Borderlands 4 Updates to Focus on Buffing Underperforming Builds, But There’s a Catch

Borderlands 4‘s creative director reveals the studio’s priorities with updates, choosing to focus on buffing gear and skills first, rather than handing out nerfs to popular and powerful builds. Games that feature skill trees and classes, such as Borderlands 4, are typically subjected to fans trying to discover which skills can cause the most amount of damage in the least amount of time.

Already, players have seemingly uncovered which characters and coresponding trees are some of the best in Borderlands 4. Vex and Rafa are commonly mentioned thanks to the Bloodletter skill on the former, and the Peacerkeeper cannons on the latter. In fact, one Borderlands 4 player managed to create a Rafa build so powerful that they don’t even have to shoot guns to melt enemies. As fun as these builds can be, Gearbox recently shared their plans for dealing with them in future updates.

Borderlands 4 Focusing on Buffing Classes First

Borderlands 4 Creative Director Graeme Timmins gave fans a brief glimpse into upcoming patches and what they can expect. While Borderlands 4 has already released performance updates, the studio is preparing a gameplay-specific one which is going to start by buffing underperforming gear and skills, rather than prioritizing nerfs for everything deemed overpowered. Timmins does confirm that the studio is aware of builds that use “unintended interactions” and throwing knives that have the ridiculously strong Penetrator Augment perk.

However, there’s been plenty of discourse around what, if any, action will be taken against some of the strongest Borderlands 4 builds currently in the game. The Siren called Vex is at the top of most class lists thanks to a bleed build which lets players destroy enemies. As expected, Gearbox is planning to address these “busted” builds, likely indicating that certain ones are doing stuff that Gearbox hadn’t originally intended. While that nerf confirmation will likely be disappointing, Gearbox isn’t moving quickly to address it, letting fans play around with them while they work to fix the lesser popular skills first.

Timmins has been fairly active on social media as of late, responding to fan questions or giving players insight into the game. Recently, the creative director acknowledged a popular movement glitch called Cricket Jumping in Borderlands 4. While many players are likely hoping this glitch avoids getting patched, Timmins confirmed they’re watching it, but nothing is planned as of now. As it turns out, Cricket Jumping could cause game stability issues, at which point Gearbox would have to act on it to prevent the glitch from hurting the player experience, especially in co-op multiplayer.

Released

September 12, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact