Borderlands 4: ‘A Lot to Process’ mission guide with objectives, tips, and Oppressor boss strategy

How ‘A Lot to Process’ unfolds

Meat showers, stampeding wildhorns, and a teleporter in pieces—welcome to A Lot to Process, the fourth main mission in Borderlands 4. It’s a sharp shift in tone: you start with a quiet hunt for an Order scientist and end in an industrial maze where valves hiss, conveyors grind, and a hulking boss tries to pulp you. The mission mixes detective work, environmental switches, and a full-on fight for your life, with Zadra emerging as the person you need—and the person you have to keep alive.

The opening stretch is about getting to the Order scientist’s home and actually getting inside. Expect resistance on the street—small squads that will ping you from rooftops and doorways. Clear them instead of trying to sprint past; you’ll avoid getting pinched when you’re fiddling with doors or terminals. Once it’s quiet, sweep the area for ammo and health. Story breadcrumbs tend to hide in side rooms and desks, so check anything with a screen or a blinking light.

Gaining access often boils down to following power lines or pipes to a control you can flip. If a door won’t budge, trace the cable overhead and look for a breaker panel, a fuse, or a console tucked just out of sight. These setups love catwalks—look up, not just around. Pressure switches and bypass panels can sit behind movable crates or in maintenance corners. If you see a valve or a lever near the entry, try it before you go hunting deeper; some locks are one switch, some are a chain of them.

Inside, your objective is to find the scientist. Quest markers do the heavy lifting, but don’t rush the search. You’ll often get voice logs that hint at what’s coming next—the wildhorn problem and why the Order cares about the plant. A couple of extra minutes looting here pays off later when you need meds in the factory.

The hand-off to the meat processing plant changes the tempo. You’re moving through an industrial zone with long sightlines, moving belts, and choke points that favor enemies with grenades. Elemental prep helps a ton: shock rounds strip shields fast, corrosive shreds armored targets, and cryo slows down beasts like wildhorns so they don’t bowl you over. Keep a mid-range rifle or SMG for general work and a hard-hitting secondary for elites that push into your space.

“Find where wildhorns go” is a guided tour of how the plant handles its nastiest visitors. Follow warning signs and flow indicators on walls—they’re not just decoration. When in doubt, follow the mess: shredded panels, claw marks, and broken grates usually point the right way. You’ll meet mixed groups—close-range bruisers backed by ranged units. Thin the shooters first so you can kite the brawlers without getting chipped apart.

Overriding shower controls and releasing meat are the puzzle-lite moments. The game teaches its logic here: trace cables, look for numbered valves, and watch indicator lights change states. If a switch doesn’t seem to work, you probably missed a prerequisite step on a different floor or catwalk. Clear enemies before you flip anything; most of these actions trigger a short defense window where waves try to muscle you off the console. Drop a deployable (turret, barrier, decoy) before you press the button so you’re not placing gadgets under fire.

Once the meat starts moving, you’ll be asked to “enter the meat processing plant.” Inside, the geometry gets trickier—stacked walkways, conveyor hazards, and sightlines where snipers love to park. Use the railings as cover. Watch for flashing hazard lights that warn before a conveyor dump or a steam purge. If you hear a horn, step off moving belts; the plant doesn’t care whether it’s processing livestock or a Vault Hunter.

Finding Zadra ties the threads together. She’s the reason you’re risking the plant and the person with the knowledge to make sense of the teleporter tech. The rescue leans on mobility—expect to move and shoot as you shepherd her out of danger. Treat this like an escort-with-teeth: hold corners, clear forward lanes, and keep an eye on her position so she doesn’t get stuck behind geometry. Abilities that create temporary safety bubbles or aggro draws make this section a breeze.

The escape with Zadra often feels like a soft timer, even if the clock isn’t on screen. You’ll face staggered waves rather than one giant brawl. Don’t burn all your cooldowns on the first push; save a panic button for the mid-wave when a heavy steps in. If you’re playing co-op, designate one player as the “advance scout” who moves a few meters ahead, forcing spawns early while the rest hold the safe zone. It desyncs enemy entrances and keeps your sightlines manageable.

Reaching Zadra’s lab resets the pace again. You’re looking for a workspace that doubles as a story hub. Expect locked inner doors that open after short defense beats or after you solve a simple switch order. Use this breather to restock. If you left any unopened chests in earlier corridors, this is the moment to backtrack for them before the boss marker appears.

Collecting teleporter parts—control circuits and transponder packs—plays like a scavenger hunt inside restricted areas. The pieces are usually split across rooms with distinct visual markers, so note anything with a tech silhouette or a diagnostic bench. Work clockwise around the lab section by section instead of chasing markers across the whole floor; you’ll miss less and take fewer ambushes from behind. If a part sits behind a yellow light or a danger placard, there’s probably a switch nearby that toggles machinery off long enough to slip through.

Inventory management matters more than you think here. Pick up what you need, but don’t hoard junk mid-combat. If you’re full, mark a couple of low-value guns for quick drop so you can scoop ammo and health without fiddling in menus. Before you trigger the final hand-in for the teleporter set, reload every weapon and set your grenades to an element you actually need for the boss.

Key objectives and boss tips

The mission’s major encounter is The Oppressor. It’s built to punish players who stand still or blow all their damage on the wrong health bar. The safe read is that it rotates between a shielded phase and an armored phase—respond with shock to peel the blue bar fast, then swap to corrosive to chew through the yellow. If you don’t have both elements on guns, slot one on your grenade mod and use neutral kinetic on crit spots during the gap.

Movement wins this fight. The arena tends to have cover islands—short walls, machinery, and vertical elements. Rotate clockwise around the largest cover piece and peek-shoot. The Oppressor’s big telegraphed swings bait you into greedy trades; take two shots, duck, reload, then slide to the next island. If you eat a heavy hit, don’t sprint in a straight line—strafe-sprint diagonally to break tracking while you pop a shield battery or a quick heal.

Add spawns are the real stressor. Use them. Keep at least one red-bar grunt alive as a Second Wind safety valve. If the boss knocks you down, snap a fast reload weapon to finish off the add and pop back up. Save your highest-impact skills for moments when the boss and a wave overlap; splash damage and crowd control get twice the value then.

Crit behavior varies per target, but heads and back plates are smart bets for heavy types. Watch for a brief stagger when you break the shield—dump damage into the exposed spot before the armor phase hardens up. If your build leans into status effects, chain shock to reapply the shield break faster on the next cycle; if you’re a burst build, line up a magazine-fed weapon and unleash only when you have a clean window.

Ammo discipline keeps you alive in long boss fights. Every lap around the arena, grab any ammo spawns near the edges. Don’t chase drops in the boss’s face. If you’re dry on your main element, swap roles—use a teammate’s elemental coverage while you handle adds and keep the boss busy. Solo? Consider pulling the boss to one side, then sprinting across the map to vacuum the ammo lane before it closes again.

When The Oppressor drops, sweep the arena before you talk to anyone. There’s usually a window to pick clean the battlefield—cash, meds, and the occasional weapon crate—before story beats lock you into the next scene. Hand in the teleporter parts, listen to Zadra’s intel, and take a beat to respec or swap gear for what’s coming next.

• Reach the Order scientist’s home
• Gain access to the home (trace power, flip breakers, clear resistance)
• Find the scientist (search rooms and terminals)
• Reach the meat processing plant
• Find where wildhorns go (follow signs, debris, and flow indicators)
• Override shower controls (trace cables, clear waves, flip in order)
• Release meat (expect a defense timer, set gadgets first)
• Enter the meat processing plant (watch conveyors, steam hazards, and snipers)
• Find Zadra at the processing facility
• Escape with Zadra (hold corners, manage waves)
• Locate Zadra’s laboratory
• Collect teleporter parts (control circuits and transponder packs), then defeat The Oppressor

Quick loadout cheat sheet: carry shock and corrosive options, plus a cryo or high-stagger weapon for wildhorns. Keep one accurate mid-range gun, one bursty close-range option, and a utility grenade that complements your missing element. If you’re in co-op, stagger your cooldowns and call targets—one focuses adds, one stays on the boss, and you swap roles when ammo runs thin. That rhythm turns a messy factory brawl into a clean extraction.