After years of teasing, yelling, teasing some more, and then yelling again but louder, Borderlands 4 finally dropped its Story Trailer. And in true Borderlands fashion, it immediately kicked off by saying, “Story? What story?” The trailer begins not with a bang, but with an existential crisis. The new crew of Vault Hunters are told they aren’t Vault Hunters anymore. So… job insecurity hits hard in the Borderlands universe too, huh?
The YouTube trailer is age-restricted but you can bypass that by checking out the official Borderlands Twitter (now X) account just below it.
DROP EVERYTHING. The Official Story Trailer is LIVE! OFFICIALLY.
Borderlands 4 drops on Sep. 12, 2025. 💥
Pre-Order Now: https://t.co/hDDQQA9c03 pic.twitter.com/DlZYVcj4x1
— Borderlands (@Borderlands) June 21, 2025
The actual story details aren’t in the trailer but hidden in the YouTube video description. Character growth? Maybe! Explosions? Definitely. Here’s what the YouTube description says:
“Get a glimpse of the Timekeeper’s cruel reign, including the disturbing process of being implanted with a Bolt—a spine-grafted cybernetic device used to dominate the populace. Soon after crash-landing, the Vault Hunters are arrested and forcibly affixed with the device, trapping them on Kairos.
The Timekeeper and his Order are the ultimate superpower on Kairos, ruling from the impenetrable fortress city known as Dominion City. When Elpis arrived in Kairos’ orbit and unleashed cataclysmic destruction, the Timekeeper locked down the city and sent his Commanders to deal with the fallout firsthand. Now, the Timekeeper watches over Kairos from the safety of his tower while his Commanders maintain his Order.
From humble beginnings, you’ll need to travel across Kairos and ignite the revolution against the Timekeeper. People all across Kairos have begun to rise up, and this powderkeg is set to explode. Enter Claptrap, self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Crimson Resistance, who’s set on making the Vault Hunters his newest recruits.”
Our four protagonists seem to be prisoners at the start—locked up, tortured, and probably forced to listen to the Borderlands 3 marketing campaign on loop. They manage to break out, though, and what follows is the usual Gearbox cocktail of chaos: gunfire, explosions, acid-spitting creatures, overly aggressive fonts, and Claptrap screeching his way back into our hearts like a starving raccoon in a megaphone factory dumpster.
Speaking of returning faces, Zane from Borderlands 3 shows up looking like he aged just enough to qualify for a midlife crisis but not enough to stop dual-wielding everything. He appears to be central to our character’s mission, if the marketing here lines up, as weteam up with Claptrap and the new crew to presumably blow up half the planet while making snarky remarks and emotionally repressing everything. So basically, it’s still Borderlands.
Borderlands 4 drops September 12 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Get ready to shoot things, loot things, and maybe—just maybe—feel something. Probably rage. But hey, that still counts.
