Gearbox is introducing new small multiplayer game modes to Battleborn in the form of Tank Yankers and Rocket Brawl. In the past, we had various rumble-type experiences like chaos rumble and warfare rumble. With those events, the rules for a match were altered in order to provide a unique game experience. As those events weren’t really balanced they did provide a fun break from the regular game modes. Well if we take the concept of these rumble events and bring it one step further we get Tank Yankers and Rocket Brawl. Because where the other rumble events took place on the current maps and modes, these new events will get their own specific map that is tailored to the game mode.
Tank Yankers
In the past, the Creative Director of Battleborn, Randy Varnell, has mentioned that they have been experimenting with new game modes and one of them he mentioned was a Ghalt-only mode. In this mode, the Hook & Scraptrap got a reduced cooldown and you could only use these 2 skills to kill the opponents. Randy mentioned it was fun and we joked that this mode really got the team hooked. Tank Yankers looks like an evolution of this concept. As you play as Ghalt, Shayne and Aurox, Montana, or Boldur. The Players will have to fight for a single point which hovers over a fiery lava pit. You need to take down your opponents by knocking them off the ledge and take your place as king of the capture point. As announced in Battlebplan 51, we can play our first match of Tank Yankers on June 30th as from that date this mode will be available for an extended weekend.
Rocket Brawl
Rocket Brawl is a game mode I thought Gearbox would never do. Before the release of Battleborn, it was mentioned that the level design of the story missions would be tailored towards certain characters. While your default hero would walk route A characters with more flying capabilities would be able to take a different route. We saw some basic stuff back then with the mission the void’s edge where halfway through the mission you have 3 paths and some of those areas looked to require a hero that could get more altitude. This quickly became a discussion with Enasni Volz and SparrowFlight that we could have a Benedict-only level. While that sounded really awesome we assumed it never was going to happen because having character-unique levels would be a drain on resources and not everyone would experience them.
Well, here we are 1 year later Rocket Brawl is announced. It’s a special event capture mode featuring everyone’s favorite egotistical Aviant, Benedict! Two teams of Benedict’s fight to capture and hold three capture points on the map. Everyone has fast cooldowns and extreme rocket damage to take out opposing players, however, you’ve only got a couple of Helix options, so choose wisely!
