One Punch is a unique enemy in Borderlands 3. He can be found in the subway of Lectra City. In order to spawn him, Vault Hunters are required to solve a puzzle.
Appearances
Strategy
Before the Vault Hunters can fight One Punch a puzzle must be solved to get him to spawn. To do this, five screens that can be seen on the wall ahead of the puzzle must be switched on. A method that works best is to hit the floor handle twice, then spin the valve on the wall next to it.
As for the fight with One Punch, he can be quite a difficult foe to deal with due to his ability to one-hit kill the Vault Hunters regardless of their level. The best way of defeating him is to burst him down as quickly as possible. Though his head is a critical hit spot, it is hard to actually hit his head because of his movement pattern. One Punch never wears a shield so the most effective weapons are incendiary weapons. A flamethrower like the Long Musket can be one of the best choices because it wears him down quickly and it is easy to aim at him as flamethrowers deal indirect damage.
High damage weapons with bullet ricochets such as the Conference Call, Hyperfocus XZ41, Juliet's Dazzle, or Wagon Wheel are very useful in the tight hallway he enters since most ricocheted bullets will hit him again. Weapons and grenades which focus multiple splash explosions in a small area such as the Devastator, Roisen's Thorns, and recurring or cloning maddening grenades could be very useful as well as all explosions are likely to hit.
Amara
Amara is able to cause enough damage with a shotgun headshot or Tediore SMG / pistol reload to stagger him for very short periods, which helps delay his getting to the other end of the hall. He has to be fought from inside the switch room for the purposes of keeping Tediore MIRV spam from getting away from him. With an incendiary shotgun, it is likely he would be unable to reach the room fast enough to hit her if she has invested points in either Fist of the Elements' elemental damage or Mystical Assault's gun damage skills.
FL4K
FL4K may be able to use their pet as a temporary distraction while they land high damage critical shots. Since they specialize in focused damage they should have few problems with this fight.
Moze
Moze is possibly the easiest to fight with here. By using the Railgun action skill, she can kill One Punch almost immediately if he is shot in the head as soon as he appears. If the shot misses, there is enough time to recharge the railgun before he reaches the end of the hall.
Auto Bear can also be used to position Iron Bear to be facing the doorway of the small cage with the levers and have Moze stand behind it. Auto Bear will aim for One Punch's head and will use the railgun immediately after it has recharged.
Zane
With Zane, using the clone at the entrance to the hallway One Punch emerges from seems to be very effective; On mayhem mode 2, One Punch is unable to kill the clone in a single hit, but attacks it first, so it provides a useful distraction. Zane's Infiltrator class mod which provides a 20% weapon damage and speed increase could be useful here. Using the Double Barrel skill to give the clone a copy of the Conference Call or similar allows damage output from reflected bullets to rapidly drain his health before he is able to hit the clone a second time.
Notes
- His mechanic to one hit the Vault Hunters can be bypassed by using an artifact that renders the wearer short time invulnerable when falling to 50% hp. In singleplayer, the cooldown of such Artifacts can be bypassed by removing and equipping them again.
- One Punch may drop these items at the following chances:
- One Pump Chump Shotgun (15%)
- Sleeping Giant SMG (15%)
- One Punch is a reference to Saitama, the protagonist of the anime One-Punch Man.
- Unlike other unique enemies, One Punch does not scale to the Vault Hunter's level.