Best Borderlands 4 Rafa build

Borderlands 4’s Rafa, the Exo Soldier, can feel unstoppable with the right setup, but he’s only as strong as the build you put together.

You’ve got four Vault Hunters to pick from, each with a different fighting style. And though the best weapons play a big role in everyone’s performance, Rafa is a great character to pick. Rafa’s kit is all about heavy ordnance and shock damage. His kit covers everything from cannon fire to ricochets and melee dashes, so you can lean into the style that suits you best.

So, if you’ve tested Amon, Vex, or Harlowe and settled on this powerhouse in an exosuit, you’re in the right place. Here’s the best build for Rafa in Borderlands 4.

Gearbox

Best Rafa build

The best build for Rafa focuses on ricochets with Peacebreaker Cannons and Jakob’s shotguns, swapping capstones by matchup.

• Best skills: Citiar, Instinto, Maestro, El Valiente, Asymmetric Warfare, Errant Spark, Lateral Plinking, Vitriol, Concentrated Buildup, Tamaria
• Best Action Skill: Peacebreaker Cannons
• Capstone: Double Auto Shot for flesh/boss burst, or Beam Team for shielded targets and add clear
• Weapon type: Hot Slugger and Rainbow Vomit shotguns; prioritize ricochet and indirect damage synergies

Best skills to choose

Action Skill: Peacebreaker Cannons

This is the core endgame ricochet setup. Focus on gun-damage and ricochet nodes that boost cannon damage and keep your Action Skill active for nearly the entire fight.

Citiar and Tamaria stack raw gun damage that Peacebreaker inherits via “I Am A Gun,” while Asymmetric Warfare, Errant Spark, and Lateral Plinking scale indirect and ricocheting projectiles.

Instinto gives crit uptime, Maestro boosts cannon skill damage, and El Valiente rewards full shields with more damage.

Vitriol pairs perfectly with Hot Slugger’s one-round mag for free corrosive on every shot, and Concentrated Buildup plus “In the Zone” turn long ADS windows into huge shock and crit bonuses.

Gearbox

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.

Gearbox

Best Capstone

The best Rafa capstones depend on matchup, with Double Auto Shot and Beam Team standing out as the most effective choices.

• Double Auto Shot is the default for bossing and flesh targets. Critical hits always ricochet, supercharging shotgun burst at close range.
• Beam Team is the swap-in for shielded enemies and general mobbing. It converts cannons to elemental beams that apply status consistently.

Weapon type

Run two primaries and swap by matchup:

• Hot Slugger (Jakobs shotgun) for bossing and any fight with adds. Blazing Barrel stacks +30% damage on kill up to +90%. It ricochets and benefits from all indirect/ricochet bonuses.
  • Tip: Manually reload immediately after firing to skip the extended auto-reload animation.
• Rainbow Vomit shotgun for sustained aiming down sights when shields drop or there are no adds. Color Spray gives multiple elements; make sure one is incendiary for Errant Spark double dips.

Super Soldier is best in slot for ammo regen at full shields, keeping Hot Slugger firing without manual reload. Firewerks Shield from Splashzone is a strong early alternative that spawns indirect missiles.

How to play Rafa

Rafa is built for aggression, so you should play him with constant forward pressure. Here’s the recommended skill rotation:

• Stay aiming down sights. This builds Concentrated Buildup shock damage and In the Zone gun/crit bonuses, and boosts Peacebreaker via I Am A Gun.
• Open with Enrage, throw a Penetrator knife to force crits and +15% damage taken on the target, then activate Peacebreaker.
• Use Double Auto Shot for flesh bosses; swap to Beam Team for shielded targets.
• With Hot Slugger, tap reload immediately after each shot unless Super Soldier is keeping you at full shields and regenerating ammo.
• Keep shields full to double El Valiente’s damage bonus. If you struggle, consider Shield Barriers over extra gun-damage nodes.
• Maintain Instinto re-activations for burst windows and keep Tamaria at 10 stacks by never dropping your Action Skill.

So, that’s all you need to know about how to build the perfect Rafa in Borderlands 4. While exploring Kairos, check out the Maurice Vending Machine location, Wildcard missions, upcoming roadmap, the best settings, and how to get some free rewards through the Twitch Drops and SHiFT codes.