While Kairos may be a law-filled land of chaos run by a tyrant in Borderlands 4, you can still find some quaint locations where things are a little less chaotic. These places aren’t immune to the violence that surrounds them, though, and for Harper’s Hideaway, it’s come to his proverbial and literal front door.
Not only have the Rippers found the place and decided to turn it into a miniature warzone, but it seems like something – or someone else – with a penchant for brutality came by too. The barn’s turned into a bloodbath and there’s only one survivor left. It’s up to you and your fellow Vault Hunters to find out what happened.
How To Start Meat Is Murder
This is one of the first side missions you’ll have access to, and you’ll need to find Harper’s Hideaway first. This location is on the southwestern side of Kairos and directly northwest of both The Headquarters of the Crimson Resistance and the Abandoned Post safehouse, which you unlock early on.
As soon as you arrive at the farm, you’ll have a bunch of enemies to fight, which are spread out across the area. Most of them are just regular Rippers and Splicers, but at least one Badass has a chance to spawn.
Once all the enemies are cleared out, head to the largest barn and follow the voice to a small room in the bottom-right corner of the building, and open the door to free Byron. Talking to him here will give you the prompt to start Meat Is Murder.
Speak to him as he moves to the center of the building, then you’ll need to do a bit of investigative work. There are four scenes you need to check, and they’ll be highlighted: the tally in blood on the wall near several bodies, the dead Wildhorn next to some hay, several Ripper bodies beneath a broken machine, and the dismembered arms on the table near the giant grinder.
There are two machines with bodies beneath them, one on the left side of the room and one on the right side, and the mission may ask you to scan either one of them.
Interact with the radio on the table next to get a rather ominous message, and Harper’s body will drop from the ceiling above the grinder. After the cutscene, hit the kill switch on the console in the upper left-hand corner of the room, but it turns out it doesn’t work.
Go outside and to the back side of the barn to find where the coolant is, but some Rippers will touch down nearby, and you’ll need to fight them off first before you can safely interact with the tank.
Use your Grapple to pull the door off of each side of the tank, then either shoot or melee the highlighted coolant to destroy it, and now you can head back inside. Shoot just above Harper’s feet to make his body fall onto the grinder, then interact with the axe and the radio attached to him.
As soon as you’re finished talking to Byron, you’ll have some more Rippers to fight outside the barn, most of which are going to be Breakers, which love to charge and melee you for some big damage. Take them out, and Byron’s going to tell you to find a tool shop.
How To Find The Cave Behind The Waterfall
The shop you need to find is on a hill directly east of Harper’s Hideaway, right along the shore of the big lake in the region. Speak to Otis near the Vending Machines, and he’ll direct you to your next objective: Plungeford.
Plungeford is a massive fortification to the north of Otis’ and his shop, located along the cliff, and as soon as you arrive, you’ll have to deal with a lot of Rippers. When you hit the bridge leading to the entrance, you’ll have to fight at least one Badass, along with several Plinkers and Splices.
Take them out, then follow the ramps up to the main area of Plungeford. Here, you’ll have at least one more Badass to fight, and you’ll start seeing Pulpers and a few Psychos in addition to other types of enemies.
You can find two Vault Symbols near Plungeford: one is in the lower rooms in the tallest building in Plungeford, which has the water wheel attached to it, and the other is on a rock wall on the cliff above and to the east.
When the area is cleared out, head across the large bridge heading west, instead of going up the stairs, and follow it to a doorway blocked off by wooden planks. Melee them away, then go inside, and you’ll get a brief cutscene.
Kill Zeke and then use the radio on the desk to get another message, completing the first mission in the Grim Reaper series.
As a reward for completing it, you’ll get XP, Cash, either an Uncommon or Epic Weapon, some Eridium, and the Tropic of Cairn Vault Hunter skin, and Meat is Murder will be unlocked as a replayable mission.