What to know

  • All Vault Hunters see skill and passive buffs for greater build diversity.
  • Weekly boss and wildcard missions now offer more challenging encounters and better rewards.
  • Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine has moved, changing its item offerings.
  • PC performance improved with auto-clearing shaders; further fixes are planned.

Borderlands 4’s October 2, 2025, update marks the first major post-launch balance patch, aiming to offer you a more rewarding and experimental gameplay experience. The update primarily focuses on substantial buffs to all four Vault Hunters—Amon, Vex, Rafa, and Harlowe—making their skill trees and passive abilities more flexible and powerful. For example, Amon’s abilities receive extensive damage increases, cooldown reductions, and improved scaling, bringing the character in line with other Vault Hunters. Vex’s summons, Rafa’s melee strength, and Harlowe’s Stasis abilities also get meaningful enhancements to support different playstyles through the later stages of the game.

Key updates to look out for:

Feature / Change Update Details Impact / Notes
Vault Hunter Buffs All Vault Hunters receive boosts; major rebalancing for builds Encourages build diversity
Harlowe Stasis Slam Damage +30%; Stasis Immune Damage +14.7% More viable Stasis builds
Rafa Multiple melee/skill buffs: APOPHIS Lance +10%, Project Basilisk +15%, Gorgon +17%, and others Late-game melee now potent
Vex Phase Explosion +16.6%, Eldritch Blast +9.5%, Energy Vampire +25%, improved summoning Stronger damage and support
Amon Scourge Vengeance +50%, Forgewhip +27%, widespread cooldown/crit/status/Forge buffs Major rebalancing, flexible builds
Weekly Big Encore Boss Rotates to a tougher variant, more rewarding loot pool New boss challenges each week
Weekly Wildcard Mission Changed to guarantee Legendary drop, repeatable for optimal loot farming Reliable path to best gear
Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine Moved to a new location, different stock for each player Check often, share finds
PC Performance Auto-clears shaders each update, reduces risk of slowdowns Smoother gameplay for PC
Known Issues / Future Plans Class mods, shields, kits under review; exploits to be fixed More updates and fixes coming

Beyond character tuning, this patch refreshes the weekly activities. The Weekly Big Encore Boss now rotates to tougher variants, featuring a richer loot pool if you’re up for the challenge. The Weekly Wildcard Mission guarantees Legendary drops that you can repetitively farm for the ideal gear. Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine has relocated, offering new randomized stock—make sure to keep an eye out for valuable items and check with others to find what suits your needs.

Performance and stability, especially for PC players, get some attention as well. The update introduces automatic clearing of stale shaders each version update, designed to prevent gradual slowdowns—an issue previously affecting users with prolonged play sessions. While Gearbox promises more fixes in future patches, this improvement should already help smooth out your experience, especially if you noticed glitches after launch.

Looking forward, the Borderlands 4 team hints at an ambitious roadmap with ongoing support. They’re reviewing class mods, rep kits, shields, and other systems to further enhance build creativity, while also planning fixes for lingering exploits that currently make some content too easy. If you find any issues after updating, it’s best to restart your game for new changes to properly apply and to avoid matchmaking errors. The developers encourage feedback and are actively monitoring player experiences as they prepare more updates and seasonal drops throughout the year.