When Borderlands players acquire a Legendary weapon, they can be sure of a few things. First, it will have some kind of unique feature that sets it apart from the millions of other guns in Borderlands and makes it worth using, with a distinct name and appearance to match. Further, the gun will have some red text that usually hides a joke of some kind, often coming in the form of a pop culture reference. However, for whatever reason, there is no proper lore attached to Legendary weapon cards.
Video games have been tying lore to their most recognizable weapons for years, whether they be the incredibly significant pieces of gear like The Legend of Zelda’s Master Sword or the many Wonder Weapons in Call of Duty Zombies. FromSoftware games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls are perhaps the most prominent examples of the concept, as the lore on these items can pertain to the gear itself or the wider universe the weapons are featured in. With so many intriguing guns and manufacturers for them, borrowing this strategy could benefit the next Borderlands game.
How Weapon Lore Could Benefit Borderlands 4
While Borderlands characters like Handsome Jack, Tiny Tina, and Mad Moxxi have done a lot to help fans fall in love with the franchise, the various gun corporations have also helped to give the Gearbox series an identity. Jakobs’ focus on one-shot and wild west vibes is nothing like Maliwan’s cutting edge elemental technology. Similarly, Torgue’s guaranteed explosiveness stands out from Tediore’s gimmick reloads.
Borderlands has explored most of its gun companies well, as only Vladof is in desperate need of some lore, though there is always room to learn more about them. Gearbox could do this by adding a paragraph of text to each Legendary weapon below the usual red flavor text, with those sentences being tied to a character associated with a company or the brand itself. Players could learn more about Wainwright Jakobs’ ancestors and the company's values this way, or they could get a bit of extra storytelling about the current Jakobs CEO and what he has been up to since Borderlands 3.
Destiny 2’s approach to lore books could be applied as well, with players piecing together a short story by collecting 10 Legendary Hyperion guns, for example. Each gun could provide a “page” of lore, with players learning how Hyperion responded to the fall of Handsome Jack and how it has been working to restore its image. The origins of Vladof’s communist theming could be explored, as could its Ursa Corps. Players could also get insight into whatever Borderlands company Athena purchased and the process behind her making such a huge acquisition.
However, not every weapon would need to tell a story about an established character or provide lore on a company like Tediore. If a gun is particularly interesting, a lore entry could dive into where it came from and how it was created. More insight into Borderlands’ various alien weapons would be a benefit of this approach, while the tech behind human-made guns like the Infinity Pistol could also be explained. This information can be delivered in a fun way, like diary entries from a scientist, and it could do a lot to make certain Legendary guns feel just a bit more memorable. In past games, unless a gun is the focus of a side quest, there will be very little lore about it, and that should change. After all, Destiny guns like the Last Word and Thorn having tremendous lore, and Borderlands' weapons should follow suit.
These extra lore entries could give players another reason to collect all the Legendary weapons and keep them in their vaults, and they could go a long way to making fans more attached to a certain company. They could shed more light on villainous companies like Dahl, showing that they are not all bad. Likewise, they could muddy the waters a bit for a company like Jakobs that have been portrayed positively thus far. This would come in addition to extra lore for CEOs and other major company figures, as well as the weapons themselves, making the Borderlands universe feel a lot more fleshed out.