108 Fun Facts About Borderlands

The Vault Hunters' hub in Borderlands 3 is a spaceship named what?

It flies between planets where new Vaults have been found.

Which studio created the Borderlands series?

Gearbox scrapped the first game's darker, realistic look late in development and redrew everything in a comic-book style to make it stand out.

In Borderlands' colour-coded loot, which colour marks legendary gear?

Orange marks legendary loot: because guns are generated at random, a colour code rising from common white through green, blue and purple tells players at a glance what a drop is worth.

In Borderlands, the long-vanished alien race whose ruins litter Pandora is called what?

The Eridians built the Vaults less as treasure chests than as prisons: the first one opened held a monster they had locked away to save the universe.

Guinness World Records counted roughly how many possible guns in the first Borderlands?

About 17 million, or 17.75 million by the Guinness count, a total possible only because the game builds each gun at random instead of having them designed one by one.

The Borderlands art style is frequently mistaken for what technique?

Cel shading is the usual guess, but the comic-book look comes from hand-drawn textures, with the bold outlines added by the game engine.

How was the first Borderlands pitched internally around 2005?

Halo meets Diablo meant a shooter overflowing with loot, and it set off what the team called a religious debate over whether the game was a shooter or a role-playing game at heart; the shooter won.

In the first Borderlands, which corporation returns to claim the planet and its Vault?

Atlas sends its private army to seize the Vault Key; its commander opens the Vault herself and is the first to die for it.

In the first Borderlands, what monster emerges when the Vault is finally opened?

The Destroyer bursts out and wipes out the soldiers who opened the Vault; it had been sealed inside long ago to stop it destroying the universe.

Which of these characters is one of the four playable heroes in the first Borderlands?

Mordecai is the first game's sniper, who sends his pet bird of prey Bloodwing swooping at enemies; the other three choices became playable in later games.

In Borderlands, Lilith is one of a few women with mysterious powers, known as what?

Sirens can feed their power into a Vault Key, which is why Handsome Jack captures Lilith in Borderlands 2 and forces her to charge his.

The first Borderlands opens with the heroes arriving at which dusty town?

Fyrestone is where a Claptrap robot greets the new arrivals and leads them to the town doctor, who hands out their first job.

Roughly how many copies had the first Borderlands sold by 2011?

It was an unexpected success for Gearbox and spawned four DLC packs.

Which of these was one of the four DLC packs for the first Borderlands?

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned turns on a doctor hired to keep a company town's workers alive, who did the job too well and turned them into zombies.

In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack is the boss of which corporation?

Hyperion's boss began as a lowly programmer there, then seized the company's space station and took the top job by force.

In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack's pony Butt Stallion is made of what?

Diamonds: the pony began as one of Jack's taunts about how rich he is, but she kept turning up, and Tiny Tina later made her queen of her fantasy game.

In Borderlands 2, the Guardian Angel who guides the Vault Hunters turns out to be whom?

Handsome Jack's daughter, Angel, is kept wired into a chamber to charge the Vault Key, and asks the heroes to shut it down even though it will kill her.

Which hero does Handsome Jack kill late in Borderlands 2?

Roland is killed in front of the player moments after Angel's death, and Jack then seizes Lilith to finish charging the Vault Key in her place.

What is the name of the resistance base city in Borderlands 2?

Sanctuary is built on top of an old mining ship, so when Jack bombards it the whole city lifts off and is teleported to safety.

Salvador, one of the Borderlands 2 Vault Hunters, is described by what class name?

Gunzerker is the name of his class because his action skill lets him briefly dual-wield any two guns, one blazing in each hand.

Which two characters were added to Borderlands 2 as DLC Vault Hunters?

Gaige and Krieg arrived after launch: she is a girl with a flying killer robot, he a Psycho, one of the series' stock masked enemies turned playable hero.

Who voices the explosives-obsessed Tiny Tina in the Borderlands games?

Ashly Burch landed the part after her brother, a writer on Borderlands 2, created the character with her in mind.

What giant creature does Handsome Jack summon from the Vault at the climax of Borderlands 2?

The Warrior obeys whoever releases it, which is why Jack spends the game charging the Vault Key; when he finally sets it on the Vault Hunters, they kill it.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was primarily developed by which studio?

2K Australia led development, which is why the moon's residents talk like Australians and the missions joke about cricket and Waltzing Matilda.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel swaps Pandora for which low-gravity setting?

Elpis is Pandora's moon, where an airless surface and weak gravity mean oxygen kits, long floating jumps and ground-slam attacks from above.

Which new weapon type did Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel introduce?

Laser guns came in several kinds, from steady beams to railguns, and arrived with a cryo element that freezes enemies so they shatter when killed.

Nisha, a playable hero in The Pre-Sequel, first appeared in Borderlands 2 as what?

As Jack's girlfriend and sheriff of Lynchwood, Nisha rules the town by her own deadly laws until the player beats her in a high-noon showdown.

What ability does Claptrap gain in The Pre-Sequel that he had famously lacked?

Climbing stairs comes with the combat upgrade that turns him into the playable Fragtrap; staircases had been the little robot's nemesis in the earlier games.

Who voiced Claptrap in the first four Borderlands games before a falling-out with Randy Pitchford?

Jim Foronda has voiced the robot since Borderlands 2 VR.

Which studio made the episodic Borderlands adventure spin-off that began in 2014?

Telltale Games reused the choice-driven episode format of its Walking Dead series; when the studio collapsed in 2018 the game vanished from sale until 2K republished it in 2021.

In Tales from the Borderlands, players control corporate lackey Rhys and which con artist?

Fiona and Rhys take turns telling the story, and since both are shameless liars their versions of the same events rarely match.

In Tales from the Borderlands, what does a dead scientist's ID chip do to Rhys?

An AI Handsome Jack enters his head from the chip, visible only to Rhys, and haunts him until the space station Helios crashes into Pandora.

Who are the villains of Borderlands 3?

The Calypso Twins, Tyreen and Troy, run their bandit cult like streaming stars, broadcasting to their followers to keep the worship and the recruits coming.

Which Borderlands 3 Vault Hunter pilots a mech called Iron Bear?

Moze is a former Vladof soldier who went rogue and kept her army-issue mech, which she summons in mid-fight and climbs inside.

Which city-planet is the first stop after Pandora in Borderlands 3?

Promethea is where the first Vault was found, a discovery that made one corporation rich; by Borderlands 3 a rival has turned the city into a war zone.

Which weapons corporation allies with the Borderlands 3 villains and lays siege to a rival's home world?

Maliwan joins the villains' war as cover for a hostile takeover of a rival company, besieging its home world until the Vault Hunters knock out its orbital cannon.

Borderlands 3 on PC was exclusive to which storefront for six months?

Epic Games Store paid for six months of exclusivity, and annoyed fans answered by review-bombing the older Borderlands games on Steam.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is set inside a tabletop role-playing game called what?

Bunkers & Badasses is run by Tiny Tina as its Bunker Master, which lets her rewrite the world around the players whenever the mood takes her.

Who voices the Dragon Lord in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands?

Will Arnett's Dragon Lord is the villain Tina scripts to lose every campaign, and his scheme this time is to break that cycle for good.

Borderlands 4 takes place on which new planet?

Kairos had been sealed off from the galaxy behind a barrier, which shattered when a moon was teleported into its sky during Borderlands 3.

Who is the antagonist of Borderlands 4?

The Timekeeper rules through his Order and the control implants called Bolts, which he forces on the Vault Hunters soon after they arrive.

Which of these characters is a playable Vault Hunter in Borderlands 4?

Vex is the game's goth hunter, fighting alongside summoned minions; Zane does return in Borderlands 4, but only as a character you meet.

Who directed the 2024 Borderlands film?

Eli Roth shot the film in 2021, but when two weeks of reshoots clashed with his slasher Thanksgiving, Deadpool director Tim Miller stepped in to handle them.

Who plays Lilith in the Borderlands film?

Cate Blanchett's Lilith is a bounty hunter in the film, hired by a tycoon to fetch his daughter from Pandora, the home planet she left as a child.

Roughly how much did the Borderlands film gross worldwide, against a budget of $110-120M?

$33M worldwide, under a third of its reported cost, made the film a box-office bomb after critics panned it.

The studio behind Borderlands is based in which Texas city?

It was founded in 1999 by five developers who first made Half-Life expansions.

Which company completed its acquisition of the Borderlands studio in June 2024?

Take-Two already owned the series' publisher, so its $460 million purchase put the maker of Borderlands and its publisher under one roof.

Which corporation abandons Pandora shortly before the Vault Hunters arrive in the first Borderlands?

Dahl fled when a rival's army invaded, evacuating only its wealthy colonists and abandoning the convict labourers, who became the planet's bandits.

How old is the demolitions expert Tiny Tina when she first appears?

Ashly Burch voices her; other recurring NPCs include Mad Moxxi, Scooter, Ellie and Sir Hammerlock.

What kind of product is Borderlands: Tiny Tina's Robot Tea Party, unveiled alongside Borderlands 3?

A card game for two to five players, it has everyone racing to build a Claptrap from parts while rivals wreck each other's robots with action cards.

Borderlands 2 was ported in 2014 to which handheld, with multiplayer capped at two players?

PlayStation Vita got the full game, but squeezing it onto a handheld meant choppy frame rates and sprint and melee moved to the rear touchpad.

How did the LootTheWorld app let players unlock items for Borderlands 2?

By scanning barcodes and QR codes with a phone, players unlocked loot to send to their game; the free app lasted under two years before it was shut down.

In Borderlands 2, completing challenges earns tokens for small permanent stat boosts under which system?

Badass Rank bonuses apply to every character a player owns, present and future, so a brand-new Vault Hunter starts with all the boosts the old ones earned.

Anu and Octavio are joined by which frozen-yogurt shop owner in New Tales from the Borderlands?

Fran fights from her hoverchair, which can freeze enemies solid; her frogurt shop is wrecked in the invasion that throws the three heroes together.

Which traversal tool makes its series debut in Borderlands 4?

A grappling hook joins double jumps, glides and dodges in Borderlands 4, new ways to cross the series' first seamless world, which has no loading screens.

Which China-only Borderlands shooter, built with 2K China, was cancelled in November 2015?

Borderlands Online was scrapped when the studio's owner shut the Shanghai team building it, judging that finishing the game would never pay back the cost.

Which composer, also known for Assassin's Creed, co-wrote the first Borderlands soundtrack?

He worked with Raison Varner, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan on the 27-track album released in 2009.

Which Borderlands bartender also hosts the Underdome arena battles?

Mad Moxxi built the Underdome to keep herself busy while she looked for a new husband, and later runs the bar where the heroes regroup.

Which actor provides the voice of Claptrap, the comic-relief robot, in the 2024 live-action Borderlands film?

Jack Black was confirmed for the part in February 2021. Asked which Hollywood actor could play the robot, the game's developers had once suggested Dwayne Johnson or Bill Murray.

Borderlands Science, a tile-matching mini-game in Borderlands 3, fed players' solutions to researchers studying what?

The human gut microbiome was the target: each puzzle was built from real DNA sequences, and results published in 2024 showed players had outperformed state-of-the-art computer methods.

Randy Pitchford, co-founder of the studio behind Borderlands, helped pay for school by performing as what?

A magician runs in the family: his great-uncle performed as Cardini, and in 2022 Pitchford bought the Magic Castle, the Hollywood club where he had married his wife on stage.

Handsome Jack of Borderlands 2 owes his placeholder name to Jack Harkness, a hero of which British sci-fi series?

Doctor Who gave him the name through its character Jack Harkness, a stopgap that stuck. Early drafts did not even make him the villain: he was a rival Vault Hunter who alternately helped and hindered the player.

Handsome Jack's radio taunts in Borderlands 2 were modelled on GLaDOS, the mocking computer villain of which game?

Portal supplied one model for the villain, and his writer added that Jack would have been the hero had the story been told from another point of view.

Which famous screen robot loosely inspired the design of Claptrap, the small yellow mascot of the Borderlands series?

WALL-E was the loose model for a robot first sketched under the name Zippy. Its designer had set himself the challenge of drawing the most generic robot he could.

Shortly before Borderlands 3 launched, which battle royale game hosted a crossover with a slice of Pandora on its map?

Fortnite recreated part of Pandora during its tenth season, and players could buy a Psycho outfit with Claptrap worn as a back accessory.

Which rapper voices Balex, an artificial intelligence trapped inside a teddy bear, in Borderlands 3?

Ice-T took the part in a game that also brought Chris Hardwick back as Vaughn, his character from Tales from the Borderlands.

Which stage double act lent their likenesses to the Borderlands 3 characters known as Pain and Terror?

Penn & Teller became Pain and Terror, with Penn Jillette also voicing Pain. He later filmed a cameo as a wedding preacher for the Borderlands film, but the scene was cut.

Before Borderlands, its developer made its name with Opposing Force and Blue Shift, expansions for which shooter?

Half-Life kept the young studio busy for years: before Half-Life 2 arrived it had built or helped build every expansion and console port, including versions for Sony and Sega machines.

Which American rock band's 2008 single plays over the opening sequence of the first Borderlands game?

Cage the Elephant scored their first UK Top 40 hit with the song, which singer Matt Shultz said was inspired by a former co-worker who dealt drugs.

Which English rock band supplied the opening song of Borderlands 2 and recorded an original theme for Borderlands 3?

The Heavy opened Borderlands 2 with Short Change Hero, closed it with How You Like Me Now?, and wrote Put It On The Line for the third numbered game.

Before Borderlands, which shooter series that began with Road to Hill 30 was its developer's flagship franchise?

Brothers in Arms was the studio's first independently owned series, and it spun off a comic book, a two-part television documentary and a line of action figures.

Which hero shooter did the Borderlands studio build as a change of pace between Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3?

Battleborn launched within a month of Overwatch, which quickly overshadowed it; a free trial version followed in 2017, and the servers were shut down in January 2021.

Buyers of the first Borderlands Game of the Year Edition won early access to the demo of which long-delayed game?

Duke Nukem Forever had been stuck at 3D Realms since before 2000; the Borderlands team bought the rights, finished the game and released it in June 2011.

Cameras rolled on the 2024 Borderlands film during the COVID-19 pandemic in which central European capital city?

Budapest hosted the shoot from April to June 2021, yet the film did not reach cinemas until August 2024, two years later than first planned.

Which comedian trained with US Navy SEALs before auditioning to play a soldier in the 2024 Borderlands film?

Kevin Hart joined the cast in January 2021, and Screen Daily's review described his turn as far more sombre than audiences expect from the comedian.

Which filmmaker, director of the first Deadpool, shot two weeks of reshoots for the 2024 Borderlands film?

Tim Miller stepped in during early 2023 because the film's original director was tied up with another project, and a further writer supplied new pages for him.

Which resistance movement do the new Vault Hunters join to fight Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2?

Crimson Raiders is the name of a band of civilian survivors and guerrilla fighters; by Borderlands 3 they roam the galaxy under Lilith's command, recruiting a fresh team of Vault Hunters.

Which comedian voices Captain Valentine in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, the fantasy spin-off of the Borderlands series?

Andy Samberg plays Valentine in a game set inside a fantasy tabletop role-playing session, where magic and melee weapons join the series' usual guns.

From which massive orbiting space station does Handsome Jack rule over Pandora with an iron fist in Borderlands 2?

Helios later falls out of the sky: the station crashes into Pandora at the climax of the spin-off Tales from the Borderlands.

In Borderlands 2, the returning heroine Lilith is first heard of as a bounty hunter operating under which alias?

The Firehawk became her lasting emblem: when she sacrifices herself to save Pandora at the end of Borderlands 3, a flaming Firehawk sign is left branded across the moon.

SHiFT codes shared on social media reward Borderlands 2 players with which items that unlock a special loot chest?

Golden Keys open a chest that produces rare equipment matched to the player's level, and the feature was later added to the remaster of the first game.

A Borderlands player who loses all health can get back up by killing an enemy, a revival known as what?

Second Wind is the escape hatch; fail to earn it with no teammate nearby to help, and the player respawns at a checkpoint and loses a slice of their money.

Borderlands players who die are regenerated, minus some money, at the last machine they passed, branded what?

New-U stations double as fast-travel points in Borderlands 2, while the separate Quick-Change machines let players alter their character's look, clothing and name.

Borderlands 3 replaced the slag element of Borderlands 2 with which new damage type that can spread between enemies?

Radiation hurts enemies over time and can jump to others when an irradiated enemy explodes on death, whereas slag only left a target weaker against follow-up attacks.

Which Borderlands 3 system replaced the Badass points of earlier games with buffs shared across a player's characters?

Guardian Rank is earned by finishing small challenges, while a separate Mayhem Mode raises both enemy health and the odds of rare loot for players who want a tougher run.

In Borderlands 3, the villains forge Pandora's many bandit factions into which fanatical cult of personality?

Children of the Vault, or COV, rose in the power vacuum left by Handsome Jack's defeat and struck an alliance with the Maliwan corporation for military support.

Which character, hailed in Borderlands 3 as the first Vault Hunter, is revealed to be the father of the game's villains?

Typhon DeLeon had tried to shelter his family on a remote alien homeworld, but his offspring came to see it as a prison and grew up bitter and power-hungry.

Which swamp planet in Borderlands 3 belongs to the Jakobs family, whose heir helps the Vault Hunters there?

Eden-6 is where Wainwright Jakobs agrees to help the heroes reach the planet's Vault if they first rescue his lover.

In the first story add-on for Borderlands 3, players help Moxxi reclaim what kind of venue that Handsome Jack stole?

A casino it is, housed on a space station plastered with Jack's image; the add-on is titled Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot.

Borderlands 2 skipped which console because its makers could not find a standout use for its unique hardware?

Wii U owners missed out because, in the team's words, they could not come up with an 'OMG' feature that made use of the console's uniqueness.

Borderlands 2 added a non-player character named Michael Mamaril to its world as a tribute to whom?

A fan who died of cancer, Mamaril was first honoured with a eulogy read by Claptrap at a friend's request, and the studio then offered to put him in the game as well.

Which prolific voice actor played Rhys in Tales from the Borderlands but was replaced for Borderlands 3?

Troy Baker said the studio had been unwilling to deal with members of the actors' union, so Ray Chase voiced Rhys when the character returned.

Which comic actor plays Hugo Vasquez, the new boss and rival of Rhys in Tales from the Borderlands?

Patrick Warburton plays the executive in a cast that also features Ashley Johnson as the robot Gortys and Laura Bailey as the story's other lead.

The first Borderlands, revealed in a 2007 Game Informer cover story, was built on a modified version of what?

Unreal Engine 3 had been licensed by the studio in 2005, and the engine was modified to draw the bold outlines that give the game its hand-drawn look.

The Borderlands robot Claptrap makes an Easter-egg cameo in which live-action film set largely inside a virtual world?

Ready Player One slips him in among its crowd of game characters, and he also turns up as a hidden cameo in the role-playing game Torchlight II.

The Borderlands robot Claptrap trades banter with Brock Samson and Ash Williams in which crossover video game?

Poker Night 2 sits him down for Texas hold 'em, where he stakes the Character of the Year trophy he won at the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards.

Borderlands Legends, a 2012 spin-off for iPhone and iPad, swapped first-person shooting for what kind of gameplay?

Top-down strategy let players command all four heroes of the first game at once, and the spin-off arrived to coincide with the release of Borderlands 2.

Which add-on for the first Borderlands introduced the rogue assassin Athena, later a playable hero?

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx was billed by its makers as the biggest add-on they had made, and it raised the level cap to 61.

Which hero of the first Borderlands fights as a Berserker, entering a rage that boosts his melee strength?

Brick nearly missed the game: early plans had only three heroes, and the brawler was added later. His rage also briefly regenerates his health.

Which Borderlands scientist, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2024 film, lost every colleague to Pandora's wildlife?

Patricia Tannis recurs across the games as an erratic researcher, and Borderlands 2 players can fight high-level enemies for loot in a challenge arena she runs.

Which masked Assassin of Borderlands 2 can turn invisible and leave a hologram decoy to distract enemies?

Zer0 nearly looked very different: managers felt the faceless design strayed too far from the series, but the art director refused to change it.

Which Borderlands 3 Vault Hunter is a robot Beastmaster who summons creatures to fight alongside them?

FL4K returns in Borderlands 4 as a non-player character, headlining a story expansion titled FL4K and the Last Resort.

Which returning Borderlands 2 heroine is killed in Borderlands 3 while stepping in to save her apprentice Ava?

Maya is met again on the planet Athenas, training Ava; after her death, the powers stolen from her eventually pass to her apprentice.

Which Borderlands gun merchant narrates the opening cinematics of the main games and the story of New Tales?

Marcus Kincaid frames New Tales as a story he is telling to a listener revealed at the end, and a collector's edition of Borderlands 2 came with a bobblehead of him.

Which mechanic sacrifices himself in Tales from the Borderlands so the heroes' makeshift spacecraft can finish its trip?

Scooter had run the series' garages since the first game, and his younger sister Ellie, a mechanic herself, carries on the trade in later instalments.

A Lovecraft-themed Borderlands 3 add-on centres on the wedding of Wainwright Jakobs and which other character?

Sir Hammerlock, a cyborg big-game hunter introduced in Borderlands 2, is betrayed in Borderlands 3 by his own sister Aurelia, who sides with the villains.

The Psycho added to Borderlands 2 as a downloadable hero heals with every kill during which melee Action Skill?

Buzz Axe Rampage boosts his melee damage, fitting a hero modelled on the psychotic bandit enemies that players fight throughout the main campaign.

Which Swedish holding company bought the studio behind Borderlands in 2021, then sold it on three years later?

Embracer Group had made the studio its seventh major operating group, then sold it during a restructuring that brought layoffs and studio closures across the company.