The second Borderlands 4 Play Report. Unexpected Legendary equipment reveals the wild possibilities of the new system

 

Borderlands 4 is an FPS-style action RPG that will be released on September 12th. We recently shared a play report on the first part of the game, but this time I'd like to share with you what I learned and what I thought after playing "Vault Mission" after that.

Vault missions are played on a separate map, like a dungeon. Defeat a large number of enemies that appear in each section as you progress, and a huge boss awaits you at the end...... That's what it says. The first time I tried it solo, and the second time I tried it in two-player co-op play.

This time, I used a level 20 character prepared by the developer, but as I was warned in the presentation, "It may be difficult because you will actually play after getting used to the skills and controls," well, this was quite tough! So, here are a few things I learned.

One is that you'll be surrounded by enemies that will give you quite a few painful attacks, which wasn't often the case in Borderlands 3. At first, I was playing solo, so it was really tough to keep up with the firepower and recovery if I was just shooting enemies that caught my eye.

Vex's summoning ability was pretty good when playing solo.

I reviewed my skill tree and the equipment I had, and made sure I used everything I had to move around and make sure I defeated them one by one...... It's a matter of course, but it seems to be worth it.

By the way, in response to the request of the Bodaran community, it seems that the enemy radar display is prepared as an option in the product version, so it may be a good idea to turn it on if you are going to challenge solo.

2. Movement action is often the key to defeating bosses!

And one more thing, what the developer said in past events, "There will be a lot of big and big bosses this time" is serious! Not only that, but it was interesting that it was a gimmick that made full use of the movement action from this game.

In particular, grappling (the so-called grappling hook) is at the center of the attack, and it can be used to peel off the boss's armor to expose its weaknesses, or to counter it by dodging a wide range of field attacks. The fact that movement action becomes the central gimmick of boss fights may be a matter of preference, but for me personally, it was refreshing.

However, at first, I didn't notice the gimmick and withered from the AoE attack, so I think it would be nice if the icon that can activate the grappling is a little easier to understand...... As soon as I thought. Well, you might get used to it by the time you play for hours on the full version.

It's a little hard to see this icon (the part that says RS) during a brawl.

3. Authorized Parts/Enhanced Parts Are Likely to Have Pretty Chaotic Consequences

This is not limited to Vault Missions, but there was an incident where I felt a part of the chaos caused by the "authorized parts" and "enhanced parts" introduced in this game, so I would like to touch on that as well.

It all started when I started playing Vault Missions and an orange light appeared with the familiar sound of "Pikin!" That's right, Legendary gear drops!

What came out was a reinforced part called "Regenerating Box Magazine". The rate of fire and magazine size are increased by 20%, and there is a 30% chance that additional bullets will fly, which is an effect that seems to give you straight firepower if you just keep shooting.

However, there was one condition, and it was enough to erase the joy of getting the Leger equipment. Enhanced parts are a new equipment category that grants bonuses exclusive to weapons from a specific manufacturer. And what I got this time was limited to Bradov, and I didn't have a Bradov weapon. In other words, the treasure trove.

Well, this is a tragedy due to the limited playtime of the demo, and in fact, there is a reasonable possibility that he has some kind of Bradov weapon, and to be precise, it can be applied to any gun that "has Bradov parts", so I think it can be applied even if you have a "Jacobs gun with Bradov authorized parts" for example.

To recap, authorized parts are another new element in this game, and it is a system in which weapons with parts with characteristics of other manufacturers may appear. Jacobs guns with Bradov parts would probably have matched Jacobs' manufacturer's trait, which adds ricochets on critical hits, with the enhancements of this Legendary (increased rate of fire &...... additional bullets with a certain probability).

In fact, the reinforcement that I already had, "Guns with Teedior parts leave 50% ammo when reloaded," was effective against the Mariwan submachine gun with Tidior's authorized parts.

I think it's quite difficult to expand this combination of approved parts / enhanced parts, because if you want to aim for a specific super strong build in the endgame, you will have to carefully select something like "this legendary gun from this manufacturer with this part is used with this enhancement part and this skill composition that works for that manufacturer".

But at the very least, I think it's going to be quite interesting in the mid-level range, where you build flexibly as you level up. I'm sure there will be unexpected combinations that will make you think, "Isn't that strong?"

And I think some of them are probably not theoretically the strongest builds, but they can be used well in the endgame. I like to play with such a heavenly evil structure while whining, so this is the part I'm looking forward to quite a bit.

4. Reaffirmed that Bodaran's Coop is funny after all

The fourth is ...... Bodaran's co-op is still interesting. To be honest, I didn't use voice chat to coordinate at all, but even so, I reaffirmed that the real thrill of Bodalan is to shoot guns with multiple people and use their action skills to defeat a group of enemies.

As I mentioned in the first preview, the foundation of Borderlands 4, which is the first new game in a long time, looks pretty good, and I felt it in the part I told you about this time.

It's nice to grapp-jump all at once and jump into a mini-boss battle.

So, "Is it a balance that allows you to play the endgame even with a minor build that is made up of a niche combination of licensed parts/enhanced parts?" or "Is the side mission in the open field attractive enough to deviate a little from the main story quest?" Of course, there are still some things that bother me.

There will be more information about the game in the future, and in some cases, there will be opportunities to play it again, so let's look forward to that in the future. Borderlands 4 will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 12, 2025, and Nintendo Switch 2 later this year. Reservations have started on each platform.