Borderlands 3 is about to head into its second year in style, where after a string of story-based DLCs the game is about to get, well, a serious dose of gameplay. In addition to the 4K 60fps update coming to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at launch a new Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition is also coming that will include, well, everything.

Perhaps the most exciting thing though is the new Arms Race Mode coming as part of the new Designer's Cut DLC and the Season 2 Pass - coming November 10. And with its roguelike approach to co-op, it looks and sounds great.

Arms Race offers a roguelike experience that’s fast-paced, challenging, and consistently remixed by randomized elements. You’re stripped of all your gear, passive abilities, and Actions Skills and dropped into a new zone where you’ll have to get loot or die trying. The action takes place throughout the Stormblind Complex: an expansive, decommissioned DAHL military base set on a wintry island in a previously hidden corner of Pandora.

As soon as you drop onto the island, you're racing against the clock to grab the best gear you can and get it to an extraction point before you’re obliterated by an encroaching storm. If you hope to extract the very best Legendary loot that drops exclusively in Arms Race, you'll need to gear up and face off against Heavyweight Harker, the final boss of the Stormblind Complex. You can resurrect fallen co-op allies at designated respawn points, but if no one’s around to revive you, your Arms Race run is over and any loot you failed to extract is gone forever.

For those looking for additional content for the base game, the Designer's Cut also sees the introduction of brand-new skill trees for all classes.


Here's a little summary and info on Moze's and Zane's new skill-trees.

Players looking for fresh ways to experience Borderlands 3’s shooting and looting can wield the power of these additional Skill Trees to develop their own unique Vault Hunter builds. Each Skill Tree offers an exciting new Action Skill, as well as novel passive abilities that can be mixed and matched with existing abilities to create all new ways to play each bona fide badass.

Moze’s new Bear Mother Skill Tree swaps her massive pilotable mech Iron Bear for a smaller but totally autonomous mini-mech called Iron Cub, which will rip your enemies to shreds alongside you (at least until its tank runs dry). While Iron Bear and Iron Cub are mutually exclusive Action Skills, the majority of the bonuses that apply to Iron Bear also work on Iron Cub, including its arsenal of Hard Point weapon attachments. This Skill Tree also rewards you for setting enemies ablaze – a perfect fit for fans of Hard Point weapons like the Salamander flamethrower.

Thanks to his new Skill Tree, The Professional, Zane can now equip the MNTIS Shoulder Canon, a high-tech railgun with multiple charges that can snipe enemies with lethal precision. But that’s not the only option. When paired with the No Way Out augment – which you’ll find further down this Skill Tree – the MNTIS fires a grappling hook that yanks enemies directly to you, allowing you to deal damage up close. It's a completely different playstyle compared to Zane's usual ranged specialty.

And this is where the new Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition comes into play at it features the base game, multiple bonus cosmetic packs, and both the original Season Pass DLC goodness and Season Pass 2 content including Arms Race, the new Skill Trees, and whatever else is on the cel-shaded horizon.