Borderlands 4 – Which Vault Hunter Should You Choose
Today, we’re diving deep into every new playable character in Borderlands 4. Whether you’re a control freak, a brawler, a summoner, or a walking arsenal, this guide breaks down each Vault Hunter — their playstyles, traits, action skills, augments, and capstones — so you’ll know exactly who fits your style before you jump into Pandora’s chaos once again.
Borderlands 4 introduces four brand-new Vault Hunters: Harlow, Vex, Amon, and Rafa. Each brings something radically different to the table, from gravity-bending science and spectral summons to forge-crafted melee and mech-powered destruction. Let’s break down what makes each one shine.
Harlow – The Gravitar Scientist
If control, precision, and support are your thing, Harlow is your perfect pick. A Malawan-trained Gravitar, Harlow manipulates energy, gravity, and radiation to dominate the battlefield. Her unique mechanic, Entanglement, links enemies together — meaning damage or status effects spread across entire groups.
Playstyle: Battlefield control, team buffs, crowd management.
Best for: Supportive players who love tactical play and synergy.
Skill Trees
Creative Bursts: Focuses on launching unstable energy pockets that deal elemental damage. The core ability, Chroma Accelerator, fires an energy orb that pierces enemies and detonates in a burst of radiation. Augments can make it pull enemies in, split into smaller orbs, or refund cooldowns. Capstones take it further with bouncing blasts or charged precision detonations for big rewards.
Seize the Day: Built around stasis and immobilization. The Halo Accelerator traps enemies in cryo bubbles, perfect for setups and combo attacks. Augments allow chain freezes, ally healing, and novas of cryo or radiation. Capstones can collapse all stasis bubbles for massive AoE or slam frozen enemies into the ground.
Cosmic Brilliance: Harlow’s support tree. Her Flux Generator creates an energy field that buffs allies while debuffing enemies. Augments expand the field, strip resistances, or add elemental effects. Capstones morph the generator into teleporting revivers, radiation turrets, or following “halo drones” that enhance allies.
Why Pick Harlow: She’s the ultimate controller — freezing, debuffing, and amplifying team damage while staying safe behind her Borderlands 4 Gear.
Vex – The Elemental Siren
Every Borderlands needs a Siren, and Vex fills that role in spectacular style. A hybrid between a necromancer and elemental caster, Vex manipulates her spectral army and the elements themselves.
Playstyle: Hybrid summoner and elemental caster.
Best for: Players who enjoy pets, elemental combos, and self-sustain builds.
Vex’s passive trait lets her action skills and melee attacks adopt the element of her equipped gun. Your loadout completely determines her element and build direction.
Skill Trees
The Fourth Seal: Focuses on spectral summons. The Dead Ringer ability calls forth spectral allies — gun-wielding specters or scythe-bearing reapers — that automatically target enemies. Augments grant AoE damage, lifesteal, and regeneration buffs. Capstones allow minions to copy your gun, multiply on kills, or combine multiple augments for devastating synergy.
Vexalation: A damage-focused tree revolving around life steal and explosive kinetic energy. The Incarnate skill fires powerful elemental blasts. Augments provide ammo regen and critical boosts. Capstones evolve it into homing projectiles, ricocheting orbs, or piercing beams that heal allies.
Here Comes Trouble: Built around her pet companion, Trouble. You can summon and command Trouble to attack or defend. Augments add elemental dashes and explosions, while capstones let Trouble clone itself, mark enemies for explosive deaths, or grant you overshields.
Why Pick Vex: You love the chaos of elemental builds and commanding minions — she’s flashy, aggressive, and full of creative build paths.
Amon – The Forge Knight
Amon is a heavy-hitting juggernaut — a melee powerhouse who blends brute strength with forge-crafted weapons and defensive tech. If you like smashing enemies into scrap while soaking up damage, Amon’s your knight in shining armor.
Playstyle: Tanky melee brawler with elemental combos and deployable shields.
Best for: Players who enjoy being in the thick of the fight.
Skill Trees
Calamity: A pure melee tree with rocket-powered punches and forge-fueled slams. The Onslaught ability enhances melee attacks, adding elemental detonations. Augments chain elements like fire and shock into combos. Capstones upgrade this into forge axes, eruption slams, or giant shockwave swords.
Vengeance: A defensive control tree using Amon’s Scourge Shield. He can block incoming fire to build “Vengeance Charges,” then unleash devastating counterattacks. Augments add healing pulses and ricochets. Capstones turn it into lingering firewalls, cryo fields, or massive elemental barriers.
Cybernetics: Combines Borderlands 4 Weapons throwing with drone summons. The Crucible skill lets you throw forged axes that boomerang back with elemental trails. Augments spawn drones or enhance weapon throws. Capstones evolve Crucible into frost hammer storms, stormblade cyclones, or fire axe trails.
Why Pick Amon: He’s the classic brawler done right — durable, destructive, and deeply satisfying to play.
Rafa – The Exo Soldier
Finally, we have Rafa, the runaway soldier who fights from inside a prototype Exo suit. He’s adaptable, mobile, and can shift between gunfire, ordinance, and melee. Think of him as Borderlands’ answer to a mecha-powered commando.
Playstyle: Balanced and versatile — adaptable to ranged or melee builds.
Best for: Players who want flexibility and high mobility.
Rafa’s passive ability activates whenever he uses an action skill. He enters Overdrive, gaining movement speed and boosted damage from all sources. Perfect for hit-and-run or aggressive chaining combat.
Skill Trees
People Person: Revolves around Rafa’s arm cannon, Apous Lance. It fires piercing shock blasts that can be charged. Augments grant crits, grenade bursts, or elemental variants. Capstones completely transform it into laser beams, corrosive launchers, or chaining energy streams.
Remote Agent: Focused on twin shoulder cannons called Peacebreaker. Ideal for sustained fire and crowd control. Augments add homing rockets and ammo regen. Capstones allow mode swaps into corrosive beams or short-range shotgun bursts.
Arc Knives: Rafa’s melee-centric tree. Arc Knives let you dual-wield energy blades for high-speed slashes. Augments add healing and elemental dashes, while capstones evolve it into vortex attacks, fiery explosions, or drone-assisted slashes.
Why Pick Rafa: He’s the jack-of-all-trades — a mobile powerhouse who can dominate in both melee and ranged combat, with tons of customization options.
Which Vault Hunter Should You Choose?
Harlow: Best for control and support. Perfect if you like setting up plays and managing the battlefield.
Vex: Ideal for players who love pets, elemental builds, and chaotic fun.
Amon: Great for melee enthusiasts and tank players who want to crush enemies up close.
Rafa: A flexible choice for those who want to experiment with all playstyles — melee, ranged, or explosive.
And that’s the full rundown on every new Vault Hunter in Borderlands 4. Whether you’re freezing mobs as Harlow, commanding ghostly minions as Vex, smashing skulls as Amon, or blasting through waves as Rafa, each one brings a unique way to play.
