Gearbox has said that the hotly anticipated Borderlands 4 patch that will finally eliminate monotonous critical knife builds is being delayed again and will now release alongside the Horrors of Kairos mini-event.
Borderlands 4’s “Day 30 Update” was supposed to be released last week, but has been delayed to early this week. Fans have been wondering when it will appear after another no-show today, prompting developer Gearbox to say it will now release alongside Horrors of Kairos, which will air from October 23 to November 6.
“I’m glad you’re excited about the update!” Gearbox posts on social media in response to questions about the patch. “We have some things to take care of now, which will debut with the Horrors of Kairos mini-event. We can’t wait for you to see what we have prepared.”
The question now is when exactly the patch will be released. Horrors of Kairos debuts on October 23, but may end between then and November 6.
Last week, Gearbox developers addressed the dissatisfied Borderland 4 players who questioned the need to water down the overwhelming builds in the largely single-player looter shooter, saying it was necessary to maintain a challenge and encourage “diversity” in building.
Players were preparing for the end of builds based on what the community called the “Critical Knife”. “unintended interaction,” Gearbox claims, will be mitigated with an upcoming patch.
Borderland 4 rife with overpowering builds that deal massive amounts of damage to even the game’s toughest bosses on the hardest difficulties. The most celebrated of them is the critical knife, which Gearbox claims to be aware of. But they are many others.
The nerf coming to Borderlands 4 has sparked debate within the game’s community about good and bad balance changes like those in single-player games. With no PvP elements, Borderlands 4 focuses primarily on solo play – and the occasional group of co-op players – collecting bosses for loot, making their setup a little better each time.
(IGN recently interviewed a Borderlands 4 player who spent 150 hours killing over 3,000 bosses to find out what the game’s true drop rate is.)
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter skill trees, ranked
Borderlands 4: All Vault Hunter skill trees, ranked
For example, Critical Knife builds can essentially take out bosses even on Borderlands 4’s hardest difficulty, making loot collection a inconsequential endeavor. Some people believe that there is nothing wrong with such an overwhelming game because players are in no way competing with others. Others say it is harmful to the game.
Borderlands 4 innovative director Graeme Timmins responded to complaints by pointing to the upcoming boss Invincible, which the developers want to challenge.
“We have future content like the upcoming Invincible where we want players to find a challenge/achievement” Timmins explained. “If we rebalanced this content for bad hardware, it would remove build diversity, forcing players to use specific builds with that hardware.”
Specifically regarding the Critical Knife, Associate Creative Director Grant Kao said that this particular, extremely popular build “reduces playstyle diversity” and confirmed changes are planned.
“We will adjust it.” As you said. “The potential performance of the Critical Knife reduces playstyle diversity. Weapon builds that use the Critical Knife have other options, and there will be more soon.”
Timmins then intervened regarding the critical knife, saying: “Our intention is always to increase builds, so any changes we make serve that goal.”
All eyes are now on Gearbox to see what changes it has in store for not only Borderlands 4’s Critical Knife build, but any build it says relies on “unintended interaction.”
Earlier this month, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, the first seasonal mini-event in the game, the mentioned boss Invincibleand more. Last month Gearbox has revealed the first of two fresh Vault Hunters coming to Borderlands 4 as part of the paid Story Pack DLC. Coming out in the first quarter of 2026, C4SH is a playable character whose luck-based powers can make him either the best or worst character in the game.
We had a lot more information about Borderlands 4 last month A Borderlands 4 data miner has uncovered evidence suggesting that one of Borderlands 3’s most hated characters was cut and replaced relatively slow in development. 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
We recently reported on comments from Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, who said that if more developers better understood why players love making loot decisions, “we’d have some good competitors.”
If you’re diving into Borderlands 4, don’t give up on hourly updates SHiFT code list. We have too huge interactive map ready to apply and a fool Borderlands 4 scheduling tool courtesy of our friends from Maxroll. Also check out the choices of our experienced players what character to choose (no one agreed).
Wesley is the news director at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
