Borderlands is an action role-playing first-person looter shooter video game franchise in a space Western science fantasy setting, created and produced by Gearbox Software and published by 2K for multiple platforms.

The series has received critical acclaim and commercial success for its loot-driven multiplayer co-op gameplay and its sense of humor.

[1] An additional five million copies of Borderlands 3 were sold within five days of release, bringing the total series' net revenues to over US$1 billion.

Completing quests and defeating foes earns in-game money and experience, which is used for expanding the player's skill tree.

The statistics of the equipment, such as the amount of damage and accuracy for a gun and special elemental attacks, are procedurally generated, and use a loot color-coding system to indicate rarity, ranging from white (most common), to purple and orange (most rare and powerful).

The first Borderlands is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records to have over 17 million different possible guns that could be generated, while the latter games expand further on this.

[5] Other facets of the game use a similar procedural system: foes may have unique attributes and more powerful variants, such as creatures that can spit corrosive acid or flame, or scavengers with higher amounts of health and armor.

All three games support co-operative play for up to four people; the difficulty of the enemies as well as the quality of the loot drops scales with the number of players.

Pandora is believed to be rich with mineral wealth, leading several interstellar megacorporations to send colony ships there to capitalize on it, but once they arrive, they find little of value outside of undecipherable alien artifacts from a long-extinct race known as the Eridians, and numerous native lifeforms make it too dangerous to colonize.

However, a study of the alien artifacts leads to the discovery of mythical Eridian Vaults filled with untold treasure and wealth, which are guarded by extremely powerful and ancient monsters.

The megalomaniacal CEO of the Hyperion Corporation, Handsome Jack (Dameon Clarke), is first encountered as the principal antagonist of Borderlands 2, while the Pre-Sequel features him as an NPC whose rise to power is assisted by the player.

The enigmatic "Angel" (voiced by Jennifer Green, portrayed in the video by Brittani Johnson) who guides the players through Borderlands is, in the sequel, revealed to be Jack's daughter.

They include the erratic researcher Patricia Tannis (Colleen Clinkenbeard), the garage owner and mechanic Scooter (Michael Neumann), Scooter's younger sister and mechanic Ellie (Jamie Marchi), the bartender Mad Moxxi (Brina Palencia), the 13-year-old demolitions expert Tiny Tina (Ashly Burch),[a] the gun company founder Mr. Torgue (Chris Rager), the gentleman hunter Sir Alistair Hammerlock (J. Michael Tatum), the junk dealer Janey Springs (Catherine Moore), the shady surgeon Dr. Zed (Ric Spiegel) and the gun merchant Marcus Kincaid (Bruce DuBose), who also narrates the opening cinematics.

Inside, there is only a strange artifact in the shape of the Vault symbol, but when Jack touches it, he experiences visions of the imminent release of the "Warrior".

As they collect the scattered parts of Gortys, Rhys inadvertently downloads an AI copy of Handsome Jack's personality into his cybernetic mind.

With the help of former and new allies, the Crimson Raiders manage to stop the Calypso Twins and kill the Destroyer but at the cost of Maya and Lilith's lives, although the latter's fate is ambiguous.

Players choose to play as one of four characters: Lilith the Siren, Mordecai the Hunter, Brick the Berserker, and Roland the Soldier.

The game awards experience points for enemies killed and objectives completed, as well as encouraging skillful gameplay by granting bonuses to more difficult actions such as headshots.

The game is set on the planet Pandora, contested by bandits, mercenaries of interstellar corporations, dangerous wildlife and, eventually, eldritch alien abominations.

It was complemented by four DLC packs: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.

The story, written by Anthony Burch, focuses on the players' struggle with Handsome Jack, the megalomaniacal CEO of the Hyperion corporation, who seeks control of Pandora's mineral riches and alien artifacts.

A port of Borderlands 2 for the PlayStation Vita handheld was released in 2014, offering the full game and some of its DLC,[12] but limited to two-person multiplayer.

Announced in April 2014, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was developed by 2K Australia and released for PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC in October 2014, as well as for Mac OS later in 2014.

It is set on Elpis, the moon of Pandora, and its story – occurring between the events of the first two games – covers the rise of Handsome Jack to power.

The game features four of Jack's henchmen as playable characters: Athena the Gladiator, Wilhelm the Enforcer, Nisha the Lawbringer and the robot Claptrap, "the Fragtrap".

Jack's body double Timothy Lawrence and Sir Hammerlock's sister Aurelia were added later as DLC player characters.

[18] As with past games, players select one of four new Vault Hunters – Amara the Siren, Moze the Gunner, Zane the Operative and FL4K the Beastmaster – as they try to stop the Calypso Twins from acquiring the greatest power in the universe, including on planets other than Pandora.

It tells the story of how the original four Vault Hunters came to be together at the beginning of Borderlands, filling in their backstory and setting up the events of both games.

[36] A film adaptation of Borderlands was developed since 2015 as a tentpole movie by Lionsgate, with Avi Arad producing with Erik Feig.

[38][39] The film stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart in the lead roles as Lilith and Roland, and also includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez, Olivier Richters, and Janina Gavankar.