The Borderlands 4 update that will usher in a range of balance fixes and performance improvements is taking a little longer than expected, and so will not roll out this week as planned but will instead arrive “early next week.”
“Quick update that our Day 30 Update, which includes balance adjustments, performance and stability improvements, and some new quality-of-life features, will be hitting early next week!” Gearbox said on Steam. “We took a few extra days to help ensure a great experience for you.”
Patch delays are generally not a big deal, but this one is notable for its potential impact on the game. Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins provided an ominous-sounding “seven days notice” last week that this would be a “larger” patch, making changes “to specific gear and those unintended interactions.” Foremost among those interactions is a throwing knife that, when combined with a particular passive, becomes what PC Gamer’s Harvey Randall called an “infinite bleed god-knife” capable of killing the hell out of pretty much anything.
The knife was no secret: Timmins said in September that “we’ve seen the discourse about builds that use unintended interactions and/or the knife,” but added that developers were going to focus on buffs rather than nerfs in initial patches. The patch notes in the October 9 update revealed that those no-nerf days were drawing to a close, however:
Looking forward to next week, we are planning another round of adjustments that will focus on Class Mods, Repkits, Shields, and Firmware being tuned to provide greater viability for melee builds, and account for deficiencies in other specific Vault Hunter builds. We will also address unintended interactions in certain Vault Hunter skills, and make adjustments to overperforming gear. Importantly, next week’s update will include a host of improvements to stability, performance, and some highly requested quality-of-life changes!
This may be the rare case where a delay is welcome: The pushback means players can have one more weekend of fun with their insta-kill shivs before they’re taken away forever. Enjoy it while you can.
