Borderlands 4: The Timekeeper's Order walkthrough

The Timekeeper’s Order is the penultimate main mission in Borderlands 4, and it’s a doozy. Naturally it means you have to fight the Timekeeper, but that fight is truly one of the most dangerous ones in the entire game. Thankfully, a lot of the map is very straight forward, but we’re going to help guide you from Point A to Point Z. Even though, as Zadra said, Everything Breaks, but once we break the Timekeeper, Kairos will be safe.

You will automatically get The Timekeeper’s Order in Borderlands 4 upon completing Plan Z, and will lead you right to the game’s thrilling conclusion. Act 3 has had the best storytelling of the game, along with some of the most intense fights. Here’s how to complete The Timekeeper’s Order.

The Timekeeper’s Order complete walkthrough in Borderlands 4

Mission information

Starting Location: Ascension Tower
Quest Giver: Zadra
Unlock Requirement: Complete Plan Z
Recommended Level: 35-40
Estimated time to complete: 45 minutes to an hour

Mission objectives

Reach Upper Dominion, Break Out
Reach Tower, Kill Vile and Order enemies, clear enemies guarding the Tower
Open Tower Door, Ascend
Kill Timekeeper
Kill Guardian Timekeeper
Save Kairos

1) Reach Upper Dominion, Break Out

To get it all started in The Timekeeper’s Order in Borderlands 4, enter the beam of light and move forward. However, before too long, you’re going to wind up caught in a container, with gas pouring in. It won’t take too long until you can shoot or melee your way out of this container. This is the easiest part of the mission. You’ll drop down into another area, so you can begin the path to reaching Upper Dominion.

2) Reach Tower, Kill Vile and Order enemies, clear enemies guarding the Tower

Jump safe, jump smart (Image via 2K Games)

Once you’re on the ground, refill your ammo if needed, and Grapple the vent to continue towards the Tower. This will in turn lead to you climbing up, going up a climbable wall, and fighting a small Kratch swarm. You’ll then need to make a few relatively safe jumps across platforms, while Arjay taunts you the whole time.

Just use the ECHO Device, and be careful about the long-distance jumps. If you’ve defeated some of the Vault Guardians, this gets a little easier, but it’s not a requirement. Just kill your way through the Kratch swarms, and make your way upwards across these platforms.

After you get across the gaps, and climb a little wall, you’ll reach Upper Dominion, and now the goal is to reach the Tower. You’ll get trapped in a little area, with a huge laser beam blasting the ground, but you can use it to drop down through the glass below. Use a Ground Slam on some of the glass that’s been cracked to drop down.

Just ground slam through the glass! (Image via 2K Games)

The laser beam will keep firing every few seconds, but there’s a line on the ground that warns you where it will hit, making it easy to avoid. Follow the path forward and you’ll be put into another fight in The Timekeeper’s Order in Borderlands 4. These are pretty standard Order forces with at least one Badass among them.

Even after the fight, the laser keeps firing, so keep moving forward. The next room will reveal an interesting mechanic: Grappling these glowing energy pyramids to create a platform. Remember this, because you’re going to use it in the final fight with the Timekeeper.

There’s another group of Order troops after this in Borderlands 4, but it’s a less powerful group at least. The only real exception is the Badass Judge, but even they aren’t much of a threat. Just keep following the route ECHO-4 sets out for you until you reach the next waypoint. You’ll find Vile and Order enemies here to fight.

These Vile enemies aren't too dangerous if you pay attention (Image via 2K Games)

Remember, Vile Enemies’ orbs can be used for a Second Wind, and if you break off all the crystal shards, you can, in theory, kill the enemy before the orbs return to them to make them invulnerable again. I don’t recommend it unless you truly have outrageous damage output.

This room has a few Badasses in it, and a handful of Vile Enemies, but at least they don’t really run together. You should be able to keep them separated and deal with them one at a time. The only real dangerous enemy for me was the Cryogenic Vile Deadhead, because it had the Leaking and Strong affixes. It hurt a lot, but with patience, it will go down.

It’s a grueling fight, but once it’s done, follow the path again, and grapple more pyramids, to create platforms. It’s time to clear the enemies guarding the Tower, and it can be frustrating, mostly thanks to the back-to-back Menancers that show up. It’s nothing new though, so put these enemies in the ground.

3) Open Tower Door, Ascend

Beyond this door lies the final boss(es) (Image via 2K Games)

All you have to do now is to interact with the symbols on the door to Open the Tower Door for this step of Borderlands 4’s The Timekeeper’s Order. In order to Ascend, just take the golden light that transports you up to the Timekeeper himself, and listen to your allies cheer you on. Make sure to refill your ammo as well, and check all your equipment before going in.

4) Kill Timekeeper

The Timekeeper awaits at the end of The Timekeeper's Order in Borderlands 4 (Image via 2K Games)

After a Monologue, it’s time to fight the Timekeeper in Borderlands 4. He has a Blue Health Bar (Shield - Shock damage), a Yellow Health Bar (Corrosive/Cryo damage), and a Red Health Bar (Incendiary). In Phase 1, he can shoot a laser beam from his triangle that hovers over him, and can knock you into the air, creating energy triangles on the ground; avoid landing on them if you can.

He can also use a sort of blinding attack, with brilliant gold light, making it harder to hit him during this Borderlands 4 boss battle. In his last health bar, he started making a yellow energy barrier that covered him on two sides. Just get behind it, and open fire.

The moving lasers are annoying, and hit very hard, so be careful (Image via 2K Games)

During this time in the fight, he’ll also set the triangle on the ground and it will shoot three laser beams down towards the ground. They will then rotate along the ground, so be careful of these. Finally, he can also shower down lots of small, gold energy projectiles. After you shred through those three health bars, don’t relax; you aren’t done in this Borderlands 4 boss fight.

5) Kill Guardian Timekeeper

Don't rest on your laurels, Vault Hunter; there's one more fight to go! (Image via 2K Games)

After another monologue from the Timekeeper, he’ll take his true form, the Guardian Timekeeper. Once again, he has three health bars, Blue, Yellow, and Red. He slowly walks around the battlefield, firing lasers that leave behind damage trails.

He also has a pretty ineffectual melee attack. Once you’re in his second health bar, he’ll create a bunch of energy pyramids, so use your Grapple to hook one and jump on. After a delay, he’ll destroy the one you’re on, so take the time to jump between them and open fire when you can. When he charges up his laser, that’s your cue to find another platform.

To be honest, I was pretty sick of laser attacks by the time this fight ended (Image via 2K Games)

This won’t last forever, though. In this phase, he also makes a huge explosion of damage on the ground that persists, and resumes shooting lasers at you. If that weren’t enough, he can also fire a huge pyramid of lasers at you, so try and get out of the way of those.

The Timekeeper, during this Borderlands 4 fight, will also put down a gauntlet of lasers that you have to constantly keep an eye on, or you’ll take a ton of damage. If that weren’t enough annoying lasers, one of his laser projectiles (a large pyramid/diamond) can chase you, so stay mobile.

In his last health bar, he’ll resume the pyramid jumping phase, so keep at it, and damage him anytime you can. There isn’t much more to go through, so keep at him until he falls. But again, this isn’t quite the end.

6) Save Kairos

The Timekeeper gets one final word in, after you defeat him. Break his hold on Kairos, and Save Kairos. There’s technically just a bit more gameplay after this, in the Secrets of the Vault main mission. Enjoy the final fight, and your rewards!

Check out our other Borderlands 4 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 15 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

Jason places high value on accuracy and relevance in his write-ups. He achieves this with thorough research to sift facts from rumors. One of the biggest highlights of his career is his interview with Canadian pro wrestler Kenny Omega about his inclusion in the Like a Dragon game series. He is also good friends with journalist Kazumo Hashimoto, who he admires for the kind of stories he works on and his deep ethics.

A true cinephile, one of Jason’s primary hobbies involves enjoying cinematic experiences. He also loves reading, be it fiction or manga, when not working. Additionally, he streams on Twitch and posts his gaming insights on YouTube.

Know More

Edited by Jason Parker