Borderlands® 4 News

[p]Hey Vault Hunters! Welcome to “This Week on Kairos” - a weekly post where we share everything happening across the world of Borderlands 4, from developer updates to community highlights and beyond.[/p][p]Every Friday, we’ll be here with the latest news, fan creations, dev spotlights, helpful resources, and anything else we think you’ll want to see. Whether you're looking to catch up, dive deeper, or just see what your fellow players are up to, this is the place.[/p][p][/p][h3]Cross-Play, Cross-Save, and Cross-Progression News[/h3][p]We’re thrilled to reaffirm that Borderlands 4 WILL support full cross-play at launch - meaning you can team up with your friends across platforms. No matter where your squad is, you can hunt all the Vaults together.[/p][p]We also want to take a moment to clarify some terms, so everyone, including new Vault Hunters, knows what to expect:[/p]

• [p]Cross-play means players on different platforms can play together online.[/p]
• [p]Cross-save means your save file can move between platforms (like playing on a console one day and continuing on PC the next).[/p]
• [p]Cross-progression refers to your account-based progress - like unlocks, loot, etc. - being shared across platforms.[/p]

[p]Please note that cross-save and cross-progression will not be supported at launch. We know this may be frustrating for some players, and we hear you. This is on our radar, and we appreciate all of your feedback.[/p][p]In the meantime, every platform will still offer the full Borderlands 4 experience, and we’ve worked hard to make sure it's smooth, chaotic, and a joy to play - wherever you drop in. Thanks for being part of this incredible community.[/p][p]

[/p][h3]Maxroll’s Build Planner is Live[/h3][p]Huge shoutout to our friends at Maxroll for launching their Borderlands 4 Build Planner! Whether you’re theorycrafting your initial build or already min-maxing your skill tree, this is the place to start mapping your mayhem. A huge thank you to some of our most dedicated creators for all their work on this project.
[/p][p]https://maxroll.gg/borderlands-4/planner[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][h3]The Final Countdown[/h3][p]Want a daily dose of Borderlands conversation? Reddit user UpwardSpiral00 has dedicated their time to a Daily Countdown, with a question of the day to keep the hypotheses, speculation, and launch day energy flowing. You can let them know what you think here![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Zines Are Back, Baby![/h3][p]Did you know there’s a Borderlands fanzine? Some incredibly creative folks in the community put together a 100-page digital zine full of art, stories, and other cool content for everyone to enjoy. It’s free and definitely worth a download! Check out The Border\[line] Zine on their itch.io page![/p][p][/p][p]Cover art by Hellzelian[/p][p][/p][h3]Behind the Team: Christina Bonet, Borderlands 4 Lead UX Designer[/h3][p]Every week, we’re spotlighting one of the minds behind the mayhem. You’ll get to learn about folks from both Gearbox and 2K, and how each person who touches the game both influences and is influenced by Borderlands 4. This week, we're talking with Christina Bonet, Gearbox’s Lead UX Designer:[/p][p][/p][p]When you’re designing player experiences, what’s your North Star or guiding principle?[/p][p]Christina Bonet: When designing player experiences, my guiding principle is thinking of how to best design our UX for a diverse player base. I want our designs and interactions to appeal to new players and returning players alike. They should be easily understandable and accessible, so that as many people as possible can enjoy the work my team and I create.[/p][p][/p][p] Are there any small details players might not notice at first that took a lot of thought to design?[/p][p]Christina: Our HUD design is the first thing that comes to mind. Borderlands 4 is a complex game, and there are many components within the HUD that have to work together to create a cohesive experience. Everything from notifications to the player's health and shield information, to the Action Skill buttons, have individual complexities and behaviors. The UX team works closely with our extremely talented UI art, code, game design, and QA teams to ensure that each part of the HUD is the best it can be.[/p][p][/p][p]What inspired you to get into UX design for games?[/p][p]Christina: Good question! I've played videogames for most of my life, and after graduating college, I knew that I wanted to work in the games industry. But I wasn't sure in what capacity - UX design as we know it today didn't exist back then. But I knew I had an interest in UI because I was already modding my UIs in games and finding it fun. It was after I got the chance to move from UI into UX \[User Interface into User Experience] a few years into my career that I knew it was the department for me. Designing interactions, championing accessibility, and advocating for a good player experience are things I genuinely enjoy. So, in a roundabout way, UI inspired me to get into UX design.[/p][p]

[/p][h3]Community Creative Corner[/h3][p]Our community members aren’t just gamers—many of you are also artists. Whether it’s cosplay, digital art, or some yet-to-be-invented medium, we’re your biggest fans. Check out this week’s hand-picked fan creations:[/p][p][/p][h3]- hyperwitch[/h3][p][/p][h3]- Xiphos art [/h3][p][/p][p]That’s it for this week—more updates, more chaos, and maybe a few surprises coming next Friday. Until then: keep your ECHOnet tuned and your loot luck high.[/p][p]Happy Hunting,
The Borderlands Team[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]
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[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Nothing says "power fantasy" like wiping out waves of enemies with a combination of crowd-control abilities and area-of-effect annihilation—both of which happen to be the specialty of Harlowe the Gravitar, one of the four all-new Vault Hunters wreaking havoc on Kairos in Borderlands 4! Using her collection of combat-ready inventions, Harlowe can dominate any space by nuking the battlefield with Cryo and Radiation damage, or protect herself and co-op allies with enhanced shielding and more.[/p][p]Check out the Harlowe Gameplay Overview video above to see her scientific brilliance applied in the field to deadly effect. Whatever hypotheses and variables she's testing in a given firefight, the results are sure to be joyously bloody.[/p][p]Check out the full rundown of her abilities and three skill trees on the Harlowe Vault Hunter page nested within the Game Info page. Here's a high-level overview of the core Action Skills that Harlowe has access to:[/p]

• [p]CHROMA Accelerator: Fire off an Unstable Energy Pocket that creates a sphere of Cryo damage which passes through enemies, then detonate it for an explosive finish of Radiation damage that'll fry any surviving targets. With the Capstone abilities of her Creative Bursts skill tree, Harlowe can engineer the Unstable Energy Pocket to bounce between foes or gain multiple charges.[/p]
• [p]Zero-Point: Turn aggressive enemies into defenseless targets by isolating them in a zero-gravity Stasis bubble created by Harlowe's HALO Accelerator, which slams them to the ground when the Stasis effect ends. Longtime Borderlands players will recognize this as a spin on an iconic Siren skill, now with added Augments that can cause bullets to ricochet off targets in Stasis, store damage on bubbled enemies to create living Cryo bombs that detonate on impact, and more. [/p]
• [p]Flux Generator: Drop a repositionable Flux Generator that creates a sizable Energy Field, freezing enemies with constant Cryo damage and empowering nearby allies with Overshield. Through the use of Augments, you can amplify or add to the effects that hinder foes and help allies while they're in the Energy Field.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Harlowe's always-on Trait Entanglement is where her area-of-effect, crowd-decimating strengths really come into focus. Whenever Harlowe uses her Action Skill on enemies, they become Entangled, indicated by a chromatic glow. Entangled enemies share a portion of Gun Damage and Skill Damage, effectively spreading the hurt across multiple targets to make quick work of even the toughest groups.[/p][p]With the debut of Harlowe's full suite of abilities, you can now browse the skill trees for Borderlands 4's all-new Vault Hunters on the Vex Vault Hunter, Rafa Vault Hunter, Amon Vault Hunter, and Harlowe Vault Hunter pages. Let the theorycrafting commence as you try to decide which of these badasses you'll embody in your fight against the Timekeeper; it's also a very acceptable plan to play as all four because you can't choose just one.[/p][p]Borderlands 4 is now available for pre-purchase. We're so excited that you'll all be crash-landing on Kairos soon; stay tuned for more reveals ahead of launch![/p][p]
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[p][/p][p]Get ready to Break Free, Seattle! Borderlands 4 will be at PAX West from August 29 through September 1. [/p][p][/p][p]We’ll have hands-on gameplay at Booth 403 with all four Vault Hunters playable for the entire weekend! In addition, join us on August 29 at 1:00 PM PT for our Gearbox Main Theater Show, located on Level 5 in the Summit Building, where we will have more exciting Borderlands 4 news to reveal![/p][p][/p][p]If you can’t make it to Seattle, don’t worry - the Main Theater Show will also be livestreamed right here on the Borderlands 4 Steam page, starting at 1:00 PM PT / 4:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM BST. See you there, Vault Hunters![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]
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Borderlands has always had this way of blending chaos, humor, and pure, unfiltered spectacle into a world that feels alive and ridiculous all at once. So when I got the chance to sit down with Adam May, the art director on Borderlands 4, I knew I was going to come away excited and more hyped up for Borderlands. Adam’s been shaping the series from the very beginning, helping craft the look, the feel, and yes, even the insane characters that make this universe so addictive.

Talking with Adam reminded me why I keep coming back to Pandora after all these years. Borderlands 4 doesn’t just push the series forward. It embraces everything fans love while finding new ways to surprise and delight. From the environments to the characters to those insane, over-the-top set pieces, it’s clear that Gearbox is building a world that’s as rich, weird, and chaotic as ever. For longtime fans like me, it’s an exciting evolution. And for newcomers, it’s a perfect entry point into one of gaming’s most... Read more