Gearbox is ‘making rarity matter again’ in Borderlands 4 after dropping too many legendaries in Borderlands 3

We got our first up-close look at Borderlands 4 during today’s State of Play showcase, and to the untrained eye—which is to say, my eye—yes, this is definitely a Borderlands game. But Gearbox revealed one thing about the upcoming shooter that I found quite interesting: You’re not going to see as many legendary items in the new game as you might expect.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, isn’t it? We all want good loot, after all, and that’s pretty much the entire point of the Borderlands games: As Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says at the start of the show, the studio basically invented the looter shooter genre 16 years ago with the original Borderlands. The problem is that when legendaries become common, they’re not really legendary anymore—they’re, well, common.

“We’ve overhauled our drop rates and loot across the game,” senior producer Anthony Nicholson explained during the showcase. “We’ve worked hard to make sure all our gear feels better than ever, while also making rarity matter again. This makes for our most satisfying loot chase ever, and at the top of everything are legendaries.

“These have always had unique effects that you won’t find on any other piece of gear, but in Borderlands 3 they drop too often. This not only devalued legendaries, it made everything feel less valuable. In our new system not only do all guns feel great, but now legendaries will truly be special events. We’ve added the magic back to our loot chain.”

He’s not wrong: I’ve never believed that too much of a good thing is a bad thing, but it can take the thrill away after a while. That said, it’ll be a tough balance for Gearbox to strike. Legendary items should feel special, but players want their treats and cutting the flow too much won’t make anyone happy. Borderlands 4 development may be going so wonderfully well that Gearbox can afford to shove it out the door a week and a half early—September 12, rather than September 23, is the big day—but even so I suspect we’ll see some post-launch drop rate tweaks being applied in short order.