Alongside its unique and immediately recognizable art style, the Borderlands franchise prides itself on having a ridiculous number of unique weapons, and this number continues to grow with each new mainline entry in the franchise. At this point, it’s already been confirmed that Borderlands 4 will have billions of guns, not including other rare loot collectibles. Not to mention, if Borderlands 4 gets its own DLCs, Seasonal Events, and other post-launch content like past games have, the total number of weapons in the game will grow even further over time.
While having billions of guns is admittedly an impressive feat, given the franchise’s history, the quantity of guns and other gear in Borderlands 4 will seemingly face the inevitable, recurring problem of players not having enough vault storage space to collect an adequate amount of loot. However, since there’s still time before the game launches in late 2025, there’s still a chance to solve this problem before it happens.
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Borderlands 4’s Billions of Guns Means Billions of Vault Space is Necessary on Day One
Insufficient Vault Space Is a Recurring Problem for the Borderlands Games and Other Looter Shooters
Beyond the Borderlands franchise, insufficient vault space is a common problem that the majority of Looter Shooters have faced, and one that countless upcoming games will likely continue to face. For Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2, both of these prominent Looter Shooters have had to take measures to increase players’ loot storage capacity post-launch. With Borderlands 4 said to have the most guns of any Borderlands game to date, this problem seems like it will inevitably reach a new extreme for the franchise. However, since there’s still time before Borderlands 4’s release in September 2025, Gearbox still has a chance to solve this problem before it happens.
This is a difficult problem to address because what constitutes an adequate amount of vault space is ultimately an arbitrary, subjective number. What might be enough for some players might not be enough for others, which continues the cycle of needing to expand vault space post-launch. So, since it’s already been confirmed that Borderlands 4 will have billions of guns, the safest approach might be to have the vault space as large as the game can handle without causing any technical issues.
Ideally, having at least one space for every unique legendary loot in Borderlands 4 would likely be a sufficient amount of vault space to strive for. However, since Borderlands 4’s post-launch content will presumably introduce new loot, future-proofing and expanding the vault space as much as possible at launch might be necessary.
Borderlands’ SDUs are the Perfect Solution to a Classic Looter Shooter Problem
Regarding the Storage Deck Upgrades (SDUs) from the Borderlands games, these aren’t the cause of the vault space and inventory management problem; rather, SDUs are arguably the perfect solution. Considering that some Looter Shooters lock this feature behind microtransaction paywalls, while other games don’t give players any way to expand their vault storage space at all, the Borderlands franchise’s SDUs allowing payers to expand their inventory and vault space for the cost of in-game currency is quite a generous system that also serves the purpose of an endgame currency sink.
The problem isn’t with the method, it’s with the result. In other words, Borderlands 4 should arguably keep the SDU system, but expand the maximum capacity to as much as physically possible. After all, with Borderlands 4’s billions of guns inevitably taking this recurring problem to a new extreme, it’s better to have the extra vault space and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Borderlands 4
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
- Released
- September 12, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
