In a bid to keep players engaged longer and playing Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands long after the credits have rolled, Gearbox and 2K have today announced the Chaos Chamber. Positioned to be the endgame destination for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the chaos chamber is “an endlessly replayable endgame dungeon that changes with every run!”
According to Gearbox, the Chaos Chamber is, at its most basic, a randomised dungeon that should take between 20 and 30 minutes to complete. However, players are able to augment their Chaos Chamber runs as they go to make them harder or easier, depending on your preference.
Completing a Chaos Chamber run will give players an array of loot and best of all, Gearbox has made the Chaos Chamber so that players can target the specific loot they’re after, as well as giving them options to reroll enchantments and make that perfect piece of gear even more perfect-er.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Endgame
Each Chaos Chamber run follows a set path. Players will face three random dungeons rooms filled with enemies that need killing and then move onto a mini-boss. After dealing with the mini-boss, players will need to clear out three more dungeon rooms before coming face-to-face with the main boss. Players will have a certain degree of control over the dungeon rooms they face thanks to a choice they’ll need to make before moving on. Before each non-boss dungeon room, players will select one of two portals that will inform what they’ll be fighting next. As players only have three lives to make it all the way to the end, these choices will be crucial.
“We have over 60 level layouts, which will mix and match throughout a dungeon run,” says Kent Rochefort, Lead Game Designer on Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. “On top of that, all the many types of enemies from the game can show up, with up to three different kinds of armies in one room. There are also explosive barrels and traps that populate based on the room. Some are smaller, some are bigger; our level designers went with what felt appropriate for each particular combat arena.”
On successfully completing a Chaos Chamber, players will be rewarded with Moon Orbs which can then be spent at the Enchantment Re-roller in Brighthoof. By using the Enchantment Re-Roller, players will be offered a random new enchantment for their gear. For those players really looking to build the absolute, ultimate build for their character, this is a way to (eventually) ensure you have the exact stats, enchantments and gear you want.
Gearbox is warning players that while re-rolling a piece of gear won’t cost many Moon Orbs, in the beginning, the more they re-roll that item, the higher the cost will be.
During a Chaos Chamber run, players will need to be on the lookout for (and collect) Crystals. By collecting Crystals, players change and increase their rewards at the end of the run and they’re granted in a number of ways. At the completion of each room, players will smash a rainbow, glowing, crystal die as well as earn them through the completion of side-quests and bonus objectives throughout the Chaos Chamber Run.
“The room completion reward went through so many different iterations,” recalls Kent. “In the beginning, it was just a chest, then we went with dice because the fantasy of the game is about tabletop roleplaying. Originally, you could interact with the dice to stop them rolling, and if you got a 20, you’d get better gear than if you had rolled, say, an 8. We felt that was too random, so those dice went into the breakable state that’s now in the game. It’s an iterative process—we wanted dice, but not all of the inherent randomness that came with them.”
Some of the bonus objectives revealed so far include protecting a statue of Butt Stallion, smashing a statue of Dragon Lord or feeding the souls of your slain enemies to a sentient ball of fire. Another bonus objective that gives a taste of what to expect in the Chaos Chamber is one where players are forced to stand inside an enchanted circle in order to kill enemies. So much of Borderlands‘ style of combat is about staying mobile, being forced to stay in one place sounds like a pretty big challenge.
Each time players kick off a Chaos Chamber run, they start with no Crystals and the number collected during a run doesn’t carry over but, players can use them throughout their run to great effect.
During a Chaos Chamber run, players may discover altars that grant Blessings. Blessings cost Crystals and by spending them, players will earn a buff that remains until the end of that run. There’s even a chance you’ll get multiple Blessings during a run but each subsequent altar will set you back more Crystals than the one before. Blessings are also stackable and improve stats like Crit Damage, ammo capacity and more.
Alongside Blessings, players who want even more of a challenge can opt-in for a Curse. The exact opposite of a Blessing, Curses grant debuffs to players or buffs to enemies and they come in three flavours; Easy, Medium and Hard. Having a curse in-effect grants players more Crystals and Gearbox has hinted that clever players might even be able to use some Curses to their advantage.
“In my opinion, the hardest Curse is Break It Up, which gives your enemies increased damage via higher firing rates and accuracy whenever they’re near each other,” says Kent. Players are even able to spend Crystals and make their next encounter ‘Elite’ for the ultimate challenge. Elite encounters will, of course, drop better loot, but you’ll need to make it through in one piece to claim it.
Now that you know how the Chaos Chamber works, what about the rewards? Well, Gearbox has everything covered. Once the run is over, players will be transported to the Loot of Chaos area where they’ll be able greeted with a chest full of loot. That’s not all though. In the Loot of Chaos area, players will be able to feed their Crystals to “spined, slightly disturbing rabbit statues” that will “barf up a random piece of loot” from its loot pool. Suspended above each of the statues is an icon showing the loot pool it belongs to — SMGs, Assault Rifles, Rings, Amulets etc — and so players can hone in on the loot they’re looking for.
After it’s all said and done, players will be taken to the Victory screen that includes all manner of stats and info about their run. Details include Offense and Defense stats, Blessings and Curses, total Crystals collected and so on. “It also includes a quick overview of your entire character build, including your two Multiclass selections, Skill Point and Hero Point distribution, and even the rarity of all the gear you brought into battle—perfect for an all-in-one screenshot to share with your pals and/or on your socials,” Gearbox explains.
Finally, each week players will have the chance to tackle the Featured Run. Featured Runs remain the same for the duration and players can play them as many times as they like. Upon completing a Featured Run, players will be given a rundown of how they rank against others by breaking down completion time, difficulty due to Curses and Blessings and how many Crystals were collected.
Gearbox has also teased something called the Chaos Trial as part of the Chaos Chamber but hasn’t released any details beyond the name at this stage.
It’s exciting to see Gearbox thinking about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands‘ endgame and ways to keep players engaged. It’s certainly piqued our interest and we can’t wait to give the Chaos Chamber a shot.
You can also check out our hands-on preview of the game here.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands launches on March 25, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
