One year after its release, Borderlands 4 is getting a major expansion. Story Pack 2 is coming on Sept. 10, bringing with it a chunky new DLC called FL4K and the Last Resort. In a video interview with Polygon, the team at Gearbox broke down what’s new in the update, which draws inspiration from Lord of the Flies, The Lost World, and John Wick.
Available as a $19.99 add-on, FL4K and the Last Resort takes players to a brand-new location called Providence. It’s not a quick reskin of Kairos, the base game’s sprawling open-world, but a distinct island populated by jungles. All the plants on it are newly designed, and it has a cool color scheme that leans on purples instead of greens. There’s also a giant volcano on the island, and it’s not just there for show. A new volcanic weather system means players will occasionally have to navigate smoke plumes and increased monster spawns when the volcano erupts.
Aesthetically, it’s a different beast entirely for Borderlands 4. The overgrown look, where plants have overtaken abandoned industry, was very much inspired by The Lost World, though the team didn’t want to make that connection too obvious by throwing dinosaurs on it. For art director Chris Neely, the desire to make something new simply came from the fact that he’s a Borderlands player like anyone else.
“I play the game, so I don’t want to see the same shit I just played through a bunch!” Neely told Polygon. “I think there’s something so powerful about our style that you can graft on different things, and you can still have that heart of Borderlands and make it its own. My favorite thing is to take something you wouldn’t even think of, like a resort, and make that edgy and cool. Give it a little bit of a Mad Max edge.”
There’s a lot happening on Providence despite the fact that it looks abandoned. Upon shipping out to the island, your vault hunter is tasked with helping FL4K, Borderlands 3’s resident Beastmaster. The Gearbox team said that bringing FL4K into the fold was a “no-brainer” for the expansion, though doing so would require a bit of redesigning.
“I really wanted to tie FL4K into the environment and make them feel like they are part of that,” Neely said. “We have the iridescent jungle, FL4K has the iridescent sniper that has all the bright foliage they’ve collected from the jungle. I didn’t want FL4K to lose their FL4K-ness. They have such a cool identity with the big winter coat. How do you bulk up something that’s in a hot tropical jungle? That’s where the sniper veil and cape came from, but also the skull on their head to show that wildness. Sure, they may have crash-landed here, but they aren’t scraping by; they’re thriving in this environment. My favorite thing is to tell all that without saying a single word.”
While hunting on the island, FL4K crosses paths with soldiers from Tediore, an underexplored weapons manufacturer in the Borderlands universe that will finally get its due in the DLC. Tediore, led by Lieutenant Harmony, has committed an unforgivable sin on Providence: they’ve kidnapped FL4K’s dog, Mr. Chew. If that sounds a little John Wick-esque, it’s no coincidence.
“That was another one of the inspirations! A little John Wick action!” Neely said. “Sometimes I feel like when a game tries to show everything and be grandiose, it ends up feeling very small. It’s hard to fit all that on PlayStation. I love intimate, character-driven things that happen to take place in a larger world. And to me, that makes the world feel expansive if you get that right.”
From there, players are in for the looter-shooter action they’ve come to expect from Borderlands 4. The DLC will bring new weapons, including 18 Legendaries, lots of cosmetics, and over 20 new bosses to fight. There are new basic enemies too, like Deadframes, that play with Tediore tech. Also new are Digiverse Events, a Providence-specific world activity. Tediore stores its data in a digital pocket dimension, which tends to crack open across the island. Players will be able to hop into portals and clear arenas to get valuable loot.
Most importantly, Story Pack 2 will add a crucial feature: zip-lines. Players will be able to traverse the new island with Zip-Runners, which add more verticality to the space. If you see my Vault Hunter on Providence, please know that I’m only there for the zip-line.
Borderlands 4’s Story Pack 2 will be available to purchase on Sept. 10 for $19.99.