Borderlands 4‘s appearance at the Tokyo Game Show may have been brief, but it was certainly illuminating. Particularly since players have been eagerly anticipating news about the game’s first DLC Vault Hunter, especially considering it’s the first time one’s released since Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. While it seems like there may be a wait for some seriously substantive information, the show did give Borderlands 4 fans some very valuable hard facts.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford’s fingerprints were all over the announcement, with Pitchford kicking things off by revealing that Borderlands 4‘s upcoming DLC Vault Hunter is named C4SH. Once a dealer bot at a casino, C4SH broke free of its primary directive to become a Vault Hunter. While Gearbox didn’t show any new gameplay at the event, there was enough content on display to paint a pretty decent picture of the upcoming playable character. Said picture suggests that he’ll play less like the overpowered, numbered Vault Hunters of BL2 and BL3 and more like the most annoying robot in the Borderlands series.
Gearbox Reveals Upcoming Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter C4SH at Tokyo Game Show
Per Pitchford, the core gameplay of C4SH as a Vault Hunter will focus on utilizing its understanding of chance and probability to make outcomes random or skewed in C4SH’s favor. The Vault Hunter teaser shown at the event prominently featured three items: a pair of dice, two playing cards, and some sort of lantern-like device. Given that info, it seems C4SH has kept a few tricks from their old trade.
Though C4SH’s reveal brings a few characters from the Borderlands franchise to mind, context clues from the reveal make some more tangibly connected than others. FL4K from Borderlands 3 immediately springs to mind, but the connective tissue between the two characters may only exist on the surface; both are bots, both have the number four in their names, and both managed to become somewhat sentient and use said sentience for killing and Vault Hunting. The narrative connections end there, and the gameplay ones seemingly don’t exist, as C4SH isn’t going to end up as the most reliable Vault Hunter in his particular game. Unlike a skill tree with constant crits like FL4K, or a busted B0re build like Zer0, C4SH is poised to play like one of the franchise’s most infamous characters.
C4SH, Borderlands 4‘s upcoming Vault Hunter, may also feel reminiscent of Zer0 from Borderlands 2, but not much exists in terms of similar characteristics, bar the slender frame and the numerical naming.
Borderlands 4's Newest Vault Hunter, C4SH, May Play A Lot Like Claptrap
C4SH’s reveal at the Tokyo Game Show also included a splash screen covering the character’s kit, and while it may seem like simple concept art at first, it’s likely that the gear on display in the art is very much a clue as to how C4SH might play. The teaser trailer showcased three specific items and a gun, but the subsequent image has seven items unique to C4SH on display. In the image, there are two different guns, three containers, a pair of dice, and a card deck and launcher. Given the sheer number of possibilities on display here, it’s very possible C4SH’s signature skill will play a lot like Claptrap’s VaultHunter.exe skill from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
As strange as that may seem, there’s some hard evidence linking the two Vault Hunters together. Though they aren’t thematically linked, Claptrap’s action skill was essentially a dice roll with 15 possible outcomes, some great, some middling, and according to Randy Pitchford, C4SH’s skills leave him equally susceptible to chance. Per Gearbox’s CEO, players will find that, based on the luck of the cards (or dice), C4SH can be Borderlands 4‘s most powerful vault hunter, or its least. Pitchford did mention that C4SH’s gameplay is high risk and high reward, so hopefully it’ll be more complex and manageable than Claptrap’s action skills were.
Beyond any comparisons to past Borderlands Vault Hunters, it’s clear from C4SH’s design that their class identity ties in to being a gambler and a gunslinger, perhaps like a fuse between the Artificer, Bard, and Rogue classes from 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons and Dragons at large.
The Potential Origins of C4SH, Borderlands 4's Newest Vault Hunter
It’s also worth noting that the teaser shown at Tokyo Game Show also had a distinctly western feel to it, something that many fans expected after the characters’ silhouette showed up on Borderlands 4‘s post-launch roadmap. That western thematic tie featured in the teaser certainly has something to do with C4SH’s background, but just what that background might be is still anyone’s guess. There are two particularly interesting possibilities, however — Gehenna, the planet featured in Borderlands 3‘s Bounty of Blood DLC, and Eden-6, a swamp planet from the base game.
While both options for C4SH’s origin have merit, one seems more likely than the other. Given the sand and the overall color scheme of the teaser, a swamp planet like Eden-6 doesn’t seem to be in the cards. It’d make sense in terms of C4SH’s character, as a bot perhaps based on a swampy riverboat gambler, but the safer bet is Bounty of Blood’s Gehenna as a more straightforward western-themed planet.
Borderlands 4’s C4SH Still Has Plenty of Cards to Play
Gearbox is still playing its cards close to the vest, but the final concrete info comes, again, from Randy Pitchford. According to him, the new Vault Hunter is very close to his heart as, beyond his status as Gearbox’s CEO, he’s also a poker player and magician. Apparently, Pitchford’s actual card tricks informed both C4SH’s design and some of his animations.
C4SH is slated to release alongside the first DLC story pack for Borderlands 4 — Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned.
Beyond the info from Pitchford and the teaser trailer, there isn’t much concrete evidence available at this point for Borderlands 4 fans eager to get the lowdown on C4SH. The release of the character is slated for early 2026, and it can certainly be argued that this decision is a good one. Borderlands 4 still has some issues to iron out, despite its positive critical reception, and beyond the technical state of the game, it’d simply be nice for some surprises to be kept up Gearbox’s sleeve. With so much for this Claptrap-like, risk/reward Vault Hunter still under wraps, there should be plenty of time to build hype for his eventual release.