I’ve been playing Borderlands since I was the kind of kid who would stay up way too late just to see one more orange beam hit the ground. So when Gearbox says Borderlands 4 will have billions of guns, my first reaction is not awe. It’s a tired little sigh. I get it: random loot is the series’ DNA. But in 2026, a giant number on a marketing slide feels less like a promise and more like a warehouse full of salt shakers that all contain the same salt. You can have millions of shakers. If the salt never changes, I’m not impressed for long.

Here’s the thing: Borderlands has spent over 15 years teaching me to ignore almost everything it drops. I’m not proud of it. I’ll pick up a white or green gun, look at it for half a second, and toss it. The only thing that makes my ears perk up is a Legendary, because the series has trained me to believe that everything below that tier is temporary garbage. That’s not a loot system I’m engaging with. It’s a loot system I’m speed-reading so I can get to the one page that matters. It’s like being handed a library where every book is a phone book with one different page. Sure, the shelf is full. But am I really reading?

I know Borderlands 4 can’t just delete random guns. That would be like removing the guitar solos from a rock album and calling it a remaster. The randomization is part of the identity, and it’s a big reason the franchise blew up in the first place. But there’s a difference between keeping a signature mechanic and leaning on it like a crutch. Gearbox has confirmed that Borderlands 4 will have the most guns in series history, with billions of weapons. That number sounds huge, but huge is not the same as deep. And if every non-Legendary gun is designed to be thrown away, then the number is mostly noise.

Destiny 2 is the comparison that keeps popping into my head. For years, Common gear was basically litter. You’d pick it up, dismantle it immediately, and wonder why the game even bothered. Bungie eventually made Common gear virtually absent, and the game felt cleaner for it. I’m not saying Borderlands 4 should copy that move exactly, because Borderlands without a mountain of guns would feel weird. But the lesson is real: quantity alone stops being a selling point once players learn which 1% of the pile actually matters.

What I’d rather see is Borderlands 4 treating my favorite gun like a project instead of a slot machine result. Let me invest in it. Let me tinker.

🔧 Weapon customization is the obvious next step. Imagine finding a Maliwan sniper rifle I actually like, then tweaking it to swap elemental effects on the fly. Fire for fleshy enemies, shock for shields, corrosive for armor. Or take a Jakobs revolver, the kind that already feels like it was carved out of a fence post, and upgrade it for faster reloads or add a scope. Now I’m not just grinding for the perfect roll. I’m building a weapon that fits the way I play. That’s a much better use of my time than dismantling 40 near-identical pistols while my inventory fills up like a closet I keep forgetting to clean.

🧨 Manufacturer identities could use a shake-up, too. Borderlands has a great roster of brands, but some of their tricks have gotten stale. Tediore guns that reconstruct themselves after being thrown? Yes, please. Dahl weapons with adaptive scopes that change based on how far away an enemy is? That sounds like the kind of small, smart detail that makes a gun feel alive. The trailers suggest Borderlands 4 might play with other dimensions, and that’s a perfect excuse to flip manufacturer identities on their heads. Give me a Jakobs gun that behaves like a Dahl gun in one dimension and a Tediore gun in another. Give me weird. Give me memorable. A Swiss Army knife where every blade is the same length and shape is technically a multi-tool, but it’s not a useful one.

Here’s a quick way to think about the difference:

Don’t get me wrong: I still want loot to explode out of a boss like a piñata that owes me money. I still want that dopamine hit when an orange beam cuts through the chaos. But I want the stuff around that moment to matter more. If Borderlands 4 can make blue and purple guns feel like potential projects instead of instant junk, the game will feel deeper without losing its identity. The random drop can be the starting point, not the whole personality.

So no, I don’t think Borderlands 4 needs to abandon randomized guns. That would be an overcorrection. What it needs is to stop using the size of the pile as the main event. Give me customization. Give me manufacturer identities that actually surprise me. Give me a reason to care about the gun in my hands after the novelty of the number wears off. In 2026, I don’t need a game to tell me it has billions of guns. I need it to give me one gun I can’t stop thinking about.