Borderlands 4 offers a wealth of activities, from taking down formidable bosses like Bramblesong to completing an array of side missions. Players can also hunt for an extensive collection of items scattered throughout the various regions of the game’s world.
However, once you finish the main campaign, the adventure doesn’t necessarily end. You enter a new phase focused on continuing to develop your character with specialization skills, as well as advancing your overall level.
Understanding Specialization in Borderlands 4
Specialization in Borderlands 4 resembles the badass ranks featured in Borderlands 2. It empowers players to amplify their skills through dedicated skill trees. Once you unlock this feature, a purple experience bar will appear surrounding your level indicator in the HUD, granting access to the specialization menu.
The specialization system consists of seven distinct skill trees: Survivor, Brute, Sharpshooter, Runner, Gadgeteer, Killer, and Daredevil. You’ll begin by investing points in the upper branches before progressing to the lower trees after reaching certain thresholds.
To activate the lower skill trees, players must allocate 10 points in the associated upper trees. For example, to unlock the Killer tree, you need to invest 10 points in both the Brute and Sharpshooter trees.
Overview of Specialization Skills in Borderlands 4
Every specialization tree focuses on enhancing different attributes of your Vault Hunter. The specific benefits provided by each tree are as follows:
- Survivor: Enhances maximum health and shields.
- Brute: Boosts gun damage output.
- Sharpshooter: Increases reload speed and improves accuracy.
- Runner: Enhances movement speed and melee damage.
- Gadgeteer: Shortens cooldowns for your ordnance skills.
- Killer: Amplifies critical hit and status effect damage.
- Daredevil: Decreases the cooldown rate of your action skills.
In addition to these benefits, players unlock various unique skills from each tree:
| Skill | Tree | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sturdy Stuff | Survivor | Lengthens Fight For Your Life duration and restores full health on a second wind. |
| Bullets Are Scared of Me | Survivor | Increases damage reduction based on your health and shield levels. |
| The Best Defense | Survivor | Boosts damage dealt based on health or shield fullness. |
| Lead or Alive | Brute | Automatically reloads weapons when entering Fight For Your Life. |
| CQC | Brute | Increases fire rate when taking melee damage. |
| Riddle You This | Brute | Gain stacks of damage for gun hits, which decay over time. |
| Down But Not Out | Sharpshooter | Aims down sights while in Fight For Your Life. |
| In the Zone | Sharpshooter | Enhances gun damage while aiming, stacking until you stop. |
| One Shot, One Kill | Sharpshooter | Stores excess damage for your next gun shot. |
| Bear Arms | Runner | Melee damage benefits from gun damage increases. |
| Bullet Train | Runner | Allows hip firing while sprinting. |
| Groundbreaker | Runner | Melee and slam attacks gain kinetic damage based on previous hits. |
| Tripwire | Gadgeteer | Activating action skills reduces ordnance cooldowns. |
| Full Spectrum Arsenal | Gadgeteer | Ordnance damage is enhanced by gun damage bonuses. |
| Fragmentation Payload | Gadgeteer | Grants critical hit capabilities to your ordnance. |
| Contamination | Killer | Critical hits boost status effect application. |
| Compounding Afflictions | Killer | Enemies sustain increased damage per applied status effect. |
| Overkill | Killer | Kills with critical hits cause enemies to explode, dealing damage. |
| Now With Caffeine | Daredevil | Using a Repkit reduces action skill cooldown by 25%. |
| I Am A Gun | Daredevil | Action skills gain added damage from gun damage bonuses. |
| A Honed Mind | Daredevil | Action skills can perform critical hits. |
Remember, only four skills can be active at any given time for each Vault Hunter, allowing for strategic customization.
Unlocking Specialization in Borderlands 4
The specialization tree becomes accessible automatically upon completion of the Borderlands 4 campaign. After defeating the final boss, players can access the specialization menu, along with a brief tutorial guiding them through its features.
When creating a new character, they will inherently have access to the specialization tree, regardless of being level one or thirty, as this is a reward for first-time campaign completion.
Each character needs to level up their specialization afresh, which allows for the unlocking of unique skills and distinct progression paths. It is advisable to consider your class mod choices and skill selections carefully to optimize your character build.
Resetting Specialization in Borderlands 4 – Understanding Eridium Usage
Throughout your journey in Borderlands 4, you will collect Eridium, a resource that the game initially doesn’t explain the purpose of until the specialization tree is unlocked.
Upon accessing the specialization system, you can reset your specialization by visiting a respec machine. To do so, select the option to respec, which costs 5, 000 Eridium. If you’re low on this resource, you can farm it by engaging in world events, defeating bosses, or consistently battling enemies.
Collecting enough Eridium can be a challenge, as it is not abundantly available on the planet of Kairos.
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