Shall I Skip Side Quests?

[Sultan Yegah]

Ok so I started playing this game with my kids and we're confused about side quests
Because as I understand there are a few modes to the game like Mayhem and TVHM

My Question:
Assuming I am a min-maxer and want the best items, shall I skip every side quest till I finish the game? Till I get to lvl 50? Till I get to lvl 72?

i.e. if I do a side quest and get item X and it's lvl 10 in my 1st playthrough;
Is the same item spawns as lvl 50 if I do the quest at 50 and 72 if I do it at 72?
What about Mayhem? or Mayhem levels? Or TVHM?

Shall I just wait until I am able to clear all levels at mayhem 10 and start doing side quests after? Or it doesn't matter after lvl 50 and mayhem 0 or 10, all the same drops?

Thanks in advance

[Shinigami]

If you don't 'trigger' the side quests, then you have a chance of getting level 72, Mayhem 10 rewards from them. If however you started the quest, for example at level 13, then the reward will be a level 13 item. If you don't enable Mayhem, then the enemies will also be level 13.

That's the logic more or less.

[ThatLazyGuy]

Most sidequest loot isn't all that great IMO, just play the way you want and you can always replay them in TVHM (where they will scale to your level) so don't worry too much. I for one never even did TVHM because Mayhem 1 is the same as in TVHM so there really wasn't any need. The person above is correct in NVHM and M0 main game sidequests won't scale and will be at varying levels dependant on where they are in terms of campaign progression + your level at the time when you accepted them. However Mayhem fixes that.

Each Mayhem level will add a bonus to stats, this will only effect weapons and grenades it's roughly a 13.6% stat increase per level capping out at M10 loot which is 136% roughly (M11 drops M10 loot). M1-11 will all scale to your level as if you are in TVHM + will add the Mayhem stat increase for quest rewards and drops. M8 and onwards will also guarantee anointments on gear that can be anointed, anointed gear shows up after campaign completion and the chance for it to drop will scale up each mayhem level and be guaranteed at M8+.

TVHM will only scale to your level and you will not get the Mayhem buffs unless of course you beat the main campaign in that mode and unlock mayhem mode on there (both NVHM and TVHM mayhem modes are the same). Effectively TVHM is useless in this game as Mayhem mode exists (unless of course you want to replay quests- something you can do in TVHM). You can easily hit level cap in NVHM though, as I did, all the circles of slaughter, crew challenge enemies/ rare spawns scale to your level at M0 and everything scales to you even at M1. Lastly DLC will always scale to your level even at M0 so leveling is not a problem in NVHM. So skip or do sidequests you can always replay them or be at max level by the time you want to do them, it's up to you entirely. Keep in mind that sidequests do give good XP so you will not have that source if you choose to avoid them, this might make clearing the campaign much more difficult.

P.S One thing to consider is that Crew Challenges do not reset, so if you do complete them in NVHM, you will not be to reset them at all even in TVHM. So they are effectively once per character which would not be a concern but a few of them offer unique rewards which cannot be obtained anywhere else. There are 3 that I can think of off the top of my head (I haven't beaten all DLCs so I may be missing or mistaken about some) The Bekah which is awarded by completing Hammerlock's Hunts, it was available in an anniversary event but hasn't been since, The Scoville and Ember's Purge, both available in DLC1 as crew challenge rewards. . So you may want to be max level + on M10 when you complete those crew challenges. Anyway thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

[Sultan Yegah]

:) much thanks for the TED talk
and you named yourself "lazy"

so I'll just clear the game, then go play mayhem till I am 72
then I'll do normal side quests and go TVHM m1 and do side quests there too

roger that

[ThatLazyGuy]

Sounds good buddy, if you want to save yourself some time you could always do the sidequests in NVHM on Mayhem 10 instead so you won't have to repeat them in TVHM; for the max level rewards. TVHM and NVHM essentially share the same mayhem mode there's no difference between them. So assuming you can tackle M10-11 at that point that will net you the best rewards (max level loot is level 72 and has M10 modifier- only applicable to weapons and grenades, shields/class mods/ artifacts only go up to 72). Only thing you'll miss out on is the main quest rewards which you can get when you decide to tackle TVHM.

Keep in mind that as well that you'll miss out on sidequest XP and it might make clearing the campaign more difficult. Also imo most quest loot is sadly obsolete and outclassed, so you'll have to decide if it's even worth it. Anyway good hunting.

[Sultan Yegah]

:) thanks for the extra comments