Borderlands 4: It Might Be Harder to Get the Perfect Roll on Your Favorite Gun

In previous games, players could only create weapons using parts from one fictional manufacturer. This meant players could learn what weapons they enjoyed using based on certain trademark traits from different manufacturers.

For example, Vladof weapons were fully-automatic bullet hoses, Hyperion weapons became more accurate with continued fire and Torgue weapons fired explosive rounds. Each manufacturer had quirks and players knew more-or-less what weapon they were farming for, even if a particular drop didn’t have the perfect parts for the most desirable stats.

Borderlands 4 introduces three new weapon manufacturers with their own unique weapon traits and perks.

Gearbox Software/Screenshot by CNET

The State of Play revealed new weapon manufacturers, including Order weapons that charge up railgun-like shotgun blasts, fully automatic Ripper weapons that fire speedy flak rounds and reliable Daedalus weapons that allow you to swap ammo types on the go.

Now, randomly generated weapons can have parts from multiple different manufacturers. Randomly generated weapons can now have parts from multiple manufacturers. It sounds very cool on paper, but in practice, it could make Borderlands 4’s endgame much harder.

Taking on Borderlands’ biggest challenges — especially raid bosses — has always been a challenge for the most dedicated players who spent time getting the best possible rolls on their loot. The drop rates of legendary weapons are already being nerfed from the previous game. This means that farming the right parts on a specific legendary weapon necessary for your build will be harder than ever before. Legendary gun drop rates are already getting nerfed from the previous game — which means farming the right parts on a specific legendary weapon necessary for your build will be harder than ever before.

Legendary loot will be much rarer than it was in Borderlands 3 — Gearbox wants that bright orange drop to feel special again.

Gearbox Software/Screenshot by CNET

Borderlands 4 could potentially have the most interesting buildcrafting in the series, what with how many moving parts there are in the player arsenal. But it remains to be seen if strong builds will be easily accessible to everyone, or if the new loot mechanics will ensure that the strongest weapons only land in the laps of the most insanely dedicated (or luckiest) Borderlands 4 players.

Looting might be the biggest draw for Borderlands fans, but other big changes are coming in the next game, too.

Borderlands 4 is moving the series toward movement shooter territory, as every playable vault hunter will be able to dash, double jump, glide and grapple across the terrain. Certain areas also have ziplines that will let you shoot into the air to get a better view of the world, before you spawn the new Digirunner vehicle (which looks like a hybrid between Destiny’s Sparrow hoverbikes and Halo’s Ghost) to speed toward your destination.

The new Digirunners look like they take inspiration from Bungie’s greatest hits, both new and old.

Gearbox Software/Screenshot by CNET

The game will be fully crossplay-enabled at launch, which pairs well with the new co-op quality of life features. Your campaign difficulty and generated loot will be completely instanced from your friends, which means no one will have to fight over the world settings.

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll no longer have to reload an area to fight a boss again. Borderlands 4 boss battle arenas will have a lever to respawn the boss fight. This allows you to jump back into the action immediately without having to go to the main menu.

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