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Borderlands

One of Borderlands’ most hated characters seems to have been cut from Borderlands 4

by admin October 7, 2025

It looks like one of the most disliked characters in the Borderlands series may have been cut from Borderlands 4, according to datamined file names posted online.

As posted by to EpicNNG, a Borderlands content creator and dataminer who previously led an archival effort for the defunct Chinese Borderlands MMO, files exist within Borderlands 4 that explicitly name a character called Ava. This character, introduced during Borderlands 3, proved quite divisive when series fans first met her back in 2019.

These Borderlands 4 files, posted in screenshot form on X by EpicNNG, include assets seemingly tied to her bubble (a Siren ability she was shown to have had in Borderlands 3), as well as moments in the game when she’d be accompanying Zane throughout the story.

Watch the Borderlands 4 story trailer here!Watch on YouTube

These files indicate that Ava may have been totally replaced by another character: Amara. Notably Amara is introduced to the play alongside Hermes (Ava’s pet from Borderlands 3), and by the crashed Sanctuary ship from Borderlands 3 no less. So such inferences based on breadcrumbs left in the files aren’t baseless.

It’s worth noting that these small files datamined from the game are the only evidence available that Ava was at one point part of Borderlands 4. There has been no model discovered, nor audio files.

If Ava was originally intended to be part of Borderlands 4’s narrative as these datamined files suggest, then this would mark a fairly substantial U-turn for the game during development. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford asked the community roughly a year ago what players thought of Ava, and got a passionate response from both those who disliked the character, and those willing to give her a second shot.

Similarly, Gearbox added a Claptrap sound slider to the game, as many fans found the character to be a tad grating to listen to. A smart move, as the option itself is good joke that Borderlands fans could appreciate.

Ava has yet to be confirmed as a returning character in upcoming DLC at all, so this may very well be the closest she comes to appearing in Borderlands 4. Or maybe she’ll make a grand return to the game at a later date. The fact she was considered at all indicates there was some appetite to bring her back a few in-universe years after her grand introduction.

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October 7, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Borderlands 4’s first major balancing patch is out now, delivering beefy vault hunter buffage across the board

by admin October 3, 2025

Borderlands 4’s first round of vault hunter balancing tweaks has arrived, with Gearbox having waited until they’d had a chance to try getting some of the looter shooter’s technical gremlins under control and observed the state of play balance-wise before whipping out the ol’ nerf/buff cannon.

That approach has meant some arguably overpowered early builds haven’t been coded out of existence as quickly as players might have imagined, with the developers seeming keen to avoid knee-jerk reactions when it comes to vault hunter changes in particular. I assume the fact they’ve had a DLC robo-cowboy to help keep post-happy exec Randy Pitchford occupied has probably helped maintain that lack of sudden and potentially ill-fated moves.

“For today’s update, we wanted to focus on creating greater build diversity by adjusting underperforming skills,” the studio wrote in the notes for this first significant balance patch. “Amon in particular gets a host of adjustments to bring him closer in line with the general power level of the other Vault Hunters. Vex’s summons and Rafa’s melee power see adjustment to make those builds more viable in the late endgame. Finally, Harlowe has a couple tweaks to make sure Stasis is getting value for players.”

As you might have gleaned from that, a glance through the full notes yields many instances of the word “increased” across all four hunters. Amon’s gotten by far the most changes, with more than 60 bullet points by my count having affected everything from his actions skills to augments and passives of various varieties. Vex has seen slightly less tweaks across all three of those spheres, while Rafa’s had action skill, capstone and passive changes. Harlowe only sees two tweaks, both to her stasis-related damage.

“Looking to the future, we’re investigating stats and behaviors on Class Mods, Rep Kits, Shields, and Firmware to make sure they are providing avenues to greater build diversity,” Gearbox continued. “We are also planning to fix a number of unintended interactions. These exploits prevent us from creating meaningful build diversity as they trivialize content that is otherwise meant to challenge players.” Judging by that last bit, this overpowered Vex build may soon be less godly.

Finally, it’s worth noting that this update’s also seen the devs add in “auto-clearing of Borderlands 4 stale shaders on version update”, which they say should help prevent “performance degradation on some PCs”.

If you’ve not already, make sure to check out our Borderlands 4 review by Jasmine Mannan for impressions of the game that aren’t delivered via an all caps tweet from the Pitchford.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Borderlands 4’s Worst Character Sucks Less After Today’s Update

by admin October 3, 2025

A new update for Borderlands 4 is available now on all platforms, and after installing it you’ll discover that all of the game’s playable vault hunters are now stronger. But one in particular, Amon, is much, much more powerful after the patch, which is great because many (myself included) considered him to be the worst and weakest of the bunch.

Borderlands 4 launched last month to mostly positive reviews and big numbers on Steam. I really like the game and its chaotic mix of looting and shooting, even if performance issues have been a problem over the last few weeks. But performance has improved steadily with the last few patches, and now Gearbox is targeting balance tweaks. But don’t worry, the studio isn’t nerfing anything yet. Instead, the latest patch for the open-world FPS is all about buffing the vault hunters. And Amon, a large space warrior, got the most buffs following complaints that he wasn’t much fun to play and didn’t feel as exciting during firefights as other characters.

On October 2, Gearbox pushed out a new patch for Borderlands 4 that is focused entirely on improving each of the game’s four vault hunters. After the update, Harlowe does more stasis slam damage, Rafa’s APOPHIS Lance skill is deadlier, and the Siren Vex got some buffs to make some of her builds more viable. But it’s Amon who got the most tweaks by far, with the new patch notes listing 60+ buffs. Yowza! And some of these are huge, with one buff to “Massive Forgewave Damage” being listed as a 100-percent increase!

While it might seem drastic, Amon truly needed these buffs. I’ve now played as Rafa, Vex, and Amon in Borderlands 4, and by far the most boring and weakest was the big, tanky Amon. It often felt like I was tossing points into his skill tree without ever feeling the effects. Hopefully, these buffs help his kit feel more exciting and effective to use during combat encounters.

Anyway, here are the full Borderlands 4 patch notes as shared by Gearbox on Thursday:

Character Balance Adjustments:

Harlowe

Action Skills – Zero-Point

Stasis Slam Damage increased by 30%
Stasis Immune Damage increased by 14.7%

Rafa

Action Skills – APOPHIS Lance

Capstones – People Person

Project: Raiju Damage now scales by 12% per second, up from 10%
Project: Basilisk Damage increased by 15%
Project: Basilisk Hazard Damage increased by 25%
Project: Gorgon Damage increased by 17%

Passives – People Person

El Catrín
- Critical Hit Damage increased to 8% from 7% per point
- Bonus Shock Damage increased to 8% from 7% per point
Per My Last
- Double Damage Chance increased to 6% from 5% per point

Action Skills – Arc-Knives

Melee Attack Damage increased by 12%
Dash Damage increased by 5%

Passives – This Year’s Gimmick

Handshake Deal
- Melee Damage increased to 9% from 7% per point
To the Last
- Skill Damage increased to 8% from 6% per point
El Paragus
- Splash Damage increased to 9% from 7% per point
Liquidation
Collaborative Ignition
- Bonus Damage increased to 8% from 6% per point
Sinergia
- Duration increased to 14 seconds from 12 seconds
- Melee Damage increased to 4% from 3% per point
Empuje
- Action Skill Duration increased to 7% from 6% per point

Vex

Action Skills – Incarnate

Phase Explosion Damage increased by 16.6%
Eldritch Blast Damage increased by 9.5%

Augments – Vexcalation

Energy Vampire Damage increased by 25%

Capstones – Vexcalation

Heartpiercer Damage increased by 22%
Desecration Hazard Damage increased by 50%
Desecration Airborne Burst Damage increased by 48%
Geistwave Damage increased by 41%

Passives – Vexcalation

Radiant Attunement now deals 7% Splash Damage, up from 6% per point
Dreadlight Hazard Damage increased by 100%
Ars Arcana now increases Skill Damage by 9% from 8% per point

Action Skills – Phase Phamiliar

Trouble Health increased by 10%
Trouble Damage increased by 21.9%

Augments – Here Comes Trouble

Violent Outburst Damage increased by 12.5%
Vorpal Fang Damage increased by 34%

Capstones – Here Comes Trouble

Trouble Bubble Damage increased by 33%

Passives – Here Comes Trouble

Blood is Magic now increases Action Skill Damage by 8% from 7% per point
Claw and Bang now increases Melee Damage by 8% from 6% per point

Passives – The Fourth Seal

Fell Inscriptions Melee Damage increased to 7% from 6% per point
Recurrence now increases Melee Damage by 0.2% per stack from 0.16% per point
Haruspex Phase Dagger Damage increased by 11.7%

Amon

Action Skills – Scourge

Scourge has had its Maximum Vengeance increased by 50%, making it able to absorb more damage and deal more damage with Forgewhip when consumed.
Forgewhip Damage has increased by 27%

Augments – Vengeance

Blastchill Damage increased by 45%
Molten Rebuke Damage increased by 86%
Eternal Winter Massive Forgewave Damage increased by 100%
Stormlance Damage increased by 52%
Stormlance Detonation Damage increased by 10%

Capstones – Vengeance

Glacial Rapture Capstone now has a 60 second cooldown, down from 70 seconds
Glacial Rapture Forgewhip Damage increased by 16%
Glacial Rapture Fissure Damage increased by 41%
Wrathfall Damage increased by 46%

Passives – Vengeance

Scorched Kairos now increases Ordnance Damage by 6%, up from 5% per point
Battleborn now increases Gun Damage by 4%, up from 3% per point
Scar Tissue now increases Maximum Health and Rep Kit healing by 9%, up from 8% per point
Eternal now increases Action Skill Duration by 5%, up from 4% per point
Worldbreaker Damage increased by 50%
Winter’s Kiss now increases Damage Dealt by 10%, up from 8% per point
Strike The Anvil now deals 15% of the Damage Dealt, up from 12% per point

Action Skills – Crucible

Forgeaxe Damage increased by 12%
Double-Edge’s Twinned Forge Axe Damage increased by 10%

Augments – Cybernetics

Axe and Stones Action Skill Cooldown restoration increased to 40% from 33%
Axe and Stones Action Skill Ordnance restoration increased to 40% from 33%
Endless War Gun Damage Taken increased to 20% from 15% per Prime stack
Hour of the Hammer Forgehammer Damage increased by 14%
Blade Tempest Forgesword damage increased by 13%
Blade Tempest Forgesword Detonation damage increased by 4%

Capstones – Cybernetics

Snowmaul Damage increased by 38%
Storm Surge impact damage increased by 10%
Storm Surge Forgestorm damage increased by 60%
Conflangarang Capstone’s Fire Trail Damage increased by 100%

Passives – Cybernetics

Gathering Storm now increases Elemental Damage by 3% per stack, up from 2% per point
Executioner now increases Critical Hit Damage by 4%, up from 3% per point
Destruction Engine now increases Forge Skill Damage by 6%, up from 5% per point
Destruction Engine now increases Detonation Damage by 8%, up from 6% per point
Tempered Pyre Forge Axe Damage increased by 19%
Tempered Ice Forge Hammer Damage increased by 18%
Masterwork now increases Forgedrone’s Damage by 10%, from 7% per point
Masterwork now increases Forgedrone’s Duration by 8%, from 5% per point
Tempered Lightning Forge Sword Damage increased by 13%
Lightning Rod Elemental Bolt now deals 40% of the Damage Dealt, up from 30% per point
Escalation now increases Forgedrone’s Attack Speed and Movement Speed by 5%, up from 3%, per point
Honed Point now increases Forgedrone’s Critical Hit Chance by 5%, up from 4% per point
Heat Exchange now increases Cryo and Incendiary Damage by 8%, up from 7% per point

Action Skills – Onslaughter

Onslaughter Shield Regeneration increased to 15% per second, from 10%
Onslaughter Rocket Punch Damage increased by 78%
Molten Slam now has a 60 second cooldown, from 80 seconds
Molten Slam Damage increased by 50%

Augments – Calamity

Fellfrost Damage increased by 71%
Fulminating Fist damage increased by 69%

Capstones – Calamity

Hoarcleave now has a 55 second cooldown, from 65 seconds
Hoarcleave damage increased by 11%
Hoarcleave Detonation damage increased by 18%
Molten Roil now has a 70 second cooldown, from 80 seconds
Stormcutter now has a 65 second cooldown, from 75 seconds
Stormcutter Damage increased by 65%

Passives – Calamity

Heavy Plate now increases Maximum Shield Capacity by 7%, up from 6% per point
Wield The Storm now increases Status Effect Damage and Status Effect Duration by 7%, from 6% per point
Tritanium Knuckles now increases Melee Damage by 8%, up from 7% per point
Tritanium Knuckles now increased Skill Damage by 4%, up from 3% per point
Harbinger now increases Melee Damage by 2% per stack, up from 1% per point
Mortal Flare Damage increased by 22%
Judgment now increases Melee damage by 10%, up from 8% per point

Additional Change:

Added auto-clearing of Borderlands 4 stale shaders on version update, preventing performance degradation on some PCs.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Zane, from Borderlands 4, pinches his fingertips expressively as he tries to communicate something so someone off screen.

Gaming Gear

Borderlands 4 dev clears up the difference between Skill Damage and Action Skill damage, and I feel like a combat log is in order so I didn’t have to find this out on a Reddit thread

by admin September 30, 2025

Borderlands 4 has a ton of possible builds to choose from—it’s one of the strengths I highlighted in my Borderlands 4 review—but I do have one teensy-tiny complaint, and it’s that I would like some of the tooltips to be a smidge more straightforward about what is what.

This feeling has returned full-force after seeing a developer kindly explaining the difference between Skill Damage and Action Skill damage on the game’s subreddit (thanks, TheGamer), which probably isn’t the place you should have to go for this sort of clarification.

Turns out, it’s a rectangles/squares situation. Except this is Borderlands, so lead character designer Nicholas Thurston uses guns and shotguns as the metaphor: “Skill Damage and Action Skill Damage is like Gun Damage and Shotgun Damage. All Skills are skills, but only some are Action Skills. Same as all Guns are Guns, but only some are Shotguns.” Simple, then.

Thurston then explains that Skill Damage impacts basically everything involving the word “Skill”, including passive skills and traits and, you guessed it, Action Skills. However, Action Skill damage only boosts whatever’s on the Action Skill itself.

Other modifiers, like Melee Damage and Minion Damage, can apply to an Action Skill if it also does those things. For example: “Amon’s ‘Onslaughter’ does Melee Damage with his fist, this would get Skill Damage, Action Skill Damage, and Melee Damage … Forgedrones (as an example) only benefit from Skill Damage, as they come from Passive Skills, as well as Melee Damage.”

In a separate comment, Thurston also explains that there’s no real difference between “status chance” and “status application chance”, and that all instances of the former should be the latter: “if something doesn’t, that’s a goof on our part that we’ll need to investigate and correct.”

And hey, props to Thurston for coming in and clearing some of this up, but it does beg the question whether or not the series needs a little more transparency on just how everything works.

Most ARPGs, a genre which Borderlands shares most of its DNA with, have combat logs that let you mouse over your damage and get a peek at the math going on underneath the hood, allowing you to test whether all those floating modifiers are actually being fed into the machine properly.

And while BL4 does have training dummies, not having any proper mouseovers for its various tooltips—or a way to check on your damage after the fact—does hamper the otherwise stellar buildcraft somewhat. I probably shouldn’t be having to do napkin math to figure out why a non-legendary gun is causing Total Existence Failure.

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September 30, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Randy Pitchford has found his soulmate: an edgy cowboy robot named after money that’s in Borderlands 4’s first DLC

by admin September 29, 2025

Remember when you were young, and had your first crush? All of a sudden your hormones are going nuts, and here’s this person you can’t think about without your face contorting into a goofy smile, or talk about without bashfully giggling. Well, it seems that’s how part-time Gearbox exec and full-time social media poster Randall Steward Pitchford II feels about Borderlands 4’s freshly revealed first DLC Vault Hunter.

It’s understandable to be fair. Which of us hasn’t found ourselves gazing longingly at a former casino robot dressed like a goth version of John Wayne, before volunteering to help animate its card-throwing? Sometimes, C4SH rules not just everything around you, but your very heart.

Watch on YouTube

C4SH is the name of this cowbot, whom you’ll be able to play as if you splash out for him when he arrives alongside the game’s first story DLC early next year. The Vault Hunter’s “a drifter who chases the probability-breaking highs of cursed eldritch artifacts, with his bio continuing that the first story DLC, Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, “is full of cosmic horrors that harbor uncanny curios, some of which can surely bend the odds in C4SH’s favour.”

As you might have guessed, C4SH is aimed at folks who like playing in a way that comes with high risk for potentially high reward, with the buckarndroid’s skills being deliberately unpredictable. That’s all cool, but the more important thing emphasised in C4SH’s reveal at the Tokyo Game Show is this: Randy Pitchford fucking LOVES him.

“C4SH is important to me because I think he and I have a lot in common,” the exec said during this on-stage reveal, having previously descibed the cowboy robot as “very dear to me, very personal to me.” What’s engendered these strong feelings in such a famously chill and dispassionate fellow? Well, Pitchford has both won and lost while doing some real life gambling, the CEO said, and he’s also a professional magician. “I’ve mastered sleight of hand with playing cards, and we used my demonstration to help animate the character in the game,” said the smitten Gearbox skipper.

We’ll have more to share in the coming months about C4SH and Story Pack 1, but for now, check out what’s up next in our post-launch roadmap, including our first Seasonal Mini-Event, Bounty Pack, and Invincible Boss. pic.twitter.com/FUYq5qduqO

— Borderlands (@Borderlands) September 28, 2025

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So, if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to basically be Randy Pitchford – or at least a cyborg Clint Eastwood that he sees a lot of himself in – now’s your chance to find out. I assume there’s a posting interface built into the HUD when you load in as C4SH. Either that, or you’ll have to run two monitors for the authentic experience of arguing with tweeters about the capabilities of their game-playing boxes as you play Borderlands. Remember: when it feels like you should probably stop posting, do not stop posting.

As they’ve revealed C4SH, Gearbox have also put out a DLC roadmap for Borderlands 4. Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, the first story pack C4SH arrives as part of early next year, also includes extra main and side missions in a new zone of Kairos and new gear. Hopefully the majority of the performance issues which’ve plagued the shooter since release will be sorted by then, so you can enjoy C4SH rather than crash.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Borderlands 4 has a throwing knife-shaped problem, and a nerf isn’t going to cut it

by admin September 29, 2025

Rory Norris, Guides Writer

(Image credit: Future)

Last week I was: playing way too much Borderlands 4.

This week I’ve been: continuing to play way too much Borderlands 4 while getting to grips with the endgame.

By now, it’s beating a dead horse saying that Penetrator Augment ‘crit’ throwing knives are overpowered in Borderlands 4. Creative director Graeme Timmins has already agreed as much, noting the infamous knives “will get addressed”, alongside some unintentional interactions and broken builds, very soon.

For those living under a rock, the Penetrator Augment that can drop on throwing knives causes all damage dealt to the target to become guaranteed critical hits for a short duration. With almost any build, especially those specced into bonuses with critical hits or status effects like the bleed Vex build, this short window is more than long enough to burst down any boss in the blink of an eye. Plus, you can also get the Damage Amp Payload effect, which—in the same vein as Penetrator—causes the target to simply take increased damage for a duration. In fact, you can even get these two bonuses together if you’re lucky for guaranteed critical hits and a flat increase in damage from all sources.

Whether the effects are reduced in duration or potency, you can’t change the fact that these throwables offer unmatched, absolute power with no downsides.

That’s not to mention that throwing knives are already a strong option in the ordnance slot, dealing high damage, having multiple charges and a quick cooldown, and even ricocheting on critical hits with a Jakobs manufacturer perk.

Unless you’re running with a dedicated ordnance build, like a Vengeance Amon build, there’s quite literally no reason not to use a throwing knife. Its mere existence completely invalidates entire skills. Why would I need Harlowe’s Glow Up perk to increase gun critical hit chance specifically against irradiated enemies when I could save multiple skill points and just throw a knife? Creator EpicNNG has a video covering all the skills that are invalidated, and it’s a lot:

Just How BROKEN Is The Crit Knife In Borderlands 4? (VERY) – YouTube

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The thing is, I don’t think there’s a satisfying nerf. Sure, you could reduce the duration of these buffs down to only a handful of seconds, but again, you can already kill bosses in a second or two with the right setup. It would still be a source of guaranteed critical hits, which inherently breaks a number of builds anyway.

If Gearbox plans to simply knock these items down a peg in the hopes of stopping them from being must-have picks, it won’t work either. Whether the effects are reduced in duration or potency, you can’t change the fact that these throwables offer unmatched, absolute power with no downsides, especially if you’re not fussed about the ordnance slot to begin with, which most builds otherwise aren’t.

As much as removing the Penetrator Augment and Damage Amp Payload effects on throwing knives and pretending it never happened would resolve the crit knife conundrum, it’s far from a perfect solution. This leads to yet another issue: like all previous Borderlands games, there would be little incentive to use grenades in standard builds, and they would become obsolete. Ironically, that’s why Borderlands 4 introduced the ordnance system and more interesting throwables like the knives.

While they’ll likely still remain best-in-slot for your typical gun builds, I think the only real solution is to change the Penetrator effect to be either chance-based, active on a certain number of shots, or even just your next shot. No matter which one, critical hits would no longer be guaranteed. It would still provide an incredibly powerful on-demand buff all for just lobbing a knife, but you’d at least be more incentivised to invest a point or two in the skills these ordnance currently overshadow.

Either way, I don’t envy Gearbox. I can only imagine how much the developers must regret having ever introduced such an item, as once you’ve experienced such a power, it’s very hard to take it away.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Borderlands 4 details first paid DLC plans as 2K continues to struggle with PC performance issues

by admin September 29, 2025

Gearbox revealed its first DLC vault hunter for Borderlands 4 during the Tokyo Game Show over the weekend. C4SH will be coming to the game in Q1 2026 alongside the game’s first story pack.

C4SH was revealed via a short cinematic teaser at the Borderlands 4 Tokyo Game Show panel, and is a former casino dealer robot who’ll use a degree of chance across all three of their skill trees. A full ability breakdown is set to take place in the near future, though there’s no date just yet.

The new character will arrive alongside a story pack called Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned. This pack will bring new main missions to complete, new gear, a new region on the map, a load of new cosmetics, and of course C4SH to tie it all together.

Here’s the C4SH teaser for Borderlands 4.Watch on YouTube

While the future of Borderlands 4 was shown off proudly in Japan, the game is still tackling technical hurdles in the present. While a recent patch has gone a ways in tackling performance issues, it has brought with it additional problems with Gearbox telling some on PC to clear their shader cache if things aren’t stable within 15-minutes of play time.

In addition, Borderlands 4’s Switch 2 version was delayed to an unspecified date for “additional development and polish time”. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford advised those on X unhappy with Borderlands 4 performance issues to refund the game in the days following its release.

Still, those able to get the game running well are having a good time with the sci-fi shooter. Eurogamer’s Borderlands 4 review states: “Borderlands 4 brings a more sensible script and a true open world to its pseudo-cel-shaded gun-show. But these moderate improvements are undermined by frustrating exploration and combat that takes too long to properly shine.”

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

A cave with a skull and a waterfall where the Forgive Me quest begins

Product Reviews

There’s a sidequest in Borderlands 4 based on a meme making fun of Soulsborne games and it’s great

by admin September 29, 2025

Borderlands 4 is in a tough place when it comes to tone. The over-reliance on literal toilet humor in Borderlands 3 was so universally disliked that a follow-up was always going to pare it back a bit. Which Borderlands 3 does, though sometimes too much. The villains in particular end up feeling like personality-free zones, some of them not even having enough going on to fill the empty space on their introductory title cards. They’re just names and hit points.

The sidequests squeeze in some of the personality the main questline leaves out, and even (whisper it) reference the occasional meme. My favorite so far is Forgive Me, a quest based on a viral joke about the storytelling in Soulsborne games—a joke tweeted by Borderlands 4 head writer Sam Winkler back in 2022.

(Image credit: Sam Winkler)

Because the internet is the way it is, Winkler ended up having to explain in the replies that he actually likes FromSoftware games, saying, “I am begging anyone who thinks I’m dunking on fromsoft to learn how to make fun of the things you love”. And if you needed further evidence, the Forgive Me quest in Borderlands 4 is an extended gag about Soulsborne storytelling that clearly comes from a place of deep knowledge and appreciation.

Forgive Me isn’t marked on your map. It begins in a cave in the Cuspid Climb area of the Terminus Ranges, with a waterfall pouring out of a giant skull at the entrance. Near a sword embedded in a fire a badass psycho attacks you, dropping a Desecrated Bolt as he dies. When you pick it up you hear the words “Zanzibart… forgive me” and begin an unmarked quest that instructs you to “Find Zanzibart’s resting place”, though it doesn’t add a marker for it.

You’ll need to find another cave in the Terminus Ranges, this one in Stoneblood Forest to the north and accessible by grappling point. There you’ll face the Cursed Myrmidon of the Cruel Dawn in combat and be left wondering if you can possibly have a crumb of context.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

At which point Vycarias, the Lore-Singer, a character who is a cross between a fantasy sage and a YouTuber who reads out flavor text will emerge from out of nowhere to monologue at you for nine minutes straight about the Shatterglass Plain, the Nevergreen, the Red Requiem, and a bunch of other proper nouns you’ve never heard before. It’s like reading a dense wiki entry for a game you haven’t played, and I applaud the voice actor who plays Vycarias for nailing the tone. It’s the kind of commitment to the bit that I enjoy about Borderlands, and I hope I keep finding it in Borderlands 4’s sidequests and inevitable DLC.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Borderlands 4’s latest update aims to deliver more performance fixes, ends up causing more stuttering for some

by admin September 28, 2025

Another day, another Borderlands 4 update aiming to smooth out more of the performance problems which have plagued the looter shooter since launch, especially on PC. Unfortuntely, this latest patch looks to have led to an uptick in stuttering for some players, with Gearbox recommending some shader messing around as a potential fix.

In fairness to the studio, you can’t say they haven’t been working hard to get Borderlands 4 running a bit more smoothly since problems in that department became apparent, with this being the third post-launch patch targeting performance in the past couple of weeks. One of them was confusingly noteless, but hey.

Anyway, this one has notes, and delving into them you’ll find a few tweaks to weekly activities being granted top billing before things descend into fix territory. The weekly big encore boss has been swapped to a tougher version of another existing boss and will offer more loot. The weekly wildcard mission’s changed and Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine has been moved.

In terms of fixes, Gearbox cited the rectifying of “various instances of hitching, low FPS, and crashes” as well as “infinite loading screens during crossplay”. Characters should also load up faster in menus, and their animations have been updated to match the fixes. Sadly, it seems that the update’s actually led some players to experience more performance problems, with Gearbox acknowledging this in a follow-up tweet.

“Stuttering issues should resolve over time as the shaders continue to compile in the background while playing,” they wrote. “If you’re still experiencing issues after 15 minutes of continuous play, you can also clear your shader cache via your video card manufacturer’s approved method.” If problems persist, you’ll have to file a support ticket.

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That aside, studio have also made some changes to rewards and progression with this update, plus some minor tweaks to individual vault hunters. On top of that, there’s a bit of gear balancing, with the tweaks as follows:

Hellwalker: now always spawns with Fire element
Tediore weapons: +10% Damage and +10% magazine size
Order Pistol Lucky Clover (Rocket Reload): increased fire rate
Order Sniper Rifle Fisheye: increased Damage

Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins has revealed in a tweet that the game’s next patch’ll be much heavier on the balancing tweaks. “As a note, we had too many Vault Hunter buffs to safely fit into today’s big update,” he wrote. “Instead, we broke up them into their own balance update that we’re targeting to release early next week instead.”

Here’s hoping that Gearbox can get their shooty thing running nicely soon, especially since yapping CEO Randy Pitchford thankfully looks to have stopped giving impromptu setup advice on the socials. As for the game itself, Jasmine Mannan gave it a go for us and generally liked what these four bordered lands had to offer.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The first DLC vault hunter in Borderlands 4 will be a robot cowboy gambler named C4SH who throws playing cards

by admin September 28, 2025

Borderlands 4 | Official New Vault Hunter Teaser: C4SH – YouTube

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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took to the stage at this year’s Tokyo Game Show to reveal a new Vault Hunter for Borderlands 4, who will be coming out as paid DLC in early 2026. Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel both added additional Vault Hunters as DLC, but Borderlands 3 didn’t add any, so announcing a DLC character this early suggests Gearbox is confident in Borderlands 4 having some longevity. Or at least, more than the third one did.

The new character is a robot who used to work as a dealer at a casino. Disillusioned by the horror of working in a customer-facing service position, C4SH becomes a Vault Hunter with powers based on random chance. Which sounds a bit like Claptrap in the Pre-Sequel, whose action skill could load in a different ability each time you used it.

C4SH also has an ability that involves throwing playing cards, maybe like Gambit from the X-Men? On the Tokyo Game Show stage Pitchford explained that his own close-up magic skills were used as reference for this, with videos of him palming and throwing cards used by the animators. I could maybe have done with more info about how C4SH plays and less demonstration of Pitchford’s magic skills, but I guess it wouldn’t be a Gearbox presentation without them.

The DLC containing C4SH will also contain some “new story content”, maybe to explain how those mind-control bolts in Borderlands 4 work on a robot. He’s part of the Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Pack, which is included in the Super Deluxe Edition.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments