Borderlands 4 Boosting

Hello Vault Hunters! The week-long delayed Borderlands 4 patch is finally here. This patch is packed with content, including bug fixes and the Horrors of Kairos event.

So, what does the October 23rd patch bring to Vault Hunters? What Legendary weapons have been buffed? Horrors of Kairos introduces two new Legendary weapons - how can you obtain them? Let's take a look.

Vault Hunter Balance Adjustments

Harlowe The Gravitar

First, fixed a bug that caused a significant frame rate drop, and Pencils Down class mod no longer rolls +6, now +5. Gun damage buff of Harlowe now applies to Ripper Heavy Weapon and Entanglement. Neutron Capture's damage type has been changed from gun damage to radiation damage, which is a significant nerf.

Amon The Forgeknight

Amon has received several bug fixes this time, including issues with the cooldown of Onslaught in multiplayer and the frequency of Rocket Punch. Shield visual effects have also been adjusted to improve clarity in combat.

This update focuses on Amon's abilities, which have generally received buffs:

• Each stack now lasts 4 seconds, and all stacks are lost if a kill is not achieved within that time.
• Blackout: Fixed a bug where it could only invest 1 point, now it can invest 5 points. However, the damage per point has been reduced from 21% to 15%, but overall it's still a buff.

Vex The Siren

Before the patch, Bleed Vex was the simplest, yet most disruptive, build. This patch fixes a bug that caused Bleed effects to recursively stack, causing infinite damage. As expected, this build's damage will be significantly reduced, but she can still use abilities like Witchy Trigger Finger and Torgue Stickies work together to deal high damage.

To complement this, the damage and duration of Double Trouble Icon and Apex Beast in Here Comes Trouble (Red Tree) have been increased, but this buff won't significantly change the build, since its core issues lie in AI and tracking speed.

Rafa The Exo-Soldier

The free grenades dropped by Rafa's Legendary COM now deal the correct amount of damage. APOPHIS Lance skill's penalty has been changed from affecting Gun Handling to affecting Gun Accuracy, no longer affecting Projectile Speed, and now benefits from Cooldown Reduction.

In addition to the above changes, Class Mods have received comprehensive buffs, particularly those related to melee damage and melee shields. Notably, Groundbreaker now only stores damage from guns, action skills, and heavy weapons, and no longer stores damage over time, which fixes a recursive damage loop that could cause infinite stacking damage.

Gear Adjustments

Borderlands 4's guns have received a number of adjustments. Improving gun handling skills now actually increases projectile speed, and several bugs that could trigger infinite ammo have been fixed. Notably, assault rifles have received a comprehensive buff:

• Star Helix: Fire rate +33%.
• Bonnie and Clyde: Base damage +40%.
• Pair of Thieves: Bonus damage increased from +100% to +150%.
• Bugbear: Base damage +40%; Special ability damage +100% to +200%.
• Rowan's Charge: Fire rate +100% and slightly reduced recoil.
• Lucian's Flank: Lucian's Flank now has +50% base damage and reduced recoil.
• Aegon's Dream: Base damage +35%.
• Jakobs Crit Knife: Critical hit chance reduced to 30%.

Horrors Of Kairos

• Date: October 23rd - November 6th.
• New Equipment: Murmur Legendary Tediore Assault Rifle and Skully Legendary Order Grenade
• Horrors of Kairos SHIFT Redemption Code: 3S6BB-ZXT93-KRT3W-BT3T3-JW6TZ

These two new weapons can be obtained as loot from World Bosses on Kairos. Since this event is limited-time, we recommend participating in Horrors of Kairos event first to obtain these weapons.

General Improvements And Bug Fixes

Progression, Loot, And Rewards

• Eridium Reduced: Specialization requirement reduced from 5000 to 1500.
• Boss Drops: Added loot for certain bosses that previously did not drop loot.
• Collectibles: Fixed a bug where not all ECHO logs could be collected. The associated cosmetics will now be unlocked. (Cosmetic).
• Gear Handling: Improved handling of gear that unlocks rewards while driving.
• Lost Loot Machine: Now prioritizes higher rarity items.
• Cash Drops: Loot Enemies now drop more Borderlands 4 money.
• Golden Chest: Fixed a bug where it could not be opened even with a key.
• Achievements & Soft Locks: Fixed issues with some achievements not unlocking and some minor soft locks.

Gameplay & Missions

• Black Market Vendor: Now functions properly in multiplayer.
• Legendary Vending Machine: No longer unexpectedly closes during Vend of the Line mission.

Weekly Activities

• Big Encore Machine: Moved to Ripper Drill location in Battle Wagon, allowing you to farm special weapons like Bugbear and Finnity XXX-L.
• This week's Wild Card changes: Rewards the legendary weapon Kickballer (repeatable).
• Black Market Vendor: Relocated and new items added, making each player's inventory unique.

This Borderlands 4 patch is a massive balance overhaul and bug fix. The focus is on nerfing overpowered skill combos and weapon interactions, while also buffing underperforming weapons and skills, and fixing numerous bugs that impacted gameplay. While some top builds have been nerfed, these improvements, along with numerous bug fixes, may allow some previously underperforming builds to enter the new meta.

Borderlands 4's balance patch, originally scheduled for October 16th, the 30th day after release, has been delayed until early next week, around Monday or Tuesday. While the announcement is a bit belated, officials say the update will include balance adjustments, performance and stability improvements, and some brand-new gameplay features!

While the balance patch hasn't arrived yet, we can make some predictions. Currently, some overpowered builds are exploiting exploits that will probably be fixed in the next update.

Likely Fixed Bugs

Bloodletter

• Effect: Critical hits with weapons and skills have a chance to cause enemies to bleed, dealing kinetic status damage for a period of time. The bleed effect is affected by the chance of status effects being applied and counts as a status effect itself. This effect stacks.

This is a passive skill in Siren Vex skill tree, and it's currently used by almost all the strongest Vex builds. While it does indeed work as advertised, the problem is that the bleed damage itself counts as skill damage. Therefore, if the bleed damage itself crits, it triggers the passive again, applying new bleeds, creating an infinite bleed loop. This can cause a sudden spike in damage, instantly devastating even the strongest enemies. The developers have explicitly stated they want to fix passive skill recursion, and Bloodletter is a prime example, so it's almost certain to be fixed.

Groundbreaker Specialization

• Effect: Non-melee attack damage and shock damage are stored (stored damage: 20%).

Melee attacks and slams deal additional kinetic melee damage based on stored damage, which is consumed (stored damage duration: 5 seconds).

Groundbreaker is the final node in Runner Specialization, requiring 20 points in Runner to unlock. The problem with this skill is that many skill trees offer bonus damage to melee attacks, and this added damage is also considered skill damage. The skill damage is then stored by Groundbreaker, in turn boosting the next melee attack. This creates a cycle that causes melee damage to increase exponentially after a few attacks, until it reaches the damage cap. This is the core of all currently powerful melee builds and another example of an infinite loop, making it highly likely to be used by a player.

Kickballer And Energy Disc

• Kickballer Shotgun: Fires a ball with a curved trajectory like a kicked soccer ball. Upon impact, it bounces and explodes, dealing splash elemental damage.
• Energy Disc Attachment: Fires a bouncing energy disc that deals X damage per bounce and restores 2 rounds of ammunition after 20 seconds.
• Jakobs Licensed-Part: Critical Hits Will Ricochet Projectiles to Nearby Enemies

The projectiles fired by Kickballer and Maliwan Shotgun (with the Energy Disc attachment) ricochet, allowing them to hit enemies multiple times. Upon a critical hit, Jakobs's ricochet attachment spawns a new, identical projectile. This means that a single projectile can ricochet multiple times, each critical hit spawning new projectiles, which in turn ricochet and critically hit... creating a chain reaction that instantly floods the screen with projectiles. This is the most discussed and game-breaking combination in the community.

San Saba Songbird

• Effect: After swapping guns, deal +100% damage for 5 seconds.

This legendary Borderlands 4 pistol's effect may seem unremarkable, but it has two issues. First, the buff actually lasts forever, not 5 seconds. Second, the buff stacks infinitely. This allows players to stack the damage bonus infinitely by repeatedly swapping weapons, quickly reaching the damage cap. This is a very obvious bug and will definitely be fixed.

Vladof Submachine Gun And Flamethrower Underbarrel

Currently, any Vladof submachine gun will have issues when equipped with Flamethrower Underbarrel and using Vladof's "Chance to Fire Additional Projectiles" enhancement. This issue is somewhat similar to the one above: if you repeatedly switch to Flamethrower Underbarrel and back again, the chance of "extra projectiles" will continuously stack. Over hundreds or even thousands of times, each shot from a submachine gun becomes a barrage of bullets without consuming ammunition. This exploit has caused ammunition economy and damage output to spiral out of control.

Gun Handling Stat

The gun handling stat affects weapon sway, recoil, and accuracy. Higher handling stats mean less sway when aiming, making it easier to control, while lower stats make it more difficult to maintain a steady aim.

However, the current Gun Handling stat incorrectly reduces projectile velocity. This results in some weapons having slower projectiles and being difficult to use when the stat is higher. Conversely, it benefits some Borderlands 4 weapons, such as Bottled Lightning, due to slower projectile velocity.

Powerful Items That Could Be Nerfed (But Not Bugs)

Besides the obvious exploits listed above, there are also some items that could be nerfed due to being too powerful. The most prominent example is Throwing Knife with Penetrator Augment Modifier, which guarantees all attacks for the next 5 seconds will crit after hitting an enemy.

While the knife itself isn't a bug, it's simply very powerful. The real issue is that it amplifies the power of other exploits. While addressing those core exploits is more reasonable than nerfing the knife, it's still possible to nerf it due to its strength.

Learn More: Borderlands 4 Vex Build Guide: Top 3 Siren Skill Trees For Max Damage

Powerful Build That Could Be Nerfed

Rafa With Metal Management Skill

This passive allows him to use no ammunition for 2 seconds after using a skill. Combined with Beam Tossers (Maliwan Shotgun) or Vladof's Taser, it can easily kill bosses.

Vex With Teen Witch (Class Mod)

Combining these two allows the life steal effect to work on shields. Combined with Amp Modifier, this allows for infinite Amp Uptime, as lifesteal restores more shields than it consumes.

If your build relies on any of these mechanics, you can still enjoy it for a few days, but be prepared for a power reduction after the patch and consider backup builds.

If any of your builds are affected by the patch, you can buy Borderlands 4 items quickly and cheaply on IGGM. Borderlands 4 weapon drop rates are very low, and farming for gear yourself can be a time-consuming endeavor.