New Borderlands 4 character Loveless fixes Gearbox's biggest DLC mistake

Gearbox has just lifted the lid on its summer of Borderlands 4 DLC and expansion packs, and the thing I'm most excited for is the introduction of its sixth Vault Hunter. Loveless the Hacker joins robotic bounty hunter C4SH and the rest of the core cast, and she'll be arriving alongside the looter-shooter's second big 'Story Pack.' Before that, and right around the corner, comes more endgame challenges and raid bosses for free, and a neo-noir, arcade-themed story following Zane into a digital realm. The best news, however, is a change to how you pay for all this.

Back when the first Borderlands 4 story pack arrived, wrapping both the Mad Ellie expansion and C4SH into a $30 bundle, I lamented the fact that you weren't able to buy the two separately. It might seem like a small thing, but forcing people who might only want one side or the other to pay for them both is a frustration, and I suspect it also ended up hurting the perception of Mad Ellie as a value proposition. Fortunately, Gearbox appears to have learnt its lesson - and not just with its bigger DLC.

When Story Pack 2 arrives, the two parts will be sold separately: Loveless and her cosmetics will be yours for $9.99 (or regional equivalent), and the new zone and story content will be priced at $19.99. A similar split is happening with Bounty Pack 3, which will be $5.99 for the narrative content and core gear, and $5.99 if you want the Vault Card 3 pass. Gearbox says it's "looking into a similar approach" for past DLC, which would allow you to buy each individual element separately.

Bounty Pack 3 has also been revealed, and while I certainly don't want to leap to conclusions, it sounds on paper like the most interesting addition to the FPS game yet. 'A Zane to Kill For' dives into a classic arcade machine in Moxxi's bar, where Zane has stashed some of his most treasured memories inside a futuristic, neo-noir game called Private Dick. You'll warp inside to tackle a murder mystery in a cyberpunk cityscape "that doesn't adhere to the usual laws of physics." Great stuff.

That's here next week, on Thursday, June 25, and arriving on the same day with version 1.8 is the free 'Takedown at Hadron Abyss' update. This promises to be the ultimate endgame challenge your builds have faced thus far, an "extremely difficult gauntlet of enemies in a brand-new zone: Hadron Abyss, a secret, fully submerged lab facility that's coming apart of the seams." It'll culminate in a battle against the Child of Terramorphous, the offspring of the notorious Borderlands 2 superboss, and promises among the most powerful loot yet.

Should you manage to overcome the trials within and crave even more challenge, you can ramp up the Takedown with increasing Mayhem levels, which override your other difficulty settings to provide ever-more brutal opponents. Simply beating a tier isn't enough to unlock the next one; you'll also have to do it fast enough. The higher you climb, the better the rewards, and at the very pinnacle is a hardcore challenge where any single death means failure, even if other members of your squad are still alive.

Keeping the pace up, Bounty Pack 4 will be here on Thursday, July 30. It's titled 'Murders and Acquisitions,' although that's the only clue we get to its nature for the time being. It'll be accompanied by another Vault Card (again, sold separately). Finally, in early September comes Story Pack 2, Bounty Pack 5, and Loveless.

Newcomer Loveless is described as "an ex-Anshin hacker turned assassin," and boasts high-end cybernetics. Gearbox teases, "Loveless also shares her mind with a digital virus of her own creation, which can digistruct into a physical form that acts as a deadly extension of her shared, perfection-seeking will." I'm already eager to try her out, even if I can't read her name without thinking of Wild Wild West.

Borderlands 4 version 1.8 launches on Thursday, June 25, including the free Takedown at Hadron Abyss mission and paid Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For. The update will also include a rollout of cross-platform saves, letting you use your Shift profile to play across multiple platforms. Note that Golden Keys will not transfer, so you'll have to use them on the launcher or device that you first activated them for.