A little under two weeks ago, Gearbox Software had a gameplay deep dive for the upcoming Borderlands 4. In this gameplay deep dive, they showcased some of the game’s story and setting, but most importantly, gameplay. The gameplay shown was dedicated to talking about new movement mechanics, such as the glide, climb, and grappling hook mechanic. As well as new layers of RNG for the gun system, where you will now be able to have multiple gun parts fused into one another, which is extremely exciting to think about, as the gun drops already have multiple layers of randomness to account for. But one of the things they touched on a little bit was the new Vault Hunters.
Vault Hunters in Borderlands are extremely powerful characters that you play as in the series with signature Action Skills. The first game had very simple characters, while the second game upped the ante with the cool factor and skill trees, and the third game raised the bar higher with crazy levels of depth for building each Vault Hunter. Whether it was the guns on Moze’s Iron Bear mech or how effective Zane’s drone, shield, or decoys performed, they really went above and beyond. With all of this being said, Borderlands 4 seems to be experimenting with new ideas for each Vault Hunter, and they all sound very interesting.
Vault Hunters for Borderlands 4 In Order
As mentioned before, Borderlands 4 seems to be going for more important choices with Vault Hunter Action Skills and their skill trees. Each Vault Hunter will have a total of 3 unique Action Skills to choose from. After halfway into their skill trees for either one, there are 3 branching paths for them. The branching paths account for half of the skill tree for each option, but no doubt adds more choices for players to customize their signature builds.
In Borderlands 4, you can pick from either Vex the Siren, Rafa the Exo-soldier, Harlowe the Gravitator, or Amon the Forgeknight. Here is what we know about their backstories and their abilities so far.
Vex Details
The descriptions of each Vault Hunter will be taken from the official web page for Borderlands 4. The backstory for Vex is as follows:
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.
Vex’s abilities in the game can either be a projectile that deals massive damage to enemies or the ability to summon either a clone of herself with a scythe (which is cool) or a pet like FL4K from Borderlands 3.
Rafa Details
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.
Rafa’s abilities, as seen so far in trailers, can either be the ability to summon a literal arm cannon to shoot at enemies or summon neon arm blades and go into third person for a melee onslaught.
Harlowe Details
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.
Harlowe’s abilities, as seen so far in trailers, can either be a more widespread version of Maya’s phaselock from Borderlands 2 or the ability to shoot a giant orb from a digistructed (Borderlands term) cannon.
Amon Details
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.
Amon is a weird one, considering we have only ever seen him throw an axe he can summon, as you see above. But in the recent gameplay trailer from the YouTube channel, we can see him summoning a shield. Whether it’s an actual ability or something from the trailer remains to be seen.
These Vault Hunters for Borderlands 4 seem like they can fulfill many different niches. Vex has gotten the most screentime gameplay-wise. But Rafa seems like he has a more interesting playstyle, whether you pick the blades or the arm cannon. Harlowe may be great for crowd control, while Amon may be a one man army type of deal. One thing is for certain, though: the game offers 3 different Action Skills. As well as 3 different paths for each Action Skill is going to be very fun to play around with. I can only imagine what else Gearbox has up their sleeves for these new Vault Hunters.
Borderlands 4 is slated to launch on September 12th for Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. There is no confirmed price for the game as of right now (which may be a bad sign, as Microsoft raised prices on their games recently to $79.99 USD starting this holiday, following Nintendo for Mario Kart World).
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