Borderlands 4 Weekly Update Notes - May 7, 2026

This week's Borderlands 4 update is almost entirely a gear tuning pass, and it's a meaty one. Gearbox is explicitly setting the table before the second raid encounter drops, focusing first on mid-fire-rate Legendaries that have been overshadowed by the rapid-fire builds everyone's been running.

The standout nerf is the Order Pistol Roulette, which takes a 15% damage cut, a 37.5% base fire rate reduction, and sees its fire rate buff bonus slashed by 75%. Gearbox explains it plainly: they removed the random probability from the Lord Luck roll but forgot to scale back the weighted stat bonuses, so every reload was hitting harder than intended. On the flip side, the Bully's Defense Protocol drone cooldown gets halved from 14 to 7 seconds, its drone damage jumps 66%, and Order Weapons as a whole now recharge about 33% faster. Shields also get a serious pass, with the Sparky Shield's shock damage up 400% and the Angel's capacity nearly doubling.

Gearbox also flags a future cap on Torgue Sticky damage in Version 1.7, targeting infinite ammo regen builds that were stacking the bonus well beyond intended limits. Good to see them telegraphing that one early.

Here's everything that changed.

This week features gear balance in addition to the Weekly Activity changes.

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.

Gear Updates

Dev Note: In the weeks to come before our second raid encounter, we’re going to be introducing some gear tuning and also some gear changes. The changes we can include with Weekly Updates will contain the numerical tuning passes, while the larger updates (such as the QOL update and the Raid Boss 2 update) can contain code changes for our gear systems. Starting off this week is a tuning pass to some of our DLC gear, our Pistols and SMGs, and the Order Manufacturer.

While rapid-fire weapons have benefitted greatly from synergistic Vault Hunter passives, we wanted to make sure our hard-hitting weapons also got some love. We’re starting with a few of the Legendaries that exist in the mid-fire-rate range, then moving to other archetypes like DoTs and Splash Damage.

A note for the future: We have a change coming in the Version 1.7 Update that will cap the damage increase on Torgue Stickies to 200% bonus. Builds that infinitely regenerate ammo could stack the Torgue sticky bonus way beyond the intended means.

A note on percentages: we’ve used percentages below when the adjusted numbers don’t match up with what you see on item cards due to scaling. For example, a Shield might have had its capacity changed from 0.9 to 1.1, resulting in a ~22% increase. This “1.1” value is not shared on the item card, but we want to share what you can expect to see on changed gear (a ~22% difference to the number).

Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned*:

Torgue Shotgun Unstable Kor:
Increased damage by ~45%
Increased Fire Rate by 50%

Ripper SMG Falke: Increased damage by 12.5%

Maliwan Shotgun Reminisce: Increased damage by ~40%

Vladof Assault Rifle Laser Cutter: Increased damage by ~15%

Legend of the Stone Demon**:

Order Pistol Roulette:
Reduced Damage by ~15% and Base Fire Rate by 37.5%
Buffs for Fire Rate have had the bonus reduced by 75%
Dev Note: The Roulette's Lord Luck roll bonus was initially balanced to have different chances to acquire bonuses like Fire Rate. However, we removed the random probability and didn't reduce the matching weighted stat bonus. We're equalizing all the bonuses to make each reload of Roulette still feel impactful but without overpowering the character and gear build.

Daedalus Assault Rifle Mercredi:

Increased damage by 50%
Increased Fire Rate by 5%

Base Game Weapons:

Jakobs Shotgun Hellwalker: Increased damage by ~22%
Ripper Shotgun Goremaster:
Chief Executive Officer damage bonus has been increased to 66% for enemies below 40% Health

Jakobs Assault Rifle Bonnie and Clyde: Increased Damage of Shotgun underbarrel alt-fire by ~22%

Daedalus Assault Rifle Bloody Lumberjack: Increased damage by ~24%

Jakobs Pistol King’s Gambit:

Increased base damage by ~14%

Order Pistol Bully:

Defense Protocol drone cooldown has been reduced from 14 to 7 seconds. Drone damage as also increased ~66%

Ripper Sniper Vamoose: Increased damage 20%

Tediore Pistol Budget Deity:

Increased Fire Rate ~66%

Order Weapons recharge at a faster rate, with a base charge times lowered by ~33%

Daedalus SMGs: Increased damage by 17%

Maliwan SMGs: Increased damage by 15%

Tediore Pistols: Increased damage by 20%

Shields:

Dev Note: Energy Shield Legendary Behaviors got a tuning pass to provide more options for players without sacrificing damage output. In addition, we felt some Legendary Energy Shields could use a capacity increase to match the damage reduction gained from Legendary Armor Shields.

Ripper Firebreak: Elemental Nova damage increased by 266% and shield capacity increased by 33%
Daedalus Angel: Shield capacity increased by ~86%
Ripper Sparky Shield: Shock damage increased by 400% and shield capacity increased by 20%
Maliwan Pandoran Memento: Elemental Resistance increased to +25% and shield capacity increased by 30%
Maliwan Extra Medium: Nova Elemental Splash Damage increased by 100% and shield capacity increased by 30%
Order Cindershelly: Increased the amount of damage per stack of Resolve by 25%
Ripper Watts 4 Dinner: Decreased the Overshield drop chance to 8% and increased the shield capacity by ~22%
Order Protean Cell: Shield capacity has increased by 33% and the regeneration scaling has increased by 33%

*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.

**Legend of the Stone Demon is the second of five post-launch DLC Bounty Packs coming to Borderlands 4. This content is included with Borderlands 4 Deluxe Edition, Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition, and the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and is also available for separate purchase. Base game required.

Borderlands 4 Weekly Update Notes (7th May 2026)

Full Patch Notes

Gear Updates

Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned*:

Legend of the Stone Demon**:

Base Game Weapons:

Shields:

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Borderlands 4 Minor Update Notes (19th March 2026)