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Spoiler Warning: The following breakdown covers the full ending of Borderlands 4, including references to Borderlands 4 Boosting major plot points from Borderlands 3. Those who haven't completed the campaign may want to turn back now to avoid spoilers.

Setting the Stage: What Happened in Borderlands 3

Before unraveling the mysteries of Borderlands 4's ending, it's important to revisit the climactic events of Borderlands 3. At the end of that game, Lilith, the first playable Siren in the franchise, sacrificed herself to save Pandora. The moon Elpis, which appeared throughout Borderlands 3, was revealed to be a massive Vault Key linked to the Great Vault hidden within Pandora.

When the Great Vault threatened to tear the planet apart, Lilith used her Siren ability, Phasewalk, to stop the catastrophe. She ascended toward Elpis and vanished in a blaze of light, leaving players unsure whether she had perished or survived. Many assumed her death was final-until Borderlands 4 revealed otherwise.

Six years later, the story picks up on a new planet called Kairos, and the presence of Elpis in its sky becomes the starting point of the next galactic mystery.

The Arrival of Elpis and the Timekeeper's Reign

Throughout Borderlands 4, the player frequently hears references to the strange new moon hovering above Kairos. Locals recount how Elpis appeared without warning six years ago, disrupting both natural cycles and political power structures across the planet.

It's later revealed that this event destabilized the Timekeeper, a self-proclaimed ruler of Kairos who used time manipulation to dominate the world. In truth, the Timekeeper was a Vault Guardian bound to a primordial Vault buried deep beneath Kairos's surface. He could not leave his domain, so instead, he bent time and fate itself to maintain control.

During the climactic mission, The Timekeeper's Order, players confront the Guardian atop his towering fortress. His defeat shatters his control over time, restoring freedom to Kairos. As he fades, his final words linger ominously:

"Everything breaks… even cages."

Those words later gain deeper meaning as the game hints at an impending cosmic threat.

The Final Battle and Arjay's Warning

After the Timekeeper's fall, the player enters his Vault. There, an unexpected twist unfolds: Arjay, a key supporting character throughout the campaign, appears one last time and uses Siren-like powers to pull the protagonist into the Phase Dimension.

Arjay's connection to these powers stems from the Vile Lictor's experiments, which granted him a version of Lilith's Phasewalk ability. He warns that saving Lilith will doom everyone else-a moral dilemma that remains unresolved by the end of the game.

After a fierce battle, Arjay is defeated, but his final words echo the same theme of sacrifice and consequence that has defined the Borderlands saga since its inception.

Meeting Two Liliths: A Vault Beyond Time

Once Arjay falls, the protagonist is freed from the Phase Dimension by Lilith herself. Together, they step into the Timekeeper's Vault, where the story takes its most mind-bending turn.

Inside, another version of Lilith awaits-a future version who claims the Vault isn't a place at all, but a moment in time. She explains that the Vault serves as a premonition of a coming apocalypse: the end of the universe.

This revelation ties back to the Watcher, an Eridian being who appeared in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and warned that a massive war was approaching-one that would require the strength of countless Vault Hunters. Future Lilith appears to have witnessed this event firsthand and now seeks to prepare others for it.

She gives the player a mysterious item called a Deodand, described as a device meant to help survive what's coming. Her exact words are chilling:

"You cannot stop what's coming, but with it, you might survive."

The Impending War and the Destroyer's Shadow

The future Lilith's warning-and the Timekeeper's final statement about broken cages-strongly suggest that the Destroyer may soon return. The Destroyer is one of the oldest and most powerful entities in the Borderlands universe, sealed inside the Great Vault on Pandora. Its hunger for cosmic destruction is legendary; it consumes stars and worlds alike.

Although the creature has been encountered multiple times across the franchise, it has never fully escaped confinement. The phrasing in Borderlands 4's finale implies that the "cage" containing it is weakening, setting the stage for buy Borderlands 4 Boosting a galactic-scale conflict that aligns perfectly with the Watcher's prophecy.