Borderlands 4 guide: Tips to plunder Kairos for all its loot

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Everything you need to know to make the most of your vault hunting trip to Kairos.

Borderlands 4 teaser image
(Image credit: Gearbox Software)
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After six years, a couple of spin-offs, and a not-so-great movie, Borderlands 4 is finally here. While it might look like just another Borderlands game at first glance, there are a lot of big changes that'll keep even series veterans like me on their toes.

Of course, the most notable change is the shift to a fully open world structure, with several biomes to explore, each with quests, activities, bosses, and guns to loot. Lots and lots of guns is one thing that'll never change. Our Borderlands 4 guide will get you up to speed with everything you need to know to get started on Kairos.

Recent updates

September 26, 2025: We've added more of our Borderlands 4 guides and tips here to help you on Kairos, including more legendary gear you'll want to find.

Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters and builds

(Image credit: Gearbox)
Hero

Pick the right character for you and deck them out with the best builds, or just play all four using the new campaign skip feature on subsequent Vault Hunters.

Borderlands 4 characters: Meet your new Vault Hunters and find out who's strongest.
Borderlands 4 Harlowe builds: The amped-up Gravitar.
Borderlands 4 Rafa builds: The speed-demon Exo-Soldier.
Borderlands 4 Vex builds: The spooky Siren.
Borderlands 4 Amon builds: The fierce Forgeknight.

Borderlands 4 legendary gear

(Image credit: Gearbox)
Gear Up

The gear you bring with you is the other half of the build-making puzzle, so here are some legendary items you should hunt down.

Borderlands 4 Kaoson: Sticky bomb SMG.
Borderlands 4 Birt's Bees: SMG with a sting.
Borderlands 4 Aegon's Dream: Ice and fire assault rifle.
Borderlands 4 Wombo Combo: Explosive assault rifle.
Borderlands 4 Hot Slugger: Slug shotgun.
Borderlands 4 Hellwalker: Doom-inspired shotgun.
Borderlands 4 Rainbow Vomit: Multi-element shotgun.
Borderlands 4 Kickballer: Game-breaking ricochet shotgun.
Borderlands 4 Bod: The everything gun.
Borderlands 4 Convergence: Slicing shotgun.
Borderlands 4 Complex Root: Multi-hit sniper.
Borderlands 4 Katagawa's Revenge: Storm-slinger sniper.
Borderlands 4 Triple Bypass: Build-breaking repkit.
Borderlands 4 Kill Spring: Healing missile repkit.
Borderlands 4 Super Soldier: High-speed shield.
Borderlands 4 Slippy: Melee damage grenade.
Borderlands 4 Undead Eye: Vex's Blood Shot class mod.

Borderlands 4 missions and activities

(Image credit: Gearbox)
Wayfinder

Sometimes a mission might leave you scratching your head on a specific objective, or perhaps you're after a particular boss?

Borderlands 4 vault key fragment locations: Crack open Kairos.
Borderlands 4 elevator clearance: Recruitment Drive.

Borderlands 4 systems

(Image credit: Gearbox)
Basics

Handy tips to make the most of Borderlands 4's wide variety of systems, big and small.

Borderlands 4 Black Market location: Maurice's machine this week.
Borderlands 4 weekly reset: This week on Kairos.
How to respec your skill tree in Borderlands 4: Hit the reset.
Borderlands 4 max level: The skill points you're restrained by.
Borderlands 4 XP farms: Level up fast.
All Borderlands 4 Shift codes: So many freebies.
Borderlands 4 Twitch Drops: Even more freebies just for watching streams.

Official Story Trailer | Borderlands 4 - YouTube Official Story Trailer | Borderlands 4 - YouTube
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Borderlands 4 system requirements

The original Borderlands 4 minimum system requirements stated the game required at least 8 CPU cores, and we speculated something was up with the original figure and that wouldn't be the case. A 2K rep confirmed the specification was an error on Steam, but we haven't seen that reflected in its updated recommendations. Here's what we're working with for now:

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Minimum

Recommended

OS

Windows 10 (64-bit)

Windows 10 (64-bit)

CPU

Intel Core i7 9700 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

Intel Core i7 12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 5800X

GPU

Nvidia RTX 2070 / AMD RX 5700 XT

Nvidia RTX 3080 / AMD RX 6800 XT

VRAM

8 GB

12 GB

Memory

16 GB

32 GB

Storage

100 GB SSD

100 GB SSD

Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

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