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A tale of two Vault Hunters
Last, but certainly not least, we have Tales from the Borderlands, which takes place shortly after the events of Borderlands 2. It's difficult to recap Tales, not only because the story differs radically depending on the choices you make throughout the adventure, but because Gearbox hasn't confirmed which parts of the narrative are canonical to the series at large, making a full recap both somewhat impossible, and a little bit pointless. With that in mind, we're only going to cover the need-to-know stuff from Tales that's relevant to Borderlands 3, so apologies if it sounds like we're skipping over crucial details.
Meet Rhys and Vaugh, Hyperion underlings slowly trying to make their way up the corporate ladder and become the next Handsome Jack, and Fiona and Sasha, Pandorian sister grifters about to make the con of a lifetime by trading a fake Vault Key for cash with two Hyperion minions. You can probably see where this is going, as the foursome eventually find themselves banding together for a Vault Hunt after stumbling across a map to Atlas' Gortys Project.
Gortys, as it happens, is a robot designed by Atlas to locate, open, and stabilise Vaults across the galaxy, but she needs to be upgraded with a number of parts found on both Pandora and Helios before she can do so. So begins a long and eventful adventure, but here's the important stuff you need to know...
Press F to catch a ride: Scooter is gone but not forgotten in Borderlands 3
Rhys accidentally uploads Handsome Jack's AI consciousness into his brain via Nakayama's neuro implant, Scooter sacrifices himself during the gang's rocket trip to Helios, which itself, by the way, is completely destroyed, after which Rhys becomes CEO of Atlas by finding the deeds to the company from the ruins of Jack's office, forcibly removes the villain's AI from his mind, and eventually, once the gang find the Vault, he and Fiona mysteriously vanish into thin air just as they're about to open the treasure within.
At some point, Athena also joins them on the adventure, but she's captured mid-way by Brick and Mordecai for interrogation over her involvement with Handsome Jack during the events of the Pre-Sequel. Back at Sanctuary, she admits her crimes to Lillith but, before the Siren can bring about her execution, The Watcher turns up, preventing any further bloodshed and warning the Vault Hunters that they'll need all hands on deck for an impending war to come.
The road to Borderlands 3
Some time later, Lillith is struggling to live up to her responsibilities as the commander of the Crimson Raiders. The Watcher's words of warning have clearly given her pause for thought, and the crew still have that map of Vaults across the galaxy, but Sanctuary's barely holding it together as it is, and the likes of Mordecai, Brick, are getting agitated by her inaction. But before Lillith can finally come up with a plan, an assault led by New Pandora - a group of ex-Dahl soldiers under the command of Colonel Hector - capture Sanctuary via weaponized gas that turns anyone infected into zombie-like plant people.
The Crimson Raiders are forced to flee their city but, with the help of new allies like Vaughn (now the leader of a band of former Helios refugees), Lillith and the Vault Hunters take the fight back to Colonel Hector on Sanctuary. By the time they get there, however, the Colonel has injected his own toxins to become more plant than human, and part of the city itself, forcing Lillith to destroy Sanctuary alongside Hector and the Vault Key with it.
In light of Sanctuary's decimation, the Siren finally steps up to her calling as Commander of the Crimson Raiders, and rallies the Vault Hunters to leave Pandora in search of more Vaults. She, however, is staying behind, as she knows as well as you and I that the Vault Key is unlikely to have been destroyed. It's Borderlands' most famous macguffin, after all, and - in a post-credits tease - we see it being discovered in Pandora's wasteland by an unknown entity. Cue ominous music.
Borderlands 3 is set roughly four years after the events of the Commander Lilith DLC, and introduces another four more Vault Hunters into the mix alongside a new villainous duo in the form of the cult-leading Calypso twins, Tyreen and Troy, the former of which is the fifth Siren to emerge in the Border-verse. This retrospective is long enough as it is, though, so we'll hold off on any further speculation for now, but - rest assured - you can expect a ton of familiar faces, callbacks, and ongoing story threads to feature in Borderlands 3, and - having just caught up on every crucial plot detail - I'd say you're more than ready to experience the mayhem. See you back in Pandora soon, Vault Hunter.
For more, check 23 ways Borderlands 3 is reinventing the series formula, or watch almost 10 minutes of raw gameplay footage below via our recent preview!
