Gearbox developers have been addressing disgruntled Borderlands 4 players who have questioned the need to nerf overpowered builds in the mostly single-player looter shooter, saying it’s necessary to preserve the challenge and encourage build “diversity.”
This comes as players brace themselves for the end of builds that rely on what the community has dubbed 'the crit knife,' an "unintended interaction” Gearbox has said will be nerfed this week.
Borderlands 4 is rife with overpowered builds that cause massive damage, even to the game’s toughest bosses on the hardest difficulties. The most infamous of these is the crit knife, which Gearbox has said it’s aware of. But there are many others.
The nerf sweep set to hit Borderlands 4 has sparked a debate within the game’s community about the rights and wrongs of balance changes such as these in single-player games. With no PvP component, Borderlands 4 is mostly about solo players — and occasional groups of co-op players — farming bosses for loot that makes their build ever so slightly better each time.
Builds based on the crit knife, for example, can essentially delete bosses even on Borderlands 4’s toughest difficulty, making farming for loot a trivial endeavor. Some believe there’s nothing wrong with such overpowered play because players aren't competing with others in any way. Others argue it’s bad for the game.
Of course, this debate isn’t isolated to Borderlands 4. I’ve seen it crop up over the years in countless loot games, from Diablo to Destiny. But it always presents a tricky balancing act from developers who want to keep their players happy while also sticking to their guns in their response.
“What is the problem with these interactions in a mostly single-player experience? There's no pvp where it gives an unfair advantage,” asked one player on social media.
“Nerfs in a single-player experience is a s***-ass take and all of the ones asking for it should be ashamed, is that people can't have fun? It's not like this is a COD sweatfest where everyone is whining about how OP that weapon is or some shit like that,” said another frustrated player.
Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins has responded to the complaints, pointing to the game’s upcoming Invincible boss, which the developers want to present a challenge.
“We have future content like the upcoming Invincible that we want players to find challenge/accomplishment in,” Timmins explained. “If we balanced that content around bad gear, it would remove build diversity, forcing players into specific builds using said gear.”
Specifically on the crit knife, associate creative director Grant Kao said this particular, hugely popular build “diminishes playstyle variety,” and confirmed changes are planned.
“We will be adjusting it,” Kao said. “The crit knife’s potential output diminishes playstyle variety. The gun builds that use the crit knife have other options and will have more options coming soon.”
Timmins then chimed in on the crit knife, saying: “Our intent is always to expand the number of builds, so any adjustment we make is in service of that goal.”
Most in the community appear to agree with Gearbox’s stance on this, calling the nerfs necessary if Borderlands 4 wants to survive as a live service game.
“They can't release Invincibles in a context where absurdly overpowered stuff that one-shot bosses exist,” said redditor LascarCapable. “Otherwise people will just gravitate towards the few builds that can do it, the same pieces of gear, and everything else will be irrelevant. Also, it would make the game a borefest; it's funny five minutes to one-shot bosses, but beyond that point it just removes all the fun of the main gameplay loop.”
With a game like Borderlands 4, which has billions of guns and enormous scope for varied builds, fans will always find ways to generate enough damage that makes a mockery of boss fights. The question for Gearbox will be how it manages those builds, while taking care not to come across as the fun police.
This is something Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has struggled with as it works to maintain the challenge in its explosive co-op shooter while also preserving the fun. It’s fair to say the studio hasn’t always got it right, leading to discontent within its community and, on occasion, apologies from its developers.
All eyes are now on Gearbox to see what changes it has in store for not just Borderlands 4’s crit knife build, but any build it believes relies on an “unintended interaction.” A major patch is expected soon.
Over the weekend, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, the first seasonal mini-event for the game, the aforementioned Invincible boss, and more. Last month, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4’s first of two new Vault Hunters coming to the game as part of the paid Story Pack DLCs. C4SH, due out during the first quarter of 2026, is a playable character whose luck-based powers can make him either the best or worst character in the game.
We’ve got plenty more on Borderlands 4. Last month, a Borderlands 4 dataminer unearthed evidence to suggest that one of the most hated characters from Borderlands 3 was cut and replaced relatively late in development. 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
And we recently reported on comments from Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford, who said if more developers better understood why gamers love making decisions about loot, "We'd have good competitors."
If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
