Highlights

  • Borderlands 4 is confirmed to be in development, and it may focus on unraveling longstanding mysteries concerning Sirens, the Eridians, and more.
  • The narrative is likely to revolve around locating Lilith, or the seventh Siren, and exploring other unresolved storylines alongside that search for answers would make sense.
  • Ava's previous investigations into Lilith's whereabouts and personal elements like FL4K and Zer0's origins set the stage for various storytelling possibilities in the fourth game.

After a 5-year-long wait and some extremely brief teasers, Gearbox Software's Borderlands is soon set to return to the spotlight of the looter-shooter scene it helped establish and has remained relevant in since 2009. Borderlands has long been a mainstay of the genre, and Borderlands 4 was long thought to be an inevitability. Gearbox officially confirmed as much in April that, indeed, the fourth main title in its flagship franchise was in production, though didn't provide many specifics beyond.

In addition to its gear-chasing gameplay loops and veneer of farcical antics, Borderlands' setting and story runs deep, constructed of elaborate lore involving cosmic conspiracies, corrupt corporations, and ancient artifacts of incredible power. And the more answers it gave players to some of these elements, just as many questions arose. Borderlands 4's narrative, then, if it delves into only one or two of its various complex arcs and subplots, will almost certainly be under the general guise of 'mystery', whether it be providing firm answers to existing ones, or opening new cans of worms.

Millions of Borderlands fans were recently credited with helping advance a scientific experiment involving gathering microbial research data collected in part via a Borderlands 3 mini-game.

Borderlands 4 Resident Evil Problem
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Borderlands 4 is Facing The Same Problem as Resident Evil

With Borderlands 4 officially in the works, Gearbox may be staring at an issue with it that Resident Evil has also been grappling with.

Borderlands 4's Core Focus Could be Any Number of its Many Mysteries

Notable Plot Threads Borderlands 4 Could Delve Into

An obvious starting point for Borderlands 4 would be to shed more light on the current Siren situation. Sirens have been an intrinsic but often opaque factor in the series since the beginning, with elusive hints about them scattered through each game, but all the puzzle pieces have yet to fit clearly together. Previous titles have told of the rumored/mythological seventh Siren, whose existence and role in the grand tale of the galaxy has been implied to have direct and dire consequences, but has not yet emerged on the scene.

Ava, protégé to the previous Siren heroine Lilith and her sister Sirens Amara and Maya, was last shown to be better learning how to control her powers to take up the mantle of responsibility in their wake. She is highly thought to be a major focal character in BL4 due to this. Ava's investigations in the BL3 Director's Cut DLC led to her discovering that Lilith was possibly trapped in some state of limbo, and in need of assistance. Borderlands 4's broad framework could be this quest to find Lilith, while parallel machinations continue to play out in the background. All of this would likely come along with whatever wrenches Borderlands' usual suspects, or new players on the scene, may throw into the plot as well.

There are other longstanding items that Borderlands still hasn't fully addressed, such as The Watcher's War and The Destroyer. Related to both is the Eridian race and the truth of their history. Though additional details of these have been filled in, there are still multiple question marks attached, with perspectives and authenticity in cases being unreliable or even conflicting. There are still more threads to explore, some particularly personal, like Pyscho Krieg's struggle with his darker side and the nature behind characters like Zer0 and FL4K.

With such a wealth of narratives still incomplete and in need of tying up, Gearbox is in many senses almost obliged to touch on ones like Lilith's status in Borderlands 4, among the others mentioned. It's thus quite possible that the general idea of mysteries will be its focus, as it will hopefully give closure to a few of the longtime outstanding ones, while setting up further avenues as it moves into the next stage.