Battleborn is described as a hero shooter, primarily a first-person shooter incorporating multiplayer online battle arena elements. In any of the game's modes, the player selects from one of several pre-defined hero characters that they have available, each with their own unique attributes, attacks, powers and skills, which can include casting magic and area-of-effect attacks. During character selection, the player also selects a loadout that can have up to three pieces of gear to bring into a match, earned from previous matches. Each piece requires a number of shards, in-game currency collected during a match, to activate during a match, and once activated, stay active for the remainder of the match. This equipment can boost or detract from base attributes or give additional benefits to the character. Shards can also be used to activate special turrets on maps to strategically defend points.
The hero's base combat level starts at 1 at the start of a round, and as the player defeat enemies and complete other objectives, they will gain experience towards further levels. With each new level, the player can then select one of two or more perks specific to that character along that character's "Helix Tree", including unlocking the character's strongest "ultimate ability". These experience levels only apply within the current match and reset on the start of a new match.
In Battleborn's meta-game, both the player's "command level" (applying across all characters for a given player) and a character-specific level can be increased based on performance in matches. In this meta-game, new character levels will unlock new perks that can be selected on the Helix Tree, alternative outfits, and other cosmetic improvements. Higher command levels will unlock additional characters that the player can select from, among other benefits. New gear is earned as loot drops from the completion of a match, or through picking up loot during a match, or may be purchased in special loot chests using in-game coins earned from playing matches or from gaining command levels. The player can only store a limited number of pieces of equipment, but can sell unneeded equipment for coins to apply at the meta-game. Battleborn requires a constant Internet connection to play due to the game's meta-game features. 
The game features 25 playable characters upon release and later added 5 downloadable content characters, with each having different abilities and weapons; characters are broadly categorized based on their movement speed and agility, combat range and effectiveness, and the difficulty of playing the character. For example, Rath is a melee-based character who is equipped with a katana, while Thorn is a long-ranged character, whose primary weapon is a bow. Characters of supporting role, such as Miko, who specializes in healing other characters of the same team, are also playable. During first time after game's release not all characters were available when the player starts the game, they were unlocked for play by completing both missions and multiplayer games, or raising player's command rank. Starting from big update from February 2017, all 25 base game characters become available to play right after tutorial story mission. After "Free Trial" update in June 2017 access to all base game heroes in free version now given after purchasing "Full Game update", along with all Story missions, otherwise they could be purchased separately in Marketplace.
Battleborn includes a story-based mission mode that enables five players to cooperate to complete various missions that include objective-driven narratives used as backstory for some of the hero characters. The additional 5-story missions are called Story Operations and were added as DLC; their main differences from main story mode are earning of OPs points, which gives player various rewards depending on chosen character and increases mission's difficulty, and changing of dialogues of main non-playable characters, which fully reveals story's narrative on 10th playthrough. 
There are also three main multiplayer modes in the game that pit two teams of five players each against each other (or against a team of artificial intelligence controlled heroes):
Meltdown, a mode where the team should escort and sacrifice AI controlled robots while killing robots of enemy team;
Incursion, a mode similar to most MOBAs where teams have to take the opponents' base while protecting their own base;
Capture, a mode where teams vie to seize and hold several control points on a map. 
The other two later added multiplayer modes are:
Face-off, a mode where the main objective is hoarding masks of AI controlled Varelsi mobs, the team that deposits most masks for a given time or score limit wins; 
Supercharge, which unlike other modes feature 3v3 teams and in fact is a slightly different version of Meltdown mode with a second main objective being capture of advantage giving Supercharge pad. 
Battleborn initially did not support microtransactions, and it was only introduced in a June 2016 update. Players can use real money to obtain in-game credits that can be spent on skins and taunts for the various characters (some which can already be earned through advancement with the character), but otherwise has no direct influence on gameplay. Gearbox planned to release downloadable content that would include new skins and taunts for existing characters prior to announcement of the game's shutdown.