Borderlands 4 Gives Away Free DLC to All Players in Huge New Update

Gearbox Software has today pushed out one of the biggest updates yet for Borderlands 4 which notably gives players access to free DLC. Throughout the course of 2026, a lot of DLC for the newest Borderlands game is set to release and will add new Vault Hunters, gear, and story content for players to dig into. In advance of these more sizable expansions going live, though, the first such piece of DLC has dropped today and surprisingly won’t cost anything.

Downloadable now across all platforms, Bounty Pack 1 for Borderlands 4 is here and is titled “How Rush Saved Mercenary Day”. Bounty Packs are poised to be smaller DLC drops when compared to Story Packs and will predominantly center around new cosmetics and missions that players can take on. While Bounty Packs will normally cost money, Bounty Pack 1 is holiday-themed and has been released by Gearbox for nothing at all. To make up for this, those who already purchased the Bounty Pack Bundle and were promised four premium pieces of DLC will be getting a fifth Bounty Pack in 2026.

Outside of this DLC, Gearbox has also made hundreds of new changes to Borderlands 4 with this title update. Of these adjustments, the most notable are tied to Weekly Wildcard Missions, which have now introduced new starting points. Other noteworthy tweaks have been made to the Phosphene weapon challenge and class mods, just to name a few.

To get a look at everything that has been done to Borderlands 4 with this update and to check out what’s included in Bounty Pack 1, you can find the full patch notes and a new trailer below.

Borderlands 4 November 20th Update Patch Notes

Gameplay & Mission Progression

• Addressed an issue that could cause the loss of SDU Tokens or Specialization points; this also returns missing tokens and points to those impacted
• Resolved an interaction where players could not repurchase a boss encounter after all party members were defeated and respawned in multiplayer
• Slide-attacking lootable objects will now open or break them consistently
• Resolved progression blockers for more intuitive gameplay during Faction Survivalist, Wayward Gun, Another Day, Another Universe, the Badass Phalanx bounty, and the Black Market Tutorial
• Corrected behavior where mission items could disappear after replaying and exiting a mission, preventing completion
• Prevented rare instances of some enemies turning into NPCs and becoming unkillable
• Adjusted tracking on some challenges and achievements to award progress as intended
• Dev Note: The Professional now only awards progress for designated challenge conditions, while Private Reserve and What Have We Here? will progress correctly when opening chests with melee attacks. The Arena Grande achievement should consistently unlock in multiplayer.
• Mort will revive players more consistently during Thresher Rancher 
• Resolved a condition where vehicles could be instantly destroyed if summoned immediately after using a Repkit with the Splat trait
• Adjusted object placement and pathing across multiple missions, ensuring proper enemy spawns, interactions, Echolocation, and waypoint alignment
• Synchronized some mismatched animations and behaviors in multiplayer
• Resolved a reported issue where players could become briefly suspended in midair when exiting mission replay while jumping or swimming
• Addressed a bug causing the Chopper vehicles to remain in a falling state after performing a vertical jump or powerslide
• Prevented vehicle summoning in restricted indoor areas such as the Umbral Foundry Fortress
• Removed the penalty during Scoundrel Roundup: Kilo if the panel is shot twice
• Updated Mimicron’s combat behavior so it can no longer be stun-locked by singularity effects in the Tipping Point Bunker
• Updated Patrol Ripper contract to progress with intended sources
• Updated the Order Bunker boss Fractis encounter to ensure the boss remains defeatable after entering its shielded phase in The Crawlfort
• Adjusted behavior in The Next Quest Thing so the mission can consistently be accepted after saving and reloading
• Improved enemy physics in Gone Are My Leggies to prevent The Beastie from being launched out of the playable area when hit with high-impact weapons
• Restored ECHO Log rewards for completing optional objectives in three micro-missions when played solo
• Adjusted Arjay’s resistances so status effect damage-over-time now applies correctly
  • Dev Note: Visual inconsistencies with Arjay’s wings might appear as a result of this change, but will not impact gameplay. 
• Adjusted arena boundaries so Locust’s gas canisters now spawn correctly within the arena during the Idolator Sol encounter in Fortress Indomita

Vault Hunters

Amon, the Forgeknight

• Updated Forgeknight Forgedrone challenge so it unlocks properly upon meeting completion requirements
• Corrected skill tree investment functionality to prevent Forgeknight from applying skill points out of order
• Updated weapon input handling so Forgeknight can reliably swap weapons after using the whip attack

Rafa, the Exo-Soldier

• Exo-Soldier’s Soltado Kill Skill passive has been adjusted to function properly with two skill points
• Improved PROJECT: Raiju capstone behavior so APOPHIS Lance consistently damages enemies during extended uptime
• Adjusted Booming Business passive’s functionality to prevent grenade spawns when the passive skill exceeds its intended level cap
• Updated the Temerario passive skill so it provides the intended gun damage bonus rather than a general damage increase

Vex, the Siren

• Updated challenge tracking so the Target Prescience passive only progresses when damaging valid targets

Harlowe, the Gravitar

• Ensured that QED passive skill would remain functional in multiplayer
• Updated Gravitar’s Zero-Point Action Skill so it now properly enters cooldown when used on enemies immune to Stasis. Previously, using the skill on a Stasis-immune target after affecting a normal enemy could cause it to remain active instead of triggering cooldown 

All Vault Hunters

• Adjusted critical hit calculations so gun and enhancement damage now applies correctly to all valid hit regions
• Adjusted Cryo resistance scaling so enemy resistances now correctly match each player’s level in multiplayer sessions
• Prevented Action Skills from activating during the first loading screen before entering active gameplay
• Updated kill volume logic to ensure Vault Hunters cannot cheat death while in FFYL and healing with the Legendary Shield Guardian Angel
• Ensured sniper ammo displays full capacity when creating a level 30 Vault Hunter

Gear and Rewards

• Adjusted melee damage on Bayonet weapons so that melee damage increases with bayonet parts
• Updated beam weapon behavior so they will deal proper damage when thrown
• Addressed an interaction allowing players to infinitely scale the splash radius of homing sticky projectiles when using Torgue Legendary Pistol Queen’s Rest with certain builds and firmware combinations
• Updated Skully grenade to adjust projectile damage for consistent output
• Corrected boss health bar updates so sustained heavy Ordnance damage with Amon now displays correctly
• Updated Torgue Heavy Weapon Ravenfire so it now correctly applies elemental damage when equipped with elemental parts
• Adjusted Maliwan Heavy Weapon behavior so projectiles created from a hit don’t detonate immediately after spawning
• Corrected the explosion delay of Fuel Rod Discharge to match its description of 3 seconds when used on Ripper shotguns
• Adjusted Rolling Thunder underbarrel grenades on Torgue shotguns to behave predictably on vertical surfaces instead of ricocheting excessively
• Prevented bosses from floating when Exo-Soldier’s Booming Business passive skill was triggered with Order Legendary Grenade Skully
• Addressed a condition where the Vladof Legendary Shield Heavyweight could lose functionality after activating Forgeknight Onslaughter skill
• Adjusted projectile interaction during the fight with Vile Ripper so players can now destroy the homing “Unstable Ore” projectiles
• Updated collision behavior so Jakobs Throwing Knife grenades correctly impact the orb surrounding Vile Ordonite of Corrupted enemies
• Adjusted some gear that was behaving inconsistently in multiplayer, such as: the bounce-back force of The Order Legendary pistol Noisy Cricket, reload animation timing for the Jakobs shotgun Hot Slugger, and misaligned accuracy of the Daedalus pistol Bonn-91
• Standardized some instances of Firmware 3-piece bonus cooldowns to appear consistently. Visual cooldowns have been added for Oscar Mike, Ahoy, and Daed-dy O’
• Drops are no longer kept in the air when lowering the platform in All Charged Up 
• Restored functionality allowing players to loot and preview weapons from red chests after completing the Blacklime Bunker

Gear Balance:

Darkbeast

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Explosion Chance increased from 5% to 20%
• Damage increased by 15%

Prince Harming

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Self Damage amount reduced from 5% to 1.5% of damage done
• Damage increased by ~24%

Onslaught:

• Damage increased by 75% 

Ruby’s Grasp:

• Damage increased by ~40%

Lucky Clover:

• Damage increased by 37.5%

Vamoose:

• Damage increased by 20%

Asher’s Rise

• Addressed a scaling issue
• Damage increased by 5%

Firmware Balance:

Get Throwin’:

• Ordnance Damage increased from 10% to 35%

Daed-dy O’:

• Damage increased from 20% to 35%
• Mag Size increase from 15% to 20%

Rubberband Man:

• Damage Reduction increased from 5% to 10%
• Lifesteal increased from 5% to 10%

Jacked:

• Zoom-in Speed bonus increased from 20% to 35%
• Hyperion Shield Capacity bonus increased from 25% to 50%
• Ricochet chance increased from 30% to 40%

Atlas Ex:

• Mode Swap Speed increased from 25% to 33%
• Damage while locked increased from 10% to 25%

Atlas Infinium:

• Fire Rate bonus increased from 5% to 12%
• Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%

Reel Big Fist:

• Explosion Radius slightly increased

Airstrike:

• Missile damage increased by 35%
• Decreased Cooldown from 8s to 5s

UI, UX, & Text

• Restored filter functionality to Lost Loot menus and addressed non-functional filter selections and sorting dropdowns  
• Updated the Lost Loot menu so the selected sort option is retained after exiting and re-entering
• Adjusted map icon layering so Main Mission icons no longer overlap Wildcard Mission Giver
• Adjusted scrolling behaviors in menus in splitscreen
• Ensured the Transfer Machine remains open after exiting inspect mode
• Added separate sensitivity sliders for mouse and controller inputs in the Controls (Basic) menu on PC
• Corrected the buddy widget display so respawned characters no longer appear as “still respawning” 
• Updated item rarity displays to show the correct color and tier when playing in non-English languages
• Removed extra ECHO Log slots 
• Restored missing item thumbnails in the bank menu and improved loading speed for equipped and backpack item thumbnails when large numbers of items are stored in the bank
• Updated Explore Menu positioning so it displays correctly in front of the explored region during vertical split-screen
• Adjusted layout so Item Cards no longer overlap when compared in horizontal split-screen
• Addressed a reported issue where weapons could unequip and disappear when changing their customization in the Status menu
• Corrected overshield coloration and behavior for pets and buddy widgets so that health, shield, and armor visuals now display properly
• Adjusted Contract trackers to only appear when the Contract is active
• Resolved a reported issue where mission-related celebratory notifications could display duplicate icons
• Added the missing “Restart to Apply Changes” prompt when adjusting texture quality during gameplay
• Updated option descriptions to be more intuitive and player-friendly
• Addressed the chaos displayed by the “SHiFT code is valid” countdown in the SHiFT menu
• Updated controller prompts so the correct input type displays when opening the SHiFT menu from the main men
• Removed an extra scrollbar that could appear when Reporting Users
• Addressed text inconsistencies in some side missions
• Updated D-pad functionality on controller to behave as expected
• Preserved key bindings that could be removed between sessions for non-English keys 
• Standardized ECHO Log tracking for the Kairos Speaks challenge to ensure totals display consistently between general and mission log views 
• Updated localization, mission naming, and various text descriptions across the game
• Updated end credits

Visuals

• Addressed reported instances where players could become invisible when performing a Vault-level transition during a travel tunnel
• Addressed an issue with missing parts and textures on gear
• Updated ECHO-4 character model and digistruct to have lights, eyes, and thruster effects appear correctly
• Adjusted fishing point visuals so markers no longer appear incorrectly on terrain near Sandytoes Villa
• Updated level geometry and collision across multiple regions to prevent players from becoming stuck, falling out of bounds, or being blocked by invisible surfaces
• Adjusted grappling points and traversal paths in multiple missions to prevent players from chaining grapples into unintended areas or losing functionality
• Addressed misplaced or inaccessible loot containers, including strongboxes and vending-area chests in The Wireworks and Windspear
• Addressed inaccurate rendering of water in some locations
• Corrected lingering slide smoke effects that could appear when moving or jumping after performing a slide
• Turned off the mining laser after shutting down the second Eridium generator in Terminus Range
• Corrected visual stretching on character and NPC cloth when adjusting the FOV while the game is paused
• Updated Dark Subject mission so Tim’s weapon now properly disappears with his model during the “Kill Tim”
• Addressed multiple reported animation inconsistencies including gear, NPCs, hand stuttering, root-lock issues, and visual glitches during combat actions. These improvements remove visible sliding or snapping during melee or grapple sequences
• Improved environmental synchronization in multiplayer
• Adjusted mouth animation timing for Callis in Another Day, Another Universe and for Numba One in Mob Mentality so dialogue syncs correctly
• Balanced underwater lighting and brightness near Belton’s Bore (The Low Leys, Mountains) for more consistent visual clarity when diving below the surface 
• Repaired a purple light texture that appeared after interacting with the Auger Shrine in Terminus Range
• Optimized beam effects on some Order gear with lasers
• Standardized bullet shell ejection visuals for Daedalus pistols
• [SPOILER] The smoke during Sophia’s death wasn’t goth enough and was changed from orange to black 
• Updated the fade on digistruct to be less uniform
• Resolved flickering from Exo-Soldier’s PROJECT: Raiju Capstone effect when used inside the Order Bunker
• Updated vehicle materials to display correctly after applying paintjobs in the customization menu
• Adjusted deployable barrier visuals on shields and Shield Boi 
• Faded the red light trails from Atlas underbarrel tracking Darts and Balls on Jakobs pistols
• Tuned brightness of target marker visuals when using the Ripper Sniper Rifle tracking mode against certain bosses
• Corrected firing animations for Vladof submachine guns with the Extra Barrel underbarrel and Torgue shotguns with Daedalus ammo switcher
• Adjusted Order grenade to no longer slide across the ground when dropped from the inventory
• Adjusted animation blending for Daedalus shotguns using Maliwan Element Switcher to eliminate abrupt snapping and to prevent the secondary magazine from appearing loaded when using the primary firing mode

Audio

• Resolved a reported issue where the crowd could continue to make sounds after they stopped spawning during the Null and Void mission
• Prevented host players from temporarily losing audio if another player joined their session while they were in an ECHO menu in multiplayer
• Addressed missing or incomplete sound effects when looting in multiplayer sessions
• Made the really loud bird in Grasslands quieter 
• Additional audio balance adjustments

Player Experience

• Improvements to stability and optimization
  • Dev Note: We are continuing to investigate and will make further improvements to stability and performance.
• Updated PS5 controller LEDs to change color based on the player’s active elemental type
• Addressed unintended adaptive trigger feedback that occurred with Ripper weapons while reloading or firing without ammo