Borderlands 4’s "build diversity" is inspired by Baldur’s Gate 3 and Path of Exile. Read on to learn more about the improvements in its passive skills and how the developers honed the game’s RPG elements.
Borderlands 4 Expanded Passives and Builds
More Passives Than All Previous Borderlands Combined
Borderlands 4 is doubling down on its passives, amassing more than all previous Borderlands titles combined. In an interview with Polygon on August 15, Borderlands 4 Lead Character Designer Nick Thurston shared his insights about the recently revealed Vault Hunter, Amon the Forge Knight, and how the game focuses on its RPG elements.
At first glance, Amon would easily be identified as a typical tank or brawler type that smashes everyone in his path because of his physique and overall appearance. However, Amon’s playstyle revolves around forging weapons using his cybernetic drones, which Thurston described as a "sci-fi viking."
This unconventional blend of technology and brute force delves deeper into the team's design philosophy, where they apply this "melting pot of ideas" to the entire game. It is highlighted in the game’s massive skill tree system, which offers more options to experiment with multiple builds than ever before.
Thurston explained, "The Augment and the Capstone system that we have forces you to make a choice and all of them drastically change the ability that each player has. That alone would create more build diversity than we’ve ever had. But then we also have more passives than all the previous Borderlands combined. I think Amon alone has 87 passives, and most Vault Hunters have about 80."
This formula of stacking perks and creating quirky, creative builds has been the bread and butter of the Borderlands series. Paired with their enhanced weapon system that features "billions of weapons and accessories," fans will be able to create the ideal build for their preferred playstyle on their favorite Vault Hunter.
Taking Inspiration from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Path of Exile
Beyond the looter-shooter mechanics of the series, Borderlands 4 pushes its RPG aspects to even greater heights with its improved and ever-growing skill system. Thurston himself is a big fan of RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Path of Exile, from which he has taken inspiration for the game.
In these games, he described himself as a "min-maxer" who wants to deal massive damage in the way he preferred. He elaborated, "In a lot of cases, there have been times where previous characters in our franchise have been very focused on one thing. But it was always really important to me that if you have this really cool character, you’re going to want to use him in a bunch of different ways."
For Borderlands 4, the team wanted to emphasize the differences between each character build. Thurston stated that players will need to make difficult choices to create specialized builds to make each playthrough unique.
"In previous Borderlands titles, you could be like ‘If you’re going to be Zero and I’m going to be Zero then we’re both going to do the same thing.’ Maybe that’s fine and fun for you, but I really want to be like, we have four Amons in this group and every single one of them has a different build," he said.
With all the other major improvements, such as a seamless open-world and a promising end-game, Borderlands 4 gears up to be the biggest Borderlands title to date. Borderlands 4 is set to be released on September 12, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
Source:
Borderlands 4 has more passive perks than 'all the previous Borderlands combined'
Borderlands 4 - Official Gameplay Overview - Amon
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