Gearbox has revealed the full endgame content roadmap for Borderlands 4 at PAX West

Gearbox Software revealed extensive details about Borderlands 4’s endgame systems and post-launch content roadmap at the Gearbox Main Theatre Show during PAX West 2025. 

According to the event, Borderlands 4’s endgame phase will enable players to level up their characters through weekly challenges and unlockable specializations, allowing for deeper loadout customization —a feature the developers learned from previous installments in the franchise.

The beloved Vault Hunter mode will make a reimagined return, featuring five difficulty levels that will ramp up the game’s difficulty without the need to replay the campaign. Players will advance through curated mission challenges designed to test specific loadouts and builds, allowing them to hone their skills while eliminating repetitive loot farming.

Players will get their hands on Firmware set bonuses for gear at around level 25 during the campaign, with accrued Firmware allotting higher stat bonuses which can be transferred to another item once before the original is destroyed.

Gearbox is also introducing Weekly Wildcards, which will rotate with missions and guarantee a Legendary reward, including the Weekly Big Encore Boss, where Moxxi picks one boss for better encounters, unlockable with Eridium for boosted drop rates. Alongside this is Maurice’s Black Market Machine, which scatters loot across multiple points of interest on Kairos for players to discover.

Gearbox further detailed its post-launch roadmap, offering a mix of free updates along with paid DLCs to prolong the game’s lifespan. Borderlands 4 will feature free Seasonal Mini-Events in October 2025, like Horrors of Kairos, which will allow players to unlock new Legendary weapons, cosmetics, and a unique weather variant.

Invincible Bosses will also return as high-level challenges in new arenas, focusing on Borderlands 4’s new traversal mechanics. Furthermore, players will also get to enjoy a new Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, which Gearbox described as:

“Think of them as bosses on steroids: new unique mechanics, massive health pools, extremely lethal attack damage, and other new modifiers that can make quick work of any unprepared Vault Hunters.” 

On the paid side of things, the roadmap is divided into Story and Bounty Packs. The first Bounty Pack will arrive in Q4 2025, offering further lore on Rush, the leader of the Outbounders, new main missions, a boss, Legendary Gear, a player skin, an ECHO-4 drone skin, one new vehicle, and a Vault card that unlocks 24 cosmetics plus four picks of rerollable gear.

The second Bounty Pack will arrive in Q1 2026, alongside a free Pearlescent items update, which will give players a chance to drop ultra-rare gear, a level higher than Legendary

As for the Story Packs, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned will launch in Q1 2026, flush with a cosmic horror theme, darker and grittier than the Borderlands franchise’s comedic slapstick approach.