By Rory Norris

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Borderlands 4
Essential Hardware

Battlefield 6

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Borderlands 4

You seriously need to stockpile firmware in Borderlands 4, or you’ll soon be paying for your mistakes with a hopeless grind

Rory Norris

22 September 2025

Loot is temporary, firmware is forever.

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(Image credit: Gearbox)

Progression in Borderlands 4 is deeper than it’s ever been, largely because you actually unlock new items and systems as you go, from more weapon parts to class mods, enhancements, and firmware. Effectively serving as gear set bonuses found in MMOs, firmware is crucial to your endgame build, though finding what you need is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

You’ll start getting occasional gear drops with firmware bonuses at around level 25—these items will have a unique glow, no matter the rarity. If you’re lucky, you’ll get the perfect firmware for your build, and it’ll serve you well for quite some time. However, since it’s attached to your gear, you’ll inevitably swap it out for something higher level soon enough, tossing it in the trash like almost everything else while you’re levelling. But you shouldn’t.

Image 1 of 2

(Image credit: Gearbox)

(Image credit: Gearbox)

Just like how you unlock specialisations after beating the campaign, which makes ticking off all the side content and reaching level 50 beforehand a bad move, you’ll also unlock the ability to transfer firmware bonuses. If you’ve seen machines around settlements that you can’t interact with yet, those are the transfer machines.

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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

In the 16 years I’ve played this series, Borderlands 4 is the first entry that’s made me want to do post-game grinding—Gearbox just needs to fix its dang Wildcard Missions first

I am so terribly glad I’ve learned you can easily reset all your cooldowns in Borderlands 4 before starting my shotgun grind

For a handful of cash and eridium, you can strip any gear with firmware and apply that bonus to an item of the same category, no matter the level difference. So, that old level 27 Deadeye enhancement you got, which massively boosts your critical hit damage, can be applied to your max level enhancement if you’ve got the original item to hand.

With firmware being impossible to specifically farm for, good luck getting what you’re looking for when you need it. Frustratingly, the only way to get around this is to save any gear that drops with firmware bonuses and chuck it in the bank for safekeeping. Once you’ve finished the campaign and have grinded for the perfect gear at level 50, dive into your bank and transfer over some firmware. In fact, it’s good practice even once you’re max level, just in case you ever want to swap things around.
I’m sorry to encourage hoarding, especially with how frustrating the UI often is, but it’s the most effective and least stressful way to get the firmware you want. Other than that, I’d just farm for legendary gear you want and look out for any gear with firmware that drops while you’re at it.
Since firmware can’t drop on guns, you can have a maximum of five bonuses active at once. Most likely, this’ll be a three-piece and a two-piece, though you could slot five one-piece bonuses if you fancied it. To help you in your search, here are all the firmware bonuses you can find:

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Firmware Set

One-Piece Bonus

Two-Piece Bonus

Three-Piece Bonus

Row 0 – Cell 0
Row 0 – Cell 1
Row 0 – Cell 2
Row 0 – Cell 3

Action Fist

Melee damage is increased by 15%

Action skill damage is increased by 10%

On melee kill, action skill damage is increased by 25% for 8s

Splash radius is increased by 20%

Splash damage is increased by 20%

On kill, drop a missile strike on nearby enemies

Gun mode switch speed is increased by 20%

Gun damage is increased by 10% while an Atlas target-lock is active

When killing an Atlas target-locked enemy, automatically lock another nearby enemy

Atlas Infinum

Gun fire rate is increased by 5% while an Atlas target-lock is active

Guns with Atlas-licensed parts gain 10% damage

Atlas target-locks are infinite, unless you swap guns

Shield capacity is increased by 10%

Repkit cooldown duration is reduced by 15%

Maximum health is increased by 25%

Bullets To Spare

Fire rate is increased by 5%

Gun magazine size is increased by 20%

Gun fire rate is increased by 50% of the magazine size

Gun mode switch speed is increased by 25%

Gun magazine size is increased by 15%

On mode switch, grants 20% damage and 20% fire rate for five seconds

Gun accuracy is increased by 30%

Gun critical hit damage is increased by 25%

Every critical hit grants 15% critical damage per stack (up to five stacks) for ten seconds

Gadget Ahoy

Ordnance cooldown duration is reduced by 15%

Ordnance damage is increased by 20%

Ordnance kills grant 20% damage for 15 seconds

Get Throwin

Ordnance damage is increased by 10%

Splash radius is increased by 20%

Grenades and Tediore thrown guns have a 50% chance to spawn homing missiles that attack nearby enemies

Damage dealt to badass enemies is increased by 10%

Damage taken from badass enemies is reduced by 10%

On killing a badass enemy, damage dealt is increased by 20% for 60 seconds

Action skill cooldown rate is increased by 10%

Action skill damage is increased by 15%

Action skill cooldown rate is increased by an additional 20%

Gun reload speed is increased by 20%

The number of overheated shots before breaking is increased by 50% with CoV-licensed gun parts

Gun damage is increased by 25% while overheating with CoV-licensed gun parts

High Caliber

Projectile speed is increased by 25%

Gun damage is increased by 10%

Bullets pierce enemies

Zoom-in speed is increased by 20%

Hyperion gun shield capacity is increased by 25%

Hyperion gun shields have a 30% chance to ricochet projectiles back to the enemy

Repkit healing is increased by 10%

Lifesteal is increased by 5%

On kill, regenerate 10% of your maximum health

Gun reload speed is increased by 10%

Gun damage is increased by up to 20% based on the emptiness of your gun’s magazine

After reloading, fire rate is increased by 30% for four seconds

Reel Big Fist

Melee damage is increased by 15%

Melee damage is increased by an additional 25%

Melee kills trigger a nova explosion for 200% melee damage

Risky Boots

When health is less than 35%, damage taken is reduced by 30%

When health is less than 35%, movement speed is increased by 35%

When health is less than 35%, damage dealt is increased by 100% and lifesteal is increased by 5%

Rubberband Man

Damage reduction is increased by 5%

Lifesteal is increased by 5%

Bonuses granted by this firmware are doubled

Gun reload speed is increased by 5%

Gun critical hit damage is increased by 10%

Critical hits have a 50% chance to refill one ammo to the currently equipped gun’s magazine

Borderlands 4 Shift codes: The new key connection.
Borderlands 4 Black Market location: New legendaries, no grind.
Borderlands 4 vault key fragment locations: Crack open Kairos.
Borderlands 4 characters: Meet your new Vault Hunters and find out who’s strongest.
Borderlands 4 Harlowe builds: The amped-up Gravitar.
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Borderlands 4 Vex builds: The spooky Siren.
Borderlands 4 Amon builds: The fierce Forgeknight.

Rory Norris

Social Links Navigation
Guides Writer

Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.

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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

In the 16 years I’ve played this series, Borderlands 4 is the first entry that’s made me want to do post-game grinding—Gearbox just needs to fix its dang Wildcard Missions first

I am so terribly glad I’ve learned you can easily reset all your cooldowns in Borderlands 4 before starting my shotgun grind

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

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

Here’s the one Destiny 2 Portal modifier that makes A-grade easy, showering you with new loot in The Edge of Fate

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