Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is the latest installment in the Borderlands franchise. The game takes place after the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2 and features everyone’s favorite 13-year-old demolitionist, Tiny Tina. In a world designed and manipulated by Tiny Tina, Wonderlands sends players through a fantastical realm to shoot down baddies, gather loot, and take on the infamous Dragon Lord.
To get you up to date on this upcoming looter-shooter, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Details are scarce right now, but we have a little bit of information on the release date, gameplay, multiplayer, and pre-orders.
Further reading
- The best free FPS games you can play right now
- The best co-op games for 2021
- New Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands trailer shows off ‘Stabbomancer’ class
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands release date
After only having a vague “early 2022” release window, Gearbox officially set the release date for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands as March 25, 2022. That’s a nice, early surprise release window, and puts it right after a very busy February.
What platforms will Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands be released on?
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a cross-gen game, releasing simultaneously on the Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC. Unlike Borderlands 3, Wonderlands will be available across the Epic Games Store and Steam on PC at launch.
It looks like Tiny Tina is being toned down a bit for the game, too. 2K and Gearbox announced the game has been rated T for Teen by the ESRB, though didn’t clarify what earned the game that rating. In all likelihood, Wonderlands won’t have as much cursing as the main Borderlands games.
Every Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands trailer
Gearbox announced and showed off the first trailer for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands during E3 2021. The trailer doesn’t have any gameplay, but it shows off the iconic Borderlands cell-shaded art style and the fantastical setting of the game.
The trailer also shows off the game’s star-studded cast. Andy Samberg, Wanda Sykes, Ashly Burch, and Will Arnett play four of the main characters in the game. Samberg voices the “headstrong captain” Valentine; Sykes voices Frette, a robot who’s obsessed with rules; Burch reprises her role as Tiny Tina; and Arnett plays the Dragon Lord, who looks like the main antagonist of the game.
“Between the development talent at Gearbox and the undeniable star power of the cast, we couldn’t be more excited about this game,” said President of 2K, David Ismailer.
The game takes place shortly after the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2, but Gearbox hasn’t revealed any story details otherwise. If the game builds on Dragon Keep, Wonderlands will take place in the setting of a tabletop role-playing game. A press release hints at this, saying Tiny Tina “makes the rules, changes the world on the fly, and guides players on their journey.” They did mention that this will be a stand-alone story, with no previous knowledge of the Dragon Keep DLC required for new players jumping in.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands gameplay
The Tiny Tina Wonderlands announcement trailer didn’t show any gameplay, but we did get a gameplay-specific trailer during Sony’s PlayStation Showcase in September of 2021. The press release describes the game as an “epic high fantasy take on the looter shooter genre.” Gearbox Founder Randy Pitchford said that players will be able to use “actual Borderlands guns to fight dragons, skeletons, goblins, and more in an original fantasy world.” He also said it’s a “full-featured AAA video game.”
Although we expect a big focus on guns, that’s not the only way to deal with your foes in Wonderlands. In addition to guns, players will be able to harness magic and melee weapons. The gameplay trailer showed off a few brief glimpses of the game in action in quick cuts, but everything looks very Borderlands. Spells seem to act like abilities now, such as summoning a magic bird that sucks enemies in, transforming enemy monsters, and mass freezing spells. As to why there are guns in this RPG-themed game, as Tina herself puts it, “shut up and get shooting!”
The trailer ends with explosions of loot, further confirming the core system of hoovering up dozens of guns and items of various colors and rarities will be a primary focus yet again. Now that loot will expand to also include new armors, amulets, and actual melee-specific weapons. What won’t be coming back are grenades, which makes sense, since their role is well filled by the new spell system.
As for what you’ll be using this new arsenal on, well, we’ve seen dragons, skeletons, and even giant sharks. Tina’s mind is the only limit for enemies in this game.
For the first time in the Borderlands franchise, players can customize their own character. The game will allow players to create and customize their own “multiclass heroes,” suggesting that you can choose between various upgrade paths and abilities. The main Borderlands games feature a class-specific upgrade path, but it sounds like things are a little more fluid in Wonderlands. You’ll be able to define your class as you unlock more abilities.
Co-op multiplayer mayhem in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a “full standalone experience with a rich, story-driven co-op campaign for up to four players.” Given how similar the game sounds to Borderlands, you’ll likely be able to take on the experience solo or with a group of friends. Hopefully, the game will feature the instanced loot system introduced in Borderlands 3, which gives each player their own loot respective to their level.
Borderlands co-op thrives with different character classes, so it’s unclear how Wonderlands‘ multiclass approach will play out in co-op. Outside of co-op, we don’t expect a PvP mode or anything similar, though it sounds like players will be able to team up to tackle endgame content after the main story wraps.
Will Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands have DLC?
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will have “repeatable end-game content,” which we imagine to be supported through DLC. The Borderlands franchise has a long history of DLC, and Wonderlands likely won’t change that. Borderlands 2 received five DLC campaigns, the last one of which released seven years after the main game, and numerous other DLC packs. Borderlands 3 is still being supported now, two years after launch.
As a Borderlands spin-off, Wonderlands may not receive as much post-launch support. However, the game is described as a full-featured AAA release, so we expect at least a few pieces of DLC to come out in the years after launch.
When will Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands pre-orders go live?
Pre-orders are now up! Alongside the gameplay trailer, which gave us the release date, pre-ordering has become available on all consoles via the official 2K site.
