Borderlands 4 Has revealed the games post launch content plans

As is tradition by now, Gearbox were at PAX West (they do both American PAX Shows every year) and in their main theatre presentation, they revealed the post launch plans for Borderlands 4, or at least the first few months.

The first element confirmed is that of new game play, uh, I mean Ultimate Vault Hunter mode. Once you finish the campaign with your first character, this new mode unlocks. Enemies in this mode will be a lot hard to finish as they will be deadlier to you, but defeating them will reward you with even better loot. It won’t just be that they will have more health or deal more damage, but enemies will vary more, for example one enemy might be immune to all fire based attacks.

When Borderlands 4 launches, Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode will have five difficulty levels, which are unlocked incrementally by completing challenges spread across Kairos and will put your skills and Vault Hunters' builds to the test. Once you've completed enough challenges, you'll face a climactic trial: a Wildcard Mission, which tasks you with replaying a mission filled with buffed enemies who have a new set of lethal traits.

Beating a Wildcard Mission is a big deal, because unlocks the next level in Ultimate Vault Hunter, so think of it as the final exam before you move up. But all that is with the game at launch, what about what comes next?

Well the game launches this September 12 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and then on October 3 for Nintendo Switch 2. By years end players will get two free content drops, one of which is themed to Halloween and both include cosmetics and such. There will also be the first Bounty Pack released, which is included in the Deluxe and Super Deluxe versions of the game, which includes a lot of extra content.

In the first 3 months of 2026, the game will keep expanding with the second Bounty Pack and the first Story Pack, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned. Now there is a character in the Borderlands world with the name Ellie, but only time will tell if this is them or someone new. As the year progresses there will be more Bounty Packs and a second Story Pack and more. You can see all of that in the graphic below.

But what about fighting the bosses again, wasn’t that a thing? You are correct, it was confirmed back in the Gameplay Showcase that players would be able to visit Moxxi for a good time, namely by using her new Big Encore Machine, which lets you load up any boss fight you have beaten. That means that you can grind a fight over and over again, in order to get that sweet sweet loot, but don’t worry if you beat a boss in-game, you can jump back into the fight while you are there. This machine lets you relive any boss fight, without you having to fight your way back to them, but there is a cost involved.

The machine needs Eridium to run, so each time you use it, it will cost you some of that precious purple goodness. Of course, you can earn that more when you enable the Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, which would let you fight against more bosses, giving you better loot and letting you level up in the Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, it is a cycle.

Now as you will have noticed above, some of that content requires payment, but what about those players who can’t pay for the extra content, well fret not, you can still have a good time with the Weekly Big Encore Boss. This is the only time that Moxxi will give you a good time for free, as each week her machine will let players experience one boss for free. Now this won’t be the same boss, but a variant of them, which means the loot will also be different. But there is still more free, the follow text was provided by 2K and Gearbox:

In that same vein of embracing new challenges, all players will get the same Weekly Wildcard Mission marked on their map, ensuring that everyone takes on the same set of additional enemy traits so the community can collectively figure out the optimal ways to overcome this challenge. Best of all, Weekly Wildcard Missions will have a guaranteed Legendary drop that you can repeatedly earn to get your ideal roll.

Lastly, we're delighted to confirm that Maurice, everyone's favorite human-studying Saurian, has managed to set up shop on Kairos in Borderlands 4. Each week, Maurice's Black Market Machine will spawn in a new location somewhere on Kairos; if you manage to find it, you'll be able to purchase highly coveted Legendary loot for in-game cash. Although its location will be the same for all players each week, the inventory on offer in Maurice's Black Market Machine is unique to each player. It's worth regularly coordinating with friends and joining their game if their version of Maurice's Black Market Machine has the perfect Legendary you've been looking for, and vice versa!

There is even more news, but for that head over to the official Borderlands news page, there you can learn about Firmware. Given its complex nature, we did not want to try to explain it here.

Borderlands 4 is launching on September 12 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the game coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on October 3. If you want to pick up the game, be sure to check out our Bargain Guide, in order to save yourself whatever cash you can.