2kHarlowe is one of Borderlands 4‘s best characters, boasting an easy-to-play fighting style and plenty of versatility through her skills, but only if you build her right.
Sure, Borderlands 4 may be a chaotic looter-shooter where anything is on the table, but there’s still an element of skill about it. Players have a choice of four different characters: Amon, Vex, Rafa, and, of course, Harlowe. And though the best weapons play a big role in everyone’s performance, she is a great character to pick.
Harlowe is easily one of the strongest choices, with the capability to dominate hordes of enemies using her AoE, control, and healing skills. However, she’s only powerful with the right build, weapon, and skill investments. Luckily for you, we’ve got that right here.
Best Harlowe build
This build revolves around Flux Generator with the Nuclear Winter + Group Study augments. This setup creates a cryo bubble that freezes enemies and doubles as a buff aura for your team, while skills like Absolute Zero and Flash Freeze stall your Action Skill drain.
With the right class mod, you can keep this bubble up nearly permanently, giving Harlowe top-tier utility and some of the strongest sustained damage in the game.
- Best skills: Momentum, Neutron Decay, Confirmative Reality, Absolute Zero, Refraction, Excited State, Distribution Function, Parallel Circuit, Bright Future, Precision Engineering, Flash Freeze
- Best Action Skill: Flux Generator
- Capstone: Demon Core
- Weapon type: Radiation
2kBest skills to choose
Action Skill: Flux Generator
Harlowe’s best Action Skill is Flux Generator with the Nuclear Winter and Group Study augments, because it turns her into a walking team engine.
The cryo bubble freezes enemies in place while also buffing allies with gun damage, reload speed, and fire rate, and when paired with Absolute Zero and Flash Freeze it can practically run forever.
If you add a Control Group class mod, you’ve got one of the few skills in Borderlands 4 that works as both crowd control and a permanent team-wide damage boost, which is why it’s the clear pick over anything else.
To find the skill you want, type it into the filter under skill to uncover whether it’s a good one to invest in and how many points you should put into it.
Skill | Description | Points to invest |
|---|---|---|
Momentum | Increases crit damage and unlocks the next tier | 5 |
Neutron Decay | When Harlowe irradiates an enemy, she gains increased Gun Damage | 5 |
Confirmative Reality | Freezes Action Skill duration for 4s when you freeze enemies | 1 |
2kBest Capstone
The best Capstone is undeniably Demon Core. After all, if we’re going for a Radiation build, you’ll want the ability to shoot literal Radiation Darts at enemies.
2kPlus, whenever you Entangle an enemy, which you’ll do whenever you use an Action Skill, you’ll be able to automatically Irradiate them.
So, quite literally, this Capstone will help you melt through the toughest of bosses with ease. It’s highly advised you grab this when you can.
Weapon type
The best weapons for Harlowe are Radiation SMGs, especially Vladof models with taser underbarrels. Every shot procs Neutron Capture and feeds her endless uptime loop.
- For mobbing: SMGs with Radiation/Status bonuses.
- For bosses: Rainbow Vomit (Radiation) or Skeptic (cooldown sustain) are excellent swaps.
- Shields: Super Soldier provides overshield, fire rate, and ammo regen, keeping you safe while maintaining DPS.
This build is all about stacking elemental procs, so lean on Radiation/Cryo weapons and let Harlowe’s skill tree amplify them.
2kHow to play Harlowe
Harlowe shines in group play, but this build works solo too. The rotation is simple:
- Activate Flux Generator with Nuclear Winter + Group Study to summon your cryo bubble.
- Freeze enemies inside the bubble. Absolute Zero and Flash Freeze will stall your Action Skill drain.
- Fire SMGs nonstop; ricochets from Refraction and crit scaling from Precision Engineering ramp damage quickly.
- Keep Confirmative Reality active by hitting Entangled enemies, refreshing your cooldown.
- With a Control Group class mod, you can chain this loop almost forever, giving your team buffs while pumping out constant Radiation damage.
In co-op, stay back and let your Entanglement bubble do the crowd control. Buff allies, lock down enemies, and keep the loop going. With this setup, Harlowe becomes the ultimate crowd control Vault Hunter, stacking team utility with top-tier DPS.
Essentially, Harlowe is the crowd control character of Borderlands 4. She thrives in larger groups, is great at putting all enemies together, and thrives when you utilize Radiation. Capitalize on all this, and you’ll have no trouble from beginning to end.
So, that’s all you need to know about how to build the perfect Harlowe in Borderlands 4. While exploring Kairos, be sure to check out how to bag some free rewards through Twitch Drops, or all Borderlands games in order.