Frisco, Texas, March 28, 2026, 13:13 CDT 1
Borderlands 4, a shooter built around collecting ever-stronger guns and gear, launched its first paid story expansion on March 26, but the add-on is already running into resistance over value. By Saturday, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned carried a Mostly Negative rating on Steam, with 32% of 231 user reviews marked positive. 2
The pushback matters because this is Gearbox’s first big paid attempt to pull players back after months of performance fixes and a Mixed overall Steam score for the base game. The March 26 patch that arrived with the DLC also raised the level cap to 60 and added shared character progression, a feature that lets progress carry across characters and trims the grind for returnees. 3
2K said Story Pack 1 adds C4SH the Rogue, a new Vault Hunter — the series’ term for a playable class — alongside the Whispering Glacier zone, new missions, bosses, enemy types and gear. The add-on sells for $29.99 on U.S. storefronts, while the standard edition of Borderlands 4 carries a $69.99 list price before current discounts. 2
Support notes show players need the base game and completion of the “A Lot to Process” mission to enter the new area, though owners can also roll a fresh character straight into the DLC at level 13. 2K says Story Pack 1 is the first of two planned paid Story Packs and is also bundled in the $49.99 Vault Hunter Pack and the Super Deluxe edition. 4
What is turning the argument is time. Kotaku reported that players were saying the main quest could be cleared in about two to three hours, and that complaint has quickly become the center of the price debate rather than the new character or loot table. 5
Players are also measuring the pack against Borderlands’ own backlog. Steam store pages still list Borderlands 2 add-ons such as Captain Scarlett and the Mechromancer Pack at $9.99, while Borderlands 3 campaign add-ons such as Moxxi’s Heist list at $14.99 before discounts; in November, Gearbox also made Borderlands 4’s Bounty Pack 1 free after saying it had come in lighter than planned. 6
Gearbox has been trying to steady the conversation on performance as well. In a PC status update this week, the studio said average frame rates were up about 20% since launch and crash rates had nearly halved since December, while lead game designer Josh Jeffcoat said the new pack was built to give players a reason to “come back for the adventure.” 7
Senior character designer Tommy Westerman, writing earlier this month, said C4SH was built around “purposely unpredictable playstyles” — a gambler fantasy Gearbox clearly sees as one hook for returning fans. Whether that is enough looks less certain now than it did before launch. 8
The early response is not uniformly negative. On the U.S. PlayStation Store, the add-on had a 4.17 out of 5 rating from 186 reviews on Saturday, warmer than Steam and closer to the 3.9 out of 5 score the base game carries there. But if the value argument hardens, the DLC may struggle to do the job Gearbox needs it to do: bring people back and keep them there. 9
Gearbox says more free and paid content is due later this year, including a second raid, a takedown and Story Pack 2. For now, early storefront data suggests the comeback case is still unproven. 2
