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One of the biggest strengths of theBorderlandsfranchise has always been its playable characters.Vault Hunters are people from all walks of lifewhose personal journeys have taken them on a pursuit of endless riches, glory, or perhaps even redemption, united by a shared love for loot and desire to blow bad guys up.
Following the tradition of the series,Borderlands 4features four Vault Hunters who will be included in the base game, although two additional Vault Hunters have been hinted at as part of theSuper Deluxe Editionthat’ll include dozens of premium cosmetics and DLC stories.
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As revealed in the"Beyond the Borderlands" video, the developers emphasize that Vault Hunters should be characters that players can relate to, and they’re building a specific kind of power fantasy for players to revel in. While all Vault Hunters share the same general movement mechanics, their abilities, playstyles, and personalities vary significantly.
Throughout the franchise, the four base Vault Hunters have always followed a certain kind of archetype: Siren, soldier, tank, and techie. Since the first game, the franchise has always tried to innovate and reinvent these tropes, mixing and mashing them together to create fresh characters, like combining a brawler with a Siren to create a character like Amara.
BeforeBorderlands 4releases, let’s take a look at each Vault Hunter, from their stories, their abilities, to how we think they’ll perform when the"biggestBorderlands"finally releases on September 12th.
Keep in mind that since much of the preview was spent experiencing the game and not buildcrafting, the full potential of these characters is yet to be known.
Vex, The Siren
Let’s start with one of the two Vault Hunters whom we know the most about, and the one that I spent the most time playing during the preview event.
As part of the tradition with every mainline game,Borderlands 4also features a Siren, this time a goth girl named Vex.She looks like she walked straight out of a Hot Topic,complete with black lipstick, painted nails, and a rebellious streak.
This is how theofficial game info pagedescribes Vex:
Vex had a rough upbringing that was made more complicated by receiving her Siren powers. Her cynical and sarcastic demeanor comes from having to fend for herself and scrape for everything she’s got. But underneath her salty exterior, Vex is an empath who knows better than anyone how much life can suck. Ever the pessimist, Vex still believes in helping others. And if helping others means dealing damage to oppressive jerks, Vex will always be first in line.
During the hands-on event,I spent a lot of time playing as Vex in the preview version.Much like her Siren predecessors,she’s an incredibly powerful character with supernatural abilities that fit the “mage” archetype really well, particularly the necromancer and summoner archetypes.
Her voicelines also give her a lot of charm. While she has a bit of a prickly sense of humor, she sounds eager to help the Outbounders, and her constant little jokes make her an endearing character to listen to.
In the base game, Vex will have three Action Skills, all of which attune to the elemental damage of the gun she’s wielding: Dead Ringer, Phase Phamiliar, and Incarnate.
Dead Ringer allows Vex to summon around three clones of herself,choosing between the scythe-wielding Reapers or gun-toting Specters.
Phase Phamiliar summons Trouble to her side,a phantasmal sabertooth cat who can automatically attack enemies and can be resummoned as the Badass Big Trouble to deal more damage to enemies while autonomously fighting alongside her.
Lastly, Vex has Incarnate,which allows her to regenerate health, deal immediate burst damage, and fire off Eldritch Blasts like aD&DWarlock.
Of the three Action Skills, I found that Dead Ringer to be the best and most convenient, as the fire-and-forget playstyle allows your clones to take the heat off of you while you reload and reposition.
you’re able to likely spec into min-maxing the cooldown timer so that you can summon an army of Vexes, though I’m sure that there would be a cap on the number of clones you can summon at once.
Since mostBorderlandsplayers often start with the Siren on their first playthrough–myself included—it’s no doubt that Vex will be the most popular character by a rather wide margin.
Rafa, The Exo-Soldier
Rafa was the other playable Vault Hunter during the preview event. As I spent the majority of the time playing as Vex, I admittedly did not get enough time playing as Rafa. Still, based on the brief time I spent trying out his abilities, this terminal soldier seems like somewhat of a departure from the disciplined Moze and Roland, or the dejected Axton.
Here’s how the official Game Info describes our Exo-Soldier:
Rafa was born and raised in microgravity, which severely altered his bone density and musculature, making it impossible for him to survive elsewhere. Desperate to explore, he signed up to Tediore’s military force. In exchange for a tour of duty, his body was altered for a new kind of exo-suit. But when it became clear Tediore never intended to end his service, Rafa went AWOL. Now he’s on the run and plans to enjoy whatever time he has left before his Tediore Deadframe ends him for good.
Even on a surface level, Rafa’s story seems exceptionally tragic compared to the other Vault Hunters here. Imagine having a deadly exo-suit grafted onto you that may kill you at a moment’s notice.
This shows through Rafa’s devil-may-care and nonchalant demeanor. One of the voicelines that triggers when Rafa respawns is him calming himself down, saying “Everything’s going to be okay… [the Deadframe] could explode any moment, but that moment isn’t now… Or now… Hmmm, now? No? Ay, bueno.”
Rafa seems like the kind of character who lives in the moment, embracing the joys of life despite the bleak circumstances he finds himself in, and that’s something that’ll certainly garner him some fans through sheer relatability.
As for his Action Skills, Rafa’s Deadframe exo-suit allows him to deploy three abilities from his arsenal: Arc-Knives, APOPHIS Lance, and Peacebreaker Cannons.
Deploying Arc-Knives will shift the camera to a third-person perspective, giving him the ability to deal major melee damage with dual knife-like claws and mark enemies, similar to the Berserker Titan inDestiny 2.This Action Skill is great for those who want to get up close and personal with foes,though that runs the risk of getting downed rather quickly if you’re not careful enough.
Rafa’s second ability is the APOPHIS Lance,summoning an Arm Cannon in his offhand that fires slow-moving Shock projectiles that can be charged to unleash a large ball of energy,much like Mega Man’s Mega Buster. It deals respectable damage and has a relatively short cooldown, and it seems more like an extra gun for him to use during combat.
Rafa’s third ability is the Peacebreaker Cannons,shoulder-mounted cannons that automatically lock on and fire upon enemies within Rafa’s line of sight.Because I tried out a Level 5 build, Rafa’s Peacebreaker Cannon bullets felt more like tickling the enemy than anything.
I also didn’t have much time testing out the full capabilities of Rafa’s abilities, but based on what I can tell from his skill trees and the true extent of his predecessors, it’s safe to say that Rafa might be one of the more meta characters for dealing insanely high damage.
Harlowe, The Gravitar
Now we’re moving on to the lesser-known Vault Hunters. Other than the official Game Info page, we’ll be working solely with speculation based ontrailers.
It’s common that every mainlineBorderlandsgame features a soldier whose equipment has technology from a major weapons manufacturer. Roland uses Atlas turrets, Axton uses his Dahl turret, Moze uses her Vladof “Iron Bear” mech, and Rafa has a Tediore exo-suit grafted onto his body.
Borderlands 4bends this tradition, featuring anothercorporatecharacter in Harlowe, a Maliwan combat scientist who deploys her gadgetry to disorient and trap her foes.
Here’s what the official Game Info says about her:
Harlowe is a former Maliwan combat scientist, driven by the need to understand how things work. While this initially made her an outcast amongst her Traunt relatives, Harlowe has used her intellect to bring new tech and gadgetry to the battlefield as a Vault Hunter. Harlowe’s brilliance is apparent in everything she does, but so is her enthusiasm and love for life. Harlowe brings everything to the fight, including her sunny disposition. Always ready to give a beat down, her spirit can’t be beat.
People who have playedBorderlands 3will remember the Traunt name—both Captain and General Traunt are Maliwan soldiers whom the Vault Hunters have faced and defeated in the main campaign, though it’s doubtful that Harlowe feels bitter about that since she was an outcast in her own family.
We don’t know much about Harlowe’s Action Skills, but they seem very technical and require more strategy than her peers. It seems like one of her signature abilities is deploying bubbles that are somewhat reminiscent of Maya’s Phase Lock ability, which traps and locks enemies in the air to allow for an opportune attack.
Another Action Skill that we can see in the trailer is her ability to whip out a giant cannon and fire a large ball of energy at her enemies, seemingly dealing a ton of elemental damage.
Not much else is known about Harlowe, but based on her “sunny disposition,” it’s clear that she’s going to be the loud and eager one of the bunch. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Amon, The Forgeknight
Amon is perhaps the Vault Hunter whom we know the least about, at least in terms of his story. While his peers may already have plenty of information revealed or can be inferred via their connection with the world lore, Amon’s backstory has the least to work with.
You can tell that Amon fits the tanky, berserker archetype the most. With a beefy, obviously Viking-inspired build and a seemingly stoic demeanor, Amon feels like a character who is secretly a big softy inside, much likeOverwatch’sReinhardt.
Here’s what the official game info says about him:
Amon was raised in a Vault monster-worshipping cult—until the Vault was opened and the creature turned on everyone he loved. As the only survivor, he dedicates his life to finding and killing as many of these beasts as he can. Amon, a warrior-poet, is introspective and unflinching to his duty, but despite his hardened appearance, he has a warm attitude, often regaling comrades in arms with stories and advice earned throughout his travels.
Based on his title and what is revealed, Amon’s abilities are most likely going to be centered around summoning weapons to decimate his foes or supporting his allies with a shield.
As far as we can tell, he can summon two battleaxes—one Frost and one Incendiary—and slam them into the ground to deal massive burst damage. Alternatively, he can also summon a transparent shield that seems to block damage in front of him.
Until more information is released, this is all we know about the four Vault Hunters whom we’ll be playing.
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