Good news and bad news for Vault Hunters: the highly anticipated patch for Borderlands 4, designed to finally rein in those notoriously overpowered crit knife builds, has been delayed once more. It will now debut alongside the spooky Horrors of Kairos mini-event.
This ‘Day 30 Update’ was initially slated for last week, then pushed to early this week. After another unannounced delay, players were left wondering. Gearbox stepped in today to confirm the patch will now arrive with the Horrors of Kairos event, scheduled to run from October 23 to November 6.
Addressing player queries on social media, Gearbox shared, “Glad you’re excited for the update! We’re tidying up a few things right now, and it’ll be rolling out with the Horrors of Kairos mini-event. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been brewing.”
While the Horrors of Kairos event kicks off on October 23, the precise launch date of the patch within the event’s October 23 to November 6 window remains to be seen.
Just last week, Gearbox developers publicly responded to frustrated Borderlands 4 players who were questioning the necessity of nerfs for overpowered builds in a game that is primarily a single-player looter shooter. The developers stated that these adjustments are crucial for maintaining the game’s challenge and fostering greater build diversity.
For a while now, players have been preparing for the inevitable — the weakening of builds centered around the community-dubbed ‘crit knife.’ Gearbox previously confirmed this popular strategy relies on an “unintended interaction” and would be toned down in an upcoming patch.
Borderlands 4 is known for its plethora of overpowered builds that allow players to inflict astronomical damage, easily taking down even the most formidable bosses on the highest difficulty settings. The ‘crit knife’ build stands out as the most infamous, and Gearbox has openly acknowledged its existence. However, this is just one of many such powerful, and perhaps unintended, combinations.
This impending wave of nerfs has ignited a lively debate within the Borderlands community. Players are discussing the pros and cons of implementing balance changes in games primarily focused on single-player or cooperative experiences, where competition against other players isn’t a factor. For many, Borderlands 4 is all about the thrill of solo or co-op boss farming to continuously refine their character builds.
Speaking of dedicated players, one Borderlands 4 enthusiast recently spent 150 hours and over 3,000 boss kills just to determine the game’s actual loot drop rate, highlighting the community’s deep engagement with the farming aspect.
For instance, crit knife builds are so potent they can “delete” bosses on Borderlands 4’s highest difficulty, turning the challenging loot grind into a simple task. This has led to a split in opinion: some players see no issue with such powerful strategies in a non-competitive environment, while others believe it detracts from the overall game experience.
Graeme Timmins, the creative director for Borderlands 4, addressed these concerns, emphasizing that the team wants upcoming content, like the formidable Invincible boss, to offer a genuine challenge to players.
“We have future content, such as the upcoming Invincible boss, where we want players to truly feel a sense of challenge and accomplishment,” Timmins elaborated. He added that if content were balanced around poorly optimized gear, it would severely limit build diversity, forcing everyone into a narrow set of meta-builds.
Regarding the crit knife specifically, Associate Creative Director Grant Kao noted that its overwhelming popularity “diminishes playstyle variety” and confirmed that adjustments are indeed planned.
“We will be adjusting it,” Kao stated. “The crit knife’s immense damage output reduces the incentive to explore other playstyles. Fortunately, many gun builds that currently rely on the crit knife already have alternative options, with even more on the way.”
Timmins further clarified Gearbox’s stance on the crit knife, explaining, “Our primary goal is always to expand the number of viable builds, so any adjustments we implement are made with that objective in mind.”
Now, the community eagerly awaits to see exactly how Gearbox plans to rebalance not only the infamous crit knife build but any other strategies deemed to rely on “unintended interactions” within Borderlands 4.
In other Borderlands 4 news, Gearbox recently unveiled “Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day,” which introduces the game’s first seasonal mini-event and the challenging Invincible boss mentioned earlier. Additionally, a new Vault Hunter named C4SH was announced as part of the upcoming paid Story Pack DLCs, expected in early 2026. C4SH is a unique, luck-based character whose effectiveness can swing wildly between being incredibly powerful or surprisingly weak.
For more insights into Borderlands 4, a dataminer previously discovered evidence suggesting that a highly disliked character from Borderlands 3 was removed and replaced late in the game’s development cycle. Neither 2K Games nor Gearbox offered comments when approached about this finding.
In a related discussion, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford recently commented on the broader gaming landscape, suggesting that if more developers truly grasped why players enjoy making strategic choices about loot, the industry would see more formidable competitors.
For those diving deep into Borderlands 4, make sure to keep an eye on updated hourly SHiFT codes. There’s also an extensive interactive map available, along with a powerful Borderlands 4 planner tool from Maxroll. And if you’re stuck on choosing a character, our expert players have offered their diverse opinions – though they couldn’t quite agree on a single best choice!