Hey Vault Hunters! Welcome to “This Week on Kairos” - a weekly post where we share everything happening across the world of Borderlands 4, from developer updates to community highlights and beyond.

Every week, we’ll be here with the latest news, fan creations, dev spotlights, helpful resources, and anything else we think you’ll want to see. Whether you're looking to catch up, dive deeper, or just see what your fellow players are up to, this is the place.

In case you missed them, here are the February 26th Major Update notes:

https://borderlands.2k.com/borderlands-4/update-notes/

A guide on how to submit a ticket can be found here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1285190/discussions/2/673972930559959886/

When you submit a ticket, please remember to attach your DxDiag or MSinfo file. If you need assistance with doing that, here’s a walkthrough:

https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/articles/44564441894291-PC-How-do-I-attach-a-DxDiag-and-MSinfo-file

(Note: This section is going to be structured the same each week, so although it looks the same, rest assured it’s being updated weekly!)

Get ready to go spelunking for precious loot, Vault Hunter. Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon* is out NOW, and we have plenty of new content:

• A new mission featuring three new minibosses and a fearsome final boss

• All-new Pearlescent-rarity gear

• New Legendary loot

• A new Vault Card with 24 cosmetic items and 4 pieces of rerollable gear

A wretched malevolence lurks within the abandoned mines of Kairos. For centuries, the Augers have quelled rumblings from the deep by sending human sacrifices to the fabled Stone Demon, but Defiant Calder is determined to end these barbaric rituals for good.

In Legend of the Stone Demon, you'll delve into an ancient cavern alongside Calder and eliminate threats among rich veins of crystalline Ordonite. Take on new Ordonite-encrusted enemy types and four new boss fights, all in hopes of scoring powerful new Pearlescent-rarity loot.  

By fully completing the new mission in Bounty Pack 2, you'll unlock a new Vault Hunter Skin usable by all Vault Hunters, a new Vehicle Skin, and a new ECHO-4 Drone Skin. Read more about it here!

As you take photos and drop them in Steam, we’ll round up a few of our favorites for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the beauty of chaos - er, I mean, Kairos!

Legendary Star for this INCREDIBLE shot by ahuter:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3671456254https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670876928https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670354168https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3671074565

Every week, we’re spotlighting one of the minds behind the mayhem. You’ll get to learn about folks from both Gearbox and 2K, and how each person who touches the game both influences and is influenced by Borderlands 4. This week, we're talking with Joshua Towns, Gearbox’s Senior Rigging Artist:

What’s your favorite part of the rigging process?

Joshua: Skinning / Weight Painting. There's something therapeutic and calming when it comes to making characters move and deform in certain ways, and the cooler the character or creature, the more exciting it is. I'll pop on some epic music or European metal and the day will just fly by for me. And as a stress reliever for folks at the company, I sometimes make a silly short video of a character I’m working on talking, dancing, or singing to a song I’m listening to, which always makes people laugh.

As the cherry on top, I get a mortified look from passersby when I talk about ‘skinning a character’ from previous games in public, which always gives me a chuckle.

How do you handle rigs for non-standard characters (creatures, mechanical characters, or stylized anatomy)?

Joshua: Usually this involves talking with other departments like Animation, Art, and Design to make sure everyone signs off on what exactly we are intending to do. Unique characters are some of the coolest things that we as a rigging department can make, since it lets us ‘cut loose’ with preservation and automated joints, dynamic simulations, cloth, etc. But it can be a colossal undertaking with risk of scope creep if departments are not prepared for what it could entail.

There's also potential for R&D on our control rigs related to certain unique characters, like the Thresher or Pangolin enemies for example. We work closely with animation leads and directors to make sure all the systems move and articulate the way they want without it being too overbearing on an animator, and that tech could be used on future characters or creatures that have similar needs, which is always a win.

What makes a rig truly production-ready?

Joshua: We have certain stages of production for a rig. Our prototype stage is designed to be ‘throwaway’ work. We get whatever Art hands us rigged up as quickly as possible—usually just a standard skeleton and rig with no extra fancy bits—then hand that off to Animation to get things in-game for designers to play with. After some iteration on limb lengths, silhouette changes, or confirming if a unique feature on a character will work (like a cape or feathers), we get the sign-off from all departments that a character is ready for the full production pipeline.

We then start adding the fun bits that make characters more unique like secondary joints for belts, chains, hair and capes, and getting those pieces simulated in-game to breathe more life into the character. This also gives Animation more time to animate those pieces for certain attacks or poses, and we begin to polish things from there until we are happy with it, or more often than not, time runs out!

Our community members aren’t just gamers—many of you are also artists. Whether it’s cosplay, digital art, or some yet-to-be-invented medium, we’re your biggest fans. Check out this week’s hand-picked fan creations:

rubicudus[www.instagram.com]

jazzipazzi[www.tumblr.com]

That’s it for this week—with more updates, more chaos, and maybe a few surprises coming next Friday. Until then: keep your ECHOnet tuned and your loot luck high.

Happy Hunting,
The Borderlands Team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57gJXgh_Upk

Get ready to go spelunking for precious loot, Vault Hunter. Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon* is available now, featuring plenty of new content:

• A new mission featuring three new minibosses and a fearsome final boss

• All-new Pearlescent-rarity gear

• New Legendary loot

• A new Vault Card with 24 cosmetic items and 4 pieces of rerollable gear

A wretched malevolence lurks within the abandoned mines of Kairos. For centuries, the Augers have quelled rumblings from the deep by sending human sacrifices to the fabled Stone Demon, but Defiant Calder is determined to end these barbaric rituals for good.

In Legend of the Stone Demon, you'll delve into an ancient cavern alongside Calder and eliminate threats among rich veins of crystalline Ordonite. Take on new Ordonite-encrusted enemy types and four new boss fights, all in hopes of scoring powerful new Pearlescent-rarity loot (that's even more Legendary than Legendaries).  

By fully completing the new mission in Bounty Pack 2, you'll unlock a new Vault Hunter Skin usable by all Vault Hunters, a new Vehicle, and a new ECHO-4 Drone Skin:

Alongside the launch of Bounty Pack 2, we deployed a Major Update that adds Pearlescent gear to Borderlands 4, sure to make for some of the most coveted drops in the game. This new rarity will be available to everyone no matter which edition of Borderlands 4 you own, though some Pearlescent gear will require ownership of paid content like Bounty Pack 2.

Pearlescent gear introduces a new weapon behavior, Ordonite Infusion, which acts like an elemental override for dealing optimal damage based on an enemy's Health type. All Pearlescent gear will have an Override elemental type in addition to any baseline elemental types; whichever is most effective will be used automatically against your target.

For example, you might be lucky enough to find a Pearlescent weapon with Shock damage and Incendiary Override as its Ordonite Infusion. If you're trying to kill an enemy with the Flesh Health type (indicated by a red health bar), which resists Shock but is weak to Incendiary damage, the Pearlescent will automatically use Incendiary Override to deal the most lethal damage type. When fighting an enemy with the Shield Health type (blue health bar), which is weak to Shock, your Pearlescent weapon will simply deal its default Shock damage as normal and the Incendiary Override won't activate.

With Pearlescent gear, your weapon can do some of the elemental damage optimization on its own, instead of needing you to manually switch to a different weapon or underbarrel. This is hugely beneficial when playing on Hard mode and Ultimate Vault Hunter mode, where enemies' elemental resistances and vulnerabilities make a big difference for your overall damage output.

Here's a list of the three Pearlescent weapon drops introduced as part of the February 26 Major Update:

• Eigenburst Tediore Shotgun

• Conflux Maliwan Sniper Rifle

• Hand Cannon Torgue Pistol (requires ownership of Bounty Pack 2*)

The Hand Cannon (Torgue Pistol) is a guaranteed drop for completing the Ordonite Processor activity located in the Heart of the Mountain as part of Bounty Pack 2. It can also be farmed as a dedicated drop from the Stone Demon boss. 

Pearlescents are still designed to be among the most elusive drops in the game, and are more rare than Legendaries. As we roll out Pearlescents, we wanted to introduce everyone who owns Bounty Pack 2 to the new rarity and give them a chance to test out one of these supremely powerful weapons. (Don’t worry, we won’t ever be this nice again!)

In addition to the one Pearlescent introduced in Bounty Pack 2, our latest update also adds two Pearlescents to the overall loot pool for all players regardless of whether they have Bounty Pack 2 or not. We plan to add more Pearls in the future!

All players will be able to farm for Pearlescent gear via the new, repeatable Ordonite Processor activity, which has set locations in the Fadefields, Carcadia Burn, and Terminus Range. Once you've tracked down an Ordonite Processor, you can activate it by spending Eridium, which will spawn multiple waves of enemies that can drop Ordonite canisters when killed.

By grabbing those Ordonite canisters and tossing them into the Ordonite Processor, you'll be doing your part to recycle its energy and rid Kairos of that corrupting power. After you've recycled enough canisters, you'll attract the attention of a stronger Ordonite-Infused enemy that has a chance to drop Pearlescent gear. If you can kill enemies and deposit Ordonite canisters quickly enough before the activity timer expires, you can spawn up to three Ordonite-Infused enemies each time you farm this repeatable activity. 

Bounty Pack 2 also includes a Vault Card that lets you earn new mecha- and kaiju-themed rewards through gameplay, with 24 cosmetic items and 4 pieces of rerollable gear to unlock! Here's the full rundown of the new Vault Card's unlocks:

• 4 rerollable pieces of gear 

• 4 Vault Hunter Heads usable by all Vault Hunters

• 4 Vault Hunter Skins usable by all Vault Hunters

• 5 Weapon Skins

• 5 Vehicle Skins

• 4 ECHO-4 Drone Skins

• 2 ECHO-4 Attachments

Playing Borderlands 4 with a Vault Card active gives you more loot and XP via Daily and Weekly Challenges, and can be leveled up at your own pace (no time limits or expiring rewards here). Once you own a Bounty Pack and its respective Vault Card, you can activate that Vault Card via the Vault Card screen in your ECHO menu. Vault Card progression works just like leveling up: it's all driven by how much XP you're gaining. By exploring Kairos, killing enemies, and completing quests, you'll fill up your Vault Card progression in addition to your regular XP!

When you're ready to brave the depths in Bounty Pack 2, here's a breakdown of the different ways to acquire this paid DLC:

• If you don't own Borderlands 4: Purchase Borderlands 4 Deluxe or Super Deluxe Edition (both grant the Bounty Pack Bundle including Bounty Packs 2-5)

• If you already own Borderlands 4: 

• Option 1: Purchase the Bounty Pack Bundle that includes Bounty Packs 2-5

• Option 2: Purchase Bounty Pack 2 individually

*Legend of the Stone Demon is the second of five post-launch DLC Bounty Packs coming to Borderlands 4. This content is included with Borderlands 4 Deluxe Edition, Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition, and the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack Bundle, and is also available for separate purchase. Base game required.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285190/Borderlands_4/