A serious bug has been discovered in Gearbox's latest looter shooter, Borderlands 4, that's causing some players major setbacks. Borderlands 4 just recently released last week, and despite the sour taste of the preceding mainline entry, 2019's Borderlands 3, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford's numerous inflammatory comments in the months leading up to release, the game seems to be a big hit with critics and gamers alike, with some even calling it the best in the franchise.
Borderlands 4 offers four playable vault hunters, each with their own distinct abilities and related skill trees. Harlowe is the engineer, Rafa is the ninja-like exosoldier, Amon is the big, hard-hitting bruiser type, and Vex is Borderlands 4's siren, a dangerous witch who can summon doubles of herself or her pet Trouble on the battlefield. Each one of these Vault Hunters has three abilities to choose from, each with their own skill trees to invest in. It's here where players ultimately define their builds with a number of available Kill Skills, attunements, and more that can all synergize to allow players to tear up their foes with ease.
Borderlands 4 Skill Trees Are Bigger, But That Doesn't Necessarily Mean Better
Borderlands 4 is going to have more unlockable skills than any other game in the series, but that isn't necessarily a good thing.
Borderlands 4 Bug is Wiping Players' Skill Points
It seems some players have been running into a big problem having to do with disappearing skill points in Borderlands 4. TheRealSoyKRob sounded the alarm on Reddit, mentioning how after reaching level 10 and logging off, they returned to the game to find that all their invested skill points have mysteriously vanished from the skill tree, voiding all the build progress they've made so far. All their Storage Deck Upgrades have been wiped as well, and others underneath the post mention that leveling up or respecing their Vault Hunters doesn't return the lost skill points.
The running theory so far is that the bug might have something to do with online co-op, as many Borderlands 4 players under TheRealSoyKRob's post have mentioned that the issue occurred after ending a multiplayer session and rejoining. There are no current workarounds or tricks players can utilize to get their points back as a band-aid solution, but there is a way to prevent the problem if one boots up Borderlands 4 and notices missing skill points. It seems that hitting Alt+4 as soon as possible upon noticing the bug instead of quitting the game will ensure that the skill points will be there when booting the game back up. Gearbox does seem to be aware of the issue, as a post has been made about the bug on Borderlands Support, but whether the expected fix will be able to return lost points will remain to be seen.
Losing all of one's skill points and having skill tree progress wiped clean can be absolutely devastating, especially for players who've invested a ton of time into Borderlands 4 already. This is arguably one of the most pressing issues a game like Borderlands 4 could have, so it would be fair to expect the fix to come as part of the game's next patch or update, which should be on its way at some point soon.
Borderlands 4
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
