Borderlands 3 Revenge of the Cartels update brings events, bank space, Moze buffs and more

There's a lot more than just the Cartel event

The long-awaited Borderlands 3 Revenge of the Cartels update launches today, April 23, and it's bringing multiple events, bug fixes, and quality of life changes with it.

Obviously, the Revenge of the Cartels seasonal event is the headliner for the update. This event will run until Monday, June 4, and during that time players will take on new enemies in challenges in the all-new Villa Ultraviolet area. If you want to disable the event for whatever reason, you can do so in the options on the main menu.

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To start the event, speak with Maurice in Sanctuary 3 and accept his repeatable quest. Cartel Operatives will spawn throughout this quest, and killing them will spawn Badass-grade Cartel Thugs. Killing them will get you some coordinates, and once you get enough, you'll unlock the Villa Ultraviolet and all the content attached to it, including unique loot pools for each of its three gangs. You'll never face the same gang twice in a row, and each one has a special boss, so you'll want to clear the Villa multiple times.

In addition to the Cartel event itself, today's update kicked off a weekly mini-event called Loot the Universe. Each week, a new planet will offer a loot buff which increases the chances of obtaining specific types of items. Here's the full schedule:

April 23 - April 30: Pandora
April 30 - May 7: Promethea
May 7 - May 14: Eden-6
May 14 - May 21: Nekrotafeyo

Borderlands 3's updated Mayhem mode underscores these two loot-tastic events. Mayhem 2.0 is now available, bringing 25 new modifiers spread across 10 levels of difficulty. The higher your Mayhem level, the tougher it gets, but the added challenge pays off in the form of higher quality loot drops and eight new Legendaries which are exclusive to higher Mayhem levels.

To top things off, the Cartel update added more SDU upgrades for bank and backpack space, as well as heavy ammo and sniper rifle ammo. With 100 more bank slots and 10 new backpack slots, you'll be able to hoard more loot than ever.

You can view the full patch notes on the Gearbox forums.

In case you missed it, Borderlands 3 is now hosting a bizarre science initiative which could help actual scientists study the human gut.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.