Which Vault Hunter Should You Pick in Borderlands 4 for Completing and Solving?

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Before diving into the world of Kairos and gathering a large number of Legendary items, you need to choose a Vault Hunter. Borderlands 4 features perhaps the most diverse roster yet, including many favorite playstyles from earlier games with a new twist. The game offers deep skill trees, skill enhancements, and multiple action skills, giving players a lot of flexibility for building their characters.

Choosing a class can be challenging because each skill tree varies greatly. This guide explains how each character works in Borderlands 4, summarizes their skill trees, and compares their abilities to previous Vault Hunters to help experienced players know what to expect.

Vex, The Siren
Vex is the game’s Siren, a character with magical powers. In gameplay, she acts as a summoner and mage, capable of defeating enemies quickly with Eldritch Blasts and phantom minions. She has three skill trees dedicated to her Siren powers:

Phase Phamiliar: Summons a phantom minion to fight alongside you, focusing on minions and survivability.
Incarnate: Boosts Vex’s combat skills, improves movement speed, and grants access to Eldritch Blast. Emphasizes kinetic damage, healing from damage, and critical hits.
Dead Ringer: Creates ghostly clones of Vex that focus on elemental damage, melee attacks, and finishing enemies.

Players interested in gun builds should choose Incarnate, which supports bleed damage-over-time strategies and is used in some of the strongest endgame boss builds. During leveling, Dead Ringer offers high DPS with clones, while casual players may prefer Phase Phamiliar.

Action Skills for Vex:

Phase Phamiliar: Summons Trouble, a minion that respawns after death, and can teleport and deal area damage.
Incarnate: Creates a Phase Explosion, damaging nearby enemies and restoring Vex’s health, while boosting movement speed and Eldritch Blast.
Dead Ringer: Summons clones that taunt enemies and deal melee or gun damage, with three charges.

Amon, The Forgeknight
Amon is a melee-focused juggernaut who destroys enemies with brutal attacks and elemental effects. He’s a mix of a berserker and a druid, with each skill tree designed around destructive power.

Onslaughter: Empowers fists with fire, allowing rocket punches. Focuses on melee, gun, and fire/shock damage.
Crucible: Wields two throwable combat axes, emphasizing mobility and status effects.
Scourge: Uses a shield that absorbs damage and provides damage resistance, with focus on survivability and cryo/incendiary effects.

The Onslaughter build turns gameplay into a fast-paced, Doom Eternal-style experience, with leaping punches and intense melee combos. The Scourge tree makes Amon a durable torch, disintegrating enemies with a Frostfire ring, while Crucible offers elemental chaos.

Action Skills for Amon:

Onslaughter: Overloads fists with fire, increasing shield regeneration, damage, and movement speed; performs rocket punches.
Crucible: Equips axes to throw and retrieve, dealing elemental damage and priming enemies for detonation.
Scourge: Uses a shield to absorb damage, then unleashes a cryo explosion, with bonus damage if Vengeance is full.

Rafa, The Exo-Soldier
Rafa is a run-and-gun character who uses a Tediore suit to enhance combat with special weapons. He plays like a blend of Zane and Wilhelm, but with options to mimic classic soldier classes from past Borderlands games like Roland, Axton, and Moze.

Peacebreaker Cannons: Deploy shoulder-mounted cannons that automatically fire at enemies.
Arc-Knives: Switch to melee blades mounted on his arms, marking enemies and increasing damage.
APOPHIS Lance: Use a powerful arm cannon that fires explosive, mark-enhanced beams.

Most players prefer Peacebreaker Cannons for their destructive output. Arc-Knives is great for close combat, and APOPHIS Lance offers a versatile ordnance-based attack.

Action Skills for Rafa:

Peacebreaker Cannons: Fire automatically for a duration; holding to end early reduces cooldown.
Arc-Knives: Switch to blades, perform melee attacks, dash, or unleash a blade fury on marked enemies.
APOPHIS Lance: Firing explosive beams that mark enemies, dealing increased damage when charged.

Harlowe, The Gravitar
Harlowe is a support-oriented character, similar to Maya from previous games, but with a focus on team buffs and crowd control. She uses experimental gear to emulate Siren powers, such as Phaselocking enemies and enhancing allies’ damage output. She’s a highly adaptable character, valuable in any squad.

CHROMA Accelerator: Launches an explosive projectile passing through enemies and dealing heavy Cryo and Radiation damage.
Flux Generator: Creates a shield bubble that damages enemies inside and heals allies’ shields.
Zero-Point: Puts enemies in stasis or slams them into the ground for crowd control and debuffs.

Zero-Point builds on Maya’s classic Phaselock, but with more customization through augments. CHROMA is ideal for dealing massive Cryo and Radiation damage, while Flux Generator boosts team survivability and weapon performance.

Action Skills for Harlowe:

CHROMA Accelerator: Launches a damaging energy pocket, detonation deals area damage.
Flux Generator: Deploys an energy shield inside which enemies take damage and are entangled; can toss again.
Zero-Point: Freezes enemies in stasis, or slams them down to cause explosions.

This overview covers the core character types in Borderlands 4, emphasizing their playstyles, comparable characters, routes for builds, and their action skills.