Ho, ho, ho! Happy holidays! Everyone is getting Borderlands 4‘s first DLC for free because the game needed so much post-launch fixing that Gearbox couldn’t finish the DLC in time, and will make it up to fans who paid for the pack with extra DLC next year.
When Borderlands 4 launched in September, it received praise for its open world, improved gunplay, and better-than-ever co-op gameplay. I really liked it! But performance issues and bugs on PC and console derailed some of the excitement, leading to Gearbox having to spend a lot of time fixing, improving, and updating the co-op-focused online looter shooter. In fact, according to Gearbox and 2K, the team spent so much time fixing stuff in Borderlands 4 that it screwed up the original roadmap.
On November 20, Gearbox announced that Borderlands 4′s first post-launch DLC, Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, will no longer be locked behind a paywall. Previously, the plan was for Borderlands 4 to get four smaller DLC drops, known as Bounty Packs, and you’d only have access to this new content if you had purchased the Deluxe Edition or Super Deluxe Edition, or had separately bought the Bounty Pack Bundle. However, things have changed as Gearbox was unable to include as much content as planned in the first DLC due to having to update Borderlands 4 so much, as explained in a press release.
“However, with the continued efforts to improve the Borderlands 4 experience, the team ran out of time to stuff as much mayhem-fueled content into the Bounty Pack 1 stocking as originally planned,” explained 2K and Gearbox. “So in the spirit of the season, and as a thank you to the community for their passion and support, 2K and Gearbox are excited to provide Bounty Pack 1…to all Borderlands 4 players for free!”
What’s included in Borderlands 4′s first DLC?
In the new DLC, How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, Borderlands 4 rebel leader Rush faces off against a new enemy, the miserly Minister Screw. This doofus is in charge of making sure people don’t celebrate the holidays and have fun. So across a series of new missions that make up a new questline, players will celebrate the holidays in defiance and take on Screw.
Bounty Pack 1 includes a new Vault Card with fresh rewards, 24 new cosmetic items, and new weapons, too. It looks like parts of the map will become Christmas-themed, too, complete with gifts and snow. To start the new DLC, just update your game and head to any major hub in Borderlands 4. There you’ll find a large gift-wrapped present marked on your map, which can be interacted with to start the holiday fun.
Keep in mind that Bounty Packs are smaller bits of paid content, and Borderlands 4 will also get two proper, much larger expansions as well as new playable characters next year, too.
Also arriving on Thursday is a big new gameplay update for Borderlands 4 that makes a lot of changes to the looter shooter. Perhaps the most exciting is that Wildcard Missions, which make up the bulk of the FPS’s endgame content, will no longer force you to play through the entirety of missions. Previously Wildcard Missions, which are just normal missions you replay with variables, forced you to sit through all the content, even if it was all tutorial crap. Gearbox is now promising new start points to drop players into the action sooner. And that sounds like a real holiday treat that will make grinding for loot in Borderlands 4 a lot more enjoyable and less annoying.
