Borderlands 4 State Of Play Showcases New Vault Hunters & Gameplay Mechanics

Borderlands 4 State Of Play Shows Off Two New Vault Hunters, Overhauled Skill Tree, & Gameplay Mechanics

Published Apr 30, 2025

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The Borderlands 4 State of Play today offered fans a deep dive into the gameplay of the title, introducing players to the new Vault Hunters, environments, mechanics, and ways to traverse the world. The next game in the series will continue the story where Borderlands 3 left off, taking the franchise six years into the future and departing from the planet of Pandora into the war-torn Kairos with a brand-new team of Hunters. A lengthy exploration of the gameplay showed off many new features, from the new characters to beloved classics.

ing players this time around are four new Vault Hunters, with the showcase focusing on two: Vex the Siren, and the former Tediore soldier Rafa. With a new planet come new environments, and Borderlands 4 will have new ways to get around within them. The title will have players running and gunning, but also climbing, double-jumping, grappling, dashing, gliding, and riding as they explore the new planet. The showcase also offered a look at the overhauled skill tree mechanic, which will give players more variety and customization options than ever before.

Borderlands 4 Previews Two New Vault Hunters

The Siren And The Exosuit-Wearing Ex-Soldier

The State of Play showed off two of the four new Vault Hunters, with a special emphasis on the new Siren, Vex. The nature of the specific rules regarding Sirens. The newest Siren will be able to either power herself up or summon minions with her Phase powers.

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Besides being able to control spectral summons and to grow dark dragon-like wings, Vex will have another useful power up her sleeve: her trusty companion, Trouble the familiar. The State of Play shows that Trouble (whose action skill is adorably named "Here Comes Trouble") will even be able to sync up to the element of whichever gun Vex is wielding, changing color to correspond to the element and making it even more deadly in combat. And yes, you can pet the kitty!

Rafa brings a different set of skills to the battleground. As a former Tediore trooper, Rafa wears an experimental exo-suit that he can use to digitally construct a variety of weapons like a duo of deadly knives. This makes him a versatile fighter able to whip out an additional arsenal besides the plethora of guns available for looting.

Borderlands 4 Will Have Brand New Ways To Interact With The Planet

BL4 Brings New Abilities, Mechanics, And Skill Trees

Exploring a brand-new planet is made easy with the newly introduced mechanics in Borderlands 4. Exploration seems like it will play an ever bigger role this time around than in any other Borderlands game, and the new traversal mechanics make it easy and fun to explore the vast environments.

From grappling and ziplining to climbing and gliding, players will have plenty of new ways to move from point A to point B. The return of vehicles-on-demand will allow players to catch a ride on the go by simply pulling out their personal vehicle, the customizable Digirunner. A drone companion will also accompany players, acting as their personal guide, hacking bot, and more.

The way you interact with enemies also looks quite different, as the skill tree is much more customizable thanks to a wide array of new options. Like before, Vault Hunters will have three unique Action Skills with corresponding trees to choose from, but each skill tree now has branching paths within it, offering a huge number of options and variety for a more personalized playstyle than in previous titles in the franchise. Borderlands 4 will be launching on September 12 this year and not September 23 as had previously been announced.

Source: PlayStation/YouTube