In this Borderlands 4 guide, we will explain Vex’s class trait, her three action skills, all skill trees and augments, and provide practical advice for leveling, gearing, and late-game builds! If you are still deciding which Vault Hunter to main at launch, this might help you see what makes Vex unique.
Key Takeaways:
Vex is Borderlands 4’s newest Siren and one of the most flexible Vault Hunters ever introduced. Her playstyle combines companion summoning, elemental damage attunement, and phase magic to create a character who can handle any combat scenario. Whether you want a pet-focused build that controls the battlefield, a pure damage glass cannon that melts bosses, or a clone army playstyle that overwhelms enemies, Vex has a skill tree for you.
- Phase Covenant: Swap weapons to change skill elements on the fly.
- 3 Playstyles: Pet build (Trouble), burst DPS (Incarnate), or clone army (Dead Ringer).
- Flexible Skill Trees: Mix elemental scaling, crit damage, and minion control.
- Strong Leveling Path: Early elemental buffs, midgame kill skill sustain, late-game capstones.
- Best Gear: Elemental Maliwan guns, Jakobs crit weapons, and pet/crit Class Mods.
If you want to learn more about some of the Best Borderlands 4 Builds for Vex, you can find our dedicated guide here at Overgear!
4.9Borderlands 4 Vex Class Trait
In Borderlands 4, the Vex Class Trait is the Phase Covenant. It ties all of Vex’s melee and action skill damage to the element of her currently equipped gun. This means that she is not locked into a single element or damage type. If you are fighting armored enemies, swap to corrosive weapons and watch her skills shred them. Fighting mobs of flesh enemies? Switch to incendiary guns and watch everything burn.
This ability is great for players who like strategic weapon swapping and makes Vex very adaptable in both solo and co-op play. Players who enjoy min-maxing elemental matchups will find Phase Covenant to be one of the strongest class traits in the series.
Borderlands 4 Vex Skills
Dead Ringer
Phase Phamiliar
Incarnate
Vex’s action skills in Borderlands 4 each represent a different approach to combat. You can choose to summon companions, detonate enemies with phase explosions, or deploy spectral clones. Here is a breakdown of what each ability does and how you can use them in the most efficient way.
Dead Ringer (The Fourth Seal)
Dead Ringer allows Vex to summon spectral clones to fight alongside her. You can choose between Reaper Clones, which rush enemies and draw aggro, or Spectre Clones, which provide consistent ranged DPS. Clones gradually lose health over time, so timing their summons for key fights is critical. Dead Ringer is perfect for players who enjoy minion mastery and battlefield control.
Phase Phamiliar (Here Comes Trouble)
This skill summons Trouble, Vex’s loyal phase beast. Trouble can be teleported to a location for an AoE slam that heals and buffs the companion’s damage for a short time. Trouble respawns automatically after a cooldown, so you’re never without your companion for long. This skill is the backbone of Vex’s pet builds and is great for players who like having a constant ally to draw enemy aggro.
Incarnate (Vexcalation)
Incarnate is Vex’s high-risk, high-reward action skill. When triggered, it creates a Phase Explosion around her that damages enemies and fully heals her. For the duration of Incarnate, Vex can fire Eldritch Blast, a special ability that resets its own cooldown if it hits. This skill encourages aggressive play and rewards precision, letting skilled players chain abilities together to delete entire groups of enemies.
Borderlands 4 Vex Skill Trees
The Fourth Seal
Here Comes Trouble
Vexcalation
Borderlands 4 Vex’s skill trees let you choose how she fights. Here Comes Trouble focuses on her pet, Trouble, and boosts minion damage. Vexcalation is all about fast kills, lifesteal, and crit damage for a more aggressive playstyle. The Fourth Seal lets you summon Phase Clones to swarm enemies and control the battlefield. You can mix points across trees to balance damage, survivability, and utility however you like.
The Fourth Seal (Blue Tree)
If summoning multiple spectral allies and overwhelming enemies sounds fun, the blue tree is for you. This skill tree focuses on Dead Ringer, adding more clone charges, damage, and utility.
Key skills include:
- Sanguine Fiends – Heals Vex and her minions after kills, adding survivability.
- Blood Sacrifice – Procs kill skills when clones die, keeping your DPS cycle going.
- Diener – Adds an extra Dead Ringer charge, letting you have more clones active.
The capstone Dark Pact lets you equip two augments at once and heal all active clones, creating a sustained army that can hold its own in endgame content.
Here Comes Trouble (Red Tree)
This tree powers up Trouble and your clones, turning the battlefield into a pet playground. If you want a semi-passive playstyle with multiple summons, this is the tree to focus on.
Key skills include:
- Mourning – Increases the effectiveness of kill skills, helping keep your power spikes going.
- Elemental Essence – Boosts elemental damage, which synergizes with Phase Covenant.
- Shocking Attunement – Adds extra gun damage and speed when attuned to Shock.
- Deadwire – Causes gun kills to spawn Spark Remnants that deal AoE shock damage.
Its capstones, like Double Trouble, allow Trouble to spawn illusions, while Trouble Bubble grants overshields and bonus elemental auras. This tree turns Vex into a walking pet army with constant crowd control.
Vexcalation (Green Tree)
The green tree is all about raw DPS and self-sustain. This is the tree for players who want to be on the frontlines, dishing out damage and staying alive through lifesteal and critical hits.
Key skills include:
- Bloodletter – Adds stacking bleed DoTs to your critical hits, ideal for boss damage.
- Mortal Terror – Gives a chance to proc kill skills on crit, keeping your buffs rolling.
- Target Prescience – Flatly increases crit chance against enemies.
The capstones make Vex even more deadly, such as Heartpiercer, which removes the cooldown from Eldritch Blast but drains health while active, creating a high-risk, high-reward burst damage window. To fully enjoy all the benefits of this character, you will need to get your specialization to max level, which can take a while, but we can solve this issue for you.
Borderlands 4 Vex Augments
Augments are a big part of Vex’s flexibility in Borderlands 4. They let you modify Trouble, your clones, and even Eldritch Blast for different situations. For example, Beast Mode temporarily makes Trouble invincible and speeds up its attacks, while Witchy Trigger Finger reloads your weapon every time Eldritch Blast hits, giving you near-constant uptime in mobbing scenarios.
When choosing augments, think about your build’s goals. If you’re running a bleed-stacking crit build, prioritize augments that reset cooldowns or grant kill skill procs. If you’re focusing on pets, take augments that buff Trouble’s durability and AoE damage.
Borderlands 4 Vex Leveling Tips
For more efficient Vex leveling in Borderlands 4, start by putting early points into Cold Iron and Elemental Essence to scale your basic gun damage and elemental synergy. By level 10, unlock Trouble’s augment so you can teleport it for bonus AoE damage. In the midgame (levels 20–30), pick up Blood Sacrifice and Mortal Terror to keep kill skills active during fights. By level 50, you should have a capstone unlocked — Dark Pact for clone builds or Heartpiercer for pure DPS builds. Borderlands 4 Leveling can take quite some time, but we are here to help you with just that.
📌 When leveling Vex, it’s generally best to start with survivability and damage scaling before unlocking the more advanced capstones.
Borderlands 4 Best Vex Weapons
Vex works best with weapons that let her leverage Phase Covenant effectively. Maliwan elemental guns are ideal because you can swap elements mid-fight, but Jakobs and Vladof guns also shine thanks to their crit synergy and alt-fire modes. Looking for the best Legendary Weapons for Vex can be extremely grindy, but our services can deliver any weapon you need as quickly as possible.
Here are the gun types you should be looking for:
- Jakobs Crit Weapons – For ricochet synergy with crit builds.
- Maliwan SMGs – To quickly switch elements for Phase Covenant.
- Vladof ARs – To pair with clone builds for constant fire.
📌 Class Mods should favor pet damage or crit scaling depending on your chosen tree, and Repkits like Infusion help keep your sustain high.
4.9Vex is one of the most versatile Vault Hunters in Borderlands history, offering players three distinct playstyles and the ability to shift elements on the fly with Phase Covenant. Take time to experiment with her skill trees, test different augments, and swap weapons often to fully unlock her potential. With the right build and gear, Vex can adapt to any fight and carry you through the toughest content Borderlands 4 has to offer!
