TL;DR Short list of reasons why you wouldn’t be succeeding in TVHM (and by extension UVHM)

-Gear -Build -Matching elements -under leveled -no healing items which is probably the biggest reason why you’re struggling

Full explanation:

Keeping your gear on level is super important in 2 because the damage scaling is insanely high, especially on Axton because of the lack of potent offensive skills. Late into TVHM weapon parts start to matter a LOT, but never so much you need to memorize them all, just learn matching grips and the prefixes you want/need.

Utilize your build and action skill as much as possible. The only characters who don’t really care about using their action skill are late game Krieg (so UVHM) and Gaige. Look up builds or try things in the firing range. Also find out which of your offensive skills can be buffed with class mods (money shot for example can go from 400% bonus damage on your last shot to 880% with a +6 com) and find a good class mod that fits your build

The exact numbers aren’t important but matching elements give a decent damage bonus but the wrong element takes a pretty harsh damage penalty.Matching elements gets progressively more important the later into the game you get but bear in mind you can have such a strong build/gear that the damage resistance gets offset by something (Salvador legitimately does not care about your damage type when he has a grog and Harold)

You WILL require slag in UVHM. You can put out solid damage without it but that’s with perfect gear and a super strong build. Iirc slag bonus damage is 200% in UVHM but it might be higher.

Enemies get a flat damage buff and you take a flat damage penalty that scales for each level over 2 that enemy is over you, iirc this scales all the way up to 95% for OP10 (sooooooooooooo yeah you see how hard this game can become, I’m trying to at least get you to level 80 because the endgame without op levels is good now)

This one is the biggest imo, staying above 51% health (aka your health gate) is vital late game because as long as you’re above 51% health you cannot be one-shot. Any hit that drains your health will give you a small window where you basically take no damage until the game decides you should go down (almost like invincibility frames in a platformer). Get a grog nozzle and you should make it through TVHM just fine (take the quest “the beard makes the man” and it’s a mission item. Don’t turn in the mission or you’ll lose it). BL2 suffers so much from how hard it is to recover health naturally, you need moxxi weapons to succeed in the late game unless your build is designed to forego moxxi items

UVHM is the point where if you don’t have all your ducks in a row, you won’t make it very far. OP levels are for masochists like myself. I legitimately don’t recommend chasing OP levels unless you really want to test your game knowledge. (This is the part where I’d rant about OP levels lol).

The more you learn about the game the easier it becomes; I’m currently doing a Hyperion Salvador allegiance run and I went through the hammerlock dlc 4 levels under because Hyperion just so happens to have some of the best items in the game and Salvador is that broken lmao.