Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 is a looter shooter developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K. Its setting is Kairos, a planet ruled by the Timekeeper, whose regime uses cybernetic implants called Bolts to control people. The story follows an event from Borderlands 3: Lilith sent Pandora’s moon, Elpis, across space, and its arrival at Kairos broke the barrier that had hidden the planet. The playable Vault Hunters enter a conflict against the Timekeeper rather than another race across Pandora. That change gives the fourth numbered game its own central location, ruler and rebellion while continuing a consequence of the previous game’s ending.

Players choose among four Vault Hunters with distinct abilities. Vex is a Siren who can summon spectral allies. Rafa is an exo-soldier whose equipment supplies his combat abilities. Amon is a Forgeknight who creates weapons through his forge technology. Harlowe is a Gravitar whose devices manipulate forces and movement. Their classes provide different ways to approach the same fights, but each can collect the game’s procedurally varied guns. As in earlier Borderlands games, the choice of character affects combat skills rather than assigning players to separate campaigns. The roster gives Kairos four new protagonists instead of making returning characters the default playable heroes.

Movement is a prominent change in Borderlands 4. Vault Hunters can double jump, dodge, glide and use a grappling hook, giving them more ways to cross terrain and reposition during fights. A summonable vehicle, the Digirunner, handles longer journeys. The game also changes how guns can be assembled: its licensed-parts system allows a weapon to carry components associated with more than one manufacturer. That makes the identity of a gun depend on a combination of parts, not solely the name stamped on it. Action Skills and skill trees let players develop their chosen Vault Hunter alongside the weapons they find.

Gearbox announced Borderlands 4 in August 2024, and a trailer shown at The Game Awards that December offered another look at Kairos and the Timekeeper. The game launched on September 12, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Its release came six years after Borderlands 3, the numbered predecessor released in 2019. Although the familiar pursuit of loot remains, Kairos changes the series’ immediate stakes: the Vault Hunters confront an established planetary dictatorship, not simply a rival group seeking a Vault. Elpis’s appearance links that struggle to Lilith’s fate, making an event that closed Borderlands 3 the event that exposes Borderlands 4’s world.