Recently, Gearbox released the major 1.10 update for Borderlands 4. The paid DLC character, Loveless, has officially debuted, along with the second story pack and bounty DLC. Free content raises the level cap to 70, and this character is also included in the game's Super Deluxe Edition and Vault Hunter Bundle.
According to SteamDB statistics, the player count for the game surged from a few thousand daily users to over 20,000 after the DLC launch, reaching a peak concurrent player count of 29,415 within 24 hours. This massive influx of players has also propelled the game up the Steam Global Top Sellers chart.
In terms of character lore, Loveless was formerly a hacker for the Anshin Corporation before becoming an assassin. She shares consciousness with her self-created digital virus, "Wyrm," which can materialize as a giant mechanical snake to fight alongside her. The developers position her as a love letter to fans of Zer0 from Borderlands 2, focusing on high-speed assassin gameplay. Her skill kit leans towards corrosive and radiation damage, featuring abilities such as spreading plague with shuriken, creating decoys while invisible, and summoning mechanical snakes for attacks, defining her as a high-mobility stealth DPS character.
However, on social media platforms both domestically and internationally, player discussion has focused almost entirely on the character's design and various unlockable outfits, rather than her assassin gameplay mechanics. Many players have shared screenshots of the character, exclaiming, "Alright, I'm buying this game," with many admitting they are picking up the title solely due to the character's appearance. Some players have remarked that "the gaming industry is finally back on track," comparing her design to characters from Stellar Blade, and discussions about fan art and cosplay plans have already begun.
Some players believe this is a "bait" tactic by the publisher to salvage its reputation and boost sales, relying on sexy visual designs to attract attention while avoiding the many issues present in the base game's story, gameplay, and optimization. Other viewpoints criticize this design approach as opportunistic marketing, arguing that an overemphasis on appearance masks the game's underlying quality problems.
