Borderlands 4 is a strange category of game for me. I consider it a quite enjoyable experience, with enough build variety and snappy enough gunplay that I’ve convinced most of my friend group to pick it up. However, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a game with so many “buts” as part of my elevator pitch. I feel like every step of the road has been a caveat that influences how my friends are “allowed” to enjoy the game fluently, even with someone like me (a grind-loving idiot).
However, something recently has given me a lot of faith: the first DLC. How Rush Saved Mercenary Day was designed as the first in a barrage of DLC packs for Borderlands 4. As the release date came up, Gearbox Software announced that they didn’t get everything they wanted together in time… and made it free. People who ordered the deluxe edition would still get four paid DLC packs, so they were adding this fifth one as part of that package. They didn’t reduce the price, delay it, or sit back and take the backlash; they made it free and paid it forward.
I’m sure this was a corporate decision to try to save the face of a game that’s been underperforming in its Steam reviews, but a part of me is optimistic that the developers really want the future of Borderlands 4 to be positive. So, without further ado, here are four things I want adjusted in Borderlands 4 to answer the age-old question: How can we make farming Rippers more enticing?
1. Make Side Quests Useful
Borderlands has been a series with fantastic side-quest design. Borderlands 2 in particular had an excellent reward structure, where you could pick specific quests to farm for much-needed loot: Class Mods, for example, could be found and readily farmed with the Grendel side quest. Some unique blue and purple weapons (like the Moxxi guns and their lifesteal effect) could only be found by navigating side content. Not to mention the side quests themselves were funny!
Borderlands 4 has a ton of side quests, and currently, they lead to very little unique loot. Sure, they have some legendary opportunities, but overall? You’re getting a random blue or purple assault rifle, or a green pistol. You’re not choosing to do a side quest for the loot; you’re doing it just for fun, or if you want a specific cosmetic (like Threshy. I like Threshy). This is a shame, since a narrative designer and developer worked hard on a lot of them, and many side missions unlock unique areas to explore.
While contracts are simple tasks that require killing a certain number of monsters or fetching an item, the genuine side quests include great stories, like a talking missile having an existential crisis or the Ripper “scientist” who wants to “save” other Rippers. There’s humor and curiosity, but the lack of good rewards makes them hard to be compelled by — especially when there’s nearly a hundred of them!
In a game where the bosses are easily farmed in multiplayer, having side quests with unique and interesting guns (even if they aren’t the strongest) would give players another avenue to craft a build and more incentive to explore the world. Maybe we could bring back the Sandhawk (an SMG with slow-firing bullets in the pattern of a bird) by putting it in a Carcadia Burns side mission, or hide a lifesteal shotgun behind a Terminus Range mission. Just give us a reason to do these quests! Maybe a long-ish side quest can provide three to four purple Class Mods to give us several chances at a good roll, or three to four heavy ordinances for the perfect Honey Bunches Rocket Launchers for Amon.
Alternatively, Gearbox could tie the unique weapons to side quest completion percentage. I think that option would be The Bad Timeline, but it’d at least be less effort and still give a reason to explore Borderland 4′s world.
2. Overhaul Class Mods
Speaking of loot, I think the current system of farming Class Mods is unsustainable. At the moment, to farm a legendary Class Mod, you have to go to a story boss (either in the main storyline or in a vault), punch them in the face, and hope for a drop. The boss has seven legendaries it can possibly drop, all at a low drop rate. One of them can be your character’s Class Mod, and that mod randomly spreads seven points across four character skills. Most successful builds require five points in one of the four skills.
Read those numbers again: seven points across four character skills that each require five points. As a result, you have to really specialize and commit. In essence, optimal Class Mod farming means staring at the same boss for hours, praying for a mod to drop that magically rolled five skill points into the one skill you’re looking for. I hate this in its current form.
As an improvement, I’d like to see the Firmware Machine (a station in major towns that lets players reallocate character bonuses) also allow you to create or change Class Mods. For an Eridium fee, you could adjust your purple and legendary Class Mods to get the points you need. This would help reduce the amount of time players grind Class Mods—a welcome change from throwing up my hands after trying to roll a +5 on the “Confeti” skill for a hypothetical Rafa grenade build.
3. Please Don’t Screw Up the Endgame
According to Gearbox’s post-launch roadmap, we have Invincible Raid Bosses in the cards, and I’m excited for them. I’m fairly confident they’ll have the right health bars, health gates, and mechanics to be interesting, and I’m not a good enough game developer to pretend I could design it perfectly.
However, I know what I’d like to see that’s currently missing: more cosmetics, achievements for killstreaks, and speedrunning challenges. Loot is good, but loot is currently the only part of Borderlands 4. Giving the community challenges (raiding with a particular build or character, and/or while timed) can hopefully add replayability to the Invincible Bosses in a way that’s legitimate but not overwhelming.
That being said, the absolute first priority is to ensure these fights are fun and the loot is enjoyable. We can add the cosmetics later. Just please nail the Invincible fight, Gearbox. Give us reason to farm to Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode 5 and defeat a big bad boss.
In terms of endgame content we have now, I’m just a touch worried about the damage that high-end builds can produce. Ordnance Amon, for example, absolutely shreds health bars. Neutron Capture Harlow is also incredibly strong, but a touch slower by comparison. Only time will tell if the endgame will leave players with a sour taste.
4. Holy Crap, Fix Multiplayer Please
I’ve gotten my entire Dungeons & Dragons group into Borderlands 4. And they all enjoy it… to a point.
There are a lot of problems. First, every online multiplayer session comes with a large chance of losing all skill ranks (i.e., specialization points) due to technical difficulties. Peer-to-peer connection leads to some hosts being significantly rougher than others. There are game-ruining glitches that stop you from firing or swapping weapons. It’s rough! And it’s been like this since the start. Friends tell me that couch co-op doesn’t have as many of those problems, but it comes with the downside that only Player 1’s character ever really gets to talk or appear in cutscenes, which is sad.
I know Gearbox’s first priority is to ensure the single-player experience is smooth and enjoyable, and then work outward from there. But client-specific jank has stayed incredibly rough since launch, and I feel terrible when my friend levels up mid-fight and stops feeling useful, only to realize the game forced them to remember what their skill tree actually looks like.
I don’t really have any constructive criticism here. This game’s online multiplayer is theoretically solid, with easy teleportation and the best multiplayer boss farming in the franchise thanks to the Moxxie machines. But good lord, it’s so buggy, and it seems that fixing the experience isn’t at the top of Gearbox’s to-do list.
And Yet… I’m Excited for More Borderlands 4
I want to end this by saying how much I do enjoy Borderlands 4. I’m having a good time trying out builds, killing bosses, and even grinding out loot (other than Class Mods). But I’m also slowly understanding the expansiveness of games these days. It can be hard for developers to put a lot of high-quality content into a game — and even then, people complain there isn’t enough.
I know the folks at Gearbox have love for this game, and I’m excited to see what other updates they have planned. From minor balance patches and major bug fixes to releasing a Rush-ed (ha!) DLC for free, I’m legitimately hopeful about the future of Borderlands 4.
I do want to be proven right, though. So please, Gearbox, in the kindest way possible: Fill out your world and make this game less annoying.
Borderlands 4, developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K, was released on September 12, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Jason graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in English and Game Design. For him, video games are not just an art form, but one of the greatest mediums to tell a story.
When not perpetuating the game journalist stereotype of being awful at a game and blaming the game for it, Jason likes writing short fiction novels that never get past chapter two, and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
