Gami
Borderlands 4 cover
Borderlands 4
Developer:Gearbox Software
Publisher:2K
Platform:PS5
Genre:Action, Action RPG, Open World

Crash onto Kairos as a Vault Hunter and battle through a vast world packed with outrageous weapons, dangerous enemies, quests, and loot. Master powerful Action Skills, create deadly builds, and use new movement abilities as you fight to overthrow the Timekeeper.

Main Story30 Hrs
Platinum100 Hrs
Difficulty5/10
Playthroughs1 Playthrough
Platinum1
Gold4
Silver14
Bronze17

Borderlands 4 Trophy Roadmap

EARLY GAME

Start by playing through the story on any difficulty with whichever Vault Hunter sounds the most fun. There is no reason to turn the opening hours into a spreadsheet with guns. Explore as you go, clear the fog from the map, and complete side missions whenever you run into them. There are 98 side missions required for the Platinum, and doing a healthy chunk during the story will also keep your level moving in the right direction. Contracts from Contract Boards do not count toward that total, so you can safely leave those for later.

A few habits now will save you some very Borderlands-flavored suffering during cleanup. Keep legendary gear you find, since you eventually need a legendary equipped in every equipment slot for “I Earned This.” Start working toward a Gear or Manufacturer Challenge under Missions > Challenges as you play instead of leaving every kill requirement until the end. Also watch the map for the rare Goredello, Airship, and Creep Impact World Events, along with a World Boss appearing inside a white bubble. If one pops up while you are nearby, go introduce yourself with several thousand bullets.

There is one important missable to watch for: “All Things Vend” must be earned during the side mission “Vend of the Line.” Everything else from this stage can largely be cleaned up later in free roam, so outside of that trophy, enjoy the story and do not worry about squeezing every possible objective into your first trip through Kairos.

MID GAME

As more of the world opens up, keep mixing side missions and exploration into your main progression. Eventually you need all 98 side missions, so every one you finish naturally now is one less icon staring judgmentally at you later. Side missions are also important because some lead into locations you cannot otherwise access, which matters when it is time to uncover the entire map.

Start knocking out activities whenever your level makes them comfortable. There are 53 total: 9 Order Silos, 14 Safehouses, 11 Ancient Crawlers, 7 Abandoned Auger Mines, 6 Order Bunkers, and 6 Ripper Drill Sites. Silos and Safehouses open useful fast-travel points, while the other activities involve combat encounters and bosses. After the story these scale to around Level 40, so there is no prize for throwing yourself into them underleveled just to prove a point.

You can also begin collecting the 9 Vault Fragments needed to unlock all 3 Primordial Vaults. Each Vault is a combat arena with three waves followed by a boss, and they scale to your level. They can be completed on Easy difficulty, so save the heroic suffering for somewhere the game actually rewards it.

LATE GAME

Once the story is finished, Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode becomes available and you can freely enable or disable it from Session Settings. Reaching Ultimate Vault Hunter Level 5 requires completing the Ultimate Vault Hunter challenges found under Missions > Challenges. These send you after specific bosses at specific UVH ranks, followed by guaranteed Wildcard Missions that must be completed to increase your rank. The Wildcard Missions reuse main missions with additional modifiers, so expect familiar territory with the game turning the pain dial a little higher.

This is also a good time to finish the Primordial Vaults and any remaining activities. Completing all three Vaults earns “Nothing Left to Guard,” while completing all 53 activities earns “Ruler of Everything.” If you are still underleveled for some of the post-story encounters, go clean up side missions first rather than repeatedly donating your body to the nearest boss.

Before declaring Kairos conquered, finish any remaining side missions and then sweep the map for all 197 locations. Waiting until your missions are complete is useful because some areas only become accessible through side content. Hover over each map region and use the region overview to check the Travel Network and Areas of Interest you are still missing. At this stage, the question marks are no longer mysterious places. They are personal enemies.

TROPHY CLEANUP AND EXTRA TIPS

One of the larger cleanup jobs is completing 80 Contracts for “Freelance, but Not for Free.” Contracts come from boards at Safehouses and Faction Towns and include objectives such as Bounties, Collect, Acquire, Trace, and Patrol. You can hold five at once, so stack contracts that take you into the same general area instead of crossing Kairos like an interplanetary delivery driver. This is also a great opportunity to level a second character. After finishing the story once, new characters can begin Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode at Level 30 with the main story already finished and side content available.

You eventually need to reach Level 50 with all four character classes — Siren, Forgeknight, Gravitar, and Exo-Soldier — because each class has a Level 50 Character Challenge that rewards one of the remaining personal vehicles. Six of the 10 vehicles come automatically through the story, while these four require the character levels. Starting alternate characters at Level 30 cuts down the grind considerably, and combining your 80 Contracts with one of those characters can make the process even more efficient. For the remaining levels, replaying Primordial Vaults provides an unlimited source of enemies. Vehicle unlocks carry across characters and saves, but remember to claim challenge rewards from the reward box after earning them.

Finally, check your Gear and Manufacturer Challenges. If you have been making progress since the beginning, this may barely qualify as cleanup. If not, choose whichever challenge is closest to completion and farm the remaining kills inside a Primordial Vault. Finish your remaining legendary equipment slots, any rare World Events you still need, and whatever map or activity objectives slipped through the cracks. The Platinum is a long haul, but most of the work overlaps nicely if you stay organized. And if one stubborn objective refuses to cooperate, Ask Gami before you spend an hour shooting the wrong thing.

Borderlands 4 Trophy Roadmap | Gami