This build, which focuses heavily on Harlowe’s red skill tree, is arguably one of the strongest boss-killer builds at this time, and it has very few gear requirements to boot! Thank to its ability to scale off of Weapon, Skill and Crit Damage, you can delete targets in a handful of seconds, while still retaining good mobbing potential.
Other Endgame Builds
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- Fast and efficient boss killer
- Requires no gear to function in most content
- Straightforward to play
- Struggles handling elemental immunity without a good Kinetic Weapon
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Skill Trees
The build uses points in every tree to double dip its damage from Critical Hits and Gun Damage scaling, which benefits Skill Damage as well. The action skill of choice is CHROMA Accelerator with the Neutron Capture Augment, to provide a very high amount of Radiation to any damage you deal.
The skill choices compromise some minor damage gains, as well as some stability and safety with early shield nodes. The actual damage scaling comes from Critical Hit double dipping, as well as Gun and Skill Damage increases which benefit from each other, and Entangled damage amplification.
Playstyle
At its core the gameplay is simple and revolves around using CHROMA Accelerator to score the biggest hit and accumulate as much damage through Neutron Capture as possible. For 8 seconds afterwards, you will want to maximize the number of hits to trigger as many instances of flat additional Radiation damage as possible.
To top it all off, Confirmative Reality allows you to reset Skill Action cooldown, and do it all over again.
This configuration also makes use of the Throwing Knife to further scale damage, but this is by no means necessary as the damage even without it is already enough to kill any target in a timely fashion.
Skill Breakdown
Listed below are the most important skills which this build revolves around:
- Neutron Capture – is what defines this build and provides a flat amount of Radiation damage to each hit scored during its buff uptime.
- Demon Core – Substantially augments the damage of the Action Skill, effectively doubling the amount with just 2 additional projectiles.
- Confirmative Reality – Is what helps with Skill Action economy and synergizes well with weapons that hit frequently, or have multiple hits with a single shot.
- Make Extraordinary – Just a single point enable all Skills to Crit, meaning we can Critical Hit with CHROMA Accelerator and the Radiation bonus damage!
- PPE and Elephant’s Foot – The build’s safety net, giving a bit more survivability while fighting many enemies.
Specializations
The build has a very high damage ceiling due to the numerous scaling factors involved, which also means it is rather expensive to fully optimize in regards to Specialization Points. This means there are multiple approaches when choosing how to progress and invest points until you can grab all the important points.
The image below highlights Critical Damage and Skill damage scaling, but you can also opt to rush for flat Gun damage instead.
In the end the 4 Perks you will be aiming for are:
- I Am A Gun, to scale Action Skill Damage off Gun damage as well;
- Riddle You This for a substantial Gun damage increase;
- Bullets Are Scared Of Me one of the better defensive options;
- A choice between The Best Defense and A Honed Mind
Gear and Manufacturers
The premise of the build is to exploit the flat amount of Radiation damage added to each hit, and this synergizes extremely well with fast-firing weapons or guns that deal damage multiple times per shot.
Guns
While the category is rather broad there are few stand-out options, with the first three being highly recommended:
- Katagawa’s Revenge – Perhaps the strongest weapon due to its synergies. In Arc mode, this weapon deals a massive amount of individual hits, each of them able to trigger the Radiation damage. Look out for a Jakobs or COV Licensed Parts roll to get 6 drones per shot and a bigger magazine.
- Complex Root – A mobbing weapon that works wonders on large hitbox enemies. Jakobs Ricochet is appreciated, alongside Cryo, Radiation, or Shock.
- Generic Jakobs Shotgun with Spread Launcher underbarrel, to tackle elemental immunity, Radiation Eater and Mutated enemies.
- Birt’s Bees – Very useful against annoying flying units.
- Luty Madlad – For those who possess trigger discipline.
Your fourth weapon slot is mainly a matter of preference and seldom used, so pick whichever weapon you like playing around with the most, while still retaining the killing power of the build.
Ordnance
A Throwing Knife with Penetrator and Damage Amp Payload parts offers by far the highest damage potential, but is by no means mandatory. The 5 seconds of guaranteed Critical Hit chance applies to all Radiation procs as well, but the damage of this build is so high already that you can play this build even without a Throwing Knife.
Minigun, Wide Atling Gun and Streamer are fine alternatives, especially during early boss farming. Generic grenades that help for mobbing are equally good, since the core build offers strong boss killing by default. Special mention to Radiation Ripper grenades with Lingering Payload, or any homing legendary Ordnance.
Class Mod
Class mods is where there are several choices depending on the situation:
- Boundary Breaker – This offers the highest boss damage. Mechanical Brilliance is the best skill option.
- Scientist – Legendary has smoother mobbing potential thanks to the extra point in Ripple Effect
In terms of bonuses look out for Gun Damage, Action Skill Damage, and Elemental Damage.
Repkit
A Generic Repkit with Amp, and either Elemental Affinity or Enrage will work. In terms of Legendary choices, the top picks are Triple Bypass and Kill Spring. Honorable mention to Radiation Firewerks for easier mobbing.
Enhancements
Jakobs with Bounce Pass is the best option for mobbing. This also adds 3 more drones per shot on a Katagawa’s Revenge. The passives to look for are Gun Damage, Sniper Rifle Damage and Critical Damage.
Firmware
3/3 Deadeye is the priority due the enormous damage buff it gives. 2/3 GOOJFC offers extra damage value on top.
Quick Tips
- Repkits and Action Skill can animation cancel eachother.
- If running a Throwing Knife, you will want to use the following rotation: Use Throwing Knife, CHROMA Accelerator, Repkit, explode behind the target, Knife, then dump your mag into the enemy.
- When mobbing, make sure to reset the cooldown of CHROMA Accelerator with multiple hits on entangled enemies.
We hope this build helps you tackle even the hardest content in Borderlands 4. Blast away!
