Borderlands 4 Recruitment Drive walkthrough

After completing Guns Blazing in Borderlands 4, you’ll almost immediately pick up Recruitment Drive, the second main story quest for the game. As Claptrap’s latest unpaid intern, you’re going to do some killing for him. Naturally, he could do it himself, but why not leave it to a Vault Hunter instead? It’s a pretty straightforward quest, with one exception that appears to be tripping plenty of players up. Don’t worry though, we’ve got you covered.

If you want to know what to do and where to go in Borderlands 4’s Recruitment Drive, we’ve got the whole quest mapped out for you in this guide. This quest serves as a good idea of the gameplay loop you’re going to experience throughout the game, from defeating Rippers, to solving a few puzzles.

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Recruitment Drive quest guide for Borderlands 4

Stage 1: Take Claptrap’s Tour, Open Grill & Pick up battery

AAA Hotdogs are much better than AAAA Hotdogs; just ask any ship captain (Image via 2K Games)

Once you’ve begun Recruitment Drive in Borderlands 4, the start of the quest is incredibly easy. Just follow Claptrap around, and listen to what he has to say. He’ll lead you to a grill that you pop open, and pick up a battery. The battery, a hot dog, has an incredibly funny descriptor of “The true AAA experience”.

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Stage 2: Follow Claptrap, kill Rippers

You’ll keep following Claptrap around for this Borderlands 4 quest, mindlessly walking along the path, while he yammers at you. You’ll see at least one Ripper attempt to take him out on the way, but Claptrap wasn’t phased by it at all, apparently.

After a few minutes of travel, you’ll be set upon by Rippers, who want to kill you and Claptrap, so kill them first to fulfill this part of the Borderlands 4 Recruitment Drive quest. There’s a handful of them here at the Abandoned Post, but none of them are a threat. Take the ones on the ground out, head up the platform to deal with a few more, then turn around and take the last couple out. It’s a pretty easy fight, as far as it goes.

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Stage 3: Follow Claptrap to the elevator, Infiltrate Ripper camp

You're going to be in for a fight almost as soon as you drop into this base (Image via 2K Games)

After obliterating the nearby Rippers, you’ll walk with Claptrap to an elevator, but before you go any further, your ECHO Device will activate. This is easily the most important thing you’ll get in BL4, because it tracks your quests and important objects. For example, when you’re working on side quests like Meat is Murder, you’ll need to find specific objects. The ECHO Device will highlight them for you.

Instead of taking the elevator though, you’re going to activate the ECHO Device, and track down and infiltrate a Ripper Camp. It’s southeast of where you’re at, so follow the yellow line that leads you to the base.

You’ll need to climb up the steel wall with holes in it when you arrive, which will put you face-to-face with a few Manglers almost immediately. Take them down, and follow the path right into the Ripper camp.

A firefight will break out, and before you can do anything else, you need to kill all the Rippers that show up to put you in the dirt. Be careful, and make your way through the base, defeating any Badasses and regular Rippers you can. Don’t be afraid to retreat and pick up loot like more ammo, should you need it.

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Stage 4: Find Splashzone, Kill Splashzone

After defeating the group of Rippers, use your quest tracker to lead you through the camp; make sure to stop and loot everything you can in this Borderlands 4 area, though. You don’t want to miss a chance at fantastic new guns, or more ammo.

Take Splashzone on a jog around his base; while also shooting him as much as possible (Image via 2K Games)

When you get to the Riptide Grotto section, you’ll have to fight a few more Rippers, but treat them like you did the previous group, and get past them. You’ll come to a gap shortly, so just double jump over it. Ahead of you, you’ll see a metal wall with holes in it, and if you use the ECHO Device, it will glow green. Climb up it, and take out a few more Rippers.

You’re going to see a broken bridge that you need to jump over, so jump, then double jump to clear the gap. If you fall, you’re going to have to go all the way back again and that’s just time consuming.

You’ll find Splashzone waiting in this area, alongside a few allies. Take his goons out first, and then deal with Splashzone. He leaves a huge trail of poison behind him, so you’re going to want to keep running from him. If you can deal him DOTs (Damage over time) with a fire-based gun, that’s going to go a long way. Loot his little combat arena after he’s dead, especially the key he has on him.

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Stage 5: Loot Splashzone’s Key, Loot Splashzone’s chest, use glide to reach exit

After defeating Splashzone, he’s going to drop a key that you need to loot. You may also have to deal with more Rippers at the same time, so if someone starts shooting, make that your priority. Then, grab the key, and run to the nearby massive chest. It will be marked with a yellow icon, so it won’t be hard to find.

This container has the Glide Pack, which will give you the ability to Glide. This is one of the cool new movement abilities in Borderlands 4, and it will no doubt come in great handy. Head to the next quest objective, which isn’t far from Splashzone’s Chest, and use the glider while jumping, to exit this part of the map.

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Return to Broadcast Tower, Reach Top of Broadcast Tower

Make good use of that new Glider to get over these gaps (Image via 2K Games0

The Broadcast Tower is to the northwest, and will be marked on the map in Borderlands 4 for easy access. Take the time to loot any containers you find, and defeat Rippers that you come across. You can always use the exp, and the extra ammo. Just follow the quest path until you reach the Broadcast Tower.

Once there, you’ll need to get to the top of the Broadcast Tower. Upon arriving in the area, you’ll see another metal wall with holes in it that you can climb. Jump and glide across the gap to reach it, and climb up. Then, turn to your right, and clear the next gap with your Glider.

You’ll find another wall to climb to your nearby west, and after walking down the path a short distance, you’ll need to grapple to a higher wall, which will then allow you to climb further. When you get to the next quest objective, you’ll get to what some consider the trickiest part of the quest in Borderlands 4.

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Stage 6: Call the Elevator, Get Clearance for the Elevator, Call Elevator for real

One of the nearby corpses has the clearance you need. They aren't using it anymore, anyway (Image via 2K Games)

When you get to the Elevator, interact with it, but nothing’s going to happen. This is where many players have found their stumbling block with this Borderlands 4 quest. The game just leaves it to you to figure out how to get clearance for the elevator. We’ve already covered how you can easily get clearance for the elevator, thankfully.

Just head to the southeastern corner of the roof you’re on, and loot one of the dead bodies. You’ll find a collar chip that will give you the proper clearance. Then simply head back to the Elevator, and activate it for real, to complete this step of the Borderlands main story mission Recruitment Drive.

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Stage 7: Punch door, Find codes for Claptrap’s safehouse, activate Claptrap’s safehouse, start broadcast

When you get to the Resistance Safehouse at the top of the Broadcast Tower, Claptrap’s going to have problems getting in. This is where you learn how to melee, by punchind the door. Just punch it with the melee button and go inside.

You heard the robot: push the button! (Image via 2K Games)

To find the codes for Claptrap’s Safehouse, just head to the quest icon to your west. There will be a green glowing item on the computer terminal, and after interacting with it, Claptrap will have the codes he needs. Then, interact with the object nearby to activate Claptrap’s Safehouse.

After Claptrap’s inspiring speech (and knock at Crypto servers), push the big red button to start the Broadcast. After a conversation with Claptrap, this quest will complete, and you’ll begin Down and Outbound, the next main story quest in Borderlands 4.

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