We’re well on the way to Borderlands 4, the highly anticipated sequel in 2K’s long-running shooter bonanza (that’s the genre name now, I fear) coming this September, and Gearbox is finally providing in-depth glimpses at the game’s new playable cast. This week, it kicked things off with an introduction to Vex, a new Siren who taps into her deadly abilities at a fairly stressful, and very unfortunate, time.
In a gameplay overview, we get a taste for how Vex will differ from other Sirens from the Borderlands games. Sirens are a special (and very fun) kind of being in the series that are able to tap into psychic abilities and are marked by glowing tattoos. Vex is much the same, but uses her newfound powers to provide her with a squad of minions.
Vex stands apart from previous playable Sirens by focusing heavily on minions that she can summon, transforming her role into a kind of necromancer/pet class. One of her skill trees entirely focuses on a large alien cat familiar called Trouble, which Vex can summon and teleport around the battlefield. Many of the additional skills and modifiers on the tree augment Trouble’s capabilities in battle, allowing them to soak up more damage, taunt enemies, or even explode.
As a Siren, Vex possesses many other abilities too, including one that allows her to send out a blast of phase energy, sprout some gnarly-looking wings, conjure a little orb/turret, and blast enemies with a projectile from her free hand, all in one fell swoop. For her final of three Siren action skills, Vex can summon copies of herself to do long-range DPS or project a psychic reaper that gets up close to enemies.
For the curious, you can already sneak a peek at Vex’s full skill trees and get a deeper look at some of her skills. You know, just in case you want to start prepping your builds for launch.
Additionally, Gearbox released an animated short called Purple Friday that fills in some of the blanks regarding Vex’s backstory. In true Borderlands fashion, the short, which comes in at just over three minutes, is exceptionally bloody and chock full of gags. In it, Vex works a retail job at the series’ equivalent of a big-box store when she taps into her Siren powers. Along the way, she falls for a cute guy, is threatened by a customer, and even manages to sneak in what appears to be a joke at Borderlands 3’s expense in the middle of the gory affair.
It’s a fun little peek at Borderlands 4’s world, and there appears to be more of it on the horizon. Gearbox is set to roll out similar videos for the rest of the game’s playable vault hunters, who can be seen at the tail end of the short around a campfire with Vex.
Borderlands 4 launches September 12 and will be available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It’ll arrive on the Nintendo Switch 2 later in 2025.
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