Borderlands 4 1.6 Patch Notes (30th April 2026)

Today, we released the Version 1.6 update for Borderlands 4 with a massive batch of enhancements. Our team has been hard at work improving the gameplay to ensure your time on Kairos is as smooth and rewarding as possible.

In this update, we've focused on getting you into action faster with streamlined interactions and more powerful rewards. Key updates include:

• Content Overhauls: Major updates to Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned.
• Quality of Life: Improved interactions for our latest Vault Hunter, C4SH the Rogue
• Loot and UI: The Pearlescent loot chase is now more streamlined, damage numbers are more predictable, and menus are significantly easier to navigate.

We hope you enjoy the changes! The team's already looking ahead to the coming months: our next big update is slated for May 28, featuring the Raid Boss 2 encounter with Subjugator and Thol the Invincible, new rewards, UVH level 7, and some additional balance changes for Vault Hunters and gear, available for all players.

Please restart your game to ensure that the update goes through and to prevent connection errors in matchmaking.

If you're encountering any issues, please contact 2K Support for direct assistance. You can also read the PC Troubleshooting Guide, a list of known issues, or browse a list of Support threads here.

Change Notes

World Encounters

We want Kairos to feel alive and dangerous every time you step outside. By shortening the downtime between major encounters, we're making sure you can jump back into these activities quickly without having to wait for the party to start.

• World Bosses will appear more often so you can battle them for loot more frequently
• World Events now have a shorter wait time between appearances

Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned*

Gameplay & Adventures

We want your adventures through The Whispering Glacier to be as welcoming as an eldritch wasteland can possibly be, so we've also added some helpful tips for new activities to ensure you aren't left guessing how to reel in the big ones!

• Addressed reported access issues for players with Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned entitlements

• Prevented Alpha Kraggon from getting stuck inside the spawn den to keep your mission on track
• Caged Kraggons will now stay behind bars until you're ready to let them out
• Teaming up is easier than ever! Friends can now join your Nightmare sessions once they pick their character
• Keep an eye out for new helpful pop-up tips for ice fishing, finding hidden crates, and more

Missions

We've made it easier than ever for you to enjoy the story while playing the game the way you want to.

• Base game progress now carries on as intended even if you start the new story content early
• Hearing Things: Toxic Raider is much more eager to jump into the fight
• It Grows Below: The objective moves forward even if you change your difficulty level
• What Lies Dreaming: We've updated the waypoints so the story keeps progressing even if you alternate paths
• Stopped Daphne from running into a wall

Nightmare Rifts:

The Rifts are meant to be scary, but not confusing! We've made sure the bosses play fair and the portals behave.

• Nightmare jump scares will only startle you the very first time you use the drop pod
• Nightmare Rifts will stay visible and ready for you, even if you wander far away and come back
• You can enter Nightmare Rifts while riding vehicles
• Kraggula will stay inside the arena and focus on the fight
• Krag'thulu's portal Kraggons shows up right when the boss roars, and the boss has learned some new sneaky invisibility tricks!
• Fulgur can attack players that have the high ground
• We changed how smaller enemies appear in the Rift so you always have a target when you need a Second Wind
• Slithertongue is more aggressive and will spit at you instead of hiding. We also added a longer break between its big attacks so you have more time to aim for its tentacles
• Ol' Thrash has learned how to use its own explosives without hurting itself

Enemies

Your adversaries have been practicing their moves! From better jumping to smarter attacks, combat should feel more fluid than ever before.

• Badass Flying Dahl Soldiers no longer use Order rocket tracers
• Badass Flying Threshers are better at recovering when hit with Stasis
• DAHL Mechs will no longer knock players way back with their attacks in multiplayer
• DAHL Sergeant enemies have learned a new Jet-Dash attack to keep you on your toes and increase combat variety
• Lost Legion Medics have figured out how to heal without dropping their own weapons
• Icemaw's Ice Shard spit attack will now vanish after death
• Enemies across the world jump and move in a much more lifelike way

General

• Removed the extra Pickle

• Eerie whispers from Shuggurath Egg are now easier to hear
• You will now properly leave the nightmare state when changing your world difficulty
• Traveling back from The Whispering Glacier will now keep your whole party together in the intended spot
• The Ancient Crawler activity now gives out the intended amount of SDU tokens
• Corrected some mission items that were not appearing as intended

Legend of the Stone Demon**

We've made some adjustments to Legend of the Stone Demon content to keep the combat snappy and every character interaction you have just right. We want your battles to be intense and focused. By speeding up enemy arrivals and keeping the bad guys where they belong, you'll be able to stay in the flow of every fight.

• Enemies for combat chests arrive more quickly, so you can earn your rewards that much faster!
• We've made sure "Vile" type enemies stay in their own territory and don't wander into the Demon's Domain area
• Fearful Petra will now properly react when enemies are nearby

General Gameplay

We want fights to be both fair and fun, so we've updated a few tricky enemy traits so that you always feel the impact of your favorite powers and elemental guns.

• Jumping and dashing work exactly how you expect, even if you change your crouch settings
• Enemies with the Elemental Eater and Deal With It traits have been updated! Now they take a portion of damage from Action Skills and elements rather than ignoring them completely
• Deal With It now allows 20% of your Action Skill damage to go through
• Elemental Eater now allows 10% of your elemental damage to go through. Elemental weapons can now set these enemies on fire, shock them, or melt them with acid. Since this "extra" damage isn't reduced by their traits, high-chance elemental guns are more powerful against them!

Challenges & Progress

Your achievements and Vault Cards are your bragging rights. We've made sure they track your victories accurately across every mission.

• Missions in multiplayer and the Demon's Domain achievement count as finished for everyone in the group when completed
• The "Pop Out" achievement will wait until the boss is defeated before it celebrates your victory
• Eridian recordings you find will be shared across all your different characters
• More enemies show up during the "Creep Impact" event, making it easier to finish your collection goals on time
• Your Vault Cards will consistently give you new things to do every single day
• Defeating the Timekeeper from Moxxi's Big Encore will count toward the “Kill Order Encore Boss” Vault Card challenge
• Vault Card Challenge "Kill enemies with Maliwan guns and gear" will progress when killing enemies with projectiles from the Recursive Maliwan Ordnance
• The Nighttime Conglomerate Challenge will not reset after loading a save. Listening to the Spooky Story Radio will progress so you don't have to start over

World & Exploration

We've done some spring cleaning across the world to keep you inside the map and on the move

• Moving between single-player and multiplayer won't change your starting location anymore
• Floating enemies, loot boxes, and chests have been brought back down to the ground
• We've filled in gaps and addressed invisible walls across the world so you can reach every secret and collectible
• Fishing prompts will only appear in places where you can fish
• Fast Travel stations for "Entrance to Umbral Foundry” and “Demon's Domain” have been updated to be active once discovered
• Teleporting while a friend is in a Nightmare mission will not stop your progress
• When jumping into Mad Ellie content immediately after starting the game, you are able to create a new hero
• Improved multiple grapple points across the map

• Applied ECHOlocation updates for various missions

Vault Hunters

Getting the right balance for Action Skills and skill trees is a constant focus for us. The balance changes listed below are just the latest batch, and we plan to keep doing additional passes in the future as the game continues to evolve

C4SH the Rogue

We've spent some time under the hood of our favorite new robot, C4SH, to examine his skill trees and gear to make sure his often-unpredictable playstyle feels satisfying, clear, and powerful! We're currently taking a look at some interactions that cause some additional stacking on damage and skills; those will be addressed in a future update to bring things back in balance to where we intended them to be.

Gameplay

We always want C4SH's skills and gear to look as good as they play. We've also made sure his unique loot interactions are paying out exactly when they should.

• Defeating Kraggons with a Snowball consistently grants you a stack of Fortune
• With the Cooler Class Mod, C4SH can interact with his own Jinx and Ordnance damage for more tricky combat setups
• C4SH holds the correct card when equipping two Sleight of Hand Augments. The right hand will display the first Augment, while the second is in his left hand
• The design of the "Gamblorr, God of Bets" Vault Hunter Head has been updated

Roll the Bones Skill Tree

This tree is all about those totems and debuffs. We've improved how these powers act when you're moving fast or changing tactics.

• Cleromancy: Bone Totems will disappear if you happen to fall in battle or if you summon a vehicle. Gun Damage from Angry Totems will expire when traveling to another map or initiating Mission Replay. Mortar Totems can now fire grenades in water
• Luckless: We've updated the text to better explain what the skill does, and the "Jinxed" icon will only show up when an enemy is actually affected
• Snake Eyes: The cooldown kicks in as soon as you've Jinxed more than one enemy. We also made your homing Bone Splinters last longer so they have more time to find their targets

Luck of the Draw Skill Tree

We're making sure your hand is always full and your attacks hit with the right kind of force.

• Sleight of Hand: This skill recharges when you enter your Windfall state while fighting for your life
• Thunder the Table: The Piercing Bolt Card now damages nearby enemies
• Wretched Shadow: This is now counted as a melee attack! This means it will get much stronger with gear that boosts your melee damage

Chaos Walking Skill Tree

• Trick Shot: We added a very short wait time between ricochets. This keeps the action fast without causing the game to slow down when using high-speed weapons
• Burn the House Down: No longer progresses the Deal With It Challenge with Fire Mortars
• Desperado: Addressed a sneaky interaction where C4SH's own free grenades were applying Bleed and stopping his shields from charging while using certain gear
• Nothing Beats Lead: We updated the math to make sure your special elemental infusions convert to Kinetic damage. We also addressed the interaction with Rooker Order Sniper Rifle that was creating too many projectiles and could slow down the game. The Description has also been updated to reflect that the passive is only affected by non-bonus elemental damage
• Reckoning: Rockets are significantly better at finding and hitting "corrupted" enemies, and they no longer have a chance of being stuck floating in the air
• From Gloam to Glow: When a Suicide Psycho tries to blow you up, that explosion damage is helpfully turned into an Overshield for you!
• Bleed the Bad: Cross-Fire's Burst Fire is activated by Windfall

Amon the Forgeknight

• Forgedrones now move faster

• Shots from the Kickballer shotgun will pass right through your Firewall, letting you stay protected while you blast away
• Masterworks: Increased Forgedrone Damage Dealt
• Ordained Hammer:
• Increased Detonation Chance
• Added Detonation Damage

Blast Furnace: Increased the Damage Dealt per Stack and lowered Max Stacks so you're doing more damage quicker

Honed Point: Increased Critical Hit Chance and the Active Skill Cooldown

Escalation: Increased Attack Speed and Movement Speed

Armor of Contempt: Increased the amount of Overshield gained when dealing Action Skill Damage

Heavy Plate: Increased Maximum Shield Capacity and Maximum Overshield Capacity

Tritanium Knuckles: Increased Skill Damage per point

Bullet Storm: Increased Gun Damage per stack and increased the Stack Duration to do more damage, longer

Brimming Vigor: Increased Maximum Health and Melee Damage when at full health.

Ballistic Bulwark: Increased amount of Overshield gained per point

Disco Infernus: Increased stack duration and Fire Rate per point.

Age of Ice: Increased damage to Frozen enemies and Bosses

Class Mods:

• Elementalist: Increated Damage Delt per Affinity Stack
• Blacksmith: Increase Forgedrone damage for each Forgedrone

Vex the Siren

We've tidied up Vex's skills to make sure only the right powers are getting boosted. We've also made some additional improvements to skills and Class Mods.

• Grave Power: This skill is meant to boost "Kill Skills." We've adjusted an interaction where a non-Kill Skill, Witchy Trigger Finger, was getting a boost that wasn't intended
• Bloodletter: Large weapons mounted on vehicles will no longer trigger this skill by mistake
• Phase Phamiliar:
• Trouble's health has increased.
• Trouble's Melee Attack Damage has been increased.
• Reduced teleport cooldown to get Trouble back in the fight quicker.

Blood is Magic: Increased how much Action Skill Damage is done based on Vex's health

Yowl and Bay:

• Vex's minions have more Max Health capacity
• Increased the amount of Gun Damage dealt
• Increased Gun Damage Duration

Elemental Essence: Increased the Elemental Damage per point

Dead Ringer: Specters are able to attack larger bosses from further away

Class Mods:

• Avatar: Increased Bonus Damage and Attunement Skill Duration
• Kindred Spirits: Increased the Command Skill Cooldown Rate, so you can use it more often, and increased the Bonus Kinetic Minion Damage

Rafa the Exo-Soldier

Rafa's high-tech passives are now more reliable than ever, especially when using specific gear or heavy explosives.

• Awe: If you use a class mod that gives you extra points in this skill, the duration will last longer
• Errant Spark: This shock-filled power triggers when you are firing missiles
• Class Mods:
• Dancer: Overdrive bonuses are now increased by +50%
• Buster: Increased the chance that APOPHIS Lance would not consume charges.
• Filántropo: Decreased the cooldown time
• Esgrimidor: Increased Critical Hit Chance

Harlowe the Gravitar

• CHROMA Accelerator: You can use Jakobs pistols to shoot and detonate your Unstable Energy Pockets
• Flux Generator: Activation reduces less Action Skill Duration
• Class Mods:
• Reactor: Effects gained from having 10 stacks have been reduced
• Skeptic: Increased Damage from Radiation and Cryo darts, and lowered the Action Skill Cooldown rate to account for the increased damage
• Atomic Driver: Increased Lifesteal
• Bio-Robot: Hazard Damage and Radius increased

Gear

Pearlescents

Finding the perfect piece of loot is at the heart of the hunt in Borderlands 4! In this update we've polished up our rarest weapons to make sure your favorite manufacturers are performing at their peak. We've also modified item cards so you know exactly what your gear does at a glance.

Pearlescent Tier Updates

Finding the ultimate Pearlescent weapon is an exciting chase, and we want to make sure the gear you're getting always feels powerful and special. To help you get the best versions of these rare items, we've tidied up the parts that can appear on them that didn't meaningfully add to the gun's gameplay, resulting in more consistent drops. These changes will apply to new drops:

• Daedalus Pistol: Soul Survivor: Always comes with a CoV magazine, has a much better chance of featuring an Atlas underbarrel attachment, and has a smaller pool of licensed barrels
• Order AR: Crow Sourced: We removed some magazine types that didn't fit quite right, such as CoV and Ripper
• Ripper Shotgun: Crazed Earl: We removed underbarrel parts from this weapon to reduce part variance

Additionally, we've updated these same guns for a smoother gameplay experience:

• Daedalus Pistol: Soul Survivor - Your damage will increase immediately if an ally falls in battle
• Order AR: Crow Sourced - Projectiles that deal Splash Damage properly scale with increased Splash Damage
• Ripper Shotgun: Crazed Earl - Prevented non-melee attacks from triggering shards

Manufacturers

Torgue

• Licensed Sticky Magazine Weapons: We've updated the text on these guns so the description matches how the explosions actually behave in your hands.
• Pearlescent Pistol: Handcannon - Sticky projectiles explode when they should after hitting an enemy
• Shotgun: Unstable Kor - Nova Damage gets stronger for every sticky projectile you've attached to an enemy

Ripper

• Tankbuster: Landing a shot on an enemy's head will always count as a critical hit

Maliwan

• Weapon Prefixes: We've restored missing prefixes to Heavy Weapon “Gamma Void” and Maliwan SMG “Ohm I Got” so you can identify their special parts more easily

• Rep Kit: Geiger-Roid - We've corrected the Shock damage and updated the cards for fire versions. We also timed the "Nova" blasts to better match the flashes on your screen

Vladof

• We've tuned the Flamethrower and Bullet Hose enhancements so their extra shots don't improperly stack
• Shield: Heavyweight - We've made sure the Heavyweight Legendary shield is making the most of your armor segments.It will only use up your armor segments when your melee attack is actually going to be boosted by them

Tediore

• Licensed Part: MIRV - Throwing your gun now creates even more guns when reloading with the DigiDivider Enhancement or Rafa's Cackling Grenazerker Class Mod
• Grenade: Faulty Detonator - Restored prefixes to better identify rolls

Jakobs

• Grenade Ordnance: Bismuth-Tipped Daggers - Fire, shock, and other effects will now keep hurting enemies as long as the daggers are stuck in them

Order

• Protean Cell Grenade: Direct Current now only activates while the shield has energy left

UI and Menus

Multiplayer and Missions

Connecting with friends and tracking your progress should be as simple as possible. We are continuing to look for ways we can improve your experience.

• If you try to join a friend who is playing a mission you don't own yet, the game will give you a clear message on how to get in on the fun as quickly and easily as possible
• "True Activity" replay missions are clearly tracked on your main screen so you always know your goal
• We've updated mission celebrations. You'll see the correct victory screen when you finish a quest, and we've removed the "victory" pop-ups from smaller tasks like the Bunker or Fuel Siphon

Combat can get messy, so we've tidied up the boss health bars to keep your eyes on the prize.

• Boss health bars have been streamlined. Skill icons, like Harlowe's Zero-Point marker, will only show up while the boss is actually affected. Once the effect is gone, the icon disappears
• Enemies will no longer look like they have full health just because you looked away for a second. Their health bars always show their true status

We've made the world map even easier to navigate and ensured your settings stay exactly how you like them.

• Consistent Sorting: Your inventory sorting options (like sorting by rarity or type) will now stay the same even after you close the game
• We've added a new filter so you can easily find your gear from the Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned content
• We've cleaned up icons and text across the game. Map icons for collectibles are now easier to see. We've also added special icons to help you spot exactly where you can use your grapple hook
• The "Endzone Bounty" hologram has been resized to match other rewards so it doesn't block your view
• Menus are now more responsive when opening and closing, and we've updated the game credits to recognize everyone who helped build the world!

Photo Mode

We've continued to improve Photo Mode so you can snap the perfect shot of your Vault Hunter without any visual clutter or camera hiccups getting in the way.

Visual Effects & Precision

We've cleaned up how Action Skills and the environment look through the lens.

• Picture-Perfect Effects: Action Skills, like C4SH's Windfall or Vex's Eldritch Blast, look exactly as they should when you pause. Lingering glows or light trails have been eliminated
• Focus on the Details: Your camera's focus (Depth of Field) has been updated to capture moving elements like fire, water, smoke, and even see-through glass
• The Missing Hour: You have full control over the time of day with the addition of the 24th hour in the lighting filter

Cleaner Shots

We've made sure our "Show/Hide" tools follow your orders.

• Toggles for enemies and summons work for every creature, including Night Grubs, Broodlings, and even the Timekeeper
• Damage numbers and red indicators will not be present in your shots
• C4SH will hide his cards
• We've made sure Amon's Forgeaxes will never get "stuck" to the front of your camera lens when you pause

Camera & Perspective

Taking the shot should be easy, whether you're on foot or behind the wheel.

• Rotating the camera is much smoother for mouse users. Your view will keep spinning even if your mouse reaches the edge of your screen
• Resetting your camera view while in a vehicle will not cause it to accidentally drive away while you're trying to take a picture

Audio and Visuals

We've polished up the cinematics, improved how characters speak and move, and made sure the sounds of the world are as loud and clear as they should be!

Cinematics and Performance

We want the key moments from the story that we're telling through cinematics to look great without compromising performance. We've tuned up our videos throughout the game to make sure they're high quality without negatively impacting your machine.

• You can use your keyboard or controller while a video is playing
• We've polished the movies in the Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned story to make sure everything looks consistent
• We updated how our videos are stored so the game runs better while they are playing

Character and World Visuals

From the way characters move to how the menus look, we've continued to improve your immersion in the world.

• If your hero happens to run out of health while swimming, the animation will look exactly how it's supposed to
• We've updated animations across the whole game to make movement feel more natural
• The visuals for "Full Metal" and "Even Death May Die" have been updated in the status menu
• We've filled in missing textures and added extra visual effects where intended to make the world feel more alive

Audio and Language

• Restored special voice effects where they were missing! Characters like C4SH will have a signature robotic sound on all of their lines
• We've turned up the volume on quiet voices and addressed missing sound effects in the menus

• Characters sound as they should across various languages, with improved lip-syncing and dialog timing

Player Experience

• Steam Deck: Ensured a more seamless experience when launching the game after an update
• Improvements to stability and optimization
• Dev Note: We are continuing to investigate and will make further improvements to stability and performance.

*Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned is the first of two post-launch DLC Story Packs coming to Borderlands 4. This content is included with Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition and the Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Pack, and is also available for separate purchase. Base game required.

**Bounty Packs 2/3/4/5 are post-launch DLCs that are included with the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and included with the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions of Borderlands 4. It is also available for separate purchase (base game required). Exact release timings of each Bounty Pack to be announced at a later date and will be subject to change. Terms apply.