Gearbox, the developer of Borderlands 4, has issued a seven-day warning to players: popular builds that rely on "unintended interactions" to effortlessly defeat bosses will be nerfed in the upcoming week.

Borderlands 4 currently features a number of overpowered character builds that exploit what Gearbox calls "unintended interactions," allowing players to deal massive damage even to the most challenging bosses on the highest difficulty settings. The most notorious example is the 'crit knife' build, which Gearbox has acknowledged it is tracking. However, this is just one of several such builds.

Since the game's launch, Gearbox has prioritized performance improvements and strengthening underpowered equipment over applying nerfs or eliminating these broken builds. That approach is now set to change.

Borderlands 4's Creative Director, Graeme Timmins, announced on Twitter, "Next week will bring adjustments to specific gear and those unintended interactions. Consider this your 7-day notice ;)"

The official Borderlands account also confirmed that next week's update will include "a host of improvements to stability, performance, and several highly requested quality-of-life changes!"

"Looking ahead to next week, we're planning another round of adjustments focused on Class Mods, Repair Kits, Shields, and Firmware. These changes are designed to improve the viability of melee builds and address weaknesses in other specific Vault Hunter builds," Gearbox stated. "We will also resolve unintended interactions in certain Vault Hunter skills and tune overperforming gear. Importantly, the update will deliver numerous stability and performance enhancements, along with some highly requested quality-of-life improvements!"

A smaller update was released today, October 9, focusing on minor gear tweaks. The full patch notes from the official Borderlands 4 website are provided below.

Borderlands 4: Ranking All Vault Hunter Skill Trees

Borderlands 4: Ranking All Vault Hunter Skill Trees

     

Last week, a Borderlands 4 dataminer discovered evidence indicating that one of the most disliked characters from Borderlands 3 was cut and replaced fairly late in development. When contacted by IGN, both 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment.

If you're diving into Borderlands 4, make sure to use our updated list of active SHiFT codes. We also offer a comprehensive interactive map and a powerful Borderlands 4 character planner tool, provided by our partners at Maxroll. Additionally, check out our expert community's recommendations for selecting your starting character (opinions varied widely).

Borderlands 4 Patch Notes for October 9, 2025 Update:

Change List:

Weekly Activities:

now features a more difficult variant of a different existing boss, offering an even more rewarding loot pool for successful players. The Weekly Wildcard Mission has also been updated. These missions guarantee a Legendary item drop that can be farmed repeatedly to obtain the perfect stats.Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine has been relocated and now offers a new selection of items.

Gear Balance Adjustments:

Ruby's Grasp damage increased by 50%Ruby's Grasp fire rate increased by 25%Bully drone damage increased by 50%Bully base damage increased by 50%Rangefinder base damage increase by 30%Queen's Rest spawn chance increased from 30% to 50%Queen's Rest fire rate increased by 50%Seventh Sense orb damage increased by 250%Hellwalker base damage increase 30%Convergence base damage increase by 25%

Additional Changes:

The Legendary Tediore Shotgun, Anarchy, has been fixed to correctly award Stacks of Mutualism when auto-reloading or defeating enemies.All class Pets (including Trouble, Specters, Reapers, and Forgeweapons) now properly benefit from Critical Hit Chance bonuses provided by Passives and Gear.An adjustment was made to ensure that Vex the Siren's Bleed effect is correctly classified as Status Effect Damage.