In a surprise move, Gearbox Software has made Borderlands 4’s first Bounty Pack, How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, free for all players. It’s available today, and it appears the main reason it’s free is that it’s light on content. As a result, the team is adding a fifth Bounty Pack in 2026 for all owners of the Deluxe Edition, the Super Deluxe Edition, and the Bounty Pack Bundle, at no additional charge. This way, those players who paid will still get four Bounty Pack DLCs.
As for Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, it adds a new boss, new legendary loot, new cosmetics, and new missions to Borderlands 4, all with a holiday theme. If you want to give Gearbox the benefit of the doubt, the team said it ran short on time, since it is a holiday-themed DLC, so it launched with less content than they intend for other Bounty Packs. It does seem like this is the best move Gearbox could have made, making it free for everyone.
In the DLC, players will team up with Rush and teach Minister Screw the true meaning of Mercenary Day, and all players will be gifted Bounty Pack 1 via the November 20 update at 9:00 AM Pacific (12:00 PM Eastern). Once players update, they can interact with a gift-wrapped present, which is marked on the map as a new mission, to start the mission. Bounty Pack 1 also includes a Vault Card with four new pieces of rerollable gear and 24 new cosmetics.
Gearbox also announced that it has started development on Takedown content, which will be part of a free update for all players next year. Takedown is being designed as an extremely challenging gauntlet through a new area, featuring hordes of enemies and new boss encounters.
Borderlands 4 was one of our most anticipated games of the year, since we had enjoyed hundreds of hours in previous entries in the series. While we did find Borderlands 3 disappointing, we enjoyed our time with Borderlands 4. In my review, I said the game is a direct answer to all the criticisms of Borderlands 3, but it does feel like it might have overcorrected a bit. Still, there are very few games that offer the amount of fun we always have when playing Borderlands as a group.
