Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2

Developers
	Gearbox Software
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Linux	Aspyr Media
Publishers
	2K Games
OS X, Linux	Aspyr Media
Engines
	Unreal Engine 3
Release dates
Windows	September 18, 2012
macOS (OS X)	November 21, 2012
Linux	September 30, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	89
OpenCritic	86
IGDB	81
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Driving, RPG, Shooter
Vehicles	Automobile, Off-roading
Art styles	Cel-shaded, Comic book
Themes	Comedy, Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi
Series	Borderlands

Borderlands
Borderlands	2009
Borderlands 2	2012
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel	2014
Tales from the Borderlands (series)
Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced	2019
Borderlands 3	2019
Borderlands 2 VR	2019
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure	2021
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands	2022

Borderlands 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, driving, RPG and shooter game in the Borderlands series.

General information

Official Discord server for game series

Official knowledgebase - Windows

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com
Epic Games Store		Only available as part of The Handsome Collection.
GamersGate		Sold by 2K Games. Game of the Year Edition also available.
GamersGate		Sold by Aspyr Media. Game of the Year Edition also available.
		Sold by 2K Games.
		Sold by Aspyr Media.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Mac App Store		Separate multiplayer servers (cannot play with Steam players). Exclusive skins and rocket grenade mod.
Steam		The Handsome Collection, Game of the Year Edition also available.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (includes both Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) released in 2018 contains all available DLCs for the two included games. This is the only way to receive all available DLCs as a package as the GOTY release of Borderlands 2 only includes a subset of all released DLCs for the game.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Cross-game bonus	A savefile from Borderlands, and/or an "All bounties" savefile from Poker Night 2, will unlock exclusive skins and heads.

Essential improvements

A comprehensive tweak guide is available on the GeForce website.

Skip intro videos

Use -NoStartupMovies command line argument

Edit configuration file
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Find [FullScreenMovie] Change values to: [FullScreenMovie] bForceNoMovies=FALSE //StartupMovies=2K_logo //StartupMovies=Gearbox_logo //StartupMovies=NVidia //StartupMovies=Loading SkippableMovies=2K_logo SkippableMovies=Gearbox_logo SkippableMovies=NVidia SkippableMovies=Attract SkippableMovies=MegaIntro //ConfirmSkipMovies=MegaIntro

Delete or rename video files[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\Borderlands\WillowGame\Movies Delete or rename 2K_logo.bik, Gearbox_logo.bik, and NVidia.bik.

Disable the launcher

Use -NoLauncher command line argument

DXVK

A Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 9/10/11 intended for allowing 3D applications to run on Linux.

Works on all operating systems as long as your GPU supports Vulkan.

Fixes all performance problems with Borderlands 2, maintaining a consistent frame-rate throughout and FPS increase around 200%. ^{[citation needed]}

Install DXVK

Download the latest release from the official repository. Extract the d3d9.dll from x32 to <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32 Inside Win32 make a new text document and name it dxvk.conf Inside dxvk.conf add the line d3d9.floatEmulation = strict to fix the missing lava at Vault of the Warrior. Notes If the launcher of the game crashes, add -NoLauncher command line argument or run Borderlands2.exe in (<path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32)

Game data

General settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 2\WillowGame\Config\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Borderlands 2/WillowGame/Config/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/borderlands 2/willowgame/config/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 2\WillowGame\SaveData\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Borderlands 2/WillowGame/SaveData/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/aspyr-media/borderlands 2/willowgame/savedata/

Saves are cross-platform but the game lacks cross-platform cloud saving. Manual intervention is required to load the save files from Windows on Linux.

Saves manually migrated from Windows to Linux must have all lowercase characters in the filename.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher		Can be disabled.
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Approx. 100 MB available. No cross-platform syncing to prevent version mismatch when patches are delayed for OS X or Linux.

Mods

Unofficial patches

A community-created patch exists which resolves many of the game's outlying issues, as well as adjusts drop rates, adds cosmetic tweaks, and more. There also exists a mod manager, which allows you to turn off certain changes in the patch. It is highly recommended. The mod manager can be found here, and the Community Patch can be found here or here.

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Distant fog disappears while sprinting at 110° FOV. To fix, set FOV to 108°.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		65-110°. Default is 90°. Does not scale weapon models without a third party mod
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA. Nvidia users can force SGSSAA using the compatibility bits 0x080000C1 in Nvidia Profile Inspector.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		Protanopia has problems; use deuteranopia for protanomaly or protanopia.

HBAO+ (Nvidia GPUs only)

Force HBAO+

Disable the in-game SSAO. Download and open Nvidia Profile Inspector. Under Profiles select Borderlands 2. Under Ambient Occlusion compatibility insert the compatibility code 0x00000021. Under Ambient Occlusion setting select Performance,Quality or High Quality. Under Ambient Occlusion usage select Enabled. On the top right hand corner click on Apply changes. You now have HBAO+ enabled. Notes This setting can have a heavy impact on frame rate depending on your specs, if you get unplayable frame rates with High Quality try lowering this value progressively.

Disable camera shake when sprinting

Use jackfuste's fixed .exe
Download Borderlands2_no_shake.7z. Replace Borderlands2.exe in the game folder. As of November 2021 the .exe no longer works. Notes A Cheat Engine script of this can be download here.

Shorter body decay

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowGame.ini. Find the following lines and set them to these values. SecondsBeforeConsideringRagdollRemoval=5.0 SecondsBeforeVisibleRagdollRemoval=15.0 SecondsBetweenRagdollRemovalAttempts=1.0 SecondsBeforePhysicsShutsDown=10.0 Notes Notable performance improvement,[citation needed] as by default most bodies disappear only after ten whole minutes.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		To set sensitivity lower than 10, use this application
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Steam version use launcher as a default, to bypass, type "-nolauncher" in set launch options.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Xbox 360 controller support confirmed. Xbox One controller support is considered flimsy, especially so on macOS.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Button prompts		For DualShock, see Change controller prompts.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Occasionally changes button prompts

Logitech GamePanel

Information such as mission log, friendlist, level, exprerience points, money and weapon proficiency stats can be displayed on the LCD panel or smartphone application.

Display	Notes
Arx Control application
G19 color screen	Native support. Displays mission log, friendlist, level, exprerience points, money and weapon proficiency stats.
G15 monochrome screen	Native support. Displays mission log.

Change controller prompts

Edit configuration file[citation needed]

Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowGame.ini. Find the following line and set it to 1 for an Xbox 360 controller or 2 for a DualShock controller. FakePlatform=-1 If the above does not work, try the following. credits go to Echo127 Make a backup of the DefaultGame.ini file. Just in case. I think the game would replace this file on it's own if it disappears...but...just in case. Open up DefaultGame.ini and use Ctrl+F to find the sections titled ; 360 controller mappings and ; 360 mappings. Delete those sections. Should be about 22 lines of text in each section (not including the titles). You probably only need to delete the 360 controller mappings section, but I deleted both. In the ; PS3 mappings section (near the 2 sections deleted above) find every instance of Set="PS3" and change it to Set="PC-360" Still in DefaultGame.ini, use Ctrl+F to find the section titled // Scaleform button mappings. Now, from this point in the document until the end of the document, you need to do two things: 1: Delete every line that contains Set="PC-360" AND 2: Find every instance of Set="PS3" and change it to Set="PC-360". You can use Notepad++ to make deleting full lines slightly quicker. Alternatively to the method indicated in Step 4, you could instead find the portions of the Set="PC-360" lines that reference the icon type and change the reference from the X360 button to the PS3 button (for example, MappedText="<IMG src='xbox360_B' becomes MappedText="<IMG src='ps3_Circle').

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, sound effects and dialogue.
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 5.0 output. Horizontal HRTF with DSOAL
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Enable HRTF

The game uses Wwise audio API but still supports DirectSound output

Use DSOAL
Download DSOAL from here. Drop dsound.dll, alsoft.ini and dsoal-aldrv.dll near the game's executable file (<path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32)

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Traditional Chinese				Windows only.
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Windows only.
Korean				Windows only.
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
Russian				Windows and singleplayer only.
Spanish

Network

Windows, OS X and Linux players sometimes need the same game version to play together. Mismatch issues might be caused by delayed OS X and Linux versions of the patches. Currently, cross-play between Linux and Windows or Mac is temporarily disabled.

Steam and Mac App Store players cannot play together.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		4	Co-op Use either Nucleus Co-op, this tool or follow this Steam Users' Forums Guide on hacking splitscreen into the game.
LAN play		4	Co-op
Online play		4	Co-op

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Add the IP address as a command line argument.

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	27014-27050
UDP	3478, 4379-4380, 27000-27030, 14001 (LAN only), 7777 (LAN only)

This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		Use Helix Mod: Borderlands 2 3D Vision Patch New Version for the best experience.
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

AMD FX chipset restart after launcher

Game resets when clicking on launcher.

Some users have reported that updating your BIOS to the latest version solves this and other problems for users with AMD FX chips.

Items falling through the world

Once in a while dropped loot may fall through the world.

Setting PhysX to Low or Disabled is reported to help.

Issues fixed

Co-op doesn't connect properly

Check the ports
May allow people to join your game. Will cause decreased network protection. Game seems to use strange ports for networking which aren't covered by most routers' 'unblocked ports' by default. These ports are UDP/TCP: UDP 50000-65535.

Disable your firewall or add an exception[citation needed]
Will allow Borderlands 2 and associated ports to go through system firewall. Will cause decreased computer protection. Make an exception for the Borderlands 2 application in Windows Firewall. If that fails, make an exception for the ports themselves. Disable Windows Firewall or your firewall provider entirely before launching the game.

Use the -tcp command line argument[citation needed]
This forces the game to use TCP network connections over UDP.

Check integrity of game cache on Steam[citation needed]

Reboot Steam[citation needed]

Run Steam or the game as an adminstrator[citation needed]
Close Steam.exe. Right click Steam and select 'Run as Administrator'. Log into Steam then make a Borderlands 2 shortcut on your desktop. Right click and run the shortcut as Administrator.

Windows

Running in slow motion

Shutdown Gigabyte's OC Guru overlay[citation needed]

Remove all devices that tether to your PC via USB (a mobile phone with USB tethering enabled, for example)[citation needed]

Bridge USB tethered internet connections with physical ethernet connections when using internet via tethered devices such as mobile phones

High-end Nvidia cards FPS drops

Update PhysX[citation needed]
Download NVidia PhysX installer and unpack it. Copy all files from PhysX-SystemSoftware\PhysX\files\Common to <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32. Overwrite when asked.

Fix Microlag/Stuttering on Windows 10 or 11

Disable fullscreen optimization
Go to the <path-to-game>\Binaries\Win32 Right click on Borderlands2.exe and select Properties Go to the Compatibility tab and disable fullscreen optimizations

Microsoft .NET Framework Client Profile Restarting Install

Make installation folder writable
This is the preferred solution as it is the simplest, most convenient and safest option. Right click on the folder <path-to-game>. Click Properties, and uncheck the 'read-only' option. When starting the game, the .NET should update one more time. The next time the game is launched, the .NET will not attempt to install again.

Click 'No' To Allow Changes
After launching the game, it will ask to allow it to make changes to your computer. Click 'No' at this stage.

Fix value in registry
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Valve\Steam\Apps\49520 Right click and add a DWORD named NET40Redist and give it a value of 1.

Ultimate editing steps
If you have other installers launching, look at the installscript.vdf which you can find in the installation folder. Open installscript.vdf with Notepad and look at the names in quotes before each line of process 1. Add the DWORD with a value of 1 which will tell Steam the process has been completed and it will not launch again.

Linux

Game crashes instantly

This is caused by one symbol having a different size in shared object.

Use LD_PRELOAD to use libraries from your system
Run the game with LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib32" %command% in Set Launch Options

Run the game in Steam Native Mode

If you have core dumps enabled and the game crashed once, it won't start anymore.

Delete core file from the games folder
rm <your steam game library path>/steamapps/common/Borderlands 2/steamassets/binaries/win32/core

SHiFT login issue

This happens due to the fact the game uses /usr/lib/ssl path to store the certificates in Ubuntu-based distros. Some other distros however uses /etc/ssl/ path instead.

Change the direction to store certificates[citation needed]
Create a symbolic link to directory: ln -s /etc/ssl /usr/lib/ssl Or add this command to the Launch Options... SSL_CERT_DIR=/etc/ssl/certs %command%

Console commands

Parameter	Description
Stat FPS	Displays the current FPS in game.
ToggleHUD	Toggles the HUD on and off.
FOV	Allows you to adjust the FOV beyond the range available from the Video Options menu. Note that some rendering issue may occur with very large or very small FOV settings.
Exit Quit	Allows you to quickly exit the game.
Gamma value	Allows you set the Gamma value (brightness) beyond the bounds of the Video Options menu. Value is a floating point number (for example, 2.5).
SetRes HxV	Allows you to set a custom screen resolution to a value other than what is offered in the Video Options menu. H is the horizontal resolution. V is the verical resolution (for example, "setres 1024x768").
Shot Screenshot	Take a screenshot.
TiledShot 6 128	Take an ultra resolution screen shot, more info here. To take a tiled screenshot you must turn the cell shade off, Disable black outlines.

Enable the console

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowInput.ini. Find the [Engine.Console] section and add these values: ConsoleKey=Tilde TypeKey=Backslash Notes Open the console with Ctrl+~ or Ctrl+\.

Engine tweak to fix blurry textures at short distance

Edit configuration file
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Find the [SystemSettings] section and change this value: OnlyStreamInTextures=True

Engine tweaks to reduce lag

Tweaks to increase frame rate and reduce lag[citation needed]

Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Change these lines: [MemoryBudgets] AnimationMB=5000 AudioMB=5000 CodeMB=5000 LevelObjectsMB=5000 TerrainMB=5000 GameDataMB=5000 MaterialMB=5000 ParticleMB=5000 PhysicsMB=5000 ScaleformMB=5000 ShadersMB=5000 SkelMeshMB=5000 StaticMeshMB=5000 TextureMB=1000 and DefaultPostProcessName=WillowEngineMaterials.CinematicScenePostProcess Removes original cell-shaded look. as well as: [Engine.Engine] MaxParticleResize=128 PhysXGpuHeapSize=512 PhysXMeshCacheSize=256

Disable black outlines

Disable outlines[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Find the following line and set it to this value. DefaultPostProcessName=WillowEngineMaterials.RyanScenePostProcess Notes This will force Ambient Occlusion to be disabled, regardless of in-game settings.

Disable dynamic shadows

Disable dynamic shadows[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Change DynamicShadows=True to DynamicShadows=False Notes Dynamic Shadows are a big resource hog, causing computers that exceed the recommended specs to see big FPS drops.

Disable reflections

Disabling reflections[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Set AllowImageReflections and AllowImageReflectionShadowing to false

Reduced particles

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowEngine.ini. Find the following line and set it to this value. MaxParticleResize=512

Disable software PhysX

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
Go to the configuration files location. Open WillowGame.ini. Add the following to the end of the file and set as read only: bPhysXEnabled=False Open WillowEngine.ini Under [Engine.Engine] add this: bDisablePhysXHardwareSupport=True

Disable Menu and Banner Advertisement

Install the No Ads mod by following these instructions

Edit configuration file Open WillowGame.ini Find the following line and set it to this value. UpsellNewsURL=127.0.0.1

Delete or rename the following file: <path-to-game>\WillowGame\CookedPCConsole\UI_Frontend_Upsell_SF.upk
Doesn't remove the menu item, only the banner.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
OpenGL	3.3	OS X and Linux only.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX	. 2.8.4.6 (2.8.4.9 with updated PSS). Linux version is not GPU accelerated.
Audio	Wwise, OpenAL	OpenAL is Linux only.
Interface	Scaleform
Input	SDL2	Linux only.
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	Epic Online Services, Steamworks

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Dual core 2.4 GHz	Quad core 2.3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	13 GB	20 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 2600 Nvidia GeForce 8500 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible	ATI Radeon HD 5850 Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 512 MB of VRAM

The game is quite CPU dependent and as such it is recommended to use a CPU with at least two logical cores.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.12
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz	Intel Quad Core 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	13 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD 2600 Nvidia GeForce 8800 Intel HD Graphics 3000 256 MB of VRAM	ATI Radeon HD 5750 Nvidia GeForce GTX 650M Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of VRAM
Controller	Xbox 360 wired gamepad PlayStation 3 DualShock 3 Wireless Controller

The game is quite CPU dependent and as such it is recommended to use a CPU with at least two logical cores.

Linux
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 14.04, SteamOS
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	13 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 260 1 GB of VRAM

ATI/AMD and Intel video cards are officially unsupported on Linux.

The game is quite CPU dependent and as such it is recommended to use a CPU with at least two logical cores.