Strap in, Vault Hunters! Tons of new Borderlands 4 content is coming on June 25, as Version 1.8 introduces the paid DLC of Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For*, and the endgame raid Takedown at Hadron Abyss** that will be free for all players. Ahead of the big day, a new episode of the Gearbox DevCast just dropped, where hosts Andrew Reiner and April Johnson chatted with Senior Project Producer Mario Rodriguez and Lead Level Artist Caleb Kennedy about everything players can expect.
This is an absolutely jam-packed DevCast episode, and the same goes for our roadmap zooming in on the next few months which you can peruse above. Here's a quick overview of all the big news:
- Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For launches on June 25 as paid DLC, and is a journey into a neon-noir arcade game where the Vault Hunters must solve the mystery of who murdered Zane('s Digi-Clone backup).
- That same day, Takedown at Hadron Abyss also launches as a free update for all players, delivering the ultimate endgame challenge as you fight your way through an underwater research station filled with mutated horrors and aquatic apex predators. This all leads up to a final showdown with the Child of Terramorphous.
- Cross-Platform Saves are coming as part of the Version 1.8 update on June 25, letting you seamlessly continue your Vault Hunters' adventures across the different platforms where you own Borderlands 4.
- Bounty Pack 4: Murders & Acquisitions, the next paid DLC, arrives on July 30 alongside the Version 1.9 update. We'll share more details in an upcoming DevCast episode.
- Arriving in early September, Loveless the Hacker will be the newest Vault Hunter coming to Borderlands 4 as part of the paid DLC of Story Pack 2*** also launching that month. Story Pack 2 and Bounty Pack 5 will arrive on the same day alongside the Version 1.10 update.
Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For
Zane Flynt is dead.
Wait, scratch that: it's his Digi-Clone that's been murdered, sent to that big trash folder in the sky. Now the actual Zane wants you to nab the scumbag who deleted his Digistructed twin. You'll need to do some detective work in the virtual realm, warping into a pair of classic arcade machines to hunt down the culprit.
In this all-new repeatable mission featuring a new boss and two new mini-bosses, jack into the digital realm for a neon-noir mystery as you chase leads, crack skulls, and close in on the Digi-killer. Violence is the only solution when you're up against new Glitched enemies that have a habit of swapping places mid-fight.
As Caleb mentioned in the Gearbox DevCast, Zane found a way to preserve fond remembrances of past assassinations and interplanetary adventuring: independent Digi-Clones that he dubbed "Memory Zanes." Within Zane's corner of Moxxi's Bottoms Up! bar in Carcadia Burn, Zane's assembled a charming collection of classic arcade games, and stashed all of his Memory Zanes in the evocatively named neo-noir game Private Dick.
You'll have to beam yourself into the neo-noir cityscape of Private Dick to solve this murder mystery, working alongside the other Memory Zanes who represent distinct slices of Zane's personality. Given that Private Dick is a game within a game, it offered a great opportunity for the development team to build a futuristic, neon-soaked cityscape that doesn't adhere to the usual laws of physics, offering a fun contrast to the rest of Kairos.
There's lots of new loot to chase within Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For, including a new Pearlescent weapon and 6 new pieces of Legendary loot! By completing this new narrative mission, you'll also unlock a Vault Hunter Skin usable by all Vault Hunters, a Vehicle, and an ECHO-4 Drone Skin.
Even after you've finished this mission, Zane's arcade might just be your new favorite in-game hangout spot. Each machine is actually a playable minigame, so you can enjoy some arcade action while your co-op squadmates take their sweet time tinkering with their builds or optimizing their loadouts!
Bounty Pack 3: Vault Card 3
While Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For represents the new narrative-focused content, Bounty Pack 3: Vault Card 3 lets you earn new arcade-themed rewards through gameplay, with 24 cosmetic items and four pieces of rerollable gear to unlock! Here's the full rundown of the new Vault Card's unlocks:
- 4 rerollable pieces of gear
- 4 Vault Hunter Heads usable by all Vault Hunters
- 4 Vault Hunter Skins usable by all Vault Hunters
- 5 Weapon Skins
- 5 Vehicle Skins
- 4 ECHO-4 Drone Skins
- 2 ECHO-4 Attachments
Playing Borderlands 4 with a Vault Card active gives you more loot and XP via Daily and Weekly Challenges, and can be leveled up at your own pace (no time limits or expiring rewards). Once you own a Bounty Pack's Vault Card, you can activate that Vault Card via the Vault Card screen in your ECHO menu. Vault Card progression works just like leveling up: it's all driven by how much XP you're gaining. By exploring Kairos, killing enemies, and completing quests, you'll fill up your Vault Card progression in addition to your regular XP!
A new way to purchase DLC content
Starting with Bounty Pack 3, we're releasing DLC in two distinct parts that you can purchase individually. This means that when Bounty Pack 3 launches on June 25, you'll have the option to buy just the cosmetics, just the new narrative content, or both as a bundle if you're playing on Steam. Here's a price breakdown:
- $5.99 USD for Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For (new narrative content and gear)
- $5.99 USD for Bounty Pack 3: Vault Card 3 (new cosmetics and gear)
Please note: all prices listed here are USD, with regional pricing to show up on your preferred storefront when this content launches.
This approach will begin with Bounty Pack 3, and will also be available for Bounty Pack 4, Bounty Pack 5, and Story Pack 2.
Taking a closer look at what this means for Story Pack 2, the new Vault Hunter Loveless the Hacker and her cosmetics will be available for individual purchase for $9.99 USD separate from the narrative content, map zone, and missions which will be available for $19.99 USD.
We're looking into a similar approach for the previously released paid DLC content (Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon and Story Pack 1: Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned), which would then enable players to individually purchase C4SH the Rogue and his cosmetics. Please stay tuned for more updates.
Takedown at Hadron Abyss
If you reckon you're one of the most elite Vault Hunters to ever set foot on Kairos, you'll soon have the chance to prove your abilities in the ultimate endgame challenge. Takedown at Hadron Abyss is an extremely difficult gauntlet of enemies in a brand new zone: Hadron Abyss, a secret, fully submerged lab facility that's coming apart at the seams.
For those of you who braved Borderlands 3's Takedowns, Takedown at Hadron Abyss follows a similar format: a sprawling new area crawling with mobs you'll have to fight through, leading to a midboss, more mobs, and finally a mighty final boss. In this case, the final challenge will be a fight against the colossal Child of Terramorphous, the abyssal offspring of the iconic Borderlands 2 raid boss.
You'll spot the Child of Terramorphous before you get to face it head-on, as the gargantuan beast will be swimming past the laboratory as you continue to battle your way through its mix of claustrophobic halls and spacious concourses. Along the way, you'll have to contend with legions of Research Center B-0451's failed experiments, guided by Dr. Audrey Thorne, a scientist at the facility who had a change of heart after partaking in too much mad science.
Making it through the Takedown at Hadron Abyss will be a test of not only your skills, but your survivability and stamina. Spawn points are few and far between in Hadron Abyss, as are those precious vending machines, so make sure to spend your ammo wisely lest your clip run dry during a boss fight. To make sure you fully commit to mastering the Takedown as a whole, the midboss and final boss encounters will not be accessible for quick farming with Moxxi's Big Encore Machine.
Given that Takedown at Hadron Abyss will be the most difficult content in Borderlands 4 to date, supremely powerful loot awaits those who can survive its trials. We'll share more specifics later, but here's a quick overview of the new loot on offer, with dedicated drops for both the midboss and Child of Terramorphous final boss:
- 1 Pearlescent weapon
- 9 new pieces of Legendary gear:
- 5 weapons
- 1 Shield
- 1 Repkit
- 1 Grenade Ordnance
- 1 Heavy Weapon Ordnance
- 5 new Class Mods
- When the sixth Vault Hunter joins Borderlands 4 as part of Story Pack 2*** in early September, a Class Mod unique to them will also be added to this same pool of possible drops.
Takedown at Hadron Abyss challenge modes
Oh, so you're the biggest badass to ever hunt Vaults, and Takedown at Hadron Abyss is too easy for you? We've got your masochistic cravings for ever-higher difficulties covered with the new Mayhem challenge system available in this Takedown. You'll be able to unlock increasing Mayhem levels that will scale up all Takedown enemies' health and attack strength, which can only be accessed if you've beaten previous tiers fast enough. The Mayhem level will override the current difficulty setting and Ultimate Vault Hunter mode effects, clearly outlining the effects of each level in terms of increased difficulty and rewards.
Unlike the timer-based challenge systems of Bloomreaper or Subjugator and Thol the Invincible, where the timer starts counting down when the boss encounter starts, the Takedown at Hadron Abyss timer starts ticking the moment you open the front door. As Mario explained in the Gearbox DevCast, timers are a great way to ramp up the overall challenge and give players a reason to push their skills to the limit; it also helps for bragging rights when you've achieved the fastest completion time. Conquering higher Mayhem levels grants access to more rewards, so the risks are worth the struggle.
For the challenge to end all challenges, there's one more hill to climb: Hardcore mode in Takedown at Hadron Abyss. When activated, Hardcore adds tricky enemy traits similar to those in the Weekly Wildcard Missions, and makes it so that you only get one life to make it all the way through a run; if you're playing in a co-op squad, everyone will have to restart if even one party member dies. Those Vault Hunters who can make it through Takedown at Hadron Abyss on Hardcore mode are sure to be the stuff of legend.
More to come
As a quality-of-life update, Version 1.8 will also add Cross-Platform Saves when it launches on June 25, letting you upload your saves from one platform via SHiFT to continue playing on another platform where you own Borderlands 4. Please note that SHiFT code rewards like Golden Keys will not transfer platforms as part of Cross-Platform Saves, but will still be available on the platform you redeemed them for. Check out the dedicated Cross-Platform Saves Support page for full details.
And ahead of her big debut in early September, we shared a quick look at Loveless, the Hacker, the all-new Vault Hunter coming alongside Story Pack 2. Loveless is an ex-Anshin hacker turned assassin. Equipped with the highest-end cybernetics, Loveless also shares her mind with a digital virus of her own creation, which can digistruct into a physical form that acts as a deadly extension of her shared, perfection-seeking will.
In the meantime, we'll bring you Bounty Pack 4: Murders & Acquisitions on July 30, ahead of Story Pack 2 and Bounty Pack 5 launching in early September. Stay tuned for more details about this exciting new content in upcoming episodes of the Gearbox DevCast!
As a quick refresher, owning Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition gets you all of the content from the Bounty Pack Bundle (Bounty Packs 2, 3, 4, and 5) and Vault Hunter Pack (Story Packs 1 and 2), while Borderlands 4 Deluxe Edition gets you the Bounty Pack Bundle. Bounty Packs and Story Packs will also be available for individual purchase.
*Bounty Packs 2/3/4/5 are post-launch DLCs that are included with the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and included with the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions of Borderlands 4. They are also available for separate purchase (base game required). Exact release timings of each Bounty Pack to be announced at a later date and will be subject to change. Terms apply.
**Content requires unlocking via gameplay. Players must complete Borderlands 4’s main story campaign.
***Story Packs 1 and 2 are paid post-launch DLC that are included with the Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Pack, and included in Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition. They will also be available for separate purchase (base game required). Exact release timings of each Story Pack to be announced at a later date and will be subject to change. Terms apply.
