Gearbox has made Borderlands 4's inaugural post-launch DLC, Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, available for free to all players across platforms. Originally planned as paid content, the holiday-themed expansion was released on November 20, 2025, following delays due to extensive bug fixes. It introduces new missions, weapons, and cosmetics in a festive storyline.
Overview
Borderlands 4, which launched in September 2025 to praise for its open-world design, enhanced gunplay, and co-op features, faced performance issues and bugs that required significant post-launch attention from Gearbox and publisher 2K. This focus disrupted the original content roadmap, leading to the decision to offer the first Bounty Pack for free as a seasonal gift and apology to the community.
DLC Details
Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day centers on rebel leader Rush confronting the holiday-hating Minister Screw through a new questline of festive missions. Players can access it by updating the game and interacting with a gift-wrapped present in major hubs, triggering Christmas-themed map elements like snow and gifts. The pack includes a new Vault Card with rewards, 24 cosmetic items, and additional weapons.
As explained in a joint statement from 2K and Gearbox: “However, with the continued efforts to improve the Borderlands 4 experience, the team ran out of time to stuff as much mayhem-fueled content into the Bounty Pack 1 stocking as originally planned. So in the spirit of the season, and as a thank you to the community for their passion and support, 2K and Gearbox are excited to provide Bounty Pack 1…to all Borderlands 4 players for free!”
Accompanying Update
Alongside the DLC, a major gameplay patch arrived on November 20, enhancing endgame Wildcard Missions by adding start points to skip introductory sections, making loot grinding more efficient. Future content includes paid remaining Bounty Packs (with an extra fifth pack for bundle buyers), larger expansions, new playable characters, a mid-December invincible boss fight featuring Bloomreaper, and a Q1 2026 story pack introducing Vault Hunter C4SH, plus Takedown mode in 2026.
Despite its strong launch as one of 2025's top sellers, Borderlands 4 fell short of sales expectations, per Take-Two Interactive.