This Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter Tier List is based on over 150 hours of gameplay experience, full skill tree testing, and endgame build viability analysis. Each Vault Hunter has been evaluated across their three core skill trees, ranked based on bossing, mobbing, synergy potential, gear dependency, and ease of use throughout the leveling and endgame content.
Tier List Scoring Methodology
Each Vault Hunter’s skill tree is ranked independently on a traditional S > A > B > C scale:
S Tier – Breaks the game. Extremely strong damage output, utility, or survivability.
A Tier – Strong performance across all stages of the game. Reliable and versatile.
B Tier – Viable, but typically requires specific gear or conditions.
C Tier – Underdelivers, suffers from major weaknesses, or limited use cases.
At the end, the overall Vault Hunter rankings are derived from point totals:
- S = 1 point
- A = 2 points
- B = 3 points
- C = 4 points
Lower totals mean stronger performance overall.
Rafa – Peacebreaker Specialist
Red Tree (Peacebreaker Cannons) – S Tier
An auto-turret shoulder cannon build that scales incredibly well into the late game. Massive life-steal, boss melt potential, and AoE coverage. Players have cleared endgame holding level 30 weapons with this setup due to how powerful the cannons become.
Blue Tree (Apous Lance) – B Tier
Initially promising due to shock damage and crit synergy, but ultimately outshined by stronger gear interactions like Penetrator Knives. AoE is fine, but lacks reliable survivability in close-range combat.
Green Tree (Arc Knives) – C Tier
A flashy melee tree that falls flat against airborne bosses and suffers from low single-target damage. Fun for mobbing but frustrating at higher levels due to squishiness and poor scaling.
Rafa Total Score: 8 points
➤ Strongest tree in the game, but held back by weak melee and gear-gated blue tree.
Aman – The Forge Knight
Green Tree (Crucible) – A Tier
Surprisingly strong when spec’d for guns instead of drones. Key abilities like Bolt Action and Lightning Rod deal massive damage, especially when paired with freeze effects. Cryo axes with insta-freeze make mobbing and mini-bossing efficient.
Blue Tree (Scourge) – B Tier
A tanky shield-based skill with solid elemental shard synergy. The tree offers strong elemental layering via ordinance combos but heavily depends on specific legendary weapons to come online.
Red Tree (Onslaught) – C Tier
A fun melee brawler build that feels sluggish against bosses. Even with fire hammers and class mod scaling, this tree underperforms in endgame DPS compared to the others.
Aman Total Score: 9 points
➤ Fun to play, but ultimately the weakest Vault Hunter overall.
Vex – The Bleed Siren
Green Tree (Incarnate) – S Tier
One of the strongest boss-melting builds in the game. The Bleed mechanic, via Bloodletter, can stack to over 1200% gun damage per second. Insane scaling, strong survivability, and consistent performance from early to late game.
Blue Tree (Dead Ringer) – A Tier
Summons Specters or Reapers to do damage for you. Fantastic leveling and midgame support. Only downside is AI fragility — minions are squishy and can’t be repositioned easily. Still, very effective in the right hands.
Red Tree (Phase Familiar) – C Tier
While Trouble is a fun minion with utility potential, pathfinding issues, poor tankiness, and clunky AI make this the weakest tree. Can be used for damage buffs, but not reliable for high-level content.
✅ Vex Total Score: 7 points
➤ The strongest Vault Hunter overall due to two high-tier trees and massive scaling potential.
Harlo – The Gravitar
Red Tree (Chroma Accelerator) – S Tier
Massive AoE and bossing damage via radiation explosions and gun nuke infusion. High fire-rate synergy, action skill nukes, and rad chain reactions can clear rooms and delete bosses. Lacks survivability, but has the highest raw damage ceiling.
Green Tree (Flex Generator) – A Tier
Exceptional for mobbing and crowd control. Entanglement shares damage between enemies, while passive gun buffs scale well. Requires uptime planning and cooldown support, but very viable in solo and team play.
Blue Tree (Zero Point) – B Tier
A creative stasis bubble mechanic that allows crowd manipulation and AoE combos. However, it suffers in boss fights and high-mobility encounters due to targeting limitations and non-functional scaling against some enemy types.
Harlo Total Score: 8 points
➤ All trees are functional, and red tree pushes her very close to Vex in overall strength.
Final Vault Hunter Power Rankings
| Rank | Vault Hunter | Total Score | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vex | 7 | Top-tier boss killer and versatile mobber. Two outstanding trees. |
| 2 | Harlo | 8 | Very close to Vex. Three strong trees with high utility and burst. |
| 3 | Rafa | 8 | One broken tree, one mid, one weak. Still very viable. |
| 4 | Aman | 9 | Fun, but lower output and gear-reliant. Stronger as a support/tank role. |
All Vault Hunters are capable of clearing every piece of content in Borderlands 4 — but if you’re optimizing for pure efficiency, Vex and Harlo offer the most powerful builds right now. Rafa is worth playing for his Peacebreaker tree alone, and while Aman might be the weakest, he remains a solid and enjoyable pick for elemental and melee fans.