Difference between Normal Vault Hunter,True,and Ultimate?

[AcesHunt]

Dumb,but reasonable question.

[z00t]

Normal is baby steps, learning to walk.
TVHM is schooldays. You know the basics, and this is where you hone your skills.
UVHM is the real world. This where the enemies are worthy of the word, and you character gets to be Dangerous.
Easy, Normal and Hard/Serious comparing to some other games.

Normal mode capped at 30
TVHM capped at 50
UVHM capped at 61 or 72 of you have one or both upgrade packs.
If you have both packs there are also the OverPower levels 1 to 8 - effectively level 73 to 80.

More to it than that of course, but UVHM is your ultimate destination. That is where the real game is.

[WickedRequiem]

In actual gameplay...
You can "brute force" your way though Normal.
Once you get to TVHM/UVHM, you'll actually have to select the correct elemental damage + slag to get through.

[you're not thinking creatively]

As noted, after you finish NVHM, TVHM provides a step up in difficulty. There will be new versions of enemies that are tougher to kill, more badass enemies, and they all have higher health. UVHM is a big step up again. Greatly increased difficulty, enemies have health regen, and all of them are set to your level (or that of the highest levelled player in your team). This makes it easier to level up in some ways, and more fun, because all enemies and areas provide good loot and XP no matter where you are. But it's a challenge and I know players who find TVHM gameplay the most rewarding.

[FIFTYJUNIOR]

Normal = Easy, you can kill enemies even with a simple melee attack.
TVHM = Normal/Advanced, tougher enemies (beware Rabid Stalkers/Skags, Goliaths and Nomads equipped with Rocket Launchers, they really are a pain in the ***), turning in missions and killing enemies awards more XP and money. It's like a initial step to introduce the player to the next difficulty level.
UVHM = Expert mode. There is where the real fun begins. Very ultra modafoca enemies (now you will face the Ultimate Badass version of almost every enemy that already exists in the game), and now they got health regen, and also even a simple marauder can down you without effort. At least the best part are the loot, the XP gained from missions, enemies, and the real need for people to help you to defeat some bosses in the game. It's a real challenge.
Oh, almost forgot. You really wanna bring some slag weapon before going into UVHM. On normal and TVHM I didn't used them too much, but on UVHM slag allows you to do some extra damage and the effects last longer on enemies.
(Sorry 4 bad english).

[Doctor Dank]

Normal: where you can literally rush throigh everything with minimal gear
TVHM: learning to know how enemy weaknesses and elemental properties
Ultimate: slag starts to get dominant, and usually regarded as the ultimate (and optimal) difficulity
OP lvls: ok, things started to get imbalance here (enemies can get you to health gate in one hit). Needs Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2 though

[CrowRising]

The way I see it:
Normal: This is where you have a chance to play through casual at low level. Learn the basics, upgrade your character with more skills, try out different kinds of guns, etc.
TVHM: This is where you start having to apply your knowledge of the game to progress. The difficulty is increased, so you need to think your way through situations rather than just run and gun. In particular, elemental damage types are more important.
UVHM: This is basically the same as TVHM, except now you need to make sure your badass rank is high enough to survive or else even the best guns you can obtain up to this point will not be enough. Before this point, badass ranks are more of a convenience thing, but here they are the difference between life and death. In particular, you are going to want to make sure your HP, Shield recharge delay, Shield recharge time, Shield capacity, Gun accuracy, Gun damage, and Critical damage are at high enough values. In addition, you are going to want to make sure you have thought your skill tree investments through and have as good of a gun loadout as you can manage. Keep in mind that gun loadouts go hand in hand with skill tree loadouts.

As a general rule, when the difficulty you are in currently starts to get too easy at even the hardest challenges, you are probably ready to start a playthrough of the next difficulty. I recommend figuring out which of the 4 to 6 playable characters feels easiest for you to play, as the difference in gameplay can make a big difference to your survival chances. Once you get really good with the character you find the easiest, you can safely start to venture into the other gameplay styles using the knowledge and game skills you have aquired.

[kaffekoppen]

UVHM is where the little imbalances in the game start to really show and some loot becomes almost useless. That said, it's fun as long as you manage to find decent gear and remember to slag. Well, unless you are playing Krieg, then you don't even need gear to steamroll through UVHM :)

[dontu_worry]

Originally posted by CrowRising:

The way I see it:
Normal: This is where you have a chance to play through casual at low level. Learn the basics, upgrade your character with more skills, try out different kinds of guns, etc.
TVHM: This is where you start having to apply your knowledge of the game to progress. The difficulty is increased, so you need to think your way through situations rather than just run and gun. In particular, elemental damage types are more important.
UVHM: This is basically the same as TVHM, except now you need to make sure your badass rank is high enough to survive or else even the best guns you can obtain up to this point will not be enough. Before this point, badass ranks are more of a convenience thing, but here they are the difference between life and death. In particular, you are going to want to make sure your HP, Shield recharge delay, Shield recharge time, Shield capacity, Gun accuracy, Gun damage, and Critical damage are at high enough values. In addition, you are going to want to make sure you have thought your skill tree investments through and have as good of a gun loadout as you can manage. Keep in mind that gun loadouts go hand in hand with skill tree loadouts.

As a general rule, when the difficulty you are in currently starts to get too easy at even the hardest challenges, you are probably ready to start a playthrough of the next difficulty. I recommend figuring out which of the 4 to 6 playable characters feels easiest for you to play, as the difference in gameplay can make a big difference to your survival chances. Once you get really good with the character you find the easiest, you can safely start to venture into the other gameplay styles using the knowledge and game skills you have aquired.

So, what about all the OP8 player who run without BAR on? BAR is far from the most important thing you will need in UVHM. You need to use cover, observe how enemies deliver, and take damage, match element types, hit crits, slagslagslag, have good gear, and play with your brain in gear. You will have to really get to know your build, approach, and what equipment and tactics work with or against them. You will have to problem solve your way past difficult stretches. This might mean simply taking a different path through an area, moving more slowly through the map, or a week or more of farming gear to take down a difficult raid boss. BAR helps. Don't belive for a second that that it is primary. Just wrong.

[CrowRising]

Originally posted by dontu_worry:

So, what about all the OP8 player who run without BAR on? BAR is far from the most important thing you will need in UVHM. You need to use cover, observe how enemies deliver, and take damage, match element types, hit crits, slagslagslag, have good gear, and play with your brain in gear. You will have to really get to know your build, approach, and what equipment and tactics work with or against them. You will have to problem solve your way past difficult stretches. This might mean simply taking a different path through an area, moving more slowly through the map, or a week or more of farming gear to take down a difficult raid boss. BAR helps. Don't belive for a second that that it is primary. Just wrong.

Take note that I mentioned the relation between TVHM and UVHM. I never once mentioned that you should disregard the skills you learned in NVHM and honed in TVHM in favor of Badass rank. I merely stressed the importance of it, as you will find rather quickly that without a proper stat boost most enemies will be nigh unkillable due to the weak DPS value of your attacks.

UVHM is meant to be the ultimate challange. It assumes that you have optimized your character to be as absolutely unstoppable as possible and also that you have built up enough knowledge and skill to tip otherwise impossible odds in your favor.

The reason why I put so much stress on badass ranks is because UVHM is the first time most players will actually start to need it. I'm not trying to stress it as a primary focus, but rather as a necessary progression tool. A preparation kind of thing more than the main element.

Even badass ranks won't save you in UVHM if you don't know what you are doing. Proper skill tree builds and gun loadouts and elemental knowledge and whatnot is still just as important if not even moreso compared to TVHM, and indeed it can even sometimes feel like the enemies have built up a stronger resistance to elemental damages which makes Slag even more important. But don't underestimate how big of a different badass ranks can make.

[dontu_worry]

Originally posted by CrowRising:

Originally posted by dontu_worry:

So, what about all the OP8 player who run without BAR on? BAR is far from the most important thing you will need in UVHM. You need to use cover, observe how enemies deliver, and take damage, match element types, hit crits, slagslagslag, have good gear, and play with your brain in gear. You will have to really get to know your build, approach, and what equipment and tactics work with or against them. You will have to problem solve your way past difficult stretches. This might mean simply taking a different path through an area, moving more slowly through the map, or a week or more of farming gear to take down a difficult raid boss. BAR helps. Don't belive for a second that that it is primary. Just wrong.

Take note that I mentioned the relation between TVHM and UVHM. I never once mentioned that you should disregard the skills you learned in NVHM and honed in TVHM in favor of Badass rank. I merely stressed the importance of it, as you will find rather quickly that without a proper stat boost most enemies will be nigh unkillable due to the weak DPS value of your attacks.

UVHM is meant to be the ultimate challange. It assumes that you have optimized your character to be as absolutely unstoppable as possible and also that you have built up enough knowledge and skill to tip otherwise impossible odds in your favor.

The reason why I put so much stress on badass ranks is because UVHM is the first time most players will actually start to need it. I'm not trying to stress it as a primary focus, but rather as a necessary progression tool. A preparation kind of thing more than the main element.

Even badass ranks won't save you in UVHM if you don't know what you are doing. Proper skill tree builds and gun loadouts and elemental knowledge and whatnot is still just as important if not even moreso compared to TVHM, and indeed it can even sometimes feel like the enemies have built up a stronger resistance to elemental damages which makes Slag even more important. But don't underestimate how big of a different badass ranks can make.

As I said, and is empirically true, many good players simply destroy at OP8 with no bar. You over stress it. I spent some time experimenting with a healthgate Axton that had around 2000 hp and BAR off, at OP8. Entirely survivable and functional with the right weapons and approach, which turned out to be too slow for impatient me. No BAR, no problem. The other factors, when in place, make BAR relatively unimportant. It is nice to have, though. By no means essential.

[Angry Squirl]

Knowlege >> BAR. Especially in UVHM. Especially in the OPs. Example: Saturn can be taken in one shot, by Zero (with Bore) or Maya (with chain reaction). Or you can turn on your 20% BAR (which is pretty good, if you got it honestly) and plink away with your corrosive pistol. Hope you brought some ammo.

[you're not thinking creatively]

I actually found my first playthrough by far the most challenging. Yes, UVHM is tough, but I have a much clearer idea of the game's mechanics, enemies' behaviour/weak points, different strategies. The first time was TOUGH! That's why powerlevelling makes little sense to me, and for similar reasons, hacking of BAR or gear - to play the game well you don't need hacks, but experience and clever (dare I say creative) thinking.

[Zen_Disaster]

Basically, NVHM, TVHM & UVHM are three difficulty levels of playing the same game. Others have discussed the differences between the three levels so the only thing I'll add is that in order to enjoy moving up from normal through true to ultimate, you also have to have the desire to play the same game three times and the patience to learn how to tweak your character's skill tree to optimal to play in ultimate.