Best Borderlands 4 Vex build and all skills

What's the best Borderlands 4 Vex build? Vex is Borderlands 4's siren and is described as spooky due to her necromancer skills and supernatural phase energy abilities. She's one of the more complex characters in the game.

She's attuned to the elemental type of her current gun, so it's worth checking out all the Borderlands 4 legendary weapons for a good match, as she converts the action skill and melee damage into the equipped elemental damage type. She may end up being one of the FPS game's best characters, so take a look at her skills to determine the best build for you as you work through Borderlands 4's story.

Best Borderlands 4 Vex build

The best Borderlands 4 Vex build is going to be largely up to how you like to play. Vex is a ranger necromancer, focusing on kinetic life-stealing abilities and skills. She's quite different from what we've seen from previous sirens in Borderlands, but is the best beginner-friendly and versatile Vault Hunter from the four Borderlands 4 characters.

Thanks to her support abilities, such as summoning specters or reapers, or using her pet Trouble to distract and maul enemies, Vex is a great option for solo players.

Borderlands 4 Vex action skills

Here's a breakdown of Vex's three action skills:

Dead Ringer: Charge Skill (3) - Spawn a Phase Clone Minion, choosing Specter or Reaper. Phase Clones lose an ever-increasing amount of health per second, and their damage type matches Vex's current attunement (elemental type damage) when spawned. Can spawn a Reaper that taunts enemies and deals melee attack damage, or a specter that deals gun damage and cannot move.

Incarnate: Vex creates a Phase Explosion, dealing damage to nearby enemies and fully restoring her health. While active, Vex can use Eldritch Blast and gain increased movement speed. Eldritch Blast fires a blast from her offhand, dealing damage to nearby enemies on impact, and dealing gun damage to reduce the ability's cooldown. You can end this action skill early to partially refund the cooldown.

Phase Phamiliar: Vex is joined by her minion, Trouble. When killed, Trouble respawns after a cooldown. The action skill button can teleport Trouble, dealing damage in an area. Trouble then transforms into a Badass, fully restoring health and gaining increased damage for a duration. Activating Phase Phamiliar respawns Trouble if he's currently dead.

Borderlands 4 Vex skill tree

Within each of the three action skills are skill trees that divide into three different branches, so it's worth looking ahead to see which skills you're after. Each skill provides either a passive effect or some augments enhance your action skills. Waiting at the end of each branch are capstones: powerful abilities that can modify or enhance action skills. You can equip only one capstone at a time, much like augments.

Dead Ringer

This skill tree focuses on buffing you and the specters and reapers you've summoned, such as gaining reload speed, increasing status effect damage, and replenishing health.

Branch 1 capstone - Heirloom: Specters gain a copy of Vex's currently equipped gun for a duration. Only one specter can have a copied gun at a time, and spawning a new specter removes the fun from the previous specter.
Branch 2 capstone - Grim Reaper: Press and hold ability to spawn a Grim Reaper that drains nearby enemies, dealing status effect damage over time and regens health for each drained enemy. When an enemy dies while being drained, there is a chance a new reaper spawns.
Branch 3 capstone - Dark Pact: Vex can now equip two augments and gains the ability to use 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 attack speed for a duration. Phase Clones do not lose health over time while this is active, and health loss is reset when it ends.

As always, there are five augments you can pick between in this skill tree:

Ghast Blaster: Specters gain the ability to use Ghast Blast, dealing gun damage to all nearby enemies on impact. Specters will use Ghast Blast on spawn, and after they reload.
Coven: Spawning a Reaper grants Vex and her minions health regeneration for a duration. Spawning a Specter grants Vex and her minions critical hit chance for a duration. Both effects can stack.
Branch 1 - Wither: Specters cast Wither on an enemy when they spawn, dealing status effect damage over time, and increasing damage taken for a duration. Can stack once per elemental type. Killing a withered enemy allows Speeffters to use Wither again.
Branch 2 - Hellish Harvest: Reapers gain the ability to use Hellish Harvest, dealing melee damage three times in a large area around themselves and regenerating health for each enemy hit. Reapers will use Hellish Harvest on spawn, and every third time they melee attack.
Branch 3 - Banshee's Wail - Reapers can now use Banshee's Wail, periodically dealing damage to nearby enemies and granting Overshield to nearby allies. Damage increases apply to Overshield granted to allies. Damaged enemies deal reduced damage for a duration.

Incarnate

Not for the weak, this is a damage-focused skill tree that leans more into lifesteal kinetic abilities and constant damage output, keeping you in the fight with shield regeneration and buffs to elemental damage.

Branch 1 capstone - Desecration: Phase Explosion and Eldritch Blast create Hazards, dealing damage over time for a duration. Eldritch Blast is now homing; if it hits an airborne enemy, it bursts after a delay, dealing damage to other enemies.
Branch 2 capstone - Heartpiercer: Eldritch Blast now sacrifices health on use but becomes a piercing wave, enemies hit take damage and allies hit restore health. Gain bonus damage and healing based on sacrificed health. Eldritch Blast no longer has a cooldown.
Branch 3 capstone - Vibe Check: Eldritch Blast is now a charge skill, and when activated consumes all charges to ricochet on hitting an enemy. It ricochets once for each charge consumed.

Below is a list of all Incarnate augments you can choose for Vex:

Geistwave: Instead of causing a phase explosion, Vex launches a Geistwave, dealing Ordnance damage to enemies it passes through. Each affected enemy takes increased damage for a duration.
Energy Vampire: Vex deals status effect damage to nearby enemies over time and gains Overshield for each enemy affected. Killing an enemy while Incarnate is active will grant a stack of Energy Vampire, increasing status effect damage. Stacks are lost when Incarnate ends.
Branch 1 - Iron Maiden: Phase explosion and Eldritch blast restore shield for each enemy hit and deal increased damage based on Vex's current shield.
Branch 2 - Witchy Trigger Finger: Dealing samage with Eldritch Blast or phase explosion will fully refill ammo of Fex's current gun, and grants a stack of Witchy Trigger Finger, increasing gun damage for a duration. Stacks of Witchy Trigger Finger persist even after Incarnate ends.
Branch 3 - Grave Harvest - Killing an enemy while Incarnate is active will spawn a Soul Orb that deals status effect damage over time to nearby enemies for a duration. Press X or Square on controller or E on keyboard at range to detonate a Soul Orb, dealing Ordnance damage to nearby enemies.

Phase Phamiliar

A great support option, this skill tree focuses on Trouble, Vex's pet summon, which can attack and distract enemies. You can put points into Trouble's skills and damage output, such as giving him tail whip and illusion abilities, or pivot to ordnance damage or double down on your own gun damage.

Branch 1 capstone - Trouble Bubble: Trouble gains Overshield whenever he deals damage. While Phase Phamiliar is active, Trouble gains an elemental aura, dealing Ordnance damage over time to nearby enemies.
Branch 2 capstone - Double Trouble: Trouble now gains a chance to create an illusion near the enemy when dealing damage, and critical hits have double that chance. Illusions become Badasses while Phase Phamiliar is active.
Branch 3 capstone - Unsealed: Trouble marks his current target, causing them to take increased gun damage from Vex. Kill Skill - When a marked enemy is killed, Trouble gains a stack of unsealed for a duration, granting health regen and increased damage. While Phase Phamiliar is active, unsealed effects are doubled and can be stacked.

Below is a list of the Phase Pharmiliar augments you need to choose between:

Violent Outburst: Press and hold left bumper on controller or F on keyboard to Command Trouble to explode himself, dealing Ordnance damage to all nearby enemies and restoring health to Vex.
Blink Strike: Press and hold left bumper on controller or F on keyboard to command Trouble to Blink Strike the target enemy, dealing damage. Blink Strike always critically strikes enemies who have less than 50% of their health.
Branch 1 - Hexus Nexus: Trouble now taunts enemies, making them more likely to target him. Press and hold left bumper on controller or F on keyboard to command Trouble to charge target enemy, dealing melee damage in a radius on impact, and creating a Singularity for a duration.
Branch 2 - Vorpal Fang: Trouble gains a chance to critically hit all attacks. Press and hold left bumper on controller or F on keyboard to command Trouble to summon Phase Daggers overhead that fire at nearby enemies, dealing melee damage on impact.
Branch 3 - Beast Mode: Press and hold left bumper on controller or F on keyboard to enter Beast Mode, becoming immune to damage and gaining increased minion attack speed and movement speed for a suration. Each kill extends Beat Mode's duration.

That's what the best Vex build in Borderlands 4 looks like. For more, check out the best Rafa build and best Amon build for other options.