Borderlands 4 Vex Leveling guide

Vex is probably my favorite of the Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4, and who I’m currently working on playing in my first playthrough. If you’re looking for a fun leveling build that absolutely melts whatever you’re facing, I’m all too glad to help. I’m also a sucker for any build that has minions that show up and help you fight, and that’s exactly the route we’re going through our time with Vex.

Her Specters do fantastic damage, and just pure shred through shields and healthbars, which is exactly what I like. While personally I’m not crazy about shotguns in most games, we’re going to be using those here, and since it’s Borderlands 4, I’ll learn to love them.

I’m sure there will be some absolutely mad legendaries and affixes on the guns. But if you’re looking to play Vex in BL4, here’s how to level her up and get the most out of her kit.

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Best Skill Tree progression route for Vex in Borderlands 4

Most of our points as a Vex player in Borderlands 4 are going to be going into her Dead Ringer (Blue) tree, thanks to the overwhelming power of the skill associated with it. We’re going to use Dead Ringer to summon allies that stick around as long as they have health, and shoot our enemies constantly. We’re looking at likely a 0/13/37 split across the Red/Green/Blue trees respectively.

Here's where the majority of your points are going to be spent - in the Blue tree (Image via 2K Games)

This build will see her regaining health (as well as her minions) whenever you get a kill, and 20% health back at rank 5 of Sanguine Fiends is nothing to sniff at. This build is all about scaling our minions to have as much damage as humanly possible. Another great pick is Blood Sacrifice, which triggers our Kill Skills (all of them) whenever a minion dies. That’s going to get out of hand fast.

We also definitely want the Coven augment, which grants buffs when we summon minions. Reapers grant Health Regeneration and Specters grant Critical Hit Chance. This is what makes Prismatic Weaponry feel great.

Our Capstone of choice is clearly Dark Pact, which lets us full heal all Phase Clones, as well as grant Movement Speed/Minion attack Speed. While Dark Pact is active, the Phase Clones do not lose Health over time, and Health loss is reset after Dark Pact ends. This is overwhelming value when fighting a powerful foe, that’s for sure. Below, you’ll see our primary path through the skill trees in Borderlands 4 for Vex as you level up:

• Sanguine Fiends (Blue) x5
• Grave Assault (Blue) x5
• Blood Sacrifice (Blue) x1
• Grave Quickening (Blue) x4
• Prismatic Weaponry (Blue) x5
• Coven (Augment, Blue)
• Obedient Fiends (Blue) x5
• Diener (Blue) x1
• Dark Pact (Capstone, Blue) pick Wither as second Augment
• Prismatic Ichor (Blue) x5
• Respec Grave Assault, swap to Portents of Suffering (Blue) x5
• Guns and Needles (Green) x3
• Grave Sights (Green) x2
• Bloodletter (Green) x5
• Fiendish Invigoration (Green) x3
• Burning Attunement (Blue) x5

If you should come across a Penetrator Knife in your travels through Borderlands 4, this could change how you spec just a bit. Penetrator makes Damage to the impacted target become automatic Critical Hits for 5s.

If you do stumble into this, stop what you’re doing in your build, and immediately rush 5 points into Bloodletter. Since that makes your Gun/Skill Crits have a chance to apply Bleed, the damage will spiral out of control immediately.

Bloodletter is also one of your big power spikes. It's later in your build, but the ability to trigger Bleeds, that are also considered Status Effects is serious business for this build.

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Best leveling gear for Vex in Borderlands 4

Ideally, our gun of choice is probably going to be a shotgun in this build, especially if we get said Penetrator Augment. That, plus Bloodletter turns Shotguns into killing machines. One of the ideal Shotguns we want to find is the Jakobs Dullahan, with Spread Launcher. We’ve got a few other useful things to look out for, such as the Medical Commander Class Mod.

It grants bonuses to Fiendish Invigoration and Infusion, which gives us Bonus Damage with Guns and Melee Damage for a Duration. The Elemental Type for that damage is also based on our current Attunement. This skill is deep in the Red tree, so we’d normally never see it with this build.

Another great option are Alchemist Classmods for Vex in Borderlands 4. This gives you points in Prismatic Ichor, which is fantastic. When bossing, if you can find a Classmod that gives you points in Bloodletter, keep that on hand.

Another great piece of gear can be farmed from the first boss, and it’s the Firewerks Shield. It has Bundled, which, on kill (you or your minions) fires Missiles that home in on enemies and explode for a ton of damage. That’s a must-have. Just go kill Splashzone over and over until you get it.

• Ideal Weapon Type: Shotgun
• Underbarrel Attachments: Spread Launcher, Knife Launcher, Shotgun
• Class Mod: Medical Commander/Alchemist
• Ideal Repkit: Low Cooldown, (10s or less is great), with Accelerator, Amp, Leech, or Repkit Cooling
• Shield: Firewerks (Farmed from first boss)
• Enhancement: Legendary Jakobs, if possible or Maliwan

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General Vex gameplay tips in Borderlands 4

Vex makes grinding and farming incredibly easy, thanks to all her friends (Image via 2K Games/YouTube@Moxsy)

Thanks to our talents for Vex in Borderlands 4, we’re dropping tons of Status Effect damage, as well as Bleed, thanks to Bloodletter. Bleeds are also affected by Status Effect Application Chance, and is itself also considered a Status Effect. This, alongside our other Status Effect talents allows us to do absurd damage, especially when our Specters are up.

Having three Specters up and activating Dark Pact gives your swarm a much longer lease on life. They can still die to enemy damage, but they won’t lose constant health, as long as the power is active, and the health loss resets at the end. They stick around and eliminate threats in such a swift, devastating fashion. These, combined with the random Elemental Status Effects you get from Prismatic Ichor means that no foe is going to stand a chance, be they a common nobody or a Badass.

The Bleeds will then proc more dots, which in turn further ramps your damage. It’s kind of like playing a Necromancer in Diablo 4. Your minions are going to be doing some serious heavy lifting. You’ll also get extra fire rate from using your Repkit in the later phases of leveling in Borderlands 4, thanks to Fiendish Invigoration.

You don’t really need to do a ton of shooting as a Vex player, once you really come online. Your Specters are going to do the work for you, and all the synergy from your build will just ramp your damage. However you do still want a solid shotgun on hand, so when Badasses try to test you, they melt under the overwhelming power of Vex.

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Check out our other Borderlands 4 guides and features

• All Weapon Manufacturers in Borderlands 4
• Who is the villain of Borderlands 4?
• What are Enhancements in Borderlands 4?
• Does Borderlands 4 have co-op and crossplay?