Summary
While there is likely a considerable gap between now and the release ofBorderlands 4, fans are already beginning to speculate on what the next mainline installment of their favorite loot shooter franchise will bring to the table, and that includes guns. From its humble origins in 2009, theBorderlandsfranchise has been known for its absurd amount of loot. Of course, this is a significant part of what has kept players coming back to the series time and time again, especially as developer Gearbox Software continues to add more gun combinations to each game’s loot pool.
The number of weapons ineach subsequentBorderlandsgamehas consistently trended upward, from millions to billions. However, if that trend were to continue,Borderlands4is going to need over one trillion guns. As that is an unrealistic achievement, perhaps Gearbox could devote its time to another aspect of the game that has been left mostly untouched over the last 15 years.
A History of Borderlands Weapons
The game that started it all,Borderlands, doesn’t quite compare toBorderlands 2in more than one way, and that includes its number of weapons. That doesn’t mean it has a small loot pool by any stretch of the imagination, however, as it was confirmed by Gearbox to possess 17,750,000 different possible weapon combinations due to randomly assigned factors. It’s hard to believe that Gearbox could achieve anything greater than 18 million different weapons, but it inevitably established a staple for the franchise and the developer only built on it from there.
Even afterBorderlands' ludicrous number of weapons left the gaming community amazed, Gearbox didn’t stop there.Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox at the time, confirmed that the number of weapons inBorderlands 2"greatly exceeds" the original game’s total, never providing an exact number. However,Borderlands 3was heavily marketed as having the most weapons of anyBorderlandsgame to date, soBorderlands 2would still be somewhere in the millions, though probably in the high millions.
FollowingBorderlands 2’s incredibly large weapon pool, Gearbox didn’t feel the need to stop there. It began marketingBorderlands 3as the firstBorderlandsgame to have one billion weapons. However,Borderlands 3’s Creative Director Paul Sage confirmed that one billion guns was a “made-up number because I didn’t really want to do the math” and that the number was “well over a billion.”
Borderlands 4 Could Have a Better Endgame in Place of More Weapons
To properly scale the weapon pool,Borderlands 4would require at least one trillion weapons. However, this would likely create unsolvable balance issues in the game, so Gearbox’s time might be better spent on a different area for the next installment. Specifically,it might be time for theBorderlandsfranchise to receive a proper endgame.
The endgame in everyBorderlandsentry has essentially been nothing but a time sink. Players collect more weapons and grow stronger, but there isn’t much of a reason for it. Once the story ends and all quests have been completed, the gameplay loop simply becomes about collecting more guns with no end in sight.IfBorderlands 4does have more weapons, there should be a greater purpose in collecting them and perhaps an endgame that focuses on completing more challenging content (similar to a concept thatTiny Tina’s Wonderlandsentertained) could provide that purpose.
TheBorderlandsfranchise has never shied away from massive loot pools. That being said,Borderlands 4is unlikely to have over a trillion weapons, but in the case that it does, a proper endgame would be a fulfilling motive for obtaining them. Not much aside from rumors have surroundedBorderlands 4, but it’s likely the gaming community will see more facts confirmed in the next year.
