Borderlands 4 smashes its way straight into your screen. The latest entry in Gearbox and 2K’s long-running looter-shooter franchise promises nonstop action on the brand new planet of Kairos. Its citizens are under the yoke of a nefarious leader known as the Timekeeper, and it’s up to you to stop him.

Our Borderlands 4 beginner's guide has all the tips you need to help you get started on your journey—the classes you'll choose from, new mechanics to master, and what you can expect as you explore the world and conclude the campaign.

 

Pick the right class for your playstyle

Borderlands 4, like its predecessors, lets you choose from four unique character classes. Each one also has powerful capabilities that should suit any playstyle.

• Vex (Siren): As a Siren, Vex can use magical abilities to summon minions, including specters that reap foes and a big cat that pounces on hostiles. 
• Amon (Forgeknight): Amon is a melee specialist who can take and dish out a lot of damage. He can create energy shields, smash a target with his fists, or throw flaming and freezing axes.
• Rafa (Exo-Soldier): Rafa has access to several mechanical upgrades, including a lance that blasts enemies, shoulder-mounted cannons, and dual blades.
• Harlowe (Gravitar): As a former engineer, Harlowe has created a bunch of contraptions that help out on the battlefield, including a gravity bubble that lifts and slams opponents and a device that damages enemies while restoring the shields of friendlies.

If you’d like to learn more about the characters, you can head over to our Borderlands 4 best class guide.

 

Choose the best skills and specializations to complement your build

You earn skill points whenever you level up. From there, you can unlock new abilities and passive boosts for your character:

• Action Skills: Pick one as your main ability. Each one has its own corresponding skill tree.
• Kill Skills: These trigger whenever your character defeats an enemy.
• Augments: These grant new or improved effects when you hold down the Action Skill button.
• Capstones: These are the strongest perks that you can acquire for a particular skill tree.

Specializations meanwhile are unlocked once you’ve completed the campaign. Once unlocked, Specializations give you a separate skill tree that starts at Level 1, and you allocate more points to unlock passive boons.

Both skills and Specializations can be reset at the Respec Machine in a Faction Town. However, skill resets cost cash, whereas Specialization resets cost Etherium.

 

Take note of item rarities and the types of equipment

Remember: Borderlands 4 is a looter-shooter. That means your gear determines how effective you are in battle. Your gear loadout includes up to four guns, a healing Repkit, shield/armor, enhancement, a class-specific mod, and ordnance. Note that the ordnance slot in Borderlands 4 can contain throwable items, explosives, and even cannons or miniguns, all of which can be reused once the charge is no longer on cooldown.

Keep item rarities in mind, too. Rarities span Common (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), Epic (purple), and Legendary (orange). Naturally, the higher the rarity, the higher the chances that you’ll find more mods and perks for that weapon’s “roll.”

 

Maximize the efficiency of elemental properties, licenses, and Firmware

Weapons and ordnance might contain elemental effects that will help you against opponents. Pick the right elemental for the situation:

• Kinetic: Has no elemental properties.
• Incendiary: Very strong against flesh, i.e. unshielded and unarmored foes.
• Cryo: Weak against flesh, decent against armor, and strong against shields.
• Shock: Weak against flesh and armor, but very strong against shields.
• Corrosive: Decent against flesh, very strong against armor, but very weak against shields.
• Radiation: Decent against flesh, weak against armor, and strong against shields.

Items might also include properties innate to a particular manufacturer, such as Maliwan, Vladof, and even enemy factions like Rippers and the Order.

You can use Transfer Machines once you’ve beaten Borderlands 4. These contraptions allow you to take Firmware mods—an item’s set bonus—and apply them to another gear piece of the same kind.

 

Make use of new traversal options

Borderlands 4 offers even more ways to traverse areas:

• Digirunner: A high-speed vehicle that you can drive all over Kairos.
• Glider: Lets you move in mid-air to reach distant platforms.
• Grapple: A multipurpose tool that allows you to latch onto grapple points. You can also use it to pull canisters and explosives towards you and then toss them at your opponents.

When in doubt, use Echo-4 to scan your surroundings

Your trusty drone, Echo-4, can help out whenever you need to reach a location or find a particular quest. If you’re tracking a mission, simply press the 'Z' key to scan your surroundings. This reveals a line that leads to your destination. Certain items, such as datapads or objects required for quests, might even show up as an icon on your screen.

 

Tackle Bounties to obtain more loot

There are a lot of activities that you can tackle in Borderlands 4 aside from the main story. Bounty Boards, for instance, have short and straightforward tasks that yield rewards:

• Patrol: Defeat a certain number of enemies.
• Acquire: Pick up quest items in an area.
• Collect: Pick up quest items dropped by hostiles.
• Vile Bounty: Eliminate a tougher target. This type of enemy has Vile Crystals protruding on its body. Destroy the crystals first to deal damage.

Complete Challenges and Milestones to earn rewards

You can obtain tons of goodies just by progressing through Borderlands 4 normally. That’s because of all the tasks in the Missions – Challenges menu. Examples of general tasks include killing enemies with a particular manufacturer's weapon or defeating foes with a certain skill.

Milestones (achieved for completing main missions, for instance) are also useful to keep an eye on as you progress through the game. They tend to reward you with cosmetics, including hairstyles, character outfits, weapon stickers, and drone customization options.

 

Unlock Safehouses and other points-of-interest

The world of Kairos is vast and you'll spend many hours wandering its regions and sub-zones. Of course, it’s also a good idea to speed up your exploration by unlocking ways to teleport around the world.

• Faction Towns: Controlled by the main faction in a region. These hubs have several NPC quests, Bounty Boards, Respec and Transfer Machines, and other contraptions.
• Fast Travel Station: Landmarks along the road that allow for instantaneous teleportation.
• Safehouses: You can unlock these facilities by finding a datapad and activating the control terminal. Safehouses also have vending machines and Bounty Boards.

Discover a plethora of collectibles and secrets

Borderlands 4 is packed full of countless collectibles that you can grab while you roam around regions. These include Vault Fragments, Vault Symbols, Vault Hunter’s Guides to Kairos, Evocariums, Survivalist Caches, Lost Capsules, and many more. Yes, you could even look for a whopping 159 Echo Logs and 200 Marcus Bobbleheads.

The collectibles you find aren’t just mere tallies in a menu. They also reward you with Storage Deck Upgrades (SDUs), so you can increase your inventory and ammo storage capacity.

 

Seek aid from your buddies and other NPCs

On PC, you can take on all of Borderlands 4's challenges with up to four people in co-op multiplayer—and naturally, if you’re downed in the middle of battle, you can (hopefully) rely on your friends to revive you when the coast is clear.

If you’re playing solo, don't worry—there’s still a chance that NPCs will rescue you from death. This can happen during missions where NPC companions are present or in open-world areas where friendlies are nearby, like the areas around Safehouses and Faction Towns.

 

Ramp up the challenge with Ultimate Vault Hunter mode

Once you’ve beaten the campaign, you can ramp up the difficulty by unlocking Ultimate Vault Hunter mode. Each rank increases loot quality, XP, Eridium, and cash—but also increases enemy health, levels, and the damage that you take. You can learn more about this mode in our Ultimate Vault Hunter and Borderlands 4 endgame guide.

Borderlands 4 is available now on the Epic Games Store.