Borderlands 2 glitch erases Badass Rank, locks out completed challenges

A number of players are reporting a Borderlands 2 glitch that wipes out their hard earned Badass Rank. Gearbox says its investigating.

One of the many marvelously user-friendly features in Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 is the Badass Rank. Slowly unlocked perks separate from your character’s level and skillset, the Badass Rank is an elegant version of the New Game+. Borderlands 2 is a lengthy, involved game, but you’re going to want to start new characters depending on who you’re playing with, and the Badass Rank ties to any character you create, giving you a base level of improving stats that make revisiting the game from different angles accessible without making it too easy and boring. Smart stuff. Too bad there’s a bug in the game that will wipe out your Badass Rank.

A number of users in Gearbox’s official forums have reported a problem where their Badass Rank is set back to zero and all the associated bonuses, including the stat boosts and unlocked character customization options, are wiped away. Compounding the problem is the fact that the challenges that raise the Badass Rank (e.g. shoot this many enemies, collect this many guns, etc.) aren’t reset alongside the rank itself so affected players can’t simply rebuild what’s been lost.

While the initial report about the problem was from a player on the Xbox 360 version, others playing the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of the game have also reported the same problem.

Gearbox community manager Chris Faylor said that the studio is working fast to fix the problem. “Our engineers are looking into this, and the information you’ve provided has proven to be a great resource while we investigate,” said Faylor, “At the moment, it seems to be a fairly rare issue and we’ll keep you updated on when we resolve it.”

The original Borderlands was no stranger to glitches like this when it released in 2009. At least the Borderlands 2 glitch only erases the Badass Rank and its associated perks. The Borderlands glitch erased everything. When players would leave a multiplayer game on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC they would lose all their weapons proficiencies and skill points, and though the proficiencies could be rebuilt, the skill points were erased forever meaning that they needed to restart the entire game.

Gearbox fixed that problem eventually though, and this new glitch will definitely be addressed. Players affected by the Borderlands 2 glitch should take comfort in the fact that their lost Badass Rank might even be salvageable since the challenges that earn the rank aren’t reset.