Borderlands 4: Which Vault Hunter to Level First and Why

The Vault Hunter you should level first in Borderlands 4 is whichever one matches how you actually like to fight, not whichever character sits on top of someone’s power ranking. Borderlands 4 currently has several classes that are genuinely strong when played well, but only one of them fits your instincts, and that’s the one worth putting your first 50 or so hours into. This guide breaks down what each Vault Hunter does, how it survives, when it starts clicking, whether you can undo a bad pick later, and what parts of the decision honestly don’t matter at all.

Most “best class” content ranks Vault Hunters by raw power and tells you to pick the top of the list. That’s the wrong question here. Borderlands 4 doesn’t have one dominant class dragging three weak ones behind it — it has four playstyles that are all viable in the hands of someone who enjoys playing them. A player who hates melee combat will not have more fun on the strongest melee character in the game; they’ll just be grinding through a playstyle they don’t like while a “worse” pick sitting in their preferred lane would have felt better from level one. The right question isn’t “who’s strongest,” it’s “who plays the way I already want to play.”

Borderlands 4 launched with four playable Vault Hunters — Amon, Harlowe, Rafa, and Vex — and Gearbox Software has said more Vault Hunters, including one reported as C4SH, are coming through post-launch content. That means the choice most players are making right now is between the four launch characters. Exact release timing and kits for the post-launch additions aren’t confirmed, so treat anything about them as unconfirmed until Gearbox details it officially.

Amon, the Forgeknight — melee tank

As Amon, the Forgeknight in Borderlands 4, you charge into combat with brute force, using Forgeskill to craft weapons and deal massive melee and elemental damage. His action skills revolve around a Forgehammer slam, a thrown Forgeaxe, and a frontal shield, and deploying a Firewall that absorbs enemy projectiles and grants friendly projectiles that pass through it increased damage and projectile speed when his defensive tree is active. He survives by soaking damage directly rather than avoiding it, which makes him forgiving for players who don’t want to manage positioning constantly. He’s strong early because tankiness scales well before you have good gear, and he stays relevant into the late game once his Forgeskill combos and elemental switching are unlocked.

Harlowe, the Gravitar — control and support

Harlowe, the Gravitar, excels in crowd control and co-op support with gravity gadgets, and one of her abilities, Zero-Point, allows Harlowe to place an enemy in stasis, which means they can’t move until the ability is over. She’s built for players who like locking enemies down before committing damage rather than tanking hits or sprinting into the middle of a fight. Her value ramps up in group content and against dense enemy packs, where her ability to cluster and stasis targets turns chaotic fights into manageable ones — she’s less about solo burst and more about making every other Vault Hunter’s damage land cleaner.

Rafa, the Exo-Soldier — mobile DPS

Rafa is the DPS of the Vault Hunters and the most versatile in the game, focusing on rapid energy attacks with great movement speed and damage boosters thanks to his Trait. He fights with Arc Knives, a piercing Shock lance, and shoulder-mounted turret cannons, and is a hard character to master, with action skills like Arc-Knives and Peacebreaker Cannons featuring many complicated actions required to maximize their impact. He rewards players who like fast, aggressive, skill-expression combat over slower, safer play, and he’s genuinely tricky at low levels before you understand his combo timing — most of his ceiling shows up once you’ve learned the augment interactions rather than in the opening hours.

Vex, the Siren — elemental caster and summoner

Vex is Attuned to the Elemental Type of her current Gun, converting all Action Skill and Melee Damage into that type, which ties her whole kit to whatever weapon element you’re carrying. She can also summon a Phase Familiar that changes its elemental damage based on the weapon she currently wields, summon illusory clones of herself with Dead Ringer that can also automatically attack enemies, or empower herself with Incarnate. She survives through a mix of pet aggro and self-sustain rather than a shield or stasis lock, and she suits players who like flexible builds that can lean pet, caster, or hybrid gun-synergy depending on mood. She’s playable from early levels but her real strength shows once you’re swapping weapon elements deliberately to feed her passive.

You can fully respec your skill points, but you cannot swap which Vault Hunter your save file is playing without starting a new character. To reset your skill points in Borderlands 4, you need to use a Respec Machine in any faction settlement, the first of which you’ll unlock is at The Launchpad during the Down and Outbound mission, the third in the main story. This does come with a fee attached, with the total cost usually being a percentage of your total cash on hand, and it costs a flat amount of Eridium (commonly cited as around 5,000) to respec your specialization tree, and Eridium is much harder to come by. Some coverage puts the skill-tree fee roughly around 10% of your total Cash, but treat that as an estimate rather than a locked number — Gearbox has adjusted economy values before and can do so again without a full notes post. What is confirmed is that there’s no limit on the number of times you can reset your skills, except for how much cash your characters have.

A lot of the anxiety around this decision is misplaced. Your Vault Hunter choice does not lock you out of good loot, does not change how fast you level, and does not determine whether you can clear late-game content — gear rarity, anointments, and your character level do almost all of that heavy lifting, and they apply equally regardless of which Vault Hunter is holding the gun. If you’re mapping out the climb to max level, the route to level 60 guide covers what actually gates that progress, and it isn’t your class pick. Once you’re geared for endgame, the same logic carries into harder content — the Hadron Abyss and raid boss guide is built around gear and mechanics knowledge, not around which of the four Vault Hunters you’re running.

Myth: your first pick locks your build forever

It doesn’t. Respec exists specifically so you can pivot within a class, and if you truly hate the character itself rather than just your build, nothing stops you from starting a second Vault Hunter alongside your first.

Myth: solo players need the “best” class

Unlike previous Borderlands games, there is no best Vault Hunter baked into the design — solo viability comes down more to whether you’re comfortable managing your own crowd control and sustain, which every class can do through its skill tree once built out.

Once you’ve settled on a Vault Hunter, the class decision mostly stops mattering and progression systems take over. If you’re prepping for the story expansion content, the Story Pack 2 farming guide covers what to stock up on before diving in, and that prep list barely changes based on which of the four Vault Hunters you’re running — it’s driven by gear tiers and mission requirements, not class identity.