In August, Borderlands 4 shared its post-launch roadmap ahead of the game’s release, but there were some mysteries. During the game’s panel at PAX Australia this past weekend, Gearbox Software revealed details about all the major updates coming to the game before the end of the year. Borderlands 4’s first paid DLC, Bounty Pack 1, is titled How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, and it goes live on November 20. Before that, though, all players will get access to the free limited-time Seasonal Mini-Event, Horrors of Kairos, which runs from October 23 to November 6 to celebrate Halloween. Also available for free before the end of the year will be an Invincible Boss and an additional Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode level.
How Rush Saved Mercenary Day will be a Bounty Pack to get us all in the holiday spirit. Bounty Packs are paid DLC featuring “bite-sized-yet-flavorful narrative content,” as well as new gear to earn and cosmetics to collect. They also include a Vault Card to unlock additional loot through gameplay (think a battle pass). How Rush Saved Mercenary Day is the first of four Bounty Packs included in the Bounty Pack Bundle, which is part of the Deluxe Edition and Super Deluxe Edition of Borderlands 4. It’s also available separately for $39.99.
This first one focuses on Rush, the leader of the Outbounders, who is feeling homesick for the holidays. Looking forward to Mercenary Day, which is a time for gift-giving and gunslinging with friends and family, Rush looks to bring some festive cheer to Kairos. But in true Borderlands fashion, that hope stands in direct opposition to someone, and in this case, it’s Screw. As the Timekeeper’s Minister of Culture, Screw is charged with keeping celebrations as bland and homogeneous as possible. The Vault Card in this Bounty Pack includes four rerollable weapons; four Vault Hunter heads; four Vault Hunter skins usable by Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe; five weapon skins; five vehicle skins; four ECHO-4 drone skins; and two ECHO-4 attachments.
Shortly after starting How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, players will be given one new Digirunner vehicle. After beating the boss and completing the Bounty Pack’s final main mission, they’ll also get one Vault Hunter skin usable by Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe, as well as an ECHO-4 drone skin.
As for free content, Horrors of Kairos will bring world boss encounters that change the weather to a terror-inducing blood rain. New Legendary loot will be available as world boss kill rewards, including the Murmur Legendary Tediore Assault Rifle and Skully Legendary Order Grenade. Gearbox will also release a pumpkin head cosmetic for Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe, as well as a Hex Appeal weapon skin that can be equipped to any weapon. Those will come in the form of SHiFT codes during the event running from October 23 to November 6.
Before the end of the year, Borderlands 4 will add the first of the endgame Invincible Bosses, Bloomreaper the Invincible. As a throwback to the raid bosses of previous Borderlands games, these Invincible Bosses aren’t actually unkillable, but they’ll be huge bullet sponges with massive health pools, extremely lethal attack damage, and new modifiers. Those who manage to conquer Bloomreaper will have a chance at all-new Legendary loot. We’ll have to wait until December 2025 to learn more, but players will also get a new UVHM level as part of that update.
Unfortunately, the update at PAX Australia didn’t share any more details on the game’s first Story Pack DLC. We’ve gotten a teaser for the first of two new Vault Hunters, C4SH, who will be part of the paid Story Pack DLC. We’ll have to wait until early next year to learn more.
As a group, we really enjoyed our time with Borderlands 4 last month and are looking forward to its updates. Unfortunately, much of the content is behind a paywall, but if you’ve been with the Borderlands franchise, it’s no surprise. Still, like I said in my review, Borderlands 4 launches with a ton of content this time around, enough to justify its price. The performance issues on PC, on the other hand, are another story.
