Be careful selling your Borderlands 4 trash, or you might face firmware remorse

It's not surprising that Borderlands 4 is absolutely stuffed with loot, but trying to sift through it can quickly become an ordeal, especially when you start farming bosses and spilling dozens of glimmering beams across the floor. It can be tempting to just scoop up anything of lower rarity and throw it away without a care in the world, or even just leave it lying there. But I'm here to make sure you aren't leaving some of the most valuable 'low-tier' drops behind. It's time to talk about firmware.

Gear in Borderlands 4 can have a lot of stats, and that's a good thing - it's what sets the newcomer up with the potential to grow into one of the best RPGs of the year. But if you're still early on in Gearbox's latest, you might not have encountered much firmware. This can appear on any of the non-weapon equip slots: shields, class mods, repkits, ordnance, and enhancements. Essentially, it acts much like 'set bonuses' in games like Diablo, granting you an extra benefit for wearing one, two, or three items with a matching firmware type.

The best Borderlands 4 firmware can be really strong, especially if you climb it up to max rank. 'Trickshot' gives you 5% gun reload speed at level one, and 10% gun critical damage at stage two. But equip three pieces, and your crits have a 50% chance to refill one ammo to your currently equipped gun. Raise 'High Caliber' all the way up and your bullets will pierce enemies. Grab 'God Killer' and you'll deal 10% more damage to badasses, take 10% less from them, and gain a one-minute 20% damage buff whenever you bring one down.

Simply put, you're going to want firmware, and you're likely to be hunting specific pieces to complement the loadout you've put together for your favorite of the Borderlands 4 characters. Fortunately, you aren't entirely at the whim of random drops, as there's a post-campaign feature called the 'Firmware Transfer Machine' that lets you destroy an unwanted item to rip its firmware off and put it on something else.

This is ideal, but it comes with a notable caveat: you can only transfer firmware from an item of matching slot type (so shields to shields, for example). You're also only able to move it once; an item that's had firmware crafted onto it can't then be used to enhance another. This is where the hoarding comes in. If you find any piece of gear that has firmware on, I'd highly recommend not selling it unless you are 100%, set-in-stone certain that you have no interest in the bonuses that it offers.

Once you get to the endgame and start progressing through Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, you're not just going to need one piece of firmware fodder per slot; you're going to want it every time you replace an existing bit of gear with a better alternative. Sure, you could muddle through without it, but if you've been tossing away perfectly good spares for a handful of dollars each (something Borderlands 4 is comparatively extremely generous about handing out), you'll be kicking yourself.

Need some help exploring? We've noted down all Borderlands 4 vault fragment locations, along with the latest active Borderlands 4 Shift codes to grab free mystery keys and extra goodies.

Who's your favorite vault hunter so far? Drop into the PCGamesN community Discord server and tell us who you're using and what your go-to loadout looks like.