Borderlands 4: Takedown at Hadron Abyss and a new Bounty Pack on June 25

With Update 1.8 on June 25, Borderlands 4 will introduce the “Takedown at Hadron Abyss” endgame raid—free for all players—and the paid Bounty Pack 3, also includes: Cross-platform saves.

Takedown at Hadron Abyss: The Toughest Test for Vault Hunters

If you consider yourself one of the best Borderlands 4 veterans, you’ll have the chance to prove it starting June 25. With “Takedown at Hadron Abyss,” Gearbox Software is delivering the most challenging content yet for the loot shooter—and it’s completely free for all players.

The new setting for Borderlands 4 is Hadron Abyss, a derelict underwater research station that’s literally falling apart at the seams. Anyone tackling the Takedown will fight their way through narrow corridors and sprawling halls filled with failed experiments from Lab B-0451. Responsible for the chaos: Dr. Audrey Thorne, a scientist who, after too much mad science, apparently no longer has all her marbles. While you’re blasting your way through, the final boss is already passing by the complex: the Child of the Terramorphous, the monstrous offspring of the legendary raid boss from Borderlands 2.

Anyone hoping for quick loot farming will be disappointed: Neither the mid-boss nor the final boss can be re-farmed using Moxxi’s Big Encore Machine—here, you’ll have to fight your way through the entire level and hordes of mobs time and time again. Spawn points and vending machines are also few and far between, so you’ll need to manage your ammo carefully.

Rewards and Mayhem Challenges
Your efforts will be rewarded with some seriously sweet loot, including:

• 1 Mother-of-Pearl weapon
• 9 new legendary gear items (5 weapons, 1 shield, 1 rep kit, 1 grenade ordnance, 1 heavy weapon ordnance)
• 5 new class mods (a sixth will be added in September with the new Vault Hunter)

For die-hard players, there’s a new Mayhem tier system that ramps up enemy health and damage as soon as you’ve cleared previous tiers quickly enough. Unlike in previous time-limited encounters, the clock starts ticking as soon as you enter the facility. If that’s not enough for you: Hardcore mode allows only a single life—if one player in the co-op group dies, the entire run starts over from the beginning.

Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For—An Arcade-Style Murder Mystery

Alongside the Takedown update, the paid Bounty Pack 3: A Zane to Kill For is being released. Zane Flynt’s digital clone has been deleted, and the original wants to know who’s responsible. The trail leads into virtual realms: In Zane’s corner of Moxxi’s Bottoms Up! bar in Carcadia Burn, classic arcade machines await, beaming you into the neon-lit game-within-a-game Private Dick.

There, as an investigator, you’ll pursue the search for the digital killer, team up with other “Memory Zanes,” and face new glitch enemies that like to change positions right in the middle of battle. This repeatable mission features a new boss, two mini-bosses, a mother-of-pearl weapon, and 6 new legendary items. As a reward, you’ll receive a Vault Hunter skin, a vehicle, and an ECHO-4 drone skin—all of which can be used across all classes.

If you’re not in the mood for loot optimization, you can also simply play the arcade machines in Zane’s Bar as mini-games while your co-op crew fine-tunes their build.

Vault Card 3 with Arcade Loot
Along with this, Bounty Pack 3 is launching: Vault Card 3, featuring 24 cosmetic items and four rerollable gear pieces:

• 4 rerollable gear pieces
• 4 Vault Hunter heads (class-agnostic)
• 4 Vault Hunter skins (class-agnostic)
• 5 weapon skins
• 5 vehicle skins
• 4 ECHO-4 drone skins
• 2 ECHO-4 attachments

The Borderlands 4 Roadmap Through Fall

Starting June 25, Borderlands 4 will keep the action coming one after another:

• June 25 (Update 1.8): Bounty Pack 3, Takedown at Hadron Abyss, cross-platform saves
• July 30 (Update 1.9): Bounty Pack 4: Murders & Acquisitions
• Early September (Update 1.10): Story Pack 2 featuring the new Vault Hunter Loveless the Hacker, plus Bounty Pack 5

Gearbox is keeping up a steady pace with post-launch content for Borderlands 4. For those who haven’t jumped in yet: Borderlands 4 is available at a discount for PC on Gamesplanet.