Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford had taken the stage during the Borderlands Fan Fest to reveal a few more details about Borderlands 4. While Pitchford spoke quite a bit about various aspects of the upcoming co-op looter shooter, including its playable characters, he also revealed that the skill trees in Borderlands 4 will be the biggest we’ve seen in the franchise so far.
As caught by GamesRadar, Pitchford, along with Gearbox chief creative officer Randy Varnell, revealed that a single Borderlands 4 character will have more skills in their skill trees than any characters from Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 combined. It is worth noting that, traditionally, Borderlands games haven’t had massive skill trees like, say, Path of Exile, for example. However, the titles have allowed for quite a bit of customisation through its smaller skill trees regardless.
“You’ll find more skills per character than in Borderlands 3 and 2 added together,” said Pitchford, going on to joke that, “We’re working late on Fridays for you.” Pitchford’s line was a follow-up to Varnell’s explanation that the skill tree offers enough variety to allow four players playing the same character to still end up with differing play styles.
For context, Borderlands 2’s characters had 10 skills in each of their skill trees, while Borderlands 3’s characters had between 18 and 20 skills in each tree. This would mean that a single character in Borderlands 4 might end up with more than 30 different skills in a single tree, which would give players plenty of options when it came to building up their characters.
Earlier this week, lead writer Taylor Clark and executive Chris Brock also revealed some details about Borderlands 4. In an interview, Clark spoke about how the creative team behind Borderlands has evolved with the times, while Brock revealed that players will have quite a bit of freedom in what order they decide to take on the game’s main story missions.
“Borderlands is almost old enough to drive. It would be strange if it weren’t constantly growing and adapting,” said Clark. “We are a creative team, and there are ideas that we want to express through Borderlands 4; ways that we want to make it feel like we’re breaking fresh ground again.”
Brock, on the other hand, spoke about how the fact that Borderlands 4 severely cuts down on the loading times over its predecessor means that players have a lot more freedom to complete the main campaign’s missions in “pretty much any order.” He also mentioned that game design had a focused approach on the upcoming title’s movement and exploration.
During Borderlands Fan Fest, Gearbox had also released a new trailer for Borderlands 4, this time around focusing on the shooter’s story, and how the Vault Hunters will get involved with the Crimson Resistance to free Kairos from the Timekeeper.
Borderlands 4 is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. While the first three platforms will be getting it on September 12, the Switch 2 version is slated for release down the road. The game is priced at $69.99.
