Borderlands 3’s lukewarm reception has prompted Gearbox Entertainment’s return to form; Borderlands 4 is set to significantly shake up the iconic looter shooter series. New Vault Hunters, a new planet, and a new overarching nemesis provide narrative propulsion, with numerous gameplay modifications, everything from expanded movesets to weapons customisation, ensure Borderlands 4 is an upgrade on its predecessor.
New Vault Hunters
In our ‘10 Key Details Revealed So Far’ feature, we outlined two of Borderlands 4’s new Vault Hunters – Vex the Siren, and Rafa the Eco-Soldier. Since that feature was published, Gearbox Entertainment have shared details of the fourquel’s two other debuting Vault Hunters – Harlowe the Gravitar, and Amon the Foreknight. The former, Harlowe, is a combat scientist who brings tech and gadgetry to the battlefield. Her intellectual expertise shines, as does her consistently upbeat persona. Amon is a battle-hardened survivor and despite his gruff exterior, Amon is thoughtful and introverted; unflinching to duty, and dedicated to hunting down as many beasts as he can.
Harlowe’s unique skills
Harlowe the Gravitar possesses telekinesis-like powers, with the ability to hoist enemies into the air before slamming them into the ground. Additionally, as her telekinetic skill develops she’ll learn to capture multiple enemies at once, providing an awestriking way to deal with crowds. In her unique arsenal is the Flux Generator and Chroma Accelerator, a pulse mine with a wide radius and a chargeable, forward-blasting explosive. Both of these projectiles will afflict enemies with ‘Entanglement’, causing damage dealt to spread from one enemy to all enemies caught in Harlowe’s ‘Entangled’ web.
Amon’s unique skills
Amon’s Forgeskill adapts based on which of his three action skills – Onslaught, Scourge, or Crucible – is equipped. With Onslaught, his Forgefist overloads, providing constant shield regeneration whilst unleashing Molten Slam, a devastating Molten Forgehammer dealing incendiary melee damage. Scourge arms Amon with a Forgeshield which absorbs all frontal damage alongside an additional Firewall skill which blocks enemy projectiles. Double-Edge is Amon’s Crucible action skill; a throwable Forgeaxe inflicting elemental Melee Damage.
New planet: Kairos
Much has been made of Borderlands 4’s new planetary playground Kairos as it is purportedly the biggest universe Gearbox have ever created. Eschewing previous Borderlands titles’ ‘hub-and-spoke’ world design for openness, Kairos’ variation comes in the shape of four distinct biomes. Fadefields are the verdant pastures we’ve seen in gameplay previews; Cardcadia Burn is an arid, sun-scorched wasteland, deserts pockmarked by jagged mesas and deep canyons. Terminus Range hides ancient secrets, its windblown mountain passes and blinding snowstorms as hostile as the enemies stalking within. Dominion is a towering reminder of the Timekeeper’s power (more on them later). Its capital city is a miasma of opulence and oppression, its citizens desperate for liberation.
Expanded traversal
Supporting Borderlands 4’s new-found openness is significant expansion to on-foot traversal, with movement encompassing double jumps, gliding, grapple hooks, and swimming. This broader moveset offers Borderlands 4 players more dynamic freedom for exploration and combat when compared to Borderlands 3. Gearbox extends 4’s open world design to the microcosm too; individual battle arenas can be approached from multiple directions, thus gliding and grapple hooks’ freewheeling verticality become integral to getting the jump on enemies.
New vehicle summoning
When the insatiable desire to explore further afield presents itself, Borderlands 4 offers a new, jet-boosted vehicle summoning feature: the Digirunner is both personal hover-taxi and mobile turret armed with a front-loaded cannon. With an ability to be summoned from almost anywhere, the Digirunner also provides ample opportunity for customisation via unlockable Hover Drives which can tailor everything from the vehicle’s visual aesthetic, to handling and firepower.
The deepest skill tree
Borderlands 4 is set to feature the deepest, most diverse, and most expansive skill trees of any Borderlands title so far. Each Vault Hunter has access to three skill trees, each of which with wide trunks containing core skills and abilities, with a further three branches stemming into Hunter-specific traits. The variety of Action Skills, Augments, and Capstones – Borderlands 4’s most powerful skills, of which only one can be equipped at a time – is staggering, with the potential for synergies for both single and co-operative play at the forefront of Gearbox’s mind.
The Timekeeper
We mentioned him earlier, but Borderlands 4’s new overarching antagonist is the Timekeeper, a dictator who rules over Kairos. He uses his cybernetic implants to oppressively control the synthetic soldiers of the Order faction as well as to watch over the unfortunate denizens of Dominion City. Despite the Timekeeper’s mention in Borderlands 3 as a Vault Monster, details are largely under wraps. However, a circulating theory is that the Timekeeper possesses time manipulation powers although, obviously, the clue’s in the name.
Points of interest
Throughout Kairos’ open world there’re points of interest which can be claimed in the name of the Crimson Resistance – the rebellious force fighting against the Timekeeper’s tyrannical reign. The points of interest include silos, offering ziplining and mid-air vehicle summoning, reclaiming safe houses which yield fast travel locations, fortresses to take, and lost loot machines to collect – all tasks weakening the Timekeeper’s grip.
Other (new) side activities
Numerous other new side activities present themselves in Borderlands 4. One such is Crawlers which function as puzzles whereby players must figure out how to deliver batteries into designated slots. Dynamic open world events, such as returning Rift Champions with high value loot drops, and air raid ships provide random challenges and handsome rewards.
New weapon manufacturers
Borderlands 4 has three new weapons manufacturers – Order, Ripper, and Daedalus. Order are the surgically accurate, high-tech weaponry of the Timekeeper’s army; Ripper guns need a moment to rotate momentum before unloading magazines at full auto; Daedalus are reliable, easy to use, and quick to reload, their arsenal covering the whole range from burst-fire pistols, to shotguns and SMGs – each able to use multiple ammo types.
Licensed Parts System
A brand new mechanic for Borderlands 4 is the Licensed Parts System, whereby weapons spawn, and can be modified, with components from multiple manufacturers. So, for example, a Daedalus SMG could be outfitted with a Jacobs part which enables bullets to ricochet. The system allows for a wide degree of variety in weapon customisation and personalisation, with higher rarity weapons able to equip more parts.
Legendary drop rework
Complementing the Licensed Parts System are reworks Gearbox Entertainment have made to Legendary Weapons, and in particular the frequency which they drop. Their intention is for Legendary weapons to feel more iconic, offering utmost power when pulling the trigger. Gearbox felt this dominant feeling was diluted by the over-frequent Legendary weapon drops in Borderlands 3, hence the rework.
New drone companion
We touched upon ECHO-4 in our ‘Borderlands 4 – 10 Key Details Revealed So Far’ feature, and its ability to provide guidance, but additionally this new loyal companion is also capable of switching up a Vault Hunter’s cosmetic appearance from anywhere, or tweak inventory management such as boosting ammo carrying capacity.
No Mayhem Mode
After completing Borderlands 3, Mayhem Modifiers ramped up the challenge in hyper-specific ways for players thirsty for more. However, according to Borderlands 4’s Creative Director, the changes lacked significant impact so they’re not set to return. Instead, Gearbox is focusing Borderlands 4’s endgame on scaling builds through action skills and damage pipelines, the intention being for players to find challenges in forging viable builds and weapon customisation. Borderlands 4 is aiming for an ambitious endgame, with dedicated drops, level cap increases, amongst a raft of elements to evolve combat and challenge.
