Borderlands 3 level cap increase coming Thursday, and a new Takedown event is live now

(Image credit: Gearbox)

The Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles DLC coming this Thursday, March 26, will raise the Vault Hunter level cap from 53 to 57, Gearbox revealed today. 

Players have been hungry for a level cap increase for some time, and this jump will not only add four more skill points, but also a second slot for Capstone abilities. The skill points will strengthen existing builds, but the Capstone expansion will really crank up the end-game possibilities. This level cap increase will be free to all players, so you'll get to enjoy it even if you don't pick up the DLC on day one. 

Ahead of the DLC and its accompanying update, Borderlands 3 kicked off a new Takedown event today. Aptly titled the Takedown Shakedown, this event brings players to the Maliwan Blacksite once again, this time with boosted drop rates for unique items. This event will last until this Friday, March 27, and Gearbox says "a series of similar mini-events" will roll out in the coming weeks. 

Speaking of future updates: a highly requested change to Mayhem mode is coming in April, alongside another seasonal event called Revenge of the Cartels. Mayhem 2.0 will update the UI, add new (and hopefully more interesting) Mayhem modifiers, as well as a Mayhem-specific loot system. Much of this was announced at PAX East, but it's nice to have a date. 

This is also our first look at Revenge of the Cartels, which will challenge you to wipe out three factions of thugs to save Maurice. Each faction has different enemy types and loot, so the Cartel fight will change regularly. The event will last for six weeks, but its effects will be toggleable following fan feedback, which I can only assume came from the game's somewhat intrusive Halloween event. 

Watch 12 minutes of the Guns, Love, and Tentacles DLC right here. 

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.