Gun Farming (Fibber) Question

[Wolfboi3]

Ok, so I've played a bit of BL2. About 300 hours. Recently, my siren, who was about lvl 30 at the time, picked up a gun called a Dynamic Fibber. It's a reward from the Real Boy(?) mission in Eridium Blight from the robot who wants to be human. This gun has completely changed my life. Up until this time, my siren was using a sniper build. However, I quickly found that this little pistol does so much more damage that it's not even comparable. Interestingly, Borderlands Wiki, which is my go-to site for info, doesn't even list this variant.

To give a little insight. My main character was a sniper. At about lvl 34 or so he did Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. That was some really difficult stuff. Everything had tons of hp, the skells and orcs had weird head bobs that would throw off my sites, everything hit hard, etc etc. Suffice it to say I died a lot. In comparison, I just took my siren, at 32, to the Unassuming Docks. She's now nearly finished with the DLC, and it's practically been a cakewalk. This pistol just tears up everything. Giant orcs? Dead in a couple shots. Iron Golem? Pffft. Please. Four or five shots and they are a broken mass on the ground. Dragons? Not a problem. Where would you like me to put the bodies? In short, the gun has changed everything.

So here's my issue. Siren is 36 now. Gun is still like 29 or 30. Going to still be good for awhile, but eventually it's effectiveness is going to fade, so I want another. I know I'll get a chance for another by doing the mission in TVHM, and again in UVHM, but those events are far off in the future, and what if it doesn't drop? So my question is, is there another way to get this weapon? Does it drop only from that mission? In doing research, I saw someone reference farming these, but I don't even know how that would work. I mean, you can't do the mission again, can you? Plus, I'd like one for my other players. I imagine Sal gunzerking with 2 of these and I go all weak in the knees.

So, any advice? Hell, I don't even mind cheating. Well, I do, in a general sense. I mean, I'd never make myself invulnerable or something. That's just boring, but giving myself a weapon that already exists... I'd be ok with that.

On a slightly off subject note, anyone have any advice for a siren build which would best support this type of new play?

[Waste_of_skin]

The only place in the game to get the Fibber is that mission reward, and you can only do the mission once per mode and character. You said "... what if it doesn't drop?". The mission reward is always a Fibber, so you will definitely get one, but there are 3 basic types, and they all work quite differently. You mentioned that the Wiki didn't list your type. I assume you meant the "Dynamic" part. That's relatively unimportant, as far as the Fibber goes. Dynamic is just a standard Hyperion prefix (it probably means the gun has a slightly higher fire rate). The important thing with the Fibber is the barrel. That determines which type you get. You can read about that on the Wiki page.

As for farming it, there are at least a few ways to farm mission rewards.

One is to get the reward, and if you don't want it, use Alt-F4 (assuming that you're using a PC) to kill the game before it saves your progress, so that you can turn in the mission again. Restart the game and turn in the mission again, Alt-F4 if you don't want it, and keep doing that until you get a reward that you want to keep. I'm pretty sure that will work, although it may be tricky with the Fibber, because I think there may be a save point right near Mal. If so, you might trigger a save before you can kill the game.

Another method is to make a copy of your character save file when you're ready to turn in the mission. Turn in the mission and get the reward. Put it in the Stash if you want to keep it. Then exit the game, replace the save file with the backup copy, restart the game and turn in the mission again to get another reward.

My personal choice is to make the character save file read-only. Get to the point where you're ready to turn in the mission. Exit the game and make the save file read-only, so that your mission progress can't be saved. Restart the game and turn in the mission. Put the reward in the Stash if you want to keep it, then exit to the menu. Reselect your character, Continue and turn in the mission again. You have to reselect your character from the menu. If you just use Continue, the game remembers that you already turned in the mission. When you're done, exit the game and remove the read-only flag from your save file. Keep in mind that as long as the save file is read-only, no character information can be saved. For example, if you happen to find an item you want to keep, you need to put that in the Stash. If you pick up any money or Eridium, it won't count, because it can't be added to the save file.

[z00t]

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Ah. There wasn't a reply when I wrote this, Waste_of_skin has it covered.

--------- original -----------

The fibber is always the reward for that particular mission. And it is only from that mission. Once per character and playthrough.

I love the little beast. Fibber + bee shield can take down bosses very quickly.

There is a way of sort of farming them. It involves making copies of your game save files and using the claptrap secret stash.

Not tried this, but it apparently works.
Make a copy of your character game file, before you complete the mission.
Do the mission, get the gun. Go straight to Sanctuary, and stash it in claptrap's secret stash.
Exit the game.
Delete the current game save file, replace with the copy
and you are now in a state to be able to do this all over again.

I suspect this works because the stash location must be saved in a different place to the character save files.

This may well work with other missions - Oops! for the Sandhawk is another likely candidate.

There are some versions of the fibber that are just not that usable. Some that are very usable indeed.

Regarding builds - there are Ancient relics that would help - I have one that gives me +38% pistol damage. Fibber + Bee + relic is very, very effective. :)
(Farm the loot midgets in the Wildlife exploitation reserve - they are the only source of Ancient Relics)

I play as Legendary Cat most of the time. But Legendary Siren and Binder on occasion.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Waste_of_skin:

My personal choice is to make the character save file read-only. Get to the point where you're ready to turn in the mission. Exit the game and make the save file read-only, so that your mission progress can't be saved. Restart the game and turn in the mission. Put the reward in the Stash if you want to keep it, then exit to the menu. Reselect your character, Continue and turn in the mission again. You have to reselect your character from the menu. If you just use Continue, the game remembers that you already turned in the mission. When you're done, exit the game and remove the read-only flag from your save file. Keep in mind that as long as the save file is read-only, no character information can be saved. For example, if you happen to find an item you want to keep, you need to put that in the Stash. If you pick up any money or Eridium, it won't count, because it can't be added to the save file.

Is this how people get multiple Sandhawks in different varieties? Also, i'm not to computer savy so how specifically does one do the read-only method (i'm gonna remember this for the future)?

[z00t]

Originally posted by -EAT3N-:

Is this how people get multiple Sandhawks in different varieties? Also, i'm not to computer savy so how specifically does one do the read-only method (i'm gonna remember this for the future)?

Assuming you are on a PC, not Mac or console.

Once you have found the save file, right click and look at the properties.
Right at the bottom of the dialog box is the Attributes section.
Select the read only option,
Done.

The save file is in My Documents / My Games / Borderlands2 / WillowGame / SaveData / <long number>

For each character, there will be a save file e.g. Save0001.sav, Save0002.sav and so on. They are numbered in the order you created the character.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by z00t:

Originally posted by -EAT3N-:

Is this how people get multiple Sandhawks in different varieties? Also, i'm not to computer savy so how specifically does one do the read-only method (i'm gonna remember this for the future)?

Assuming you are on a PC, not Mac or console.

Once you have found the save file, right click and look at the properties.
Right at the bottom of the dialog box is the Attributes section.
Select the read only option,
Done.

The save file is in My Documents / My Games / Borderlands2 / WillowGame / SaveData / <long number>

For each character, there will be a save file e.g. Save0001.sav, Save0002.sav and so on. They are numbered in the order you created the character.

Ok thanks! So how do i determine which save is which if i can't remember the order i created them?

[Waste_of_skin]

Originally posted by z00t:

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Ah. There wasn't a reply when I wrote this, Waste_of_skin has it covered.

Heh heh. That happens sometimes with long replies like those. When I finally hit "Post", I was wondering if I'd find that someone else had beaten me to it. :-)

Originally posted by -EAT3N-:

Is this how people get multiple Sandhawks in different varieties? Also, i'm not to computer savy so how specifically does one do the read-only method (i'm gonna remember this for the future)?

That is one way. They could also get some from other players. Or, there is a save file editor out there called Gibbed that you can use to just add an item to a character's backpack/bank, and no doubt plenty of people have used that to create whatever they wanted.

z00t covered how to make a file read-only. If you have more than one character, the only real "trick" is making sure you get the right save file. There are various ways you can do that. For example, before you make the save file read-only, load the character in the game, then exit the game and check the modified date and time on the save files. The file that was just modified is the character you just loaded. Or, after you make a save file read-only, load the character and travel to another map. Then exit to the menu, reselect the character and Continue. If the save file is read-only, you will be back in the map you were in before, not the one you just traveled to. I'll do that sometimes, to make sure the save file is read-only.

[Waste_of_skin]

Originally posted by -EAT3N-:

Ok thanks! So how do i determine which save is which if i can't remember the order i created them?

I covered some options in my last post (which I wrote while you were posting that :-).

If you're not comfortable with those options, you can d/l the Gibbed save file editor (you shouldn't have any problem finding it with an online search). Gibbed won't actually make any changes to your save file until you tell it to "save", so you can use it to open a save file and check the class/name/etc. to see if that's the right save file.

[Eat3n]

Originally posted by Waste_of_skin:

Originally posted by z00t:

---------- edit -------------

Ah. There wasn't a reply when I wrote this, Waste_of_skin has it covered.

Heh heh. That happens sometimes with long replies like those. When I finally hit "Post", I was wondering if I'd find that someone else had beaten me to it. :-)

Originally posted by -EAT3N-:

Is this how people get multiple Sandhawks in different varieties? Also, i'm not to computer savy so how specifically does one do the read-only method (i'm gonna remember this for the future)?

That is one way. They could also get some from other players. Or, there is a save file editor out there called Gibbed that you can use to just add an item to a character's backpack/bank, and no doubt plenty of people have used that to create whatever they wanted.

z00t covered how to make a file read-only. If you have more than one character, the only real "trick" is making sure you get the right save file. There are various ways you can do that. For example, before you make the save file read-only, load the character in the game, then exit the game and check the modified date and time on the save files. The file that was just modified is the character you just loaded. Or, after you make a save file read-only, load the character and travel to another map. Then exit to the menu, reselect the character and Continue. If the save file is read-only, you will be back in the map you were in before, not the one you just traveled to. I'll do that sometimes, to make sure the save file is read-only.

Gotcha! Thanks.

I have looked at Gibbed but i've heard mixed reviews on it. It's not that big of deal. I've yet to have any problems with the current set ups and weapons i've used whilen not having the specific weapons people often recommend. Example: I've beaten Pete plenty of times without the Electric Sand Hawk.

[Waste_of_skin]

I don't recall ever hearing about any problems, like corrupted save files, from using Gibbed. And, like any tool, it's all in how you use it. I pretty much just use it to check something in a save file (eg. an item that a character is carrying) without having to start the game and load the character. I don't use it to create or edit items. Actually, I don't normally use it to change anything, although I have played around with a couple things at times.

[OxF]

Can someone show me a picture of the map of where to find Mal?

[z00t]

Originally posted by Festive Gibus:

Can someone show me a picture of the map of where to find Mal?

Have a look on the map. There will be an exclamation point that is not the bounty board. There you will find Mal.