Down and Outbound is the third main story mission in Borderlands 4. Start it at the Abandoned Post in The Fadefields after completing Recruitment Drive. The mission takes you to Outbounders HQ, unlocks your ability to summon a DIGI-VEHICLE, sends you after the Spymaster, and ends with a bolt-scanning task. To complete the optional objective too, collect four Order contraband items on the way through the Order Surveillance Center.
Mission details and preparation
Claptrap gives you Down and Outbound at Kairos > The Fadefields > Abandoned Post. It follows Recruitment Drive in the main story. PowerPyx’s guide, published September 11, 2025, lists experience, money, Eridium, a rare assault rifle, and the Digital Frontier Vault Hunter Style among the mission rewards.
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The mission has a long out-and-back structure: you travel from Outbounders HQ to an Order surveillance facility, defeat the Spymaster, collect a bolt and three scanner parts, then return to HQ. Expect combat along the route and a boss encounter with a shield or immune phase. Keep ammunition and healing resources available for the facility and boss rather than spending everything on the first groups of enemies.
How to complete Down and Outbound
1. Travel to Outbounders HQ and clear the Order forces
Follow the active mission objective to Outbounders HQ and deal with the Order forces there. Once the area is clear enough to proceed, meet Rush and then Conway as directed. The walkthroughs agree on this sequence, but their descriptions of particular rooms and routes are not fully consistent; use the in-game objective marker for navigation rather than relying on an unverified room-by-room map description.
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2. Meet Conway and scan the vehicle
Conway’s part of the mission introduces the vehicle scan. Complete the scan when prompted: this unlocks the ability to summon a DIGI-VEHICLE. Guides also refer to the vehicle as a digirunner or use Catch-a-Ride terminology, so the name can vary by guide or context. The important progression point is that scanning the vehicle grants the vehicle-summoning ability; it is not a separate side activity to postpone until after the mission.
Neoseeker describes vehicle attacks, boost, and customization as part of the vehicle feature. Follow the on-screen instructions for the controls and options available in your game. The sources do not establish a single platform-specific button sequence, so a button prompt should take precedence over a guide written for another platform.
3. Go to the Order Surveillance Center
Continue to the Order Surveillance Center and follow the objective toward the Spymaster. This is the part of the route where the optional four-item contraband objective is available. If you want the optional objective, search as you advance through the facility rather than clearing the boss and assuming the pickups will still be accessible. If you only want to finish the main mission, stay on the marked route and prioritize reaching the Spymaster.
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4. Defeat the Spymaster
The Spymaster can enter a shielded or immune phase, during which ordinary attacks do not make meaningful progress. Do not spend a full damage cycle firing into that phase. Use cover while the protection is active, keep moving when enemy pressure makes a position unsafe, and resume sustained damage when the boss becomes vulnerable. PowerPyx, Nerdschalk, and Borderlands4.net all flag this phase as a feature of the encounter.
A cautious approach is to treat the encounter as alternating survival and damage windows: stay alive and reposition while the boss is protected, then use your strongest available attacks during the opening. If the encounter is going poorly, favor cover and reliable damage over standing exposed to force a faster kill. The available guides do not provide a verified numerical health threshold, timing schedule, or weapon requirement for the phase, so watch the boss and the encounter prompts rather than relying on a fixed timer.
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5. Take the bolt and collect the three scanner parts
After the Spymaster is defeated, take the Spymaster’s bolt. Then search the nearby area for the three bolt-scanner parts. Follow each objective marker and check the immediate combat area before leaving; the parts are part of the mission’s required ending, not the optional contraband objective. The mission does not finish simply because the boss is down.
6. Return to Outbounders HQ and scan the bolt
Return to Outbounders HQ, install the scanner parts as prompted, and scan the bolt. Completing the scan closes out the mission. If the objective does not advance, check that you collected all three parts and interacted with the installation at HQ before trying to scan again.
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The four Order contraband pickups are optional objectives along the surveillance-center route. PowerPyx describes four pickups and provides route instructions, while Nerdschalk also confirms that contraband collectibles are part of the mission. However, published room descriptions differ, and the available mission information does not establish a single dependable set of room-by-room directions or item names. It would be misleading to assign exact locations without a consistent map reference.
For a completion-focused run, make a deliberate sweep of each accessible section of the surveillance center before advancing to the next objective marker. Check side areas and route branches, and use any on-screen collectible counter or objective update to confirm progress. If the mission still shows fewer than four, retrace the facility route before entering the boss area or leaving the center. For a faster story run, skip the detours; the contraband objective is optional and is not required to install the scanner parts or complete the bolt scan.
Fast route or full completion?
| Approach | What to prioritize | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Main-story completion | Follow the mission markers, scan the vehicle, defeat the Spymaster, collect the bolt and all three scanner parts, then return to HQ. | Fewer deliberate searches for optional pickups; you may finish without all four contraband items. |
| Optional-objective completion | Search the surveillance-center route as you advance and verify the contraband count before leaving the area. | More exploration and backtracking risk, but it gives you a chance to complete all four pickups in the same run. |
| Safer boss approach | Use cover during the shield or immune phase and deal damage when the Spymaster is vulnerable. | More conservative than continuously attacking, but avoids wasting attacks during protection. |
Common reasons mission progress stalls
- The vehicle feature has not unlocked: make sure you completed Conway’s vehicle scan. Meeting him alone is not the scan objective.
- The boss takes no damage: the Spymaster may be in the shielded or immune phase. Survive behind cover and wait for a damage window.
- The mission remains active after the boss: take the bolt, collect all three scanner parts nearby, return to HQ, install the parts, and scan the bolt.
- The optional counter is incomplete: the four contraband pickups are separate from the required scanner parts. Recheck accessible branches of the surveillance-center route before moving on.
- A guide’s directions do not match the room: guides use differing room descriptions. Follow the in-game objective marker and verify progress through the mission objective rather than forcing a mismatched room label.
What completing the mission gives you
PowerPyx lists experience, money, Eridium, a rare assault rifle, and the Digital Frontier Vault Hunter Style as rewards for Down and Outbound. The available mission descriptions do not specify exact quantities for the currency or experience, nor the rifle’s name or statistics, so those values should be checked against the reward display in your game rather than assumed from a generic guide.
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