Borderlands 4 is getting a major update today, including, among other things, the addition of the long-awaited Photo Mode that was announced prior to the game’s launch, but was allegedly held due to the need to prioritize polishing other elements.

The update was announced via the official Borderlands 4 website, and it isn’t just a Photo Mode being added. Harlowe’s Zero-Point Action skill is getting a rework, and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode levels will now increase dedicated loot drop levels.

But Photo Mode is the crown jewel here, and it’s available now by restarting your game and downloading the update. Once the update is installed, you can find Photo Mode in the Pause menu while you’re playing. It’ll let you adjust the camera and apply a variety of visual effects including Field of View and Depth of Field adjustments, filters, changing the time of day, and even toggling visibility of elements such as characters or even damage numbers. Entering Photo Mode will also pause the game entirely in single-player mode (sorry multiplayer folks, just doesn’t work that way). There’s a full guide to how to use the Photo Mode and all its settings right here.

Photo Mode was promised for Borderlands 4 way back in June of 2025, with creative director Graeme Timmins saying on social media that while it was planned, the team was prioritizing polishing other core elements, and Photo Mode thus wouldn’t be around at launch.

I had us prioritize polishing some other elements, more core to the moment-to-moment experience. We’ve always planned for it, and had it tasked up, we just needed to spend a bit more time on things that would directly impact QoL of playing the game.

— Graeme Timmins (@ProdigyXL) June 24, 2025

Below we’ve pasted the full patch notes, including all the other updates to Harlowe and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode:

Progression and Rewards

Contract Missions:

Patrol: Order troops: Now progresses when killing enemiesTrace: Scrap Core: The scrap core object is able to be interacted with consistently and the contract from Dominion can now be completedConvinced the Intrusive Thoughts Vile Ripper, Deep State Phalanx, and Breaux Chambeaux Phalanx bounties to show up when a player has taken their contracts

Vault Card Challenges:

“Loot or Purchase 10/15 legendaries” Vault Card weekly challenge will no longer reset with a save/load“Loot or Purchase Ordnance” will now increase when conditions are met“Kill enemies with Torgue guns and gear” will now progress when using Torgue legendary grenade Firepot“Kill X enemies with Maliwan guns and gears” and the Maliwan Challenge “Last Wan Standing” will now progress as intended

Challenges:

Legendary Forsaken Chaos and Legendary Midnight Defiance have been removed from the Collect All Phosphene ChallengeUpdated Maliwan status effects to better identify what triggered the status effects, leading to better tracking on challenges

Progression and rewards

Addressed a reported issue that was causing travel to Dominion to be locked by a player leaving a transition area in multiplayer“Potty Mouth” Mission: Objectives are no longer blocked when exiting to the main menuAddressed an issue causing unlocked DLC content to be unavailable while offlineTrue Mode is now able to be consistently enabled for newly created level 30 UVHM charactersAdded a tutorial for True Mode when the campaign is completedPlayers creating a new character in multiplayer will now receive all intended rewardsAddressed a reported issue causing all equipment to be lost when quitting to the main menu during a countdown in multiplayer when switching to solo playAddressed issues with the “Gourd Your Loins” cosmetic reward not being awarded with SHiFT codeIf you were impacted by this issue the first time around, or you missed these gourd-geous heads during the Horrors of Kairos event, this SHiFT code will redeem your missing cosmetic! This code will not reward anything to those that successfully received their cosmetic rewards the first time.Redeem the SHiFT code below (check out our SHiFT User Guide if you don’t already know how) to get the “Gourd Your Loins” Vault Hunter Head and the “Hex Appeal” Weapon Skin!*THFB3-R9XKK-CFBJW-T33BB-9R3CC*Requires a copy of Borderlands 4, SHiFT Account, and Internet connection. Must redeem by December 31, 2030. One redemption per SHiFT Account. Terms apply.

Vault Hunters

Addressed reported issues where critical hit damage sometimes wasn’t being applied to critical hits

Specializations

Daredevil: Action Skill Cooldown rate has been adjusted to .5% and a multiplicative Action Skill Damage bonus has been addedRunner: Melee Damage bonus is now a multiplicative instead of additive

Harlowe the Gravitar Skill Rework

Dev Note: We’re making several changes to Zero-Point as another step towards making this skill tree feel more satisfying and better balanced relative to Harlowe’s other trees. Because we’re changing the fundamental behavior of Zero-Point to include the old Inertia Augment behavior in the base skill, we want to see how these changes balance out before doing more work in the rest of the tree.

We have our eye on a few other passives that may be candidates for some buffs, but between the recent passive buffs that were implemented several weeks ago, combined with today’s changes, we’ll revisit those in the future once we’ve gathered adequate feedback on the current changes.

Long term, we want to ensure that each Vault Hunter has plenty of build diversity, with each Action Skill having its own pros and cons. If and when we see one falling behind, we’ll continue to explore changes like today’s.

Zero-Point (Base Skill): Now includes the benefits of the previous “Inertia” Augment. Killing an enemy in Stasis now resets the duration, searches for a new target, and makes the duration decrease fasterInertia Augment (Changed): Updated to increase Harlowe’s Slam Damage. Whenever she slams an enemy, create Mini Unstable Energy Pocket projectiles that randomly deal Cryo or Radiation damage. Additionally, she also gains increased Status Effect Damage and Status Effect Chance. This effect stacks.

Amon the Forgeknight

Amon now consistently deals bonus Cryo Damage when equipping Cryonic Thrum Augment in multiplayerPrevented unintended increases in the number of segments in the Vault Hunter bar when Amon activates his Action SkillDragon’s Breath now applies properly to Ripper Heavy Weapons with beamsFirewall Forgeskill will now block Moon-Maddened Callis projectile attacks

Vex the Siren

Addressed the cooldown for Prismatic Ichors sometimes resetting when applying a status effectPhase Pocket Passive no longer resets the Taser underbarrel magazine when using a Vladof EnhancementHealing numbers now present correctly when Specters are using Ripper Legendary Sniper Rifle TankbusterAddressed Incarnate Action Skill behavior so that it continues to work while using the Vibe Check Capstone with the Legendary Class Mod Technomancer

General Gameplay:

Bloomreaper Boss Fight:

Falling into the fog will now consistently kill players instead of having them fall out of the mapThe purple rift will now only appear after the boss is defeatedAddressed an instance of Bloomreaper keeping the Invincible health bar in the second phaseAddressed an exploit that would allow UVHM time trial rewards to be obtained while not in UVHMAddressed an issue that would cause the chest for Platinum rewards to be empty after fulfilling the requirementsDisc-shooting heavy weapons will now damage Bloomreaper’s crystalsVile Creeps should no longer get stuck in the air

World Events and Bosses:

Increased the spawn rate of world bosses in the Punitive Manufactorium areaRewards will now reliably spawn when completing the Airship or The Goredello world eventsMinister Screw is no longer able to be frozenToy Pinheads are now affected by singularity grenadesIdolator Sol now takes damage from Elemental Hazards created by skills while Bio Armor is brokenVile Lictor’s limbs will now continue to respawn after freezing themGennifer will now remain inside the refugee even if the player is dying near the areaLowered the amount of Badass enemies spawning in one spot by Electi Safe CollectableEnsured that boss fights consistently reset when all players have diedRestored the ability to interact with Fortresses if travel was canceled by leaving a transition area in multiplayer

Loot and Stations:

UVH levels now increase dedicated loot drop levels. The higher the level, the higher the chance of dedicated loot dropping!Changed the Respawn Station outside of Umbral Foundry to a Fast Travel station to allow for easier travel to the entrancePrevented loot items from dropping into unintended areas after defeating The Oppressor or killing all enemies in Ripper Drill Site Saw’s ClenchRed Chest in Coastal Bonescape will only unlock when all enemies are killed

Mission, Enemy and ECHO Location Updates:

Guns Blazing: Arjay will now consistently engage in combat against enemiesThe Power Ballad of Rodd Vomit: Addressed enemy pathing to reach the playerMissions will no longer progress unexpectedly in multiplayer when switching from splitscreen to solo playRadioactive Rail Liner will now attack if players are close to itECHO Location guidance improvementsRift Champion icon removed from the Compass, with cleaned-up functionality for those icons in the Map

Guns & Gear

Enhancement:

Adjusted the Underdog enhancement to only apply to Vladof underbarrel weapons as intended. This will remove an unintended damage bonus that was happening when some guns switched their ammo or element types. We also updated Wombo Combo rockets so they now correctly count as underbarrel damage and receive this boost

Tediore:

Tediore Legendary Assault Rifle Chuck now throws properly when the player has over 120% gun reload speedAddressed a behavior that prevented homing on the third gun spawned by Tediore reloads when specific conditions were metRemoved extra gun from Tediore shotguns with Ripper magazines

Maliwan:

Maliwan Legendary SMG Ohm I Got will no longer consume Energy Shield when Overshield is activeOnly active element Status Effects will spread when killing an enemy with a Maliwan-licensed part with Maliwan Enhancement and Transfuser CoreSingularities now spawn correctly on Maliwan Sniper Rifles with Singularity Grenade Launcher underbarrels

Jakobs:

Addressed Jakobs ricochet damage to apply the intended amount of damage on Jakobs weapons

Torgue:

Torgue Legendary Pistol Hardpoint will fire as intended with Tediore licensed-part “Shooting”Torgue Legendary Shield Compleation now properly triggers Segment Break armor shield augments

Order:

Order Legendary Sniper Rifle Rooker needle projectiles will consistently home in on enemies at a distance with the Callous augment. It will also no longer spawn unintended underbarrel projectiles with Jakobs licensed parts and a Jakob enhancement with Leaper and Bounce Pass

Ripper:

Ripper Legendary Shield Watts 4 Dinner will now consistently give the overshield in multiplayer from Overshield drops

CoV:

Weapons with CoV magazines now continue to fire when using Bullets to Spare firmware level 3 with the Ventilator enhancement

Daedalus:

Daedalus SMGs with the Overcharge attachment and a Ripper Magazine will now inherit the Ripper magazine charge-up time

Atlas:

Atlas Sure Shot perk is no longer triggered by Rafa Peacebreaker Cannons Action Skill while equipping a weapon with Atlas licensed parts and the Sure Shot enhancementUpdated Tracker Antenna and Trauma Bond to no longer incorrectly apply to gear without Atlas-licensed parts

Ordnance

Heavy Weapons now cause damage to BoomBoom Drones during the Callis boss fight

Firmware:

Skillcraft will now receive the proper amount of stacks when dealing skill damage to enemiesDeadeye 2-piece now functions as intended with intended projectilesHigh Caliber 3-piece now functions as intended with Atlas Tracker GrenadeGet Throwin’ now properly increases Heavy Weapon Ordnance damage

Visual, Audio, and Animation updates to Guns and Gear:

Restored prefixes to Tediore Legendary Grenade UAVOrder Legendary Pistol Bully with Hyperion Shield enhancement now display with all parts on the item cardRepkit will no longer disappear when trying to heal after climbingCorrected animations for Daedalus SMGs with Atlas Underbarrel attachments when switchingCorrected audio on the Daedalus Legendary Shotgun MissilaserMaliwan Legendary Shotgun Mantra now shows the Amara Phase Fist when firedAdjusted effects on Maliwan Legendary SMG Ohm I Got and Daedalus Legendary Shotgun Missilaser to be consistent throughout gameplayAdjusted animation on Tediore Shotguns to prevent shell cases from appearing when using secondary fireTediore weapons no longer explode when thrown if they overlap with waterTediore Assault Rifles and Pistols have consistent laser sights on gearEffects for Vladof Legendary Assault Rifle Whiskey Foxtrot will now expire as intendedAdjusted reload animation for Ripper Shotguns with CoV magazinesAdjusted Ripper effects when shooting Ripper guns with Maliwan-licensed underbarrel partsRipper Grenade Transmitter effects have been restored when they are despawningAdjusted missing effects of needles when using the Order Legendary Sniper Rifle Rooker

Audio & Visuals

Vault Hunter voices now return to normal after unequipping the Kittycopter head customizationMarcus now talks at the proper timeThe second round of the Goredello will now announce the enemy typeUpdated various sound effects to play while fighting BloomreaperUpdates to various incorrect or missing VO linesDamage numbers have been removed when continuing to shoot Arjay when the fight has endedCorrected ECHO-4 appearance when using the ECHO-IVIV frame and Nurple paintjob customizationEnsured Vex the Siren’s tattoos glow as intended with all skinsMelee animations for Rafa the Exo-Soldier will now play correctly in multiplayerCharacters can now climb after double jumping at the Abandoned Post Safehouse in the Coastal BonescapeResolved climbing animations not syncing in multiplayerUsing the grapple point by the propaganda speaker in The Howl will now take the player to the roof of the houseAdjusted Idolator Sol animations when buying Boss replay in multiplayerReduced the brightness of Seeker Witness’ laser effectsRipsaw’s rotating blade effect will now disappear after deathMinister Screw’s triangle effects now disappear after deathEnsured Bruce’s head consistently disappeared in multiplayer during Angry Mob missionAddressed reported instances of NPCs performing their animations early or in the wrong locations Adjusted effects on power cores during the “Powerdrop” MissionCarried items will no longer become attached to a weapon after firing and reloading quicklyAdjusted fading distance in the introAddressed hitching with Vault Hunter saves in the main menuReduced the number of unused materials throughout the gamePrevented Shield Boosters from blocking the screenTrees inside buildings no longer blow in the windMissing animations when destroying the grate near the Vault Fragment in Tonnage Peel have been restoredUnintended transition effects will no longer appear on players outside of Vile Lictor boss arenaFire no longer starts popping when getting closer to DominionPrevented flickering after opening an Electi SafeHaybales in The Howl no longer show glass VFX when hitHouse now displays properly during Breeding DaisiesThe lights on the Candlelight Catastrophe skin now flash consistentlyEnsured the launch pad in Cuspid Climb is consistent with other launch pad areasThe Black Market Vending Machine will no longer have an obstructed view if spawned in Tonnage PeelLowered several floating itemsAddressed multiple cases of lootables not being able to be openedUpdated various cinematics for consistencyAddressed clipping, missing collision, out-of-bounds access, stuck spots, and visual errors in various areas of the game

UI, Text, Localization

Sorting in the Customization Menu now defaults to show Unlocked Customizations firstCorrected an issue causing the Backpack to appear empty after filteringRepkits now appear as intended in InventoryAddressed a reported issue causing Vault Cards to not update or progress in multiplayerAddressed a reported issue causing Vault Card progress to reset or disappear after a disconnectVault Cards will no longer carry over progress if the same challenge reappears after the daily resetUpdates to Vault Card UIVarious optimization updates to UIAddressed various reported issues with scroll bar, sorting, and menu UIUpdated localization, various text descriptions, subtitle timings, icon visibility, and alignment across the game Material thumbnails in the Customization menu now appear correctlyUpdated Credits

Splitscreen

“Flip Card” functionality has been restored after level transitionsCorrected various scrolling issues in the Vault Cards Menu during splitscreenCorrected a case of a persistent “Logging in” message when a secondary player joins splitscreenThe Golden Chest will no longer get stuck with the “Transaction in Progress” message when the secondary player leaves after openingBoth splitscreen players will now see all mission items during “Breeding Daisies” missionResolved an issue with Recent Friends not functioning as intended when a player is added to splitscreen during gameplayAdjusted Vault Card UI to prevent overlapping or not displaying the entire Item CardVehicle FOV will now change for both playersAdjusted nameplate text sizes to scale correctly in splitscreenUpdated various UI elements for correct placement and to prevent overlapping

Player Experience

[Console Only] Several instances of incorrect gear meshes have been corrected on consoles[PC Only] Adjusted default mouse sensitivity and added a setting option to disable mouse smoothingBlended facial animations for better optimizationVisual optimizations for Jakobs Legendary Shotgun Rainbow VomitOptimizations to Mission MenuVarious improvements to stability and optimization

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.