Mycopunk vs Borderlands: Which Looter Shooter Fits You
Borderlands is the genre giant Mycopunk keeps getting compared to. Here is where the looter-shooter overlap is real, and where the two games want very different things from you.
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Pick Borderlands if you want a big, story-driven AAA campaign with class-based vault hunters and years of content to chew through, and you do not mind the premium price tag. Pick Mycopunk if you want a focused four-player co-op looter at $14.99 that runs on modest PCs and replaces skill trees with a spatial upgrade grid you rebuild every patch. One is a universe; the other is a machine built for co-op nights.
The Obvious Overlap
This is the comparison Mycopunk cannot escape, and honestly the overlap is real. Both are first-person looter shooters: you kill enemies, guns drop with modifiers and rarities, and the loop of "shoot, loot, get stronger" is the engine of everything. Both are designed around PvE co-op — neither is a PvP game — and both support four players shooting together online. Both also dress their violence in comedy, though Borderlands' humor and Mycopunk's corporate satire land in very different registers.
But being in the same genre does not make them the same size of game, and the differences start with scope and go all the way down to how a build is even defined.
TL;DR Comparison
| Mycopunk | Borderlands series | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Co-op looter shooter, PvE | Co-op looter shooter, PvE |
| Co-op | Up to 4 players, online, cross-platform | Up to 4 players, online |
| Build system | Per-weapon hexagonal 7x7 upgrade grids | Character skill trees plus gun rolls |
| Characters | 5 robots differing in movement kits, no classes | Class-based vault hunters with defined kits |
| Structure | Short objective missions on fungal planets | Large story campaigns with DLC expansions |
| Platforms | PC + PS5 at 1.0, PS Plus day-one | PC, PlayStation, Xbox — multiplatform |
| Price | $14.99 at launch | Premium AAA pricing |
Build Systems: Skill Trees vs the Hex Grid
Borderlands' build identity lives in characters. Each vault hunter is a class with skill trees, action skills and defined combat roles, and gun drops layer on top of that chassis. The system is legible: pick a class, invest points, find guns that synergize.
Mycopunk inverts the structure. There are no classes. The five employees — Wrangler, Bruiser, Scrapper, Glider and the 1.0-added Mycologist — differ only in movement kits, so combat identity comes entirely from your weapons. Every weapon carries its own hexagonal 7x7 upgrade grid where Tetris-shaped pieces must be physically placed, and since 1.0 the stats scale with pattern size. Two players running the same robot can end up as completely different combatants, purely through grid choices.
Which is deeper? Borderlands' depth is in the sheer volume of its content — decades of combined skill trees, legendaries and build archetypes refined by a huge community. Mycopunk's depth is in per-build craftsmanship: fewer systems, but each one you touch directly and can rebuild from scratch after every balance patch. Our all weapons list and tier list show how much of the game lives in the arsenal itself.
Scope, Price and Platform Fit
This is where the two games are least comparable. Borderlands is a full-priced AAA franchise with long story campaigns, cinematic production and a steady stream of DLC. Mycopunk is a $14.99 indie published by Devolver Digital, built around short objective missions rather than a campaign.
That price difference buys different things. If you want dozens of hours of story and spectacle, Borderlands delivers more raw content per dollar at scale. If you want a tight co-op loop with friends and a low entry cost, Mycopunk asks for far less commitment — and it runs on genuinely modest hardware. The official PC requirements list a GTX 960-class GPU and 10 GB of storage for the minimum spec, which puts it in reach of laptops and older rigs that would struggle with Borderlands' recent entries.
Platform-wise, both cover PC and PlayStation, but the details matter: Mycopunk's 1.0 launch hit PC and PS5 simultaneously on October 20, 2026, and landed day-one in the PS Plus October catalog (details here). If you are subscribed there, you can try it at no extra cost before spending anything.
Co-op Experience: Squad Night vs Campaign Night
Both games support four-player online co-op, but they pace it differently:
- Borderlands is built for long campaign sessions — mission chains, side quests, boss hunts. It rewards groups that want a shared world to live in for weeks.
- Mycopunk is built for shorter objective missions with escalating threat levels, which fits weeknight sessions where a full campaign chapter is too much. Its crossplay co-op guide covers how PC and PS5 players team up.
Failure also feels different. Losing a Borderlands mission costs a respawn and some time; losing a Mycopunk mission costs progress toward that mission's objectives but never your build. Neither game punishes co-op failure harshly — both are firmly in the "grab a beer and retry" school of design.
If you want a second perspective on how Mycopunk sits among the genre's giants, our Deep Rock Galactic comparison covers the class-based side of co-op shooters in more depth.
Is Mycopunk like Borderlands?
In genre, yes — both are co-op FPS looter shooters where power comes from guns and upgrades. In structure, no: Mycopunk has no classes and no campaign, replacing skill trees with per-weapon hexagonal upgrade grids and long campaigns with short repeatable missions.
Is Mycopunk a Borderlands clone?
It borrows the looter-shooter loop but not Borderlands' structure. The build system — Tetris-style pattern placement on a 7x7 grid per weapon, with stats scaling by pattern size since 1.0 — has no Borderlands equivalent. The satirical corporate setting and mission-based pacing also push it closer to games like Deep Rock Galactic.
Which is better for solo players, Mycopunk or Borderlands?
Borderlands has more solo-oriented content: long campaigns that play well alone. Mycopunk supports solo play but is tuned around squad play, so solo players should expect a steeper challenge on higher-threat missions.
Does Mycopunk have as many guns as Borderlands?
No game matches Borderlands' sheer gun-count marketing, and Mycopunk does not try. Instead it deepens each weapon with an upgrade grid — the customization lives in how you build each gun, not in how many exist.
See also: vs Gunfire Reborn, vs Deadzone: Rogue, vs Abyssus, the comparison hub, and Mycopunk for beginners.
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