The best Harlowe builds in Borderlands 4 take full advantage of the Gravitar’s experience as a former Maliwan combat scientist, using her mastery of battlefield manipulation and the elements to great effect. Oddly enough, Harlowe feels the most like the traditional Siren we’ve come to know, more so than the best Vex builds, despite her reliance on tech.
Nevertheless, the Gravitar brings much more to the table than you’d initially expect, so I’ll go over three of the best Harlowe builds at max level below. I’ll cover the skills, augments, and capstones to pick, alongside gear that works with them to make this character shine.
Best Harlowe builds in Borderlands 4
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Harlowe has three unique skill trees, each with their own associated action skill, just like the other Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4:
- Creative Bursts: Focuses on Harlowe’s Chroma Accellerator, dealing elemental damage, causing status effects, and action skill spamming. There are also many perks that boost weapon DPS, whether through rate of fire, elemental buffs (radiation or cryo), or straight-up damage increases.
- Seize the Day: This is the premier AoE tree in perhaps the entire game, built around putting multiple enemies in stasis so that they share damage thanks to Harlowe’s unique trait. There are lots of boosts to both weapon and ability power, with an emphasis once more on cryo damage.
- Cosmic Brilliance: Unquestionably the most team-focused tree in the game, you can buff allies’ shields, reload speed, action skill cooldown, cryo/radiation damage, lifesteal, and even add ricochets into the mix. That’s not to say there aren’t some selfish perks, though, as this tree also has lots of effects that only apply to you, like making your melee elemental, bonus damage the larger your overshield is, and gamma ray shots.
Harlowe’s trait is Entanglement: Whenever Harlowe uses her action skill, any enemies damaged/affected become entangled. Entangled enemies share a portion of both gun and skill damage with all other entangled enemies.
Now I’ll go over three Harlowe builds, starting with what’s generally her strongest setup for most situations, Creative Bursts/Chroma Accelerator. I’ve listed the skills, augments, and captones in the order you’ll want to pick them up, though remember that you can respec if you’d like to tweak things while levelling.
Harlowe build: Dirty Bomb
Image 1 of 2
- Primary skill tree: Creative Bursts
- Action skill: Chroma Accelerator
- Favoured element: Radiation
One of Harlowe’s defining traits across all her trees is her knack for elemental damage and status effects, and this build uses that for some truly remarkable single-target and AoE radiation damage.
Things start off relatively simple, with a bunch of perks that boost elemental damage and status effects, like Fuzzy Math, Elementary, and Enriched. But the build really starts heating up when you put together the Neutron Capture augment—which transfers a portion of her action skill damage to weapon radiation damage—with Carry the One, Glow Up, Test Subjects, and Chain Reactor. Now, you’ll have a chance to entangle nearby enemies, deal bonus radiation damage to entangled enemies, recharge your action skill faster, and gain bonus critical hit chance. Then there’s Fissile Launcher and the Demon Core capstone, which fire off radiation darts at enemies all the time.
This build also takes some perks from the Cosmic Brilliance tree, too—Action at a Distance, Momentum, and Neutron Decay—as this massively increases your DPS. I recommend picking these last so that you can prioritise unlocking the Demon Core capstone, Chain Reactor, and Dirty Bomb earlier.
Here’s where you should spend your skill points:
|
Skill Name |
Point Investment |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Chroma Accelerator (Action Skill) |
NA |
Fires an unstable energy pocket from Harlowe’s Chroma Accelerator, which passes through enemies and deals cryo damage to all enemies it passes near. Reactivate the skill to cause the unstable energy pocket to explode and deal heavy radiation damage in a large area. |
|
Fuzzy Math |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased status effect chance. |
|
Neutron Capture (Augment) |
NA |
All damage Harlowe’s unstable energy pocket deals to enemies is stored. Whenever it explodes, a portion of that stored damage is transferred to Harlowe’s gun, causing her to deal bonus radiation damage. |
|
Elementary |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased elemental damage and status effect damage. |
|
Enriched |
3/3 |
Harlowe gains increased radiation damage. |
|
Test Subjects |
5/5 |
Whenever Harlowe applies a status effect to an enemy, she gains increased action skill cooldown rate. |
|
Carry the One |
5/5 |
Whenever Harlowe entangles an enemy, she gains a chance to entangle another nearby enemy. |
|
Poisoned Sun |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased radiation damage and chance. |
|
Glow Up |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains critical hit chance with guns against irradiated enemies. |
|
Fissile Launcher |
3/3 |
Whenever Harlowe damages an irradiated enemy or an entangled enemy, shoot a radiation dart at another enemy. |
|
Demon Core (Capstone) |
NA |
As Harlowe’s unstable energy pocket travels, it shoots radiation darts at enemies. Whenever Harlowe entangles an enemy while her action skill is active, automatically irradiate that enemy. |
|
Chain Reactor |
3/3 |
Harlowe deals bonus radiation damage to entangled enemies. |
|
Dirty Bomb |
1/1 |
Whenever Harlowe irradiates an enemy, create a radiation explosion on that enemy. |
|
Action at a Distance (Cosmic Brilliance tree) |
2/5 |
Whenever Harlowe applies a status effect to an enemy, she gains a chance to apply that status effect to each entangled enemy. |
|
Momentum (Cosmic Brilliance tree) |
3/5 |
Whenever Harlowe entangles an enemy, she and her allies deal increased critical hit damage. |
|
Neutron Decay (Cosmic Brilliance tree) |
4/5 |
Whenever Harlowe irradiates an enemy, she gains increased gun damage. |
If there were any skill points left, or if you wanted to save some points elsewhere, you could look at perks like Elephant’s Foot, Practical Applications, and Wasted from the Creative Bursts tree, Creative Overflow and Resonance Cascade from Cosmic Brilliance, or Parallel Circuit and Pulse Drive from Seize the Day.
Harlowe build: Ties That Bind V2
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- Primary skill tree: Seize the Day
- Action skill: Zero-Point
- Favoured element: Cryo
Amara’s Ties That Bind build from Borderlands 3 was absolutely busted when it came to mobbing, able to stasis a target and tie multiple enemies together so they shared damage. Well, Harlowe’s unique trait basically already does the latter, while the Seize the Day skill tree handles the first part—and somehow even adds more damage-sharing into the mix. This build works incredibly well for mobbing, though I’d recommend swapping to a Chroma Accelerator build if you’re exclusively farming bosses, since this is undoubtedly more AoE-focused.
By default, Zero-Point will only stasis a single target, which is a bit of an issue at first since it means you’re not really entangling many enemies. The Strange Attractor augment you’ll unlock early on can get around this issue a little thanks to its ability to entangle enemies you critically hit, but it’s really the combination of Ripple Effect, Too Coolant for Schoolant, Concurrence, Control Group, and Falling Bodies that lets you quickly stasis and entangle entire groups. Now, enemies won’t be able to move and they’ll share all the damage they take.
That’s where damage boosting perks come in, like Parallel Circuit, Unstable Ice-otope, and most importantly, Triple Point. That last perk heavily increases your cryo damage against entangled enemies, so grab a cryo weapon and let loose. A Jakobs weapon (or part) would be especially good here, since these guns automatically ricochet to nearby enemies, further sharing damage between targets.
This build also takes perks from the top of the Creative Bursts tree to increase your weapon damage and status effects. As much as I’d love to add the Refraction skill from the Cosmic Brilliance tree, which gives you ricochet chance against entangled enemies (which stacks on top of the innate ricochet of Jakobs’ weapons), it’s too far down the tree to unlock it right now. However, you could potentially use a class mod that provides it.
Here’s where you should spend your skill points:
|
Skill Name |
Point Investment |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Zero-Point (Action Skill) |
NA |
Activate to use Harlowe’s HALO Accelerator to place an enemy in stasis for a duration. Enemies immune to stasis take damage instead. Reactivating it causes the enemy in stasis to be slammed into the ground in the direction Harlowe is facing, and creates a small explosion. Retriggering stasis has a cooldown. |
|
Parallel Circuit |
5/5 |
After triggering or retriggering an action skill, Harlowe gains increased gun damage. |
|
Strange Attractor (Augment) |
NA |
Whenever Harlowe shoots an enemy with a gun, bullets ricochet off that enemy onto all enemies in stasis. If Harlowe critically hits an enemy, that enemy becomes entangled. |
|
Periodic Table Flip |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased elemental damage, status effect application chance, and cryo effectiveness. |
|
Ripple Effect |
1/1 |
Kill Skill: Whenever Harlowe kills an entangled enemy, automatically entangle another nearby enemy. |
|
Precision Engineering |
3/3 |
Harlowe gains increased critical hit damage. |
|
Too Coolant for Schoolant |
4/5 |
Whenever Harlowe deals cryo damage, she gains increased action skill cooldown rate. |
|
Cryodynamics |
3/3 |
Harlowe gains increased cryo damage. |
|
Concurrence |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased action skill duration for every entangled enemy. |
|
Control Group |
5/5 |
Kill Skill: Killing an entangled enemy restores a portion of Harlowe’s action skill cooldown and action skill duration. |
|
Freeze Frame |
1/1 |
Harlowe’s guns deal bonus cryo damage for every enemy she has in stasis. |
|
Falling Bodies (Capstone) |
NA |
Action Skill: Places an additional enemy in stasis at the cost of action skill duration. When stasis ends, automatically slam all enemies straight down. |
|
Unstable Ice-otope |
5/5 |
Kill Skill: Harlowe deals bonus cryo damage with all sources. |
|
Keep Ice On That |
1/5 |
All cryo damage Harlowe deals gains lifesteal. If Harlowe’s health is full, she gains overshield instead. |
|
Heat Sink |
3/5 |
Whenever Harlowe freezes an enemy, she gains increased action skill cooldown rate. |
|
Endothermic Reaction |
1/5 |
Whenever Harlowe freezes an enemy, create an endothermic aura that deals constant cryo damage to enemies around it. Harlowe’s endothermic aura deals increased damage based on her overshield. The more full, the greater the bonus. |
|
Triple Point |
1/1 |
Whenever Harlowe deals non-cryo damage to an entangled enemy, she deals bonus cryo damage to that enemy. If she deals cryo damage to an entangled enemy, she deals increased bonus damage. |
|
Cyclotron (Creative Bursts tree) |
4/5 |
Harlowe gains increased fire rate. |
|
Fuzzy Math (Creative Bursts tree) |
2/5 |
Harlowe gains increased status effect chance. |
Harlowe build: Nuclear Winter
- Primary skill tree: Cosmic Brilliance
- Action skill: Flux Generator
- Favoured element: Cryo/Radiation
This Cosmic Brilliance build admittedly isn’t the best for either bossing or mobbing, and I’d generally recommend either of the previous builds above this one. However, if you really want to use the Flux Generator, or if you’re playing with friends, then this is still a relatively powerful (and fun) option. Generally speaking, the goal is to drop your Flux Generator onto enemies, then stay inside to buff yourself up while you clean up the mess around you.
A key part of this build is the Creative Overflow and Latent Charge perks, which increase your damage the higher your overshield is. Since the Flux Generator already gives you an overshield, it’s easy enough to trigger, but you can make this synergy even stronger with Mains Hum and Distribution Function.
From here, it’s all about increasing your damage output, whether through elemental damage, gun damage, or critical hit buffs. Nothing does this better than the Nuclear Winter augment, which causes you and your allies to deal bonus cryo damage while you’re inside your Generator, and bonus radiation damage while you’re outside it.
This plays into several other perks, like Decoherence, Refraction, Meltdown, and especially Excited State, which gives you an automatic critical hit against enemies inside your Generator, to quickly buff yourself up whenever you drop your skill on the ground.
Here’s where you should spend your skill points:
|
Skill Name |
Point Investment |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Flux Generator (Action Skill) |
NA |
Harlowe throws her Flux Generator in front of her, which projects an energy field, dealing cryo damage over time and entangling enemies. Allies inside the energy field gain overshield. Press action skill again to pick up the Flux Generator and toss it again. |
|
Action at a Distance |
4/5 |
Whenever Harlowe applies a status effect to an enemy, she gains a chance to apply that status effect to each entangled enemy. |
|
Mains Hum |
3/5 |
Harlowe gains increased maximum shield and overshield capacity. |
|
Blue Giant (Augment – Replace Later) |
NA |
Harlowe’s Flux Generator gains increased radius. Additionally, whenever she retriggers it, she creates a cryo hazard where it was located, and a radiation hazard wherever she next places it. Only one of each of these hazards may be active at a time. |
|
Neutron Decay |
5/5 |
Whenever Harlowe irradiates an enemy, she gains increased gun damage. This effect stacks. |
|
Creative Overflow |
3/3 |
Harlowe deals increased gun damage based on her overshield. The more overshield she has, the bigger the bonus. |
|
Nuclear Winter (Augment – Replace Blue Giant) |
NA |
Whenever Harlowe and her allies are inside the Flux Generator, they deal bonus cryo damage. Whenever they are outside the Flux Generator, they instead deal bonus radiation damage for a duration. Whenever Harlowe inflicts cryo or radiation status effects, that enemy becomes entangled. |
|
Decoherence |
5/5 |
Harlowe deals increased damage with all sources to entangled enemies. Enemies inside of her Flux Generator take further increased damage. |
|
Latent Charge |
5/5 |
Harlowe deals bonus damage with guns, melee, and action skill while she has overshield. The more overshield she has, the bigger the bonus. |
|
Runaway Reaction |
1/1 |
Harlowe gains increased status effect chance. Whenever Harlowe applies a status effect to an enemy, it becomes entangled. |
|
Refraction |
4/5 |
Harlowe and her allies gain ricochet chance against entangled enemies. Critical hits double this chance. Ricochets deal reduced damage. |
|
Excited State |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased critical hit damage. Whenever an enemy is damaged by Harlowe’s action skill, the next shot on that enemy will be an automatic critical hit. |
|
Distribution Function |
1/5 |
Whenever Harlowe’s action skill damages an enemy, restore a portion of her and all allies’ shield capacity. If their shields are full, gain overshield instead. |
|
Harlowe’s Certainty Principle |
5/5 |
Harlowe gains increased gun handling, which is further increased with every enemy in her Flux Generator. |
|
Critical Funding |
5/5 |
Whenever Harlowe critically hits an enemy, she gains a chance to entangle it, and refills a portion of her gun’s magazine. |
|
Violent Horizon (Capstone) |
NA |
Harlowe’s Flux Generator occasionally shoots radiation projectiles at nearby enemies outside of its radius. If these projectiles irradiate an enemy, the Flux Generator then drags them within its radius. Whenever you retrigger this ability, the Flux Generator creates a singularity burst that drags in nearby enemies and increases action skill power. |
|
Meltdown |
3/5 |
Harlowe’s critical hits with guns deal bonus radiation damage. |
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