As was promised, the recent Borderlands 4 - State of Play delivered a LOT of new information about the next entry in the popular looter shooter, including details on a few of the new Vault Hunters, the new world and beyond. They also released a new trailer for the game, which you can check out below.

There were a lot of details revealed, you can watch the entire presentation at the bottom of the story, but here are the highlights.

New Vault Hunters

Vex the Siren is a powerful Siren who can empower herself or manifest deadly shades to fight alongside her.
Rafa the Exo-Soldier shines as a former Tediore trooper who wears an experimental exo-suit capable of digistructing an arsenal of weapons.

The other Vault Hunters are Harlowe and Amon, but the team have not revealed any details about them, you can see them in the gallery below.

New planet - Kairos

For thousands of years the planet Kairos was hidden from the galaxy by the oppressive Timekeeper. This mysterious being not only kept the planet hidden, but also kept the inhabitants of it controlled with cybernetic implants. Anyone who resisted was taken away by The Order, a group of synthetic soldiers who obeyed all orders without hesistation.

The events of Borderlands 3 have brought this planet back to the attention of the galaxy and with that, the new Vault Hunters have arrived onto it. Players will travel across the planet where they’ll encounter new and returning characters, creatures and inhabitants to battle, and unique factions spread across four distinct regions that seek freedom from the tyranny of the Timekeeper. The friends discovered along the way will be recruited by players to their cause while enemies will experience first-hand the arsenal of weapons and abilities wielded by the Vault Hunters.

Exploring the world should be more fun than ever before, as the team are promising very few loading screens, which would be nice, but beyond that the game also has some dynamic weather, meaning the same locations could change drastically each time you visit.

New companions

For the first time in the series history, all players will have a companion to join them on the adventure and its name is Echo-4, a new little robot. This companion will follow you around and hack terminals for you, provide guidance to your current objective and even scanning the environment.

The only other newly named character is Rush, seen in the image in the middle below. Details on who they are were not revealed, nor where there any details about the others shown off in the presentation.

Old Companions

It is not all new faces in the crowd as there are a number of familiar ones coming along for the adventure, Claptrap is back (good or bad you decide), but there is also Moxxi and Zane. While not named in the companions’ section, Amara was also included in that and then got more of a starring role in the later portion of the presentation.

Digi-runner

The new planet also means a new ride and this time it is the Digi-runner. With this ride, players can summon it at any time, no more Catch-a-ride station here and of course, colours can be changed to make it suit your design preference. But that is not all, the look can also be adjusted, making it even more bespoke and the handling itself can be adjusted, though there was not detail on to what degree, but even a few options would be nice.

It also has guns, because it’s a Borderlands vehicle.

Guns, guns and more guns

Speaking of guns, the game will offer a lot of them, which is standard for the series, but this time there have been some big changes. Many of the classic makers return, so fans of a particular gun type will be able to enjoy those, but there are three new makers being added to the mix.

What is more exciting though is that guns can now have different parts installed, from different makers. As you see in the image below, you can find guns that use parts from various makers, allowing guns to combine effects. These will be weapons you drop, there was no word on if you can customise a weapon yourself.

The other half of the gun changes are the new Enhancements. These slot into your gun and allow you to earn perks for using them with their corresponding weapon. As you can see in the screen below, there are different types for different makers and different rarities, but as you can mix and match on each weapon, there is going to be a lot of variety.

The final aspect to the guns is around the drop rates, which have been adjusted after Borderlands 3. The game will now deliver a better variety of weapons, but those hoping for a legendary right out of the gate should know that those have been cut back, so when you do finally discover one, it feels special.

Co-op Gameplay

Like every game in the series, the game can be played with friends through co-op and from day one it will offer cross-play, meaning your mates can play together no matter the platform they are on.

A nice addition this time is that players can play together, but still have their own difficulty level set. So, if you are a veteran and want a real challenge, but you are playing with a first-time player, you can both enjoy the challenge for your respective levels.

The other nice addition is if you split up to check things out, players can always warp back to each other, so getting lost is not a thing anymore.

There was a lot more to enjoy in the presentation, in fact you should just watch it below. It does run for a little over 20 minutes, so set some time aside, but if you have enjoyed the series in the past, then you should enjoy what this one has to offer.

Borderlands 4 is releasing on PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox Series X|S on September 12, the Nintendo Switch 2 release has not been dated at this time.