Starting up new characters in Borderlands 4 is not the experience that many players had been hoping for, as fans have expressed disappointment with the level-skip that freshly-started Vault Hunters can use if the player has already made it through the campaign with a different character. Some of these issues with Borderlands 4 are based on expectations that progression rewards were meant to be shared by every Vault Hunter on an account, and they're not happy to find that they're instead character-specific.
The first new mainline game in the looter-shooter franchise since 2019, Borderlands 4 was released worldwide between September 11 and September 12 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version set to arrive on October 3. Still less than a week after launch, it has received relatively strong reviews from professional critics, but it's struggling to garner the same support from the player community, largely due to widespread reports of performance issues.
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Many Borderlands 4 Players Want More Progression Carryover
While Borderlands 4 lets players skip to level 30 with any character after completing the campaign, many players are finding the lack of progression carryover between characters cumbersome, and it makes starting as a new Vault Hunter feel like a chore. This includes fog of war covering the previously revealed world map, severely under-leveled gear, and a lack of storage deck upgrades between characters. But probably the most discussed point is that specializations in Borderlands 4 are character specific, with some players interpreting some in-game text to mean that they should be shared across all Vault Hunters on the same account.
The Vault Hunters of Borderlands 4 come in four varieties. Amon is a powerful Forgeknight who excels in up-close combat, while Vex is generally at her best when standing back and commanding units at range. Harlowe and Rafa each provide their own unique brand of movement-heavy combat, with the former fitting well into a run-and-gun play style and the latter largely relying on a combination of turrets and lightning-quick melee action. While each character has their own set of skill trees, accommodating a wide variety of play styles, some players seem reluctant to try them all out without getting back everything they've earned with their first character.
Some fans have suggested some tweaks to Borderlands 4 that Gearbox could make to improve the experience of starting over again. These ideas involve opening up the map and all teleport points that have already been unlocked by other characters, as well as making specializations and storage deck upgrades shared among all Vault Hunters.
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
