Gearbox Software gave us our first big deep dive into Borderlands 4 courtesy of its own dedicated PlayStation State of Play. The 20-minute presentation revealed two of the game’s four new vault hunters, broke down its new loot and progression systems, and new streamlined approaches to co-op.
The State of Play introduced us to Vault Hunters: Vex the Siren and Rafa the Exo-Soldier. Vex is a winged mercenary capable of conjuring ghost-like minions to fight alongside her while empowering her own abilities. Rafa is a former Tediore soldier proficient in a variety of firearms. Vault Hunters are accompanied by Echo 4, a new robotic companion that guides players toward objectives, can hack terminals and machines, and scan the environment to find useful objects. Confirmed returning characters include Claptrap, Moxxi, Lilith, and Borderlands 3’s Vault Hunters Zane and Amara.
The game’s setting of Kairo is a new planet boasting four distinct biomes players can travel between seamlessly. This world had been kept hidden for thousands of years by its ruler and the game’s antagonist, the Timekeeper. This dictator rules his citizens by implanting them cybernetic parts called Bolts and polices Kairos using his own personal army of synthetic soldiers called The Order. Regarding the series’ signature comedic tone, Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford noted that Borderlands 4 will return to “a more grounded tone” reminiscent of the first two games.
Taking a page from live service titles like Destiny, the open world features dynamic weather and events, such as world bosses and border patrols. Players can even spawn their own speeder bike-like vehicle (which can be customized) to cruise across the terrain quickly. Speaking of getting around, new traversal abilities include Glide, which allows players to float through the air to cover long distances. Characters also sport a wrist-mounted grapple hook to quickly scale vertical platforms.
Each Vault Hunter sports three Action Skills, class-specific abilities. Each Action Skill has its own skill tree and can be further bolstered by augments and capstones to change or improve its properties. Vault Hunters also sport passive abilities called Traits.
Borderlands is all about loot, and the fourth entry features weapons from eight manufacturers, three new to the series: Jakobs, Maliwan, Vladof, Tediore, Torque, and the newly added Order, Ripper, and Daedalus. Each brand sports various perks and traits, and a new Licensed Parts system combines various abilities from multiple manufacturers into a single weapon.
Enhancements replace Artifacts and act as gear slots to augment weapons based on the manufacturer. An example would be an Enhancement that deals extra firepower for using a Tediore gun.
Grenades and heavy weapons like rocket launchers no longer take up slots in your gun rotation. Instead, they occupy a new shared slot called Ordnance and now operate on a recharging cooldown meter. This means you can use these more explosive weapons continuously in any encounter.
Overall, Gearbox is responding to player feedback by overhauling loot drop rates to ensure rarities matter again. To that end, it states Legendaries now drop far less frequently than in Borderlands 3 to ensure they feel special again. The ability to replay entire missions and boss fights has also been added, meaning players can easily re-run bosses without reloading saves.
Fight For Your Life returns as the last-chance opportunity to save yourself when downed. However, a new piece of gear called Rep Kit lets players heal themselves or activate temporary buffs to raise their odds during firefights.
The four-player online multiplayer has been simplified with an improved lobby system for easier matchmaking. Co-op players can also set their difficulty individually without affecting everyone else, meaning one player can play using an easier setting while another plays on a more challenging mode. Loot is also instanced for each player, meaning no one misses out on any drops. Borderlands 4 also features two-player local splitscreen.
Borderlands 4 is getting its first hands-on event sometime in June (possibly during Summer Games Fest) and launches on September 12 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The game will also be coming to Switch 2 later this year.