That easy Borderlands 4 Pearlescent "won't happen again."

The arrival of Borderlands 4 Pearlescents hasn’t been the thrilling upgrade to its loot system that many of us were hoping for. Making their return for the first time since Borderlands 2, the new tier of ‘ultra-rare’ drops are decent enough in their own right, but they don’t really feel special. Taking to X, Borderlands 4’s associate creative director Grant Kao has addressed some player concerns around the arrival of Pearls, and lists the changes Gearbox is working on.

If you’re newer to Gearbox’s FPS games and haven’t experienced Pearlescents before, they’ve typically been tremendously hard to come by. I went through hundreds of runs against the first game’s raid boss, Crawmerax, before I found one. Borderlands 2 is a similar story, with general drops estimated at around one in 5,000 and even the most farming-friendly foes offering an approximate 1.2% chance. So you might be surprised to come across one quickly while going through the new Borderlands 4 story introduced with Bounty Pack 2, Legend of the Stone Demon.

“I know a lot of people were surprised by the Hand Cannon drop,” Kao writes. He explains, “That was a one-time thing to introduce all players who have never even heard of a Pearl. There are a lot of players that [have] joined our journey since Borderlands 2. But it won’t happen again. Over the next two content drops, we’re going to increase the amount of available Pearls and give players a greater hunt across the world of Kairos.”

As someone who doesn’t have the kind of time to grind that I used to, a one-time guarantee is somewhat appreciated. Unfortunately, as seen in the video by ‘Moxsy’ above, you’re able to replay the mission in question and keep getting the reward, making it a breeze to reliably farm this particular Pearlescent. Kao says this issue is “on the radar,” but admits, “the mission replay system is a bit rigid [with] regards to changing things.”

Beyond that, your best option to get them are the three Ordonite Processor events dotted across the world, one in each region, which are permanently available. Asked whether this is designed to feel more like an endgame grind, Kao replies that it’s the “first activity that leans [in] that direction,” and that Gearbox will be monitoring the response to it. He calls Bounty Pack 2 and its adjacent patch “the first of many steps toward the endgame journey.”

Kao outlines five changes Gearbox is currently working on. The drop scaling from Ultimate Vault Hunter tiers will be reduced for Pearlescents, making them a little rarer, and a bug causing the Eigenburst shotgun to show up too often is being fixed. Enemies in the farming events will be locked to a minimum of level 49, the health of ‘tiny’ spawns is being lowered, and the canisters are being made heavier so they don’t bounce and roll too far away.

You can expect these changes to arrive with the next Borderlands 4 balance patch on Thursday March 5. Kao also touches a little on balance, saying that the team “wanted Pearls to feel unique but not completely overpower Legendaries.” He notes that Gearbox is considering some tuning adjustments like “accelerating the sticky explosion rate” for the Hand Cannon, and adds that, for the future, “The Pearl rarity will continue to grow and have unique capabilities.”