Borderlands 3 adding new skill trees and co-op features, cross-play news coming next year

The global pandemic may have stopped in-person events but the show must go on. Gearbox announced at PAX Online that Borderlands 3 will be receiving a slew of new features in the coming months, including 4-player and vertical co-op, new skill trees, and the possibility of cross-play support.

Remember the old vertical split-screen from the original Borderlands? It was a thorn in the side of many local co-op players, but hardcore fans grew to love its quirks. After requesting that it be added back into the series, Gearbox has obliged. Vertical split-screen will return when Borderlands 3 comes to Xbox Series X and PS5. To make it even better, Gearbox is also adding 4-player split-screen co-op. Both of these features will be available to all players for free, and they're coming to the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game via a patch. Though the game doesn't support cross-play just yet, we should be hearing more news about that sometime next year.

Never one to leave it at that, Gearbox also revealed that fans can look forward to more paid DLC on the horizon, though it won't come in the form of campaign expansions like the Season Pass offered. Instead, the studio is looking to add a new game mode along with new skill trees for each Vault Hunter.

Only FL4K's new skill tree was detailed, but it gives us a taste of what to look forward to. They'll soon have a Trapper skill tree, which emphasizes shields and survivability. The new action skill, Gravity Snare, is a throwable trap that tosses enemies up into the air before slamming them back into the ground. A Loaderbot pet rounds out the new skill tree for FL4K.

The company also revealed that Borderlands 3 will run at 4K at 60FPS on Xbox Series X and PS5 in single-player, with free next-gen upgrades available.