Summary
- Borderlands 4 is set to launch on September 23, 2025, with a shift to a more serious vibe and story.
- BL4 will continue to feature a massive variety of loot, with the possibility to incorporate dice-roll-based chests like those seen in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.
- Borderlands 4 could introduce dice chests in a variety of ways, offering a good mix of more traditional sources along with ones like TTW's.
After more about it was finally revealed in a few trailers throughout 2024, Borderlands 4 is now set to launch later this year, with its release date having just been announced at the recent PlayStation State of Play. Fans can now mark September 23 on their calendars for when they can jump into Borderlands 4 and experience what the next entry in Gearbox Software's long-running looter shooter franchise will bring to the table. Studio members have previously noted that BL4 will be departing from some of the series' established aspects, particularly in shifting to a more serious vibe and story, especially after BL3 was often thought to veer too far into meme-centric comedy and the like.
However, one core design tenet that Borderlands 4 will cling firmly to is the absolutely absurd amount of potential loot for fans to gather in the latest adventure. Borderlands has always strived to one-up itself in this area, and the upcoming installment promises to continue doing so. But along with the sheer numbers and types of loot, Borderlands 4 could look to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands for inspiration to put an interesting and rewarding twist on this in the form of the latter's dice rolling mechanic.
Borderlands 4 Should Shoot For The Moon After Over 10 Years
Borderlands 4 could and should bring back one long-forgotten feature to the series after a decade abscence from all subsequent entries.
Borderlands 4 Shouldn't Miss the Opportunity to Incorporate Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' Dice-Rolling Loot Mechanic
Rolling Dice for Loot in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Was One of its Best Components
With its roots in Borderlands 2's Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC, based on Bunkers & Badasses–the Borderlands world's version of Dungeons & Dragons–Tiny Tina's Wonderlands embraced the flair and appeal of a tabletop RPG while melding them with BL's recognizable sensibilities to great effect. One of the most fitting ways it did so was having players roll 20-sided dice to determine the quality of loot found in treasure chests. This was a natural fit for its framework, and incredibly effective at creating tension and thrills whenever players came upon a new trove.
Additionally, players could discover Lucky Dice throughout TTW's maps, permanently increasing the associated luck stat and thus the chances of coveted epic and legendary gear popping out of each chest they rolled for. It made for an intrinsically appealing and satisfying loop, complementing the central loot system, and is an idea that Borderlands 4 could adopt as well.
A Tiny Tina's Wonderlands sequel was allegedly canceled by Gearbox, though the developer did not officially comment on it.
How Borderlands 4 Could Incorporate Dice-Rolling for Loot
With Borderlands 4 taking a turn into darker territory and moving away from some of the prior tones, the fourth entry looks to be substantially shaking some things up. Along with the part its new antagonist, The Timekeeper, will play, another question is how Borderlands' arms dealers might factor in. Traditionally, manufacturers like Maliwan and others were present in the story to some degree, and this could be an avenue for BL4 to feature a dice rolling mechanic similar to Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.
The Timekeeper is implied to have reality-warping powers, and this could lead to a version of the universe wherein the various corporations have introduced something like "dice-locked" chests, resembling those from Tiny Tina's Wonderlands but with the aesthetics to match the respective companies and Borderlands 4's new vision. Even if not every loot chest's reward is based on dice rolls, The Timekeeper's influence and meddling might result in certain regions having them or limiting the mechanic only to special chests, which would provide a good balance between traditional loot sources and specific dice-based ones like those in TTW.
Though the information about Borderlands 4 so far contains no hints of having loot decided by dice-rolls, another option would be to add this in a post-launch update or major expansion. Perhaps what would be most embraced by fans is another Assault on Dragon Keep-styled DLC that reintroduces it, serving as a kind of followup to both it and TTW. The dice-rolling mechanic was a fun inclusion that gave one of Borderlands' staple elements an excellent spin, and it would be great if Gearbox considered bringing it back for BL4 in some way.
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
