A year on from launch, Borderlands 4 is getting its second major expansion. Story Pack 2, titled FL4K and the Last Resort, arrives September 10 as a $19.99 add-on, and Gearbox walked Polygon through it in a video interview.
The DLC takes players to a brand-new location called Providence. Gearbox says it is not a reskin of Kairos, the base game's open world, but a distinct jungle island with entirely new plant designs and a colour scheme that leans purple instead of green. A giant volcano dominates it, and it is functional: a new volcanic weather system means players occasionally have to navigate smoke plumes and increased monster spawns when it erupts.
The overgrown look — plants reclaiming abandoned industry — was inspired by The Lost World, though art director Chris Neely said the team avoided making the connection obvious by adding dinosaurs. Lord of the Flies and John Wick round out the reference list.
I play the game, so I don’t want to see the same shit I just played through a bunch! I think there’s something so powerful about our style that you can graft on different things, and you can still have that heart of Borderlands and make it its own.
FL4K, Borderlands 3's Beastmaster, is the reason you ship out. Neely said bringing the character back was a “no-brainer,” but it required a redesign to fit the setting: an iridescent sniper decorated with bright jungle foliage, a sniper veil and cape in place of the winter coat, and a skull worn on the head to signal wildness.
On the island, FL4K crosses paths with soldiers from Tediore, an underexplored weapons manufacturer that finally gets its due here. Led by Lieutenant Harmony, the company has kidnapped FL4K's dog, Mr. Chew — and Neely confirmed the John Wick parallel is deliberate. “Sometimes I feel like when a game tries to show everything and be grandiose, it ends up feeling very small,” he said. “I love intimate, character-driven things that happen to take place in a larger world.”
The loot and combat side is sized accordingly:
- 18 new Legendary weapons, plus a batch of cosmetics
- More than 20 new bosses
- New basic enemies including Deadframes, which play with Tediore tech
- Digiverse Events, a Providence-specific activity where Tediore's digital pocket dimension cracks open and players clear arenas for loot
- Zip-Runners — zip-lines that add verticality to traversal across the island
Borderlands 4's Story Pack 2 will be available to purchase on September 10 for $19.99.