Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters Tier List & Best Build (Skill) for Each Character

Borderlands 4 only has four different characters, called Vault Hunters, while each class has three action skills to choose from. Which Vault Hunter is the most powerful, and which skill tree should you pick? Check out this BL4 character tier list to see the best Vault Hunters with the strongest skill tree, and the best build for each one.

All Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters & Skill Tree Explained

There are four Vault Hunters available in Borderlands 4; one class has 3 different skill trees, each originating from a specific action skill and color (blue, green, and red). You can choose only one active skill at a time, then slot any one Augment, and finish with one Capstone. Augments and Capstones are both enhancements to modify the functions of your action skills. To unlock a tier on the skill tree, you need to invest 5 points. 

1. Harlowe

Harlowe is a brilliant ex-Malawan scientist equipped with cutting-edge technology and a unique ability to manipulate the battlefield through elemental status effects, especially Cryo and Radiation. She excels in controlling groups of enemies by freezing and applying her exclusive Entangle status, which links damage across multiple foes. Harlowe’s gameplay is highly tactical, rewarding players who like to debuff enemies and maximize elemental damage explosions strategically. However, she is less suited for direct melee combat and requires precise positioning to fully leverage her skills.

Active Skills

• Green Skill Tree (Flux Generator): Deploys an AoE field that freezes enemies, grants overshields to allies, and applies Entangle status, causing linked enemies to share damage taken.

• Blue Skill Tree (Zero Point): Suspends an enemy mid-air, similar to crowd control abilities, with the option to slam them down to create an explosive burst, applying Entangle.

• Red Skill Tree (CHROMA Accelerator): Fires a slow-moving orb that freezes enemies on contact and detonates a radiation explosion. Can be augmented to bounce between foes.

2. Amon

Amon is a powerful Viking-inspired warrior with exceptional versatility thanks to his Trade Forge mechanic, which doubles his effective skills by allowing alternate uses on hold. His build paths allow specialization in elemental ranged weaponry, tanking, or melee aggression. Amon can throw elemental axes, protect himself with a giant shield, or charge in with a devastating rocket punch. This versatility comes with complexity, requiring players to master multiple skills and modes to stay effective.

Active Skills

• Green Skill Tree (Crucible): Throws elemental axes (fire/frost) with multiple charges. Holding triggers Double Edge, a ricocheting frost/fire axe attack.

• Red Skill Tree (Onslaughter): Buffs shield regen, gun damage, and movement speed; melee attacks become rocket punches. Holding triggers Molten Slam, an AoE incendiary attack.

• Blue Skill Tree (Scourge): Spawns a giant shield that absorbs damage and builds vengeance for a powerful cryo wave attack. Holding triggers Firewall, a defensive barrier that absorbs projectiles and boosts projectile damage.

3. Vex

Vex is a siren who blends elemental damage with powerful minion summoning. Her elemental damage scales with the weapon she wields, making her highly adaptable. She commands her pet Phase Phamiliar, summons spectral clones of herself, and can unleash her inner siren powers with aggressive flight and Eldridge blasts. Vex’s gameplay suits both supportive summoning and solo aggressive damage, with a unique playstyle focusing on synergy between her and her minions. She requires managing multiple entities, which might be challenging for some players.

Active Skills

• Green Skill Tree (Incarnate): Unleashes siren power, granting skeletal wings, increased movement speed, and a powerful off-hand Eldridge blast that scales with gun damage.

• Blue Skill Tree (Dead Ringer): Summons clones — ranged Specters or melee Reapers — that fight alongside her. Clones can be mixed or stacked for varied combat tactics.

• Red Skill Tree (Phase Phamiliar): Summons her elemental pet Trouble, whose damage element matches the current weapon. Trouble can teleport to cause explosions and temporarily become more powerful.

4. Rafa

Rafa is a soldier outfitted with a high-tech exosuit, excelling in melee and ranged combat. His abilities allow him to wield massive arm blades, a giant off-hand cannon, or shoulder-mounted turrets. Rafa’s gameplay revolves around maintaining his Overdrive trait by frequently using action skills to increase movement speed and overall damage. This makes him a fast-paced, aggressive fighter with strong burst potential. While he can dish out heavy damage, managing cooldowns is essential to keep his buffs active.

Active Skills

• Green Skill Tree (Arc-Knives): Constructs large arm blades for melee combat, including dash attacks and a spinning blade fury. Marks enemies to increase damage taken.

• Blue Skill Tree (APOPHIS Lance): Equips a giant off-hand cannon firing piercing shock projectiles with multiple charges and an overcharge mechanic to increase damage and projectile size.

• Red Skill Tree (Peacebreaker Cannons): Summons shoulder-mounted turrets that continuously rain down fire, modifiable with elemental lasers, firebombs, or turret placement.

Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Tier List - BL4 Best Vault Hunters Ranked

1. Rafa Red Tree (Peacebreaker Cannons) - S Tier

The red skill tree of Rafa is amazing and one of the strongest in the entire game. Focus on it, you can summon shoulder turrets that automatically shoot enemies nonstop. These turrets do huge damage, heal Rafa, and can even shoot elemental lasers or firebombs. The action skill of this tree, Peacebreaker Cannons, is also a great DPS option. This skill tree makes bosses fall fast and is great for both mobs and single targets, so it’s ranked at the S tier.  

2. Vex Green Tree (Incarnate) - S Tier

When it comes to Vex, the green skill tree is extremely powerful. It lets her grow magical skeletal wings and shoot energy blasts that deal huge damage. She also gains strong buffs like life steal and can cause enemies to bleed, which deals damage over time. This tree melts bosses quickly and gives her great survivability.

3. Harlowe Red Tree (CHROMA Accelerator) - S Tier

Harlowe’s red skill tree fires a big orb that freezes enemies and explodes with radiation, causing massive damage. She can chain explosions for continuous damage, making this one of the highest damage skill trees in the game. While it lacks some defense, its raw power for both mobs and bosses is great. CHROMA Accelerator is the best action skill for Harlowe as it offers the highest damage and easiest leveling.

4. Amon Green Tree (Crucible) - A Tier

Amon has no skill trees ranked at S tier; its green tree is placed at A tier. With this, you can throw elemental axes that freeze or burn enemies. It also has cool skills that boost his shock damage and make his guns shoot lightning bolts for extra damage. This tree works well for both freezing enemies and dealing heavy damage, making it a strong choice for most fights and boss battles.

5. Vex Blue Tree (Dead Ringer) - A Tier

The blue skill tree summons clones called Specters and Reapers that fight for Vex. Specters attack from a distance but don’t move, while Reapers are melee fighters who chase enemies. These clones deal a lot of damage but are fragile, so you have to be careful where you place them. This tree is powerful but can struggle if the clones die too fast.

6. Harlowe Green Tree (Flux Generator) - A Tier

Harlowe’s green skill tree lets her drop a gadget that freezes enemies and links them with a status called Entangle, so damage done to one enemy spreads to all linked enemies. It also gives overshields to teammates inside the area. This makes her great at controlling crowds and helping allies, especially in team play.

7. Rafa Blue Tree (APOPHIS Lance) - B Tier

The APOPHIS Lance tree of Rafa lets him use a giant arm cannon that shoots piercing shock blasts. You can charge the shots to make them stronger. It’s a solid choice that can handle most fights once you get the right gear, but it doesn’t have much survivability, so you can get hurt if you get too close. It’s good overall but not the strongest or easiest to use in every situation.

8. Amon Blue Tree (Scourge) - B Tier

Amon’s blue skill tree grants him a giant shield that blocks attacks and builds up energy to release a freezing wave. It’s more defensive and tanky than his other trees, but has a long cooldown, which limits how often you can use it. It’s decent for survival but doesn’t deliver the highest damage, placing it in the middle tier.

9. Harlowe Blue Tree (Zero Point) - B Tier

Another blue skill tree, also ranked at the B tier, traps enemies in stasis bubbles, freezing them mid-air. You can slam them into others for extra damage, but it doesn’t work well on some bosses and has cooldown limitations. This skill is good for crowd control but less effective in tougher fights.

10. Rafa Green Tree (Arc-Knives) - C Tier

The green skill tree gives Rafa big melee blades called Arc-Knives to slice through groups of enemies. It’s very fun for fighting many small enemies quickly, but struggles against flying bosses or tough single targets. Rafa can also be pretty squishy here, so you might get knocked down a lot. Because of these problems, it’s the weakest of his skill trees.

11. Amon Red Tree (Onslaughter) - C Tier

The red skill tree of Amon Vault Hunter focuses on melee combat, giving him fiery punches and fast movement. It’s fun and powerful in close fights, but struggles a lot against bosses because the damage is slower and less effective. This makes it one of the weaker skill trees for tougher battles.

12. Vex Red Tree (Phase Phamiliar) - C Tier

Vex’s red skill tree centers around her pet Trouble, who fights alongside her and can turn into a stronger version for a short time. The pet supports her well, but sometimes gets stuck or dies easily, which can leave Vex on her own. 

Borderlands 4 Best Builds for Each Vault Hunter

1. BL4 Best Vex Build

This Vex build uses the Incarnate action skill combined with her Repkit to heal and slash cooldowns, letting you fire nonstop. The secret weapon here is Eldritch Blast, which refills your ammo so you don’t have to stop to reload, meaning you can dump bullets into enemies continuously. Fast-firing Vladof SMGs like the Kaoson and powerful assault rifles like Wombo Combo fit perfectly since they maximize the stacks from her Mortal Terror kill skill. You’ll pump points into the green skill tree to reduce Repkit cooldown and boost crit damage, with some support from the blue and red trees for reload speed and skill duration.

What makes this build powerful is how fluid and relentless it feels; you’re always shooting, always moving, and rarely stopping to reload. The downside? You need to carefully pick your weapons and keep an eye on cooldowns, or your damage won’t stay as high. For best results, use Repkits that quickly refresh your cooldowns and shields like Firewerks or Watts 4 Dinner to boost your survivability. Boss fights and big enemy waves go down fast when you master this rhythm.

2. BL4 Best Rafa Build

If precision and power are your style, this Rafa build lets you take out enemies with just one perfectly aimed blast. The Hot Slugger shotgun is the key gear, stacking huge damage bonuses thanks to its blazing barrel, making every shot hit like a truck. The goal is to constantly land crits to keep your Overdrive skill running as long as possible. The longer you stay in Overdrive, the more damage you deal. Reloading often is part of the strategy because it resets your cooldowns and extends your skill uptime. You’ll sink most points into Rafa’s red tree to boost gun damage, action skill duration, and splash damage, while the blue tree helps with reload speed and cooldown restoration.

This build rewards skillful aiming and timing, turning you into a one-shot killing machine that can chain kills together for massive crowd damage. You’ll want to farm the Hot Slugger from the Callous Harbinger boss and pair it with a class mod that doubles your Overdrive bonuses. While it’s aggressive and powerful, it demands good aim and consistent crits to keep your action skill active and wreck enemies without pause.

3. BL 4 Best Amon Build

For those who enjoy freezing mobs in their tracks and then finishing off bosses with powerful melee strikes, this Amon build is perfect. The Kickballer shotgun is a must-have legendary BL4 item; its shots ricochet endlessly around the arena, letting you hit bosses repeatedly without aiming perfectly. Pair it with the Onion shield for strong damage immunity, and your action skill, which freezes enemies and applies cryo damage to control the battlefield. The skill points are split between boosting ordinance and cryo damage in the blue tree and increasing melee damage and crit chance in the red tree.

You freeze groups of enemies with your action skill, blast them with your shotgun, and dive into melee for big boss damage. It can be gear-heavy and risky since you get up close to enemies, but with the right setup, you’ll be shredding enemies with style. It’s a great choice if you like mixing ranged freezes with up-close combat.

4. BL4 Best Harlowe Build

The Harlowe build is all about creating powerful burst damage windows for you and your team without relying on Overshield. The core strategy is stacking her Group Study Capstone skill twice to get massive, stackable auras that boost gun damage, fire rate, and reload speed for everyone. You start fights by throwing a homing radiation grenade to prime enemies with radiation damage, then unload a full magazine of crit shots during the buff window.

The skill tree is focused mostly on her green tree, with Neutron Decay (5/5) as your main damage amplifier, providing a constant radiation damage boost. You also take Confirmative Reality (3/3) to massively speed up your action skill cooldowns, so those double-cast bursts come back fast. Reload speed for you and your team is improved with Mass Function (2/5), helping maintain the smooth rhythm of firing and re-triggering your skills. Gear-wise, you want fast-firing weapons like SMGs, assault rifles, or multi-pellet shotguns to maximize crit frequency and take full advantage of your buff windows. Your grenade should be a homing radiation grenade with good stats to keep enemies irradiated and maximize damage. For class mods, go for gun damage until level 32, then switch to a Critical Funding mod to strengthen your crit-based entangle chains. Shields should focus on capacity and recharge speed to keep you healthy, though you don’t rely on overshield here.