Borderlands 4 has "more skills per character than in Borderlands 3 and 2 added together," Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says: "We're working late on Fridays for you"

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That's roughly a billion skills if my math is correct

Borderlands 4 new Vault Hunter Rafa with electric blades
(Image credit: Gearbox)

Borderlands 4's producers have claimed that Borderlands 4 has "more skills per character than in Borderlands 3 and 2 added together."

It's hard to believe it's been that long since Borderlands 3, but somehow that game is over five years old at this point (it'll be a day before six years when it launches on September 12, 2025), it's even a few months older than Death Stranding, which really puts it into perspective (I mean sure, there was Tiny Tina's Wonderlands in the middle there, but c'mon). From the way Gearbox tells it, that time was put to good use, as the character classes in Borderlands 4 seem way more in-depth this time around.

Borderlands Fan Fest Livestream - YouTube Borderlands Fan Fest Livestream - YouTube
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Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and chief creative officer Randy Varnell took the stage at Borderlands Fan Fest to chat about the new character classes in the game. Varnell spoke up about the depth of the skill tree in Borderlands 4, saying that four players could take the same character and action skill into a fight and still have a varied enough moveset to take on different roles. Pitchford added, "You'll find more skills per character than in Borderlands 3 and 2 added together," saying, "We're working late on Fridays for you."

Doing the math, characters in Borderlands 2 each had three skill trees with 10 skills each, while in Borderlands 3, each character had 4 skill trees with around 18-20 skills each. So add it all together, and that's a ton of skills per character. Hopefully, they are meaningful upgrades as opposed to being the skill equivalent of Borderlands' millions of weapons with minor changes between them.

Borderlands 4 isn't a "cynical" sequel that's only being made "to meet the market," but because Gearbox wants to improve movement like it improved Borderlands 3's gunplay

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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