The honeymoon period for Borderlands 4 is over. Players who sank hundreds of hours into the game are now bumping into the same friction points repeatedly, and the community's patience is wearing thin. Gearbox has addressed some issues since launch, but a growing list of complaints suggests the developer still has significant work ahead.
The grind that nobody asked for
Here's the thing about Borderlands 4's new character system: it starts with a reasonable idea and then trips over itself. After finishing the main campaign, players unlock the ability to create a new character at level 30, skipping the story. That sounds convenient until you realize the max level currently sits at 60 thanks to the Mad Ellie DLC, leaving a 30-level grind with almost nothing interesting to fill it.
The obvious fix is a level 50 character creation option. That way, players still earn the final stretch to 60, but they are not stuck farming the same bosses or side missions they have already cleared multiple times just to reach a playable power level. Gearbox should treat its returning players like veterans, not new recruits.
The infamy system makes this worse. If players focus purely on the main story, enemies scale ahead of them and boss farming does not count toward catching up. The only path forward is completing side missions, even ones already finished on a previous character. Giving players a toggle to disable the infamy system, or at minimum letting boss kills count toward leveling, would go a long way.
Pearlescent weapons that actually earn their rarity
Pearlesent weapons returning to the series was supposed to be a big deal. In practice, most players are ignoring them entirely.
The Sole Survivor pistol from the Mad Ellie DLC is a good example of the problem. Its damage output is only meaningful when playing co-op and all allies are simultaneously in fight-for-your-life mode. That is an extremely specific situation that most players will rarely encounter. The same pattern holds across other Pearlesents: high rarity, low relevance.
danger
Pearlescent weapons are among the rarest drops in Borderlands 4. If players are actively avoiding them in builds, that is a design problem worth addressing before the next major DLC drops.Gearbox built up years of expectation around Pearlescent gear returning to the series. Delivering weapons that sit in the bank unclaimed is not the payoff anyone was waiting for.
Side missions need a reason to exist on replay
Side mission rewards in Borderlands 4 follow a frustrating loop: complete the mission, receive a package, forget to open the package, find a pile of unclaimed rewards weeks later. Even when players do open them, the loot rarely justifies the time spent.
This becomes a bigger issue when players roll a new character and face the infamy system pushing them toward side missions they have already done. The DLC content has not improved this either, with the Mad Ellie expansion feeling just as repetitive as the base game in this regard.
What would actually help is tying unique rewards to side missions: exclusive skins, boss encounters only accessible through completing specific quests, or gear that cannot drop anywhere else. That gives completionists a real reason to replay content and gives new players something to look forward to beyond randomized loot boxes.
Recycled content is the most damaging pattern
The criticism that stings most is about content reuse. The record players in the Mad Ellie DLC are functionally identical to the Evocariums from the base game with a reskin applied. The Dahl Bunker is a reskinned version of the Ripper Sites. Players noticed immediately.
For a series built on the promise of "bazillions of guns" and endlessly surprising loot runs, shipping DLC that reuses base game assets without meaningful mechanical changes sends the wrong message. Borderlands 3 had reached a point with multiple takedowns and raid content by a comparable stage in its lifecycle. Borderlands 4 has confirmed takedowns are coming, but the endgame currently lacks the variety that kept players grinding in previous entries.
The absence of events like the Circle of Slaughter or Moxxi's slot machine runs is felt. These were not just content, they were reasons to log back in.
The hidden magic that made earlier games special
Past Borderlands games rewarded curiosity in ways the current game does not. Carrying Geary's Gear across multiple zones in Borderlands 2 to unlock a secret encounter, or pulling the Excalibastard from a stone in The Pre-Sequel, were the kinds of discoveries that spread through the community organically. Players told each other about them. They created shared moments.
Borderlands 4 has easter eggs, but nothing with that level of layered discovery. For a game set in an open world with more space to hide secrets than any previous entry, that feels like a missed opportunity.
Gearbox has officially announced Borderlands 4 for 2025 with a commitment to ongoing support. The foundation is there. The question is whether the team moves fast enough on these issues to keep the player base from drifting. For players wanting to stay on top of what changes land and how they affect builds, checking the latest gaming guides as updates roll out is worth the bookmark. Make sure to check out more:
