, but the tediousness of getting to that point may prove to be too little too late.

4. Outriders

Grinding in Outriders might seem like a breath of fresh air compared to the other titles. The gameplay is fast, frenetic, and engaging. However, if you want to complete that set of gear and grind the world tiers, it’ll be a long, annoying road ahead. Like Borderlands 2 and its endgame OP (overpowered) levels, it’s a tedious task and basically climbing up the tiers makes lower tier loot useless. Once you’re finally at Tier 15, the fun can once again resume, but even if the quality and drop rates are better, drops aren’t guaranteed.