The anticipated fourth installment to Gearbox's epic, chaotic looter-shooter finally draws new, bringing with it waves of exciting details and reveals. While a few revelations — like Borderlands 4's seemingly steep price — have brought mixed feelings, the reactions have been largely positive among Borderlands 4 fandom.
9 Things Borderlands 4 Should Avoid
Everyone's excited about the upcoming release of Borderlands 4 but Gearbox needs to avoid making these mistakes.
It's understandable, given the many intriguing details — from the huge, vibrant world of Kairos and its tyrannical ruler, to the diverse weapon system of company-specific parts (and all-new manufacturers). Given its refinements, additions, and creative new twists on the formula, Borderlands 4 looks poised to be the coolest, most memorable Vault-hunting journey yet — with the following confirmed details taking center stage.
11 Kairos: The Epic New Planetary Setting
Ruled By The Timekeeper And His Synthetic Minions
This fourth mainline BL game should take things even further in the direction of Borderlands 3 in some ways, while honing its focus back on a single planet a la Pandora — albeit a huge, diverse one — for the crux of its setting. It takes place on the vibrant planet of Kairos, which is revealed following the teleportation of Elpis into its orbit.
With this unveiling comes the emergence of a new ominous villain known as the Timekeeper. This planet will feature a handful of seamless (no loading) "mega zones", which will likely have smaller sub-regions. These lands will add vertical depth, and hold a dynamic weather system that should make the world come to life.
10 Bosses Are Larger And More Dynamic Than Ever
...And Easier To Return To
Based on the footage given thus far, it seems the game's bosses will be larger and more detailed than ever, with various phases, unique weak points, and elements that encourage teaming up.
Borderlands 3: 18 Best Legendary Farming Locations
Farming legendaries can be a bit of a grind, but these go-to locations will make your quests a lot easier.
While it looks as though boss fights will be more drawn-out, Gearbox will bring a new feature to balance this out a bit — allowing players to quickly and easily pull up a completed boss fight at will. With a feature known as Moxxi's Encore Machine, gamers can replay bosses without needing to travel great distances or reload saves, making boss farming simpler and more effective.
Players will reportedly be able to pull up completed story missions and replay them in the same manner.
9 A Darker, More Serious Tone
...Though Subtle Comedy Will Remain
It's true that one of Borderlands' most distinctly charming traits is its knack for zany, off-the-wall humor, which arguably peaked in the second mainline entry. And while Borderlands 4 looks to maintain a certain level of silly comedy (Claptrap is coming back, after all), this title will look to take a darker, more serious tone throughout.
Gearbox has specifically noted that the "toilet humor" and meme cultural bits in particular will be stripped back. Instead, the humor that is present will seemingly be more nuanced.
8 A (Relatively) Steeper Price
Will Fans Find It Worth The Apparent Higher Price Tag?
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford recently ruffled some feathers following a comment about "real fans" being able to find a way to purchase this appealing new BL game, which is heavily implied to cost a minimum of $70, if not $80.
While he's since clarified to present a somewhat softer, more reasonable stance, the notion that Borderlands 4 likely brings a fairly steep asking price has caused many to shift from cautious optimism to skepticism and hesitancy in regard to investing in this sequel.
7 Revamped Navigation System
Convoluted Mini-Maps Are Out, Streamlined Navigation Is In
The minimap feature in prior Borderlands games brought mixed results — aiding in traversal while often adding to the confusion in the multi-layered locales of BL3. With the sequel, Gearbox seems to recognize the increasingly convoluted mechanic, tossing it out in favor of a simpler compass akin to the debut BL.
Supplementing this is a new Dahl robot companion named Echo-4. This droid will help players find their footing in this massive world, laying down waypoint pathways, and even aiding in collecting quest rewards.
6 New And Refined Movement Abilities
Adding More Depth And Potential To Environmental Traversal
It's true that the BL series is rife with endlessly fun, thrilling gunplay — though it has arguably lacked when it comes to environment depth and interaction. This won't be the case any longer, as Gearbox will fill out Kairos with more dynamic land formations, structures, and verticality as a whole.
6 Villains That Should Return In Borderlands 4
These characters from Borderlands games past should make another appearance in the upcoming installment.
Combined with new mechanics such as wall climbing, gliding, and grappling, this new shooter should invoke vibes akin to action and exploration-based (and even a bit of platforming) romps. To make this even more streamlined, there will also be no fall damage.
5 Streamlined Co-Op
Greater Multiplayer Focus And QoL
Among the most appealing aspects of Borderlands is its highly-fun co-op gameplay, and this sequel looks to further expand upon this. Players can drop in and out at any point, scale the difficulty according to their skill and level when fighting the same foes, get separate loot allocations, and can fast-travel to one-another.
Two-player split-screen returns here, as well as four-player online co-op.
4 Loot, Combat, and Weaponry Changes
...Especially Grenades And Heavy Arms
Loot and weaponry systems are getting at least partially revamped for BL4. Legendary and rarer drop frequencies are being dialed way back, granting a more rewarding feeling when obtaining them — and likely producing more potent Legendaries in the process.
Grenades and heavier artillery will be held in a separate slot, and require cooldowns to avoid spamming. Additionally, there's a new syringe or stimpack feature which grants health boosts — and elemental buffs down the line.
...And Three New Gun Manufacturers
In addition to fan-favorite brands like Jakobs and Torgue, a few new brands are hitting the scene as well! These include the gritty, Bandit-style Ripper, versatile Daedalus, and energy-weapon Order.
7 Characters Who Should Not Return In Borderlands 4
With the much-anticipated release of Borderlands 4 coming soon, what existing characters should not return for the sequel?
Players can obtain weapons with separate manufacturer parts, yielding strengths of multiple brands (like an explosive gun that's also fast-firing Jakobs-style). A new, more unified system of brand-specific "Enhancements" will replace Anointments, Artifacts, and Relics from prior games.
3 Elaborate Vault Dungeons
Vault Dungeon Crawling?
Details remain hazy as of this writing, but Gearbox has noted that the Vault system will be overhauled and fleshed out in BL4. Based on the recent gameplay footage, players will be tasked with collecting Vault Fragments, which should serve as quest items and/or keys for unlocking Vaults to plunder.
The Vaults themselves are also reportedly getting a makeover, now serving as expansive dungeons with various goodies, rather than a single large room.
2 A Slew Of Distinct New Vault Hunters
With Larger Skill Trees, And Distinct (Yet Some Familiar) Traits
Along with the return of staple characters like Zane, Moxxi, and Amara, Gearbox is bringing a handful of all-new Vault Hunters — each of which yields a few deep skill trees with active and passive buffs/abilities, and class-specific strengths/weaknesses.
The new heroes are: Vex the Siren, Amon the Forgeknight, Harlowe the Gravitar, and Rafa the Exo-Soldier. While the Siren class is recognizable to fans, the other three look to be more distinct — though the Exo-Soldier appears similar to the Operative/Commando.