Since Borderlands 4 launched, the game has been plagued by performance and stability issues, and to Gearbox's credit, many of the more egregious problems have at least somewhat been addressed, with a recent content update even boosting performance by up to 20%, depending on the game resolution. However, it seems as though the added development time required to address those game-breaking issues might have caught up to Gearbox. In a recent announcement, 2K Games said that the developer "realized that there was more mayhem than time when it came to getting as much into Bounty Pack 1 as originally planned," which is basically a long-winded way of saying the developer ran out of time to deliver the stacked Bounty Pack 1 that was originally expected.

Fortunately for gamers, this means that the Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day is launching as a free DLC available to all Borderlands 4 players as of November 20. According to the announcement, Bounty Pack 1 adds a new quest line tasking players with helping Rush, the leader of the Oubounders, relive his childhood memories and share the spirit of the festive season—it's basically space Christmas. The new update will also add 24 new cosmetics, four new pieces of rollable gear, and a few new hidden collectibles and cosmetics. 2K also announced that owners of Borderlands 4 Deluxe or Super Deluxe Edition or the Bounty Pack Bundle will also get another free Bounty Pack (the fifth one in the game) in 2026.

We're stoked for you to team up with Rush and teach Minister Screw the true meaning of Mercenary Day! This being a holiday-themed Bounty Pack, we knew we had to deliver it to you by the end of the year. However, the team realized that there was more mayhem than time when it came to getting as much into Bounty Pack 1 as originally planned while never slowing down in their mission to improve the Borderlands 4 player experience.

So in the spirit of the season, we're giving a gift to all Borderlands 4 players by making Bounty Pack 1 free!* Thank you for all the passion and support you've given us as a community. We're hard at work making sure future Bounty Packs are more fully loaded with the compelling content players have been asking for. In addition, we're now adding a new Bounty Pack 5 (more on that in a bit); there's a lot of amazing stuff coming to Borderlands 4, so stay tuned!