Borderlands 4 has a 'very stupid' glitch that lets you unlock a character's most powerful abilities before refunding all your skill points, but don't expect it to be around long as Gearbox says 'we're on it'

Borderlands 4 weekly update patch notes: An upper-body shot of Harlowe standing in a doorway with a determined, somewhat disgruntled facial expression. — (Image credit: Gearbox)

Borderlands 4 players have already discovered some ridiculous glitches and exploits, like its overpowered crit knives that were subsequently nerfed, and a bugged interaction that caused "total existence failure" for endgame bosses. But the latest glitch discovered in Gearbox's looter shooter might just take the cake, allowing players to unlock a character's most powerful abilities and then refund nearly all of their skill points.

Discovered by a player who opted to remain anonymous, the glitch was brought to light by Borderlands 4 YouTuber JoltzDude139 (via GamesRadar). The creator described it as "the most insane glitch in Borderlands" on X, adding that it will "change the build meta for every build."

A NEW Glitch Was Just Discovered In Borderlands 4 (Meta Builds Are Stronger Now!) - YouTube

Watch On

"What we're doing here is tricking the game into thinking we dumped more than one [point]," JoltzDude139 explains. What's more, repeating this process of dumping and then reimbursing your skill points will return even more points from the skill. The glitch doesn't work if you max out a particular skill when dumping the points, however, so you need to spread regained points through the skill tree as you buy them back.

As JoltzDude139 notes, achieving this is a "tedious process", while you'll need to have acquired a decent number of skill points before the trick becomes useful. Nonetheless, the exploit means players can gain the best abilities across a particular character's multiple skill trees without having to max out all the prerequisite abilities in the tree—letting you create combinations not previously possible.

It's a wild exploit, and it doesn't look like it'll be around for long. Responding to JoltzDude193's thread, Borderlands 4's creative director Graeme Timmins simply said "We're on it"—suggesting an update will be coming to BL4 soon that will wipe the glitch out. Consequently, if you want to see what wild skill combinations you can create without any limits, you'd be wise to hop onto Borderlands 4 soon.

This meta-breaking glitch is far from the biggest technical issue Borderlands 4 has encountered. The game's Steam Rating currently sits at 'Mixed', largely but not entirely due to ongoing complaints about performance. Gearbox has tried to remedy the shooter's technical woes in subsequent patches. But the issue has resulted in "softer" than expected sales, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive's boss.

TOPICS

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.