Gearbox has made a surprising admission about Borderlands 4.
The Big Debate Around Borderlands 4’s Drop Rates
Yesterday, the Borderlands community got into it on Twitter about the drop rates for loot in the game. There’s no clear consensus if the drop rates are good or bad.
Ki11ersix said that this was not the drop rates that fans were asking for coming out of Borderlands 3.
To everyone’s surprise, Gothalion came up to say that they were the drop rates that he was personally looking for.
Gothalion cited how the rates were much worse in Borderlands 2 defeating Terramorphous.
This raises the question of game friction.
What Is Game Friction?
We’ll share this explanation of the idea of friction from the blog Screegames:
Friction – the elements of a design that slow the player down and add length and challenge – exists in every game. Even a purely casual idle clicker game uses time as friction.
The longer you play, the further you’ll go, and the higher your numbers will rise.
Part of a designer’s role is figuring out where and when to add friction. What decisions do you want players to focus their time on? How challenging should the mechanics be?
In the case of Borderlands 4, the loot drop rate is a potential source of friction. A low drop rate could get players to keep playing in the hope of getting better items.
On the flip side, if the player is frustrating, they may dislike this part of the game. And they could stop playing, but they could also decide this is a flaw in the game.
Of course, I just described where Gothalion and Ki11ersix were coming from. But now, one of Gearbox’s own developers is chiming in.
Borderlands 4 Players Found The Game Friction (But They Don’t See It)
Gearbox associate creative director Grand Kao said this on Twitter:
Well, increasing the chances slightly also won’t address the loot farm.
It will only serve as a mask for the real issue which is trying to attain the god roll has lots of layers (amp’d by licensed parts) that’s causing friction in the hunt.
I should follow up by saying we don’t view the friction as an issue. We knowingly designed the gear and balance to be this way.
To be clear, Kao is explaining that the drop rates are not the source of game friction at all. So what is it?
He’s pointed out that getting the ‘god roll’ for legendary weapons is complicated by all the variables that goes into generating weapons.
Those layers of complexity go beyond the traits intrinsic to generating weapons. They also account for variables like Vault Hunter Skills, Specializations, the new Ordnance system, etc. It’s even more complicated in Borderlands 4, because the game also takes licensed parts into account.
So, if Gearbox did increase the drop rate, you could get Legendary Weapons more often. But they won’t guarantee you’ll get weapons you can make the most out of. There’s still a chance you’ll get Legendaries that can’t be used in a practical way, and are only good for selling.
We can understand if some players won’t like this system if they think about it. But this is the same situation as the breakable weapons in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Players may only see that it’s frustrating to keep looking for new weapons. But the challenge of finding weapons, and eventually farming them, ultimately adds new thrills that makes it more fun overall.
