As we kick off 2026, we're excited to share more about what we'll deliver to you over the next several months in Borderlands 4.
This year, in addition to major content drops, we're continuing to work on improvements to the base game based on community feedback. These include highly requested features like cross-save progression, as well as shared progress across your account for things like SDUs, map progress, and activities.
We also know more endgame content is important, and we're working on new activities and content, including a new Raid Boss, a Takedown, and more.
In addition, we're also continuing to focus on improving performance and stability so that every second of gameplay feels great.
Our first Major Update of the year is now live that includes the Photo Mode, which we recognize is very important to the community, plus refinements and balance changes that should further improve your experience on Kairos. You can learn more in our Borderlands 4 Photo Mode guide and the full Update Notes, then read on for a rundown of what's coming in the months ahead.
Bounty Pack 2* and Story Pack 1** coming soon
Over the next two months, you'll see two premium content updates for Borderlands 4 that will expand the story you’ve experienced so far. In February, our second Bounty Pack, Legend of the Stone Demon, will be available for Vault Hunters to dive into, followed by our first Story Pack, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned in March.
Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon gives you a new mission and Legendary loot to collect, as well as a themed Vault Card featuring 24 cosmetics and 4 rerollable pieces of gear unlocked through gameplay. While Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day is free for all players, Bounty Pack 2 will be the first piece of paid content for Borderlands 4.
Legend of the Stone Demon marks an exciting addition to Borderlands 4's loot chase with Pearlescent gear—a new rarity tier with power levels superior to even Legendary gear. This new rarity will be available to all players regardless of what edition of Borderlands 4 they own (though certain pieces of Pearlescent gear are exclusive to Bounty Pack 2).
Following Bounty Pack 2, Story Pack 1: Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned introduces an all new region of Kairos, new story missions, and the first new Vault Hunter for Borderlands 4, C4SH.
As you might've guessed from the name, this Story Pack centers around the return of the indomitable fan-favorite Ellie, and focuses on a cosmic horror theme with a bloodier, darker tone. The new region will feature multiple main missions and side missions, new gear to earn, and a bunch of new cosmetics.
C4SH, the new Vault Hunter, is a former casino dealer bot turned drifter who chases the probability-breaking highs of cursed eldritch artifacts. Similar to the other Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4, C4SH has three unique Action Skills to choose from, and can enhance his abilities via three branching skill trees full of powerful passives, Augments, and Capstones.
As a reminder, 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.
We can't wait to share more about Bounty Pack 2 and Story Pack 1 soon, so stay tuned! Later in the year, we'll delve into details on Bounty Pack 3 coming in Q2 2026, as well as future content.
Additional upcoming features
On top of everything planned for the great new content in the 2026 Roadmap, we have plenty of quality-of-life and gameplay improvements coming your way. We don't have set timelines for these just yet, but we're eager to get these features into your hands as soon as possible:
- Level Cap Increase: We'll increase the Vault Hunter level cap for all players in future updates. We know becoming more powerful over time is really important to you, and this is a big first step that does that beyond the increasingly impressive weapons we're also introducing. We look forward to seeing even more build variety and interactions made possible by the additional skill points!
- Cross-Platform Saves: Many of you loot and shoot on different devices, and we want to make sure we're giving you a way to pick up and seamlessly continue your Vault Hunters' adventures on whatever platform you want.
- Shared Progression: This is another much-asked for feature. You want to be able to easily explore other Vault Hunters and even alternate builds on the same character. To help with that, we’re working on shared progression so you’ll be able to start new characters with all your hard-earned progression, including collectibles, map progress, Fast Travel unlocks, SDU tokens, Vault Fragments, Glide Pack upgrades, Vehicle unlocks, and Hover Drive upgrades.
- More Free Events: It's important for Kairos to be a living and breathing world, and events play a really important role in helping do so. That's why we're adding more limited-time, free events that will change up elements of the game for all Borderlands 4 players in exciting ways, most recently seen with the Season's Lootings event in December that boosted Legendary drop rates for bosses.
Building out endgame content
More endgame content is on the way! The first drop of Borderlands 4 endgame content introduced Bloomreaper the Invincible back in December. Another raid boss is coming in Q2 2026, featuring a new arena and powerful new rewards should you manage to survive the encounter.
Borderlands 4's most difficult endgame mission yet will come in the form of a new Takedown, planned for a free Major Update later on in Q2 2026. The Takedown will be an extremely challenging gauntlet where players will have to battle their way through a new area, taking on hordes of enemies and new boss encounters. Overcoming these formidable odds will reward you with some of the best loot in the game to-date.
In addition to the second raid boss and the Takedown, we're also working on additional endgame activities that'll add a new layer of challenge and mastery to existing content. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback via the Weekly Endgame Activities survey back in December!
Major and Minor Updates
You'll notice in the 2026 Roadmap that each big content drop is rolling out alongside a free Major Update for all players. We wanted to use this time to share a quick reminder of the differences between monthly Major Updates and weekly Minor Updates so that you know what to expect week-to-week:
- "Major Updates" deliver larger-scale changes, including new content, sweeping balance adjustments, performance improvements, and the addressing of any reported issues. Major Updates are less common, and we deploy them about a month apart.
- "Minor Updates" take care of any smaller issues for players that we've noticed outside of the planned update schedule (primarily balance changes, as needed). They also refresh the three types of Weekly Activities: the Weekly Big Encore Boss, Weekly Wildcard Mission, and Maurice's Black Market Vending Machine location. Minor Updates are scheduled weekly on Thursdays.
Here's to more mayhem in 2026
This is going to be a huge year for Borderlands 4. We're so grateful to you all for being members of our community. You are at the center of everything that we do. We'll see you soon with more details on our next Bounty Pack and Story Pack!
As always, we appreciate reports of any issues you might encounter, and we're grateful to all who submit tickets that help us improve the experience for everyone. If you encounter issues, please contact 2K Support for direct assistance. You can also check out our PC Troubleshooting Guide, see our list of reported issues, or browse a list of Support threads.
*Legend of the Stone Demon is the second of five post-launch DLC Bounty Packs coming to Borderlands 4. This content is included with Borderlands 4 Deluxe Edition, Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition, and the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and is also available for separate purchase. Base game required.
**Story Packs 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.
