By Harvey Randall

Copyright pcgamer

Skip to main content

Close main menu

THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES

View Profile

Search PC Gamer

PC Gaming Show

Movies & TV

Affiliate links

Meet the team

Community guidelines

About PC Gamer

PC Gamer Magazine Subscription

Why subscribe?

Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming mag
Try a single issue or save on a subscription
Issues delivered straight to your door or device

From£35.99Subscribe now

Borderlands 4
Essential Hardware

Battlefield 6

Don’t miss these

I’ve already spent hours making builds, but I’m worried Borderlands 4’s endgame isn’t going to give me anything meaningful to do with them at launch

Borderlands 4’s campaign skips could be a double-edged sword for Gearbox

If you can’t wait for the new Borderlands, I genuinely recommend BL3’s solid DLC campaigns—which aren’t nearly as obnoxious as the base game

Borderlands 4 devs want to redeem the series’ story, which is a tall task, since it’s always been all over the place

Is Borderlands 4 the series at ‘its most potent’, or ‘uninspired’ and ‘painfully dull’? The PC Gamer team is divided

The best XP farms in Borderlands 4 to level up fast

Borderlands 4 review round-up: ‘The best Borderlands game I’ve ever played—but with a small hitch’

Borderlands 4 certainly looks like it’s taking its story more seriously: ‘We wanted to go back to this sense of dread about the villain of our game’

I’m ranking every Borderlands game ahead of BL4’s release from worst to best, because the people love their lists and I’m here to provide

Borderlands has been too hot, too cold, and will now be just right, says Randy Pitchford: ‘We can see those times we’ve gone too far’

Borderlands 4 shed its iconic UI and all it got was this stupid live service-y inventory that doesn’t let me filter my crap properly

Borderlands 4 has ‘more passive perks than all the previous Borderlands combined’—uh, is that a good thing?

Borderlands 4 is hiding more than 200 collectible Marcus bobbleheads in hard-to-reach places, and Randy Pitchford reckons ‘most players will never see any of them’

Borderlands 4’s new endgame mode will let you skip the campaign so you’re ready for the next year of seasonal events and bosses

Borderlands 4 live launch coverage: are you ready to loot 30 billion guns?

Borderlands 4

Don’t get stuck grinding in Borderlands 4’s version of the Hinterlands—in fact, you’re screwing yourself out of EXP if you try to do every sidequest before beating the main campaign

Harvey Randall

17 September 2025

Bank that EXP for a rainy day.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Borderlands 4 is great, but it doesn’t quite make the best first impression. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with its first zone, The Fadefields, but it’s definitely the most droll place to quest in Kairos. You could be Mad Max-ing it with Zane and Moxxi in the Burn, after all.

The problem with the Fadefields is it’s big, fairly visually nondescript, drenched in sidequests, and—oh god, it’s the Hinterlands. We’ve done a Hinterlands again.
In case you’re unfamiliar, the Hinterlands is an infamous zone in Dragon Age: Inquisition, known for being both stonking massive and, pardon the pun, taking a dragon’s age to get through. It’s a major drop-off point for the RPG, and I get the feeling that the Fadefields is the same.

Related Articles

I’ve already spent hours making builds, but I’m worried Borderlands 4’s endgame isn’t going to give me anything meaningful to do with them at launch

Borderlands 4’s campaign skips could be a double-edged sword for Gearbox

If you can’t wait for the new Borderlands, I genuinely recommend BL3’s solid DLC campaigns—which aren’t nearly as obnoxious as the base game

I’ve had to blitz through the campaign after doing a few sidequests for the review, and I can say with certainty that doing so is the correct on-ramp to Borderlands 4. Not just for the vibes (variety is the spice of life), but there’s also a mechanical reason you might want to bank most of those sidequests for later, too.

Borderlands 4’s postgame progression system, specialisation points, don’t unlock until you’ve beaten the campaign—no matter your current level. Beat the campaign at level 30? You get specialisation points. Beat it at 40, like I did? Specialisation points.
Think of this system as an additional, Vault Hunter-agnostic skill tree layered on top of your usual ones, providing powerful extra bonuses to your character.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Gearbox Software)

(Image credit: Gearbox Software)

The kicker is that specialisation points take EXP alongside your regular levels, meaning if you spend 80-100 hours doing every single sidequest and map activity before you finish the campaign, you’re screwing yourself out of a lot of EXP you could’ve earned by doing the exact same thing in a slightly different order.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
You can replay missions for the EXP instead, mind—but that’s adding even more of a grind to an already grindy game, and if you’re spending 100 hours getting a 100% completion in BL4, you might as well spend those first 30 hours doing the Campaign, and the next 70 getting specialisation EXP.
So squash those inner exploration demons. By all means, do a sidequest or two if the mood takes you, but otherwise? Make a beeline for the straight and narrow main mission, then start mopping up your side-gigs later. You’ll be better for it.

Borderlands 4: Everything you need to know.
Borderlands 4 Shift codes: The new key connection.
Borderlands 4 Black Market location: New legendaries, no grind.
Borderlands 4 characters: Meet your new Vault Hunters and find out who’s strongest.
Borderlands 4 Harlowe builds: The amped-up Gravitar.
Borderlands 4 Rafa builds: The speed-demon Exo-Soldier.
Borderlands 4 Vex builds: The spooky Siren.
Borderlands 4 Amon builds: The fierce Forgeknight.

Gearbox Software

Harvey Randall

Social Links Navigation
Staff Writer

Harvey’s history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he’s since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G’raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He’ll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don’t ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

I’ve already spent hours making builds, but I’m worried Borderlands 4’s endgame isn’t going to give me anything meaningful to do with them at launch

Borderlands 4’s campaign skips could be a double-edged sword for Gearbox

If you can’t wait for the new Borderlands, I genuinely recommend BL3’s solid DLC campaigns—which aren’t nearly as obnoxious as the base game

Borderlands 4 devs want to redeem the series’ story, which is a tall task, since it’s always been all over the place

Is Borderlands 4 the series at ‘its most potent’, or ‘uninspired’ and ‘painfully dull’? The PC Gamer team is divided

The best XP farms in Borderlands 4 to level up fast

Latest in RPG

Diablo 4’s new ‘Chaos armor’ is a card game-inspired response to criticisms over boring seasonal powers

Witcher creator Andrzej Sapkowski gets gold Polish culture medal, accepts it with face like he’s just had his Switch 2 pre-order cancelled

‘Because no one was paying attention we could just put anything into the game,’ says the writer responsible for sneaking The Lusty Argonian Maid into Morrowind

Netflix released another Witcher teaser showing off Liam Hemsworth as Geralt, and I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised

What does OG Fallout’s co-creator want to see in the series? An ‘actual good faction, like 100% good’

After 170 hours of Elden Ring Nightreign its new, increasingly evil Deep of Night mode has managed to hook me in again

Latest in News

You can now explore a bitesize chunk of the Necropolis thanks to the Little Nightmares 3 demo

Good news for Windows handhelds: Microsoft is now letting you launch installed Steam, Battle.net, and other storefront games from the Xbox app

Rejoice, Counter-Strike’s grenades now sound crisp and clear as a chorus of angels—plus subtick shooting is either better or the fanbase is experiencing a shared delusion

A Californian company wants to sell you an outrageously expensive $8,000 keyboard supposedly inspired by a Roman philosopher, but did the Stoics really go in for conspicuous consumption?

Don’t get stuck grinding in Borderlands 4’s version of the Hinterlands—in fact, you’re screwing yourself out of EXP if you try to do every sidequest before beating the main campaign

The next Silksong update helps the bosses but does little to allay our own, interminable suffering

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES
LATEST GAME REVIEWS

Best gaming laptop in 2025: I’ve tested a ton of notebooks this generation and these are the best in every category

Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming

Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC

Best graphics cards in 2025: I’ve tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today’s top cards

Best gaming chair in 2025: I’ve tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I’d suggest for any PC gamer

Humanscale Freedom Chair with Headrest review

Strange Antiquities review: Solve dozens of little mysteries in a creepy yet cozy curio shop

Hollow Knight: Silksong review — Worth the pain

Asus ProArt Case PA401 review

Acer Predator Helios 18 AI gaming laptop review

PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Contact Future’s experts

Terms and conditions

Privacy policy

Cookies policy

Advertise with us

Accessibility Statement

Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury,

BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait…