Borderlands 4 creative director says new endless quests "remind me of the simpler missions from BL1," which became harder to make as the games got more complex

One of the new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4 — (Image credit: Gearbox)

Radiant quests. Love them or hate them, they're in a lot of RPGs and give you endless hours of missions to do. They're coming to Borderlands 4 in the form of contracts you can find at bounty boards, and they remind the creative director of the good ol' days of Borderlands 1.

"Will the random occurring events/quests be never ending?" one fan asks Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins on Twitter. "Yes, contracts found at bounty boards around Kairos will always provide contracts to pick up and engage," he replies.

Thanks, as simple as the BL1 missions tended to be, they were satisfying to complete in groups. That kind of 2 birds, 1 stone idea of mission pacing became harder to design/account for as we upped our mission game (dialog fighting, complexity of objectives).June 24, 2025

Apart from Skyrim's Thieves Guild jobs, I'm not a big fan of radiant quests, but long-time fans of the Borderlands franchise may take a shine to these contracts because Timmins adds, "They remind me of the simpler missions from [Borderlands 1]. These are great to have as you'll often complete them when doing other activities naturally (killing enemies for example)."

I suppose if your contract is to go out and kill someone, then you do a story mission that sends you into an area where you subsequently turn a bunch of enemies into lead holders, you'll end up completing the contracts purely by chance. That way you get their rewards without feeling like you're grinding them.

One fan tweets that "simple pick-up-and-play side activities" are what the Borderlands series has been missing, and Timmins has an explanation for where they've gone.

"As simple as the BL1 missions tended to be, they were satisfying to complete in groups," Timmins writes. "That kind of two birds, one stone idea of mission pacing became harder to design/account for as we upped our mission game (dialog fighting, complexity of objectives)."

So, it sounds like it should give you the best of both worlds. Check out our Borderlands 4 preview if you want to know more.

While we wait for it to come out, check out the best FPS games you can play right now.

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I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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