Difficulty settings?

Yeah, I knew that already. But I was hoping there was a specific setting I was missing. I own all the DLCs. Moxxie's Arena may not have much in the way of adventure, but at least it has a "home base" feel to it, for instance.

Thanks, that was helpful. I do have 2 characters in Playthrough 2, Jenny Jett and Leroy Biggs (Siren & Soldier, respectively). I've been playing through the 2nd go 'round today with Leroy. The last mission I did was the trio of skag deathmatches, but it wasn't any real challenge between his Malevolent Stinger (firing a solid stream of spiralling, reflecting shots at 16-something fire rate with 100+ damage) and then when the big boys come out, dropping my kicked-up Scorpio off to make mincemeat out of them.

The hardest part was getting the guy to award me with something useful. I kept quitting out to the Dashboard over and over each time he presented me with crap, til finally I decided to just take whatever he gave that had at least $20K value. This is an ongoing problem with every quest that awards a random item, for the entire game.

In any case, this all doesn't help my characters who're still in the 1st playthrough. Its them I was really seeking help for.

As for fighting bosses in different ways, I went after the final boss (Destructor?) with a shrimp fork and Thai calamari sauce. MMM-MMM! The only problem was finding a deep fat frier big enough...

Yeah, I have no idea why this SMG fires like that, because neither its prefix Malevolent or name Stinger are said to do the spiral or reflecting effect, on the Wiki site, unlike if it had the prefix Twisted.

Whenever there's any kind of item reward from a quest, even a set one (except the ones set in stone that always result in exactly the same thing), I always keep trying for a better version. I was two-player playing with my friend and got T.K.'s Wave, and he got a 'regular one;' what I thougt they all were. But I got one with 30x9 (possibly x7) damage! It also only has a 2 shot magazine, but man, that damage for such a low-level quest. VERY nice! And that one I didn't even try for.

Yesterday afternoon, in trying and trying again for a decent shield from Shep for the Braking Wind quest, finally resulted in my friend getting a high capacity, decent recharge rate one, with +60% Health Boost! I personally prefer Panacea shields, ideally, and the very next try I made, I got one that was a little better than the one I'd been using. (Wee Wee's Super Booster is always my dream shield)

In fact, I'm surprised the Wee Wee is the only shield of its type, i.e. that does more than a set effect. I would think there would be many more shields, like protective against more than one element for instance, or perhaps protecting against the same element that it bursts/waves/novas with when it drops to zero.

In any case, patience has paid off for me indirectly at times. Like tonight I never did get a shield or sniper rifle I wanted (with a different character) from the appropriate quests, but from milling about to try and make the use of my time better, I found some other niceties, like a decent rocket launcher from a machine, as well as a great x3 explosive revolver from another. Oddly enough, Claptrap didn't send me the message intro'ing Explosive weapons until later I found an explosive repeater in a trunk... though that was maybe because I was in Headstone Mine when I found the revolver, and back in the Arid Badlands when I found the repeater.

OK, long enough message. My point is that patience has its rewards, at the very least for selling an item worth 1000 versus 100.

Damn. Now I'm jonesing for this great calamari dish served by this restaurant named Thai Pan here in Denver. Mmm, -perfect- crispy crunchy and yummy sauce. But I gotta wait til Wednesday when I'll be in that part of town. *sigh*