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1. Want to assassinate the Ninja Turtles?

Early in the game, Patricia Tannis offers a side-quest called Splinter Group (geddit?), in which you have to assassinate a sewer dwelling quartet of colour-coded mutants. Naturally, you do this by bringing them pizza.

Once they fall, you'll find a room with a TV and a simple switch puzzle. Get all the lights to turn green and then activate the TV for one last surprise. Victory should net you a nice purple gun.

2. Donkey Mong is a barrel of laughs

Late in the game when you arrive in Eridium Blight, you'll be able to find a pretty cool Easter egg. In the south-west of the area is the creature known as Donkey Mong.

Much like Nintendo's ape, this guy is a hulking beast of a thing that loves nothing more than to lob barrels at you. He's also very rare, so keep an eye out. When you eventually topple him, he grants you an Achievement/Trophy, which we won't spoil for you, but it's awesome.

3. Caustic Caverns' (Mine)crafty secrets (Mild spoilers)

Part of the way through the main campaign, Sanctuary, the first hub town, takes to the skies. That's not the interesting bit though. What we're after is found in the Caustic Caverns located in the crater left behind. Near the bottom of this area are some familiar looking blocks of dirt that you can smash with melee attacks to open up a hidden cave. Inside, you'll find Minecraft's creepers and some nifty rewards.

4. Michael Mamaril

You may have heard of Michael Mamaril. He was a Borderlands fan who tragically passed away from cancer aged 22. Not content with the eulogy they recorded for him last November, Gearbox has immortalised him as a character in Borderlands 2. He can be found at random locations in Sanctuary, giving away free guns and an Achievement/Trophy.

5. The safest way into the Buzzard camp

In The Dust, you can access the Buzzard camp by driving up the massive rocky outcrop nearby and dropping in from above like the Mars Curiosity Rover. Don't use your boost though, or you'll end up overshooting and landing in an area swarming with enemies.

6. Hyperion's Energising Bane: Borderlands 2's greatest howler?

To get the Energising Bane, all you have to do is complete the "Bane" quest-line in Lynchwood. The gun itself is an SMG with impressive stats, but with great power comes great trollability. See for yourself, and remember that it ignores your SFX volume settings. Your enemies won't be the only ones in pain.

7. Cute Loot Achievement/Trophy

To unlock this Achievement/Trophy, you'll want to find and kill a rare "Chubby" monster, whose death will also net you some special loot.
To find one, fast travel to the Highlands and head through the tunnel on your left. If you're lucky, Chubby will be hanging around near Blake Bridge, but he only comes out infrequently and at night, so if he hasn't spawned, try again after completing a few missions.

8. Unlimited Eridium

Eridium is great. Not only does it augment elemental powers, it's also used as a currency to buy upgrades on the black market. If you're feeling like a bit of a cheat and want an infinite supply, head to Three Horns valley and go north to the hideout where you fight Bad Maw. Kill him and pick up the Eridium he drops. Go into the Bloodshot Stronghold, save and then quit. Go back to Three Horns Valley and exterminate Bad Maw once again. Repeat until you get bored, or Gearbox patch the game.

9. Obtain the Nova Shield and get easy Badass Points

We're irrationally fond of Nova damage, and it just so happens that there's a Level 9 shield that gives you all the Nova damage you could ever want. Simply complete Lilith's Firehawk missions (which begin in Sanctuary) and you get a shield that blasts out a fiery shockwave when depleted. The great thing is that the shockwave often ignites enemies, so if you get knocked down while they're flailing around, there's a good chance that they'll expire in time to trigger a second wind.
The other great thing about this shield is that, with enemies being incinerated left right and centre, your "Cowering Inferno" challenge will be maxed out in no time.

10. Rakkman Returns?

After you kill Laney during the Cold Shoulder quest, head inside her vault and follow the path deep inside until you get to a lift. This will take you up to The Rakk Cave, where the Narked Knight, Rakk Man himself waits. He poses a bit of a challenge, but he's no Bruce Wayne and should fall without too much effort. When he does, he drops the Gunnerang, a scoped gun that becomes a boomerang whenever you reload it.

11. Caustic Souls

Want to find the Dark Souls Easter egg? At the far east of Caustic Caverns is an acidic lake, and in that lake is a small island. Any Dark Souls fan hardy enough to brave the caustic conditions to get there (and if you are a true Dark Souls fan, that shouldn't be a problem) will find two nice little nods to From Software's opus. For non-Dark Souls fans, it's just two guys sitting near a campfire, but we know what it means.

12. Picard's Pizza Wisdom

To get the most out of this Easter egg you'll need a QR code scanner of some sort - probably your smartphone if you're all fancy. In the Southpaw Steam & Power area you will find one of Moxxi's pizza boxes on a table. The pizza box itself has a QR code on it, and if you give it a scan, you'll find a delicious, deep pan slice of Star Trek wisdom courtesy of one Jean Luc Picard:

"Wise man say, forgiveness is divine but never pay full price for late pizza. -Captain Picard"
Genius.