Borderlands 4 launched final 12 months with many, myself included, praising the sport’s fight and open world, however criticizing a myriad of technical issues and efficiency points. Since then, Gearbox has continued to replace the sport, and the studio has a giant roadmap deliberate for 2026 that features stage cap will increase, cross saves, and extra.
On January 29, Gearbox pushed out a brand new main replace for Borderlands 4 throughout PS5, Xbox Collection X/S, and PC. This replace provides a brand new photograph mode, one thing folks have been asking about for a bit now. Lastly, you possibly can take beautiful cinematic pictures of your self blasting aside rippers and aliens with a four-barreled assault rifle. Alongside that new characteristic got here a protracted checklist of assorted tweaks, adjustments, and fixes as you would possibly count on from a giant replace for a contemporary sport in 2026. The larger information, nonetheless, is what’s coming to Borderlands 4 over the following few months.
In a weblog publish, Gearbox outlined its roadmap for 2026, and it consists of some beforehand teased options in addition to some new additions that ought to make any Borderlands 4 participant completely happy. First, Gearbox reconfirmed that Pearlescents, the next loot rarity stage seen in previous video games, can be added to Borderlands 4 when the sport’s first growth, “Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned,” arrives in March. And also you gained’t have to purchase the DLC to start out discovering these rarer items of loot as soon as they’ve been added to the looter shooter in an upcoming replace. That is additionally when the sport’s first new Vault Hunter, C4SH, shall be added.
The most important information from Borderlands 4‘s 2026 roadmap
In the meantime, Gearbox confirmed that it’s engaged on three extremely requested options for Borderlands 4. The studio didn’t share launch dates or home windows for when to count on these three options in its new roadmap, however they may arrive in 2026.
Stage cap will increase are coming in future updates for “all gamers.” Gearbox added that it appears “ahead to seeing much more construct selection and interactions made potential by the extra ability factors!”
Cross-platform saves shall be added later this 12 months, permitting gamers to bounce between platforms with out having to restart a brand new character. Hopefully Gearbox has plans for folks like me who’ve high-level characters on two totally different platforms.
Shared world development between characters can be coming. Gearbox goes so as to add an possibility in a future patch that may allow you to share all of your open-world development, like further backpack slots, found Vault Fragments, and car unlocks, throughout all of your characters. I do hope that is non-obligatory, as I’d prefer to return to Borderlands 4 at some point and be capable of begin throughout with a brand new playthrough and never inherit all of the upgrades I unlocked earlier than.
Moreover all that, Gearbox has additionally promised extra free occasions. Although if they’re something just like the not-so-great Halloween occasion from final 12 months, I’m unsure how excited I’m about that. Additionally coming in 2026 to Borderlands 4 is extra endgame content material, together with a brand new raid boss and a super-hard-to-complete Takedown mission in Q2 2026. (This was beforehand teased for a This autumn launch, so it seems to have been moved up, which is sweet.) Gearbox says it’s engaged on “extra endgame actions that’ll add a brand new layer of problem and mastery to current content material.”
So Borderlands 4 isn’t “lifeless” as so many on the web like to say. The actual query is whether or not all this new content material and free updates will arrive on time and be well worth the wait. For now, I’m going to go take a cool screenshot of me capturing Claptrap with a rocket launcher utilizing that new photograph mode.
