☆ How Rush Saved Mercenary Day (Bounty Pack 1)
★ 12 active SHiFT Codes as of December 4, 2025
☆ Black Market Location
★ Elemental Weakness Chart
☆ Legendary Weapons
★ Builds: Vex | Amon | Rafa | Harlowe

The Dead Ringer Vex build uses Dark Pact to amplify clones and make farming bosses easy for Vex in Borderlands 4. See the best builds, skills, weapons, and gear to use for Vex, along with the best skill tree abilities and character playstyle.
| All Vex Guides | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best Builds | Cosmetics | Skill Trees and Voice Actor |
| Leveling Build | Boss Farm Build | Bleed Build |
List of Contents
| Strengths | Weaknesses | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
✔︎Very high status effect damage ✔︎Can deal various elemental damages ✔︎Clones can melt down bosses by themselves |
✖︎Locked to mostly Elemental Guns ✖︎Requires max skill points to reach max potential ✖︎Clone range and targeting can be inconsistent |
Dead Ringer Vex shines in its ability to place down clones with different elements, allowing you to deal different types of elemental damage that can stack and melt down enemies.
Dark Pact also allows you to simply place down clones, activate Dark Pact, and simply just watch your clones melt down bosses in seconds, without you ever having to fire your weapon.
Due to the way Dead Ringer works, one of the build's weaknesses is that it requires you to equip different elemental weapons to maximize the attunement for your clones. Against multiple enemies, the Clones may also target different enemies, making it harder to defeat badasses or bosses before the clones expire.
| Skill Tree | The Fourth Seal |
|---|---|
| Action Skill: Dead Ringer | |
Dead Ringer allows Vex to summon multiple clones based on Vex' current Attunement. These clones deal gun damage based on their attunement, allowing you to place down clones that specifically target an enemy's weakness.
Vex can also choose between Reapers and Specters, giving you more flexibility, depending on the situation.
| |||
| Skill Tree | Priority Skills | ||
|---|---|---|---|
The Fourth Seal(Blue Tree) | Cold Iron Vex and her Minion(s) gain increased Gun Damage. Portents of Suffering Vex and her Minion(s) gain increased Status Effect Damage. Cursed Blade Vex's Melee Attacks apply Curse to hit enemies, making them take Kinetic Status Effect Damage any time they take Gun Damage. Prismatic Ichor When Vex or her Minion(s) apply a Status Effect, apply another random Elemental Status Effect. Keen Suffering Status Effect Damage gains a chance to Critically Hit. Recurrence Whenever Vex deals Gun Damage or Melee Damage, gain a Stack of Recurrence, which increases her and her Minions' Gun Damage and Melee Damage. Stacks of Recurrence are lost if a new Stack has not been gained for a Duration. This effect can stack. Haruspex Melee Override. Vex now throws a Phase Dagger from her offhand that deals Melee Damage to enemies hit. Phase Daggers can Critically Hit. Kill Skill. Haruspex's Cooldown is reset. Prismatic Weaponry Vex and her Specters deal Bonus Damage with Gun Critical Hits. The Bonus Damage will be a random Elemental Type that changes on Reload, and that is increased for each active Attunement. Ancient Rites Vex gains a stack of Ancient Rites for each of her active Minion(s) every second, increasing Minion Damage. Stacks are lost after a Duration with no active Minion. | ||
| |||
| Skill Tree | Priority Skills | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Vexcalation(Green Tree)Vexcalation | Leeching Attunement Attunement Skill. While Vex is Attuned to Kinetic, she gains Lifesteal and increased Reload Speed. These effects persist for a Duration after Attunement is switched. Bloodletter Gun and Skill Critical Hits have a chance to apply Bleed, causing Kinetic Status Effect Damage over time for a Duration. Bleed is affected by Status Effect Application Chance, and is itself considered a Status Effect. This effect can stack. | ||
The best skills for the Critical Clones Vex Build revolve around amplifying her minion damage and Status Effect damage.
From the Vexcalation Skill Tree, take Leeching Attunement to boost Vex' survivability by providing lifesteal upon equipping Kinetic Guns, and Bloodletter to inflict Bleed when attuned to Kinetic.
From Levels 1~30, your goal is to stack points into The Fourth Seal, until you unlock Dark Pact. Once Dark Pact is unlocked, with the skills equipped leading up to it, you should reach a point where you can effectively farm bosses alone.
From Level 31 onwards, take skills that will improve your runs significantly, such as Haruspex, in order to inflict Curse from a distance, and Prismatic Ichor which will inflict additional Status Effects when dealing damage.
Wither
|
Coven
|
With the Dark Pact Capstone, choose Wither and Coven as your Augments.
Wither increases your overall damage against an enemy, while Coven provides Critical Chance and HP Regen to you and your summons when spawning a Reaper.
Dark Pact
|
||
| Tree |
The Fourth Seal
(Branch 3) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Effect | ||
| Vex can now equip two Augments, and gains the ability to use Dark Pact. Dark Pact: Press and hold ability while a Minion is active to fully restore Health of all Phase Clones, as well as granting increased Movement Speed and Minion Attack Speed for a Duration. Phase Clones do not lose Health over time while Dark Pact is active, and Health loss is reset when Dark Pack ends. | ||
Dark Pact, besides allowing you to equip two Augments, also has an active effect where it massively buffs summons for a few seconds.
This makes your clones excel against bosses, being able to reduce a Boss to nothing within seconds when used correctly.
| Jump to a Section! | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapons | Repkit | Ordnance | |||
| Class Mod | Shield | Enhancement | |||
| Firmware | |||||
Maliwan weapons and licensed parts pair great with the Critical Clones Build for Vex, since clones base their element on your current attunement.
Using Maliwan weapons with two different elements allow you to place clones with different elements, allowing you to capitalize on the Boss' weakness, regardless of what element is needed.
For this build, you can use virtually any weapon, as long as you have Elemental Weapons on hand to change your attunement before placing clones.
Because of the nature of this build, being familiar with Elemental Weaknesses is recommended, to allow you to clear bosses faster and more efficiently.
Elemental Weakness Chart and Damage Guide
| Repkit | Unique Trait |
|---|---|
![]() Shiny War Paint |
Chrome: On use, grants +30% Fire Rate and +30% Movement Speed for 15s, and reduces Repkit Cooldown by 2s each time Damage is taken. |
The Shiny War Paint is the best Repkit that Vex can use thanks to its increased Fire Rate and Movement Speed.
The increased Fire Rate allows you to shoot and stack buffs faster, while the Movement Speed boost allows you to reposition faster, especially during instances where your clones are on cooldown.
| Ordnance | Type and Overview |
|---|---|
Destructo Disco |
Grenade Ordnance Groove: Deals elemental status damage in an area. |
The Destructo Disco is a unique Grenade Ordnance that deals continous status damage.
You can simply throw it towards a boss, or a group of mobs to continously deal status damage, which benefit from the Dead Ringer build's passive skill investment.
| Class Mod | Effects |
|---|---|
| Illusionist | Recommended Skills: |
| Legendary Bonus | Specters and Reapers have a chance to be Badasses, gaining increased Maximum Health and Damage Dealt. This chance increases the longer it hasn't occurred and will at least occur once every 90 seconds. |
Illusionist amplifies the damage your Clones do, as well as increasing their Max Health, significantly increasing their time summoned.
This also massively boosts Vex' DPS, since the clones will take even longer to expire, especially when combined with Dark Pact.
| Shield | Type and Overview |
|---|---|
Watts 4 Dinner |
Energy Shield Overshield Eater: When Energy Shield is active, enemies have a 12% chance to drop an Overshield when hit. When Overshield is also active, grants +25% Shock Damage |
Watts 4 Dinner provides additional Shock Damage on all sources, allowing your clones to also deal Shock Damage, regardless of their type affinity.
This provides a significant damage boost, since the Dead Ringer build is focused on elemental damage, allowing you to stack even more status damage, even without having to equip a Shock Weapon.
| Enhancement | Effects |
|---|---|
| Maliwan Enhancement |
・Synthesizer - Guns with Maliwan-licensed parts have +25% Status Effect Damage ・Transfuser - On kill, Guns with Maliwan-licensed parts spread their active Status Effect to up to 3 nearby targets. |
Equipping a Maliwan Enhancement with either Synthesizer or Transfuser would be best for this build, but obtaining a Legendary Enhancement with both will provide more DPS.
We recommend Synthesizer for optimizing your Status Effect Damage, including the Damage from Curse, while Transfuser is excellent for clearing mobs, which can be very useful when farming bosses in Drill Sites.
| Set Bonus | Effects |
|---|---|
| Deadeye 3/3 |
・Gun Accuracy is increased by 30% ・Gun Critical Hit Damage is increased by 25% ・Every Critical Hit grants 15% Critical Damage per Stack (5 max stacks) for 10s |
| High Caliber 2/3 |
・Projectile Speed is increased by 25% ・Gun Damage is increased by 10% |
| Specialization | Tree and Effect |
|---|---|
The Best Defense
|
The Vault Hunter gains increased Damage Dealt based on the fullness of their Shield or Health, whichever has higher Maximum Capacity. Damage Dealt: +30% when Full |
Riddle You This
|
Whenever the Vault Hunter deals Gun Damage, gain a Stack of Riddle You This, increasing Gun Damage. Stacks are lost if a new Stack has not been gained for a Duration. Gun Damage: +1% per Stack Maximum Stacks: 50 Duration: 6 seconds |
Contamination
|
Critical Hits grant increased Status Effect Application Chance. Status Effect Application Chance: +10% per Stack Stack Duration: 10 seconds Maximum Stacks: 10 |
Compounding Afflictions
|
Enemies take increased Damage for each Status Effect applied to them. Damage Taken: +1% |
We recommend taking the following Specializations, with priority on unlocking Contamination, since it increases Status Effect Application Chance.
Both Riddle You This and Contamination synergize extremely well with your Clones, allowing you to deal more gun and status damage, quickly melting any type of enemy you come across.
When starting boss fights, place down your clones depending on the Weakness of the boss. This can be done by changing Vex' elemental attunement, done by simply changing your equipped weapon.
If a boss has multiple HP bars, you can place down different elemental clones If you can quickly burst down the boss.
| Stationary Bosses | Aggressive Bosses |
|---|---|
| 3 Specters | 2 Specters 1 Reaper |
When deciding what to place during boss runs, it is best to decide based on the boss' behavior and attack patterns.
If a Boss is Stationary, like Idolator Sol and Core Observer, placing 3 Specters should be enough to quickly burst down the boss.
Aggressive Bosses, like Mimicron, and Drill Site Bosses, should be distracted by drawing aggro, so spawn 1 Reaper and 2 Specters instead, to ensure that the boss does not rush you or your specters.
After placing your clones, use Dark Pact to buff your summons, providing you with a significant DPS increase, which allows you to clear Bosses faster.
Keep in mind that certain bosses, such as Vault Guardians have significantly more HP, and is unlikely to be bursted completely during the duration of Dark Pact.
With the Skill investment for this build, Vex' and her Reapers inflict a Curse on enemies, which is detonated by gun damage.
When challenging bosses with a 3 Specter setup, use Vex to melee the boss to ensure that Curse is applied. If you have a Reaper on the field, you can attack from a distance instead, since the Reaper's attacks will also apply Curse that can be detonated by your Specters.

This Vex build is specifically designed for Boss Farming, putting heavy investment in Vex' and her minions' damage.
Through our testing, Normal Bosses in Hard difficulty can be cleared in less than 1 minute under optimized conditions, and approximately 1:45 for tankier bosses such as Vault Guardians, and Auger Mine Bosses.
While this build is specializes in burst DPS, this build can still be used for leveling and clearing the story.
If you are facing difficulties in using this build for leveling, you can try investing more skill points into defense and lifesteal, or use our designated Vex Best Build for Leveling!
Best Vex (Siren) Build and Leveling Guide

Best Builds for Each Vault Hunter
| Character | Build |
|---|---|
Vex |
|
Rafa |
|
Amon |
|
Harlowe |
Dead Ringer Vex Boss Farm Build



Genshin Impact Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Umamusume: Pretty Derby Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Where Winds Meet Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Honkai: Star Rail Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Digimon Story: Time Stranger Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Wuthering Waves Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Zenless Zone Zero Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Pokemon TCG Pocket (PTCGP) Strategies & Guides Wiki
Pokemon Legends: Z-A Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Fire Emblem Heroes (FEH) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Monster Hunter World Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (BDSP) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough & Guides Wiki

Persona 3 Reload Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
©2025 Gearbox Software. Published by 2K Games. Developed by Gearbox. Gearbox, Borderlands, and related logos are all trademarks of Gearbox Software, LLC. 2K and the 2K logo are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All other marks and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
The copyrights of videos of games used in our content and other intellectual property rights belong to the provider of the game.
The contents we provide on this site were created personally by members of the Game8 editorial department.
We refuse the right to reuse or repost content taken without our permission such as data or images to other sites.
What specializations?