Borderlands 4 Character Tier List

Borderlands 4 has launched with 4 Playable Vault Hunters, and each of them has 3 distinct Action Skills and Skill Trees that provide unique performances. Each Vault Hunter offers a variety of immense power and fun, but why not rank them all in a tier list to see which Vault Hunter is the best in Borderlands 4? Below, players can find a tier list ranking each of the 4 Vault Hunters’ Skill Trees, along with a definitive tier list for how each of the Vault Hunters performs overall. Check out where we’ve ranked your main and find out why!

This tier list ranks the Vault Hunters based on how easy they are to use and how powerful they can be. While some Vault Hunters are more fun than others (like melee-focused builds), the ranking will be set on pure accessibility and overpowered skills.

Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Skill Trees Tier List

We’ve placed each of the Vault Hunters’ skill trees into the tier list above based on how they perform in the endgame and whether they’re worth investing in. These skill trees have been tested with survivability, boss effectiveness, and overall damage output against squishy enemies to determine which provides the most overpowered Vault Hunter performance. Check out the ranking reasoning below!

S Tier Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Skill Trees

Rafa Peacebreaker Cannons (Red Tree)

• Peacebreaker Cannons Build

Rafa’s Remote Agent skills from the red tree provide him with Peacebreaker Cannons, which are shoulder-mounted weapons that essentially allow him to enjoy more firepower while he shoots his own guns. Everything about the Peacebreaker Cannons is rewarding, and with the right investments, players will never have to fire their guns again. The Peacebreaker Cannons can be set up in a way that they never deplete, receive immense damage buffs, and nuke bosses within seconds while also clearing out entire areas of enemies simply by being activated.

Vex Incarnate (Green Tree)

• Incarnate Build

Vex Incarnate comes from the green Vexcalation skill tree, and it’s absurdly powerful. When players look at just Incarnate, they might be underwhelmed by the Phase Explosion damage and the fact that it needs to be so close-range to be reliable. However, the main focus of Incarnate is in the skill points, specifically when built around Bloodletter. Vex’s Incarnate skill tree is very dependent on Bleed, Lifesteal, and Kinetic Damage, ensuring that single-target enemies are going to be melted. Few Vault Hunters can destroy bosses like Vex’s Incarnate skill tree can, so it’s definitely worth the investment.

Harlowe CHROMA Accelerator (Red Tree)

• CHROMA Accelerator Build

Harlowe’s CHROMA Accelerator Action Skill is brought to her by the Creative Burst red skill tree, and it’s an unstoppable nuke that everyone using Harlowe needs to jump onto. It’s meta, extremely easy to use, fast to regenerate, and can one-shot bosses with minimal work and semi-decent investment. CHROMA Accelerator sees Harlowe shoot an Unstable Energy Pocket to pass through enemies, damaging all nearby, and exploding to cause Radiation Damage. This skill tree can be further invested into for an increase in overall Damage and Fire Rate, and while it doesn’t have the best survivability, there’s not going to be anyone left to pose as a threat to worry about dying.

Vex Dead Ringer (Blue Tree)

• Dead Ringer (Reaper) Build

Dead Ringer is Vex’s blue skill tree that comes from The Fourth Seal, and it’s like a less-complex game of chess. Vex can summon Reapers, which are Phase Clone Minions that focus on Melee Damage, or she can summon Specters, which are Phase Clone Minions that focus on Gun Damage. Vex can mix-and-match these to make the blue tree flourish, overwhelming enemies with an army of her Phase Clones that will slash, leech, and shoot. The Minions may be glass cannons, but they hit hard, distract targets away from Vex, and can build into some pretty interesting varieties of play, and synergize well with Vex’s Incarnate tree to create some monstrous builds where Vex is constantly throwing out Minions to kill enemies before she even fires a shot.

A Tier Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Skill Trees

Harlowe Flux Generator (Green Tree)

• Flux Generator Build

Flux Generator is given to Harlowe’s Cosmic Brilliance tree found in her green skills, and it has the potential to be powerful, provided with endgame investment. Flux Generator will see Harlowe throw an Energy Field, which is as powerful as it is defensive, thanks to the fact that it deals Cryo Damage, Entangles enemies, and grants Overshield. Players can really invest in Flux Generator to provide Harlowe with a great ad-clearing build that provides her with great buffs, especially with her Group Study Capstone for increased Reload Speed, Fire Rate, and Gun Damage, which can be constantly retriggered to ensure she’s always on top form. With high Stacks, there’s a lot to work with Flux Generator, but it does require a lot of work.

Amon Scourge (Blue Tree)

• Scourge Build

Vengeance is the blue skill tree for Amon, which provides him with his Scourge Action Skill, and it’s one that requires heavy endgame investment to work, but when it’s working, it’s a lot of fun. While Amon’s Action Skill to absorb damage with his Forgeshield is nice for frontal protection, his Forgewave whip doesn’t deal stellar damage and is best left behind for the main focus of Amon’s talents, which is Cryo Damage and Ordnance Damage. With endgame investment, players can grow their Ordnance damage and Cryo Status Effect Chance/Damage, freezing and killing everything with cold hell, while never running out of Ordnance ammo. This can turn Amon into a rocket-launcher-spamming menace that can wipe out bosses, but the right equipment is required to get this working.

B Tier Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Skill Trees

Harlowe Zero-Point (Blue Tree)

• Zero-Point Build

Harlowe’s Zero-Point Action Skill from the blue skill tree of Seize the Day is pretty fun to use, and reminiscent somewhat of Maya’s Phaselock ability. Harlowe will place an enemy in Stasis, locking them into an orb that Harlowe can slam into the ground and into enemies for explosive damage. While it’s fun to throw enemies around like beach balls, it’s mainly meant for ad-clearing, as some stronger enemies can’t be placed into Stasis, so Badasses, Viles, and bosses can be bullied with thrown balls, but can’t be placed into them, making this skill tree a tad underwhelming when compared to her other trees that can nuke bosses.

Rafa Arc-Knives (Green Tree)

• Arc-Knives Build

Rafa’s Arc-Knives come from his green skill tree, This Year’s Gimmick, and they’re by far his most fun. Sadly, that comes at the cost of not being his most powerful. This skill tree focuses on melee attacks, and while players can create a build that can deal some lethal hits, the aggressive playstyle isn’t rewarded with invulnerability or enough damage to warrant risking it all just to get a few melee strikes.

Amon Crucible (Green Tree)

• Crucible Build

Amon’s Crucible set comes from his green skill tree with the Cybernetics deck. The main focus of this skill tree is Elemental Effects, Forgeaxes, and Forgedrones. There are two ways to invest in Crucible, which makes it a tad more complex than the rest. Players can invest in Forgedrones to have an army of flying, elemental axes that damage enemies, but these are pretty weak, even after wasting skill points into them. However, Amon’s Crucible tree comes to life with ad-control with Status Effect Damage and Chance from his Gun Damage and from throwing his Axes, providing a fairly decent build that requires a bit more work to get rolling.

C Tier Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Skill Trees

Amon Onslaughter (Red Tree)

• Onslaughter Build

Amon’s red Calamity skill tree focuses mostly on melee, which isn’t the most reliable. Onslaughter allows Amon to enjoy constant Shield Regeneration, a bonus to Movement Speed and Incendiary Damage, as well as the ability to charge towards foes with a Rocket Punch. However, the punching is underwhelming and can’t be used to destroy bosses with a knuckle sandwich. This skill tree really only offers survivability against ad-dense locations, and while you’re unlikely to die with this skill tree, you’re going to be in boss fights for far longer than the other skill trees and Vault Hunters.

Vex Phase Phamiliar (Red Tree)

• Phase Phamiliar Build

Here Comes Trouble is Vex’s red skill tree that focuses on Phase Phamiliar, which provides Vex with Trouble as a permanent Minion. Trouble has decent health and pretty good damage, and Vex’s Action Skill and Skill Points are all about investing into this Minion to make it even stronger. While fun in theory (and cute to have a pet cat), Trouble’s AI can be rather frustrating to rely on, and even when enemies are focusing on Trouble, they can overwhelm and kill him. It’s hard to use Phase Phamiliar while making Vex overpowered, as there’s not much synergy between woman and beast to make this build work, especially when Vex’s other skill trees steal the show.

Rafa APOPHIS Lance (Blue Tree)

• APOPHIS Lance Build

APOPHIS Lance is Rafa’s blue skill tree, People Person, in which he equips an offhand Arm Cannon that fires Piercing Blast and deals Shock Ordnance Damage. While players can use the Arm Cannon and their main weapon at the same time, it’s fairly underwhelming. The Shock damage isn’t that powerful, and the lack of accuracy and movement buffs feels more like Rafa is using a non-lethal taser while shooting a gun, essentially making him vulnerable to enemies since the range is so very short and the survivability is nearly non-existent.

Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Tier List

With the Skill Trees from each Vault Hunter ranked above, we’ve managed to provide a tier list ranking of each of the Vault Hunters based on overall performance to determine which is the most overpowered. While some Vault Hunters are certainly statistically stronger than others, it doesn’t take away from how fun each of them feels to play as.