What happens after the story in Borderlands 4? We take a look at the known endgame content of Borderlands 4 and compare it to Borderlands 3.
What is the endgame? The endgame is what happens after the story in Borderlands 4 is completed. For many players, this is a phase they enjoyed in the last games. Because it’s about building increasingly powerful builds, finding loot, and mastering difficult challenges.
Borderlands 4 seems to operate on this principle as well, though somewhat differently than Borderlands 3.
We will look at which features are known so far that will shape the endgame in Borderlands 4. We will also briefly review how it all actually looked in Borderlands 3.
Endgame in Borderlands 4: All known features so far
What can you do in Borderlands 4 after the story? Some endgame content was revealed recently. Most of the endgame revolves around finding better weapons and building more powerful builds for our Vault Hunters. We summarize them here for you.
Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
This mode will be unlocked after completing the campaign. Now enemies will be significantly stronger and more dangerous, but the loot will also be better. There should be a total of five difficulty levels that you can unlock one after the other by completing challenges throughout Kairos. Once you have completed enough challenges, you will receive a “Wildcard Mission” that throws particularly strong enemies at you.
Once you complete the Wildcard Mission, you unlock the next UVHM level.
Loot Farming
Loot farming is typical for the Borderlands series. Just think of Borderlands 3, when everyone fought Graveward over and over again to obtain some of the best items.
In part 4, we will also receive “dedicated drops,” meaning fixed-item weapons from various enemies. At the same time, the loot hunt should take you all over Kairos when you are searching for specific weapons.
At the same time, you can complete contracts to earn Eridium, which you can then use for other activities. Such as:
Moxxi’s Big Encore Machine
You can activate this “Big Encore Machine” in exchange for Eridium. There, you can repeatedly fight bosses you have already defeated. This helps with loot farming.
Weekly Challenges
There will be new challenges every week. One is the “Weekly Big Encore Boss,” a boss that rotates weekly and that all players can challenge at Moxxi’s machine. It is expected to be even tougher.
Additionally, there will be the weekly Wildcard Challenge that all players will receive. It won’t be easy, but it guarantees a legendary loot drop.
Maurice the Dinosaur
Every week Maurice, known from Borderlands 3, will be roaming around with black market weapons. But he will be located in a different spot on the planet each time. There you can get special loot each week.
Firmware
This refers to bonuses that can be tied to certain items and improve various stats or grant you new abilities. They are not found on weapons, but rather on items like shields, class mods, and similar items. There are three tiers of these parts. This is another way to improve builds. Firmware is available even before the endgame, but some content will only drop in UVHM.
Specializations
They function similarly to the Guardian Ranks in Borderlands 3. They provide bonuses to your stats and additional abilities that you can unlock by leveling up the specialization rank.
Invincibles
The “Invincible” bosses will await you in certain arenas on Kairos. They will have extremely high health, deal significant damage, and come with crazy modifiers. They drop powerful loot but will be tough to defeat. They will not be available right at the start of the game. The first “Invincible” is expected to appear in the fourth quarter of 2025, a bit after the release.
Pearl Weapons
The pearl rarity from Borderlands 2 is returning, but only in the first quarter of 2026. These are even rarer but better weapons than legendary weapons.
What did the endgame look like in Borderlands 3?
The endgame in Borderlands 4 is not exactly the same as in Borderlands 3, but it does seem quite related. The main differences are as follows:
- The “True Vault Hunter Mode” in Borderlands 3 was essentially a New Game Plus with tougher challenges but also better loot. The new Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode seems to separate itself from the story – you do not play through it again.
- The Mayhem mode in Borderlands 3 included modifiers that made the enemies tougher and increased the challenge. That seems to be taken over by UVHM.
- The Ring of Mayhem, the proving grounds, and the takedowns were different locations in BL3 where you could face waves of enemies. They were repeatable and among the hardest tasks in the game.
Here, BL4 seems to be trying to provide something comparable with the Wildcard Missions and the Invincible bosses, but it doesn’t seem to be exactly the same.
Otherwise, the majority of the endgame in Borderlands 3 also revolved around building better builds and mastering new challenges. To what extent this works as well in Borderlands 4, and how the endgame content differs in detail, remains to be seen!
Roadmap for Borderlands 4
To provide a better overview, Borderlands 4 has also released a roadmap graphic. It includes the bounty packs and DLCs that will be released after the launch.
Looking at the timeline, the following points can be seen:
- There will be a free seasonal event “Horrors of Kairos” shortly after release, featuring new legendary weapons, cosmetics, and weather effects. Borderlands 3 also had such events, for example around Halloween.
- The first Invincible boss will also be free, along with new legendary weapons and another UVHM level.
- In 2026, more Invincible bosses are to be released.
- Paid content will include Bounty Pack 1 and 2, with new missions, bosses, legendary gear, and cosmetics, as well as Story Pack 1, which will be released in Q1 2026. The Story Pack will bring new story missions, new map sections, new side missions, weapons, cosmetics, and especially another Vault Hunter.
- Bounty Pack 3 and 4 as well as Story Pack 2 have also been announced, but without a more precise timeframe yet.
On September 12, Borderlands 4 will be released, so it won’t be long now. What content are you particularly looking forward to? And what do you think of the endgame announced so far? Let us know in the comments! All other information regarding the story, the Vault Hunters, the new features – you can find in our overview of the release of Borderlands 4.
