A huge Borderlands 4 update just slashed downtime and gave every Vault Hunter some love

The biggest Borderlands 4 update in some time has just landed in Kairos, and it's given me the itch to return. Gearbox has been cooking up a whole heap of improvements across both the base game and its recently launched Mad Ellie DLC, and has just delivered hundreds of changes across a lengthy set of Borderlands 4 patch notes. With a new raid boss set to launch at the end of the month, alongside another UVH tier to ramp up the difficulty and rewards, now's sounding like the ideal time to jump back into the looter shooter and get your gear ready to go.

Borderlands 4 update 1.6 makes a whole heap of changes across the entire open-world game, but one of the most welcome is that Gearbox is shortening the downtime with major encounters such as world bosses and events. Farming across Kairos can often feel like waiting for the next big thing to show up, so having these spawn more quickly after clearing one should mean less standing around. The combat chests in Legend of the Stone Demon will likewise ramp up the action faster, helping them to feel more engaging than before.

Gear gets boosts across many of the manufacturers, such as the Vladof Heavyweight shield only consuming your armor segments if they'll actually boost your melee damage, and the Torgue Handcannon exploding more consistently. Pearlescents, the ultra-rare top end weapons, have had some of the less "meaningful" components that they could drop with stripped out of the pool, "to make sure the gear you're getting always feels powerful and special."

There are plenty of balance changes across the full roster of Vault Hunters, but newcomer C4SH gets special attention. Adjustments and improved descriptions should "make sure his often-unpredictable playstyle feels satisfying, clear, and powerful," while ensuring his unique loot interactions "pay out exactly when they should." Several of the nodes on his skill tree, including Trick Shot and Nothing Beats Lead, have been tweaked to stop them from causing slowdown when used with certain weapons that create a significant count of projectiles.

All four of the other classes see a wide range of buffs, with Amon and Vex in particular getting a long list of upgrades to even out their potential output. The Forgeknight can look forward to plenty of core-stat buffs like attack speed, move speed, critical hit chance, and fire rate, while the Siren's most notable benefits include more health and damage for her minions.

On the enemy side, the Elemental Eater and Deal With It traits have been reworked so that they now allow a small amount of damage through, rather than completely negating their respective aspects. Elemental Eater will let 10% of elemental damage land, and this allows you to proc statuses like fire, shock, and acid, which aren't reduced by the trait. Deal With It will reduce your Action Skill damage to just 20%, instead of stopping it altogether.

Co-op gets a few upgrades too. Moving between solo play and multiplayer will no longer change your starting location, and mission completion will now count across everyone in the group. There's also a new notification to make it clear when the group leader is tackling a mission that you don't currently have access to and explain why (such as one from DLC you don't own).

If you have the Mad Ellie expansion, starting it early should no longer throw off your base game progress. Nightmare Rifts will now stay visible and ready even if you move far away from them, you're able to enter them while riding a vehicle, and your friends can join a Nightmare session directly once they have chosen their character. There are also new pop-ups to guide you on features such as ice fishing and uncovering hidden crates. Those are just the biggest additions in a long list of bug fixes, tweaks, and balancing, but it should all add up to a much smoother experience.

Borderlands 4 update 1.6 is out now. The next update will arrive on Thursday May 28, introducing Ultimate Vault Hunter level seven, the second raid boss fight, Subjugator and Thol the Invincible, fresh rewards, and additional balance changes. You'll want to start farming now if you're planning to tackle those challenges when they arrive.