Borderlands 4: Vault Hunting and Co-Op Play Early Impressions

With its September 12th release date slowly coming up on the horizon,

Borderlands 4

is geared to be Gearbox’s most “ambitious” game to date. Complete with a suite of
new movement mechanics and quality-of-life improvements
,
visual upgrades
, and, most importantly,
a massive open world
,


Borderlands 4

is bound to be the biggest

Borderlands

game in the franchise.

During mid-May, I and writers from other outlets were fortunate enough to be invited to 2K’s headquarters in Novato, CA, to playtest a preview version of

Borderlands 4

, which was split into two sections: the open world section and a preview of the new Vault dungeons that will be a main form of farming in the game.

I also sat down and
interviewed Adam May
, the Art Director at Gearbox and a member of the core dev team, who was eager to share as much as he could about the design philosophy behind
our new four Vault Hunters.

The following are my first impressions of the Vault sections during the preview event.

If you’re curious about my initial impressions of the exploration and general gameplay, please read
the first part
, as we’ll dive headfirst into the Vaults and co-op.

Vault Overview

In the preview, our games were divided into two save files: the first was a level 5 character placed in the Fadefields open-world region, and the second was a level 20 character in the Vault.

Based on what I’ve seen from this one,

Vaults will most likely follow a similar structure where you fight through hordes of enemies before you ultimately prepare and face the Vault’s guardian.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and let’s take a look at the general order of the Vault and the level 20 combat.

During the Vault preview, I picked

a level 20 Vex, with points invested purely in her Dead Ringer skill tree.

In terms of weapons, I started with an Order pistol, a Jakobs shotgun that can charge its shots, a Maliwan SMG, and a Ripper sniper rifle, along with what seemed to be a Vladof rocket launcher as my Ordnance.

Naturally, Vex was much stronger compared to her level 5 counterpart in the Fadefields, as her Specters and Reapers dealt significantly more damage, lasted longer, and recharged much faster.

The enemies I faced matched the power progression, too, as

I fought difficult Order enemies that ranged from regular Order foot soldiers and synths to cybernetic beasts.

Geysers that dotted the battlefield launched me high up into the air, allowing me to take full advantage of the enhanced mobility

Borderlands 4

now offers our Vault Hunters.

The average enemies weren’t too hard, though they still posed enough of a threat to ensure that I consider strategic positions and cover management.

Some enemies also spawn with unique modifiers, which can range from simple damage buffs to a post-mortem effect that can freeze you.

Befitting Vex’s rebellious personality and
the much more grounded humor of

Borderlands 4

,

a rare, random animation can occur when you get ready to summon a Dead Ringer clone

, where she crosses her arms and flips off the enemy with both hands.

This is somewhat reminiscent of a certain pose in a certain pose in the film

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

. If you know, you know.

After some time, one of the devs pointed out the Perturbalon, a unique enemy that had a purple bar above its normal health bar. Other than the purple crystals growing from its body, it was invulnerable to my attacks.

When enough damage is dealt, these crystals will turn into three Vile Ordonite, small floating orbs that have their own health pool. Destroying all three will leave the Perturbalon vulnerable, allowing you to put a bullet in its head.

These enemies will surely mix up the chaos of the borderlands and will require you to think a little bit more strategically to wreak wanton destruction.

Boss Fight

After killing hordes of enemies, I then arrived at an area with vending machines for me to stock up on ammo and health before I faced the boss.

I launched myself from a ramp and entered the boss arena, and faced Primordial Guardian Inceptus, a massive vault monster with two sharp tails.

In my years of playing

Borderlands

,

I have never encountered a terrifyingly agile boss like this Vault monster.

Right as the fight began, it immediately impaled me and pulled me into range before unleashing a powerful sweeping attack that almost downed me.

This boss has a beefy shield and thick health bar, and since my only Shock weapon was the Ripper sniper rifle, it did little more than just tickle the boss’s shields.

What I noticed immediately were grapple points on the boss. Contrary to what I assumed, they weren’t there to let me zip around the arena (that’s for later),

but to open up bulbs on its body, which are weak points that seem to take extra crit damage.

The boss primarily used its tails to attack, jumping around and slamming the ground or stabbing me with their pointy tips.

Not only that, but it can also launch corrosive balls and projectiles.

At some point in each phase of the fight,

the boss hung itself from the ceiling by its tails and wrapped itself in a cocoon,

filling the floor with acid and becoming impervious to most attacks while adding an extra thick health bar.

Strange bulbs would also hang from the ceiling, which I could grapple to and land on for safety.

Shooting the exposed bulbs on the cocoon was the only way to damage the boss, depleting the extra health bar and stunning it for a few crucial moments.

This boss kept me on my toes, as its constant tail attacks assaulted me and threatened to down me. Thankfully, there were plenty of bug creatures for me to kill for that Second Wind.

If every Vault boss is as fun as Inceptus, then Vaults are most certainly going to be the most fun part of

Borderlands 4

, and

this will make farming less of a chore and more of an expression of player skill.

However, I’m sure players will eventually figure out how to
one-shot these bosses.

Endless Buildcrafting Potential

While I didn’t experience the natural progression of going from level 5 to 20,

I can already tell that the buildcrafting potential is going to be immense

, as the Vault Hunters’ skill trees are intricate, and the new “Licensed Parts” system is going to make the pursuit for the perfect gun all the more enticing.

As explained by the devs, the “Licensed Parts” system will change how weapons work. Instead of a single manufacturer,

guns will now have multiple manufacturers, the number increasing based on their rarity,

with Legendaries potentially having up to five.

The varied skill trees of each Vault Hunter also offer a different playstyle for any type of player.

From active abilities to fire-and-forget, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Ordnances are also going to be an absolute game-changer.

If you prefer grenades, then

Borderlands 4

will most certainly have that for you. However, you’ll also get to shoot a Vladof rocket launcher that slowly revs up the longer you hold down the trigger, or Jakobs throwing knives that can deal an insane amount of damage.

Co-Op Experience

I partnered up with a writer from a different outlet, and to start, the co-op lobby system has been streamlined to allow for easier transitions between characters.

Unfortunately, since the devs helped us with this process, I can’t say with absolute certainty how it works, but it did feel more convenient.

We were given the choice to play co-op either in the open world or in the Vault. Since he and I wanted to farm the boss and see how boss fights feel in co-op, we opted for the latter.

The first thing I noticed about co-op is that dueling has been taken out of the game. In prior

Borderlands

games, you can melee a friend to challenge them to a duel, to which they can refuse or accept. At lower levels, this might be a fun little distraction, but at higher levels,

most duels often end with one Vault Hunter one-shotting the other.

When asked about it, Anthony Nicholson, Senior Project Producer at Gearbox,

confirmed that dueling was removed from

Borderlands 4

.

I doubt many

Borderlands

fans will miss it. While at first it was an interesting concept for players to resolve their loot disputes and kill time, it’s almost impossible to have a completely fair fight.

Still, I remember those days in middle school when my friends and I would run around Sanctuary in

Borderlands 2

and play elaborate games with the dueling system.

Another feature that the devs wanted to emphasize was the ability to instantly teleport to your friends in-game. Because we were in a Vault, I must admit that

I do not recall whether we could teleport to each other due to its relatively small space.

As is expected in any co-op experience in

Borderlands

,

enemy difficulty automatically scales depending on the number of players,

as they hit a little harder and have more health, so enemies won’t just immediately fall over when you concentrate fire.

This also includes the boss, who still poses an adequate challenge for two experienced

Borderlands

players.

And much like the previous

Borderlands

games,

you can play as duplicates of the same characters,

so you can theoretically summon a whole army of Vex clones on the battlefield.

Closing Comments

I feel pretty good about Vaults in Borderlands 4. In my experience, there weren’t a lot of convenient ways to farm Legendaries, nor was there enough content to let me sink more than hundreds of hours after beating every mission and NG+. Most of my Borderlands games clock in just under 100 hours, and while I do enjoy my time playing through the main games, I rarely feel incentivized to replay content. Borderlands 4 might change that. With a large open world and extremely convenient ways to grind for the perfect gun, there’s plenty of content to sink your teeth into.