The green Vexcalation tree and using the Incarnate skill is primarily about Gun Damage. This skill tree provides a variety of ways to temporarily increase Gun Damage to deliver very high amounts of damage. The difficulty in building this tree is understanding the Kill Skills don’t last a long time, and Incarnate has one of the longest Cooldowns in all of Borderlands. That’s what this build solves and allows you to generate significant damage.

Below is a summary of this build if you want to jump right into testing this build with little explanation. The detailed explanation is below the summary.

I will update this build and its effectiveness based on patches or new information as I become aware of them. As of September 17, 2025, this build will reliably get you to the endgame and be a force in Ultimate Vault Hunter 1. I am working my way to the following levels of UVHM with this build and will update weapons, gear, and strategies accordingly.

Happy Vault Hunting!

Build Summary

Action Skill: Incarnate (Green Tree)
Augment: Witchy Trigger Finger
Capstone: Vibe Check

+5 points in Cold Iron (Blue Tree)
+5 points in Leeching Attunement (Green)
+5 points in Bloodletter
+5 points in Material Components (Green)
+5 points in Grave Sights (Green)
+5 points in Grave Implements (Green)
+5 points in Drink Full (Green)
+5 points in Mortal Terror (Green)
+5 points in Grave Vitality (Green)
+4 points in Enchantment (Red), or Hasty Friends (Red), or Sanguine Friends (Blue).

Gun Recommendations

• Boory with [Alt Fire] Extra Barrel - Vladof SMG
• Boory - Vladof SMG
• Buzzymuzzy - Vladof Assault Rifle
• Gruppagrak - Vladof Assault Rifle

Gear Recommendations

• Repkit: Any Repkit with Accelerator
• Ordnance: Any Ordnance with Singularity
• Class Mod: Class Mod must increase Gun Damage and SMG Damage. A Class Mod that puts points into Target Prescience (Green tree) is favorable, but Gun Damage and SMG Damage take priority.
• Shield: Barrage Fireworks - Torgue - Legendary.
• Enhancement: Dog of War - Vladof. Any Vladof that gives +50% damage boost to Underbarrel Barrel damage is desirable.

In-Depth Explanation

Action Skill: Incarnate

Vex creates a Phase Explosion, dealing Damage to nearby enemies and fully restoring her Health. While active, Vex can use Eldritch Blast and gains increased Movement Speed.

Eldritch Blast: Press F [your appropriate button or key] to fire an Eldritch Blast from her offhand, dealing Damage to nearby enemies on impact. Dealing Gun Damage reduces Eldritch Blast’s Cooldown.

Press and hold F to end Incarnate early, partially refunding Cooldown.

Phase Explosion erupts out of Vex’s body in 360 degrees. You have to be in close range for Phase Explosion to connect. Activating Incarnate is useful when you’re low on health, as it almost instantly restores your health. However, you can take damage during the initiation animation, so be careful not to go down as you activate it and be forced to wait 55 seconds to use it again. Don’t use this as a primary form of damage.

Once Phase Explosion completes, your action skill becomes Eldritch Blast. It has an 8 second Cooldown, and Gun Damage decreases the Cooldown. Gun Damage means damage from any gun, and Gun Damage strength does not matter when trying to reduce the Cooldown faster.

In the early game, Incarnate is great for survivability and clean-up damage, but not a primary source of damage.

To maximize Incarnate, you’ll want a gun with a high Fire Rate because Eldritch Blast gains increased cooldown from raw Gun Damage, even if that damage is one. With a high enough Fire Rate, Eldritch Blast can cool down as quickly as two seconds. In 8 seconds, you can launch as many as 6 or 7 Eldritch Blasts, but in the early game, it’s usually 3 to 4. It’s best to focus on searching for SMGs and Assault Rifles, with SMGs as the number one priority.

5 Points in Cold Iron - Blue Dead Ringer Tree

Vex and her Minions gain increased Gun Damage.

Gun Damage +3%

Because Vexcalation’s Gun Damage is conditional, it’s good to give yourself unconditional Gun Damage. With 5 points in Cold Iron, you will always have 15% increased Gun Damage.

5 Points in Leeching Attunement - Green Incarnate Tree

Attune Skill. While Vex is Attuned to Kinetic, she gains increased Lifesteal and Reload Speed.

Effects persist for a Duration after Attunement is switched.

Lifesteal: +2%
Reload Speed: +6%
Attunement Duration: 6 seconds

Kinetic damage plays an important role in adding increased overall damage, but the best part of the skill is the Reload Speed. An increased Reload Speed means more opportunity to lay down Gun Damage, which benefits Eldritch Blast.

5 Points in Bloodletter - Green Incarnate Tree

Gun and Skill Critical Hits have a chance to apply Bleed, causing Kinetic Status Effect Damage over time for a Duration.

Bleed is affected by Status Effect Application Chance and is considered a Status Effect.

Chance: 25%
Damage: +9% of Gun Damage per second
Duration: 4 seconds
Max Stacks: 20

Bloodletter is a powerful early game skill that works with any Kinetic gun. The sacrifice is that you must use Kinetic Damage, but the sacrifice is worth it. Bloodletter does +9%, per stack, of Gun Damage. That can ultimately add 180% of Gun Damage as Status Effect Damage. It is hard to reach that many stacks because the duration is only 4 seconds, but you’ll find it is possible to consistently get very close to that in the endgame.

Don’t worry about scoring critical hits with your skill. It’s a bonus, not something to aspire to. Status Effect Chance is important, but your gun’s high Fire Rate will act as the  Status Effect Chance.

5 Points in Material Components - Green Incarnate Tree

Vex gains increased Kinetic Damage and Kinetic Status Effect Damage.

Kinetic Damage: +6%
Kinetic Status Effect Damage: +3%

Kinetic Status Effect Damage is a bonus, though it is a good bonus.

What’s important here is that you are locking yourself to Kinetic weapons, but the payoff is additional damage you would not get with elemental guns.

With these four skills, we have now increased our unconditional damage. Nothing prevents you from getting these bonuses except hitting crits, landing body shots, and using Kinetic weapons. These four skills will sufficiently get you through Level 25 comfortably. Now it’s time to add our Kill Skills and start adding the butter to this build.

5 Points in Grave Sights - Green Incarnate Tree

Kill Skill. Vex gains increased Critical Hit Damage and Weapon Handling.

Critical Hit Damage: +2% per Stack
Gun Handling: +3% per Stack
Stack Duration: 10 seconds
Max Stacks: 3

Increased Crit Damage is always welcome, but you might not be confident that you can land enough crits consistently to take advantage of this skill. I assure you that your high Fire Rate gun will fix that problem.

5 Points in Grave Implements - Green Incarnate Tree

Kill Skill. Vex and her Minions gain increased Gun Damage for a Duration.

Gun Damage: +3%
Stack Duration: 10 seconds
Max Stacks: 3

With three quick kills, we can quickly reach an additional 9% towards our Gun Damage, which would put us at 24% Gun Damage without any additional modifiers. That’s including our 30% Kinetic damage alongside our Gun Damage (Kinetic and Gun Damage are applied separately to your base gun damage). 

It is hard to keep 3 stacks going. We can run out of enemies to shoot or we only have a big baddie in front of us. Against major bosses, you’ll want to activate these Kill Skills by shooting the additional enemies from time to time. Kill the enemy, refocus on the boss. Keep in mind, shooting explosive barrels counts towards activating your Kill Skills.

5 Points in Drink Full - Green Incarnate Tree

Whenever Vex deals Gun Damage, gain a Stack of Drink Full, increasing Fire Rate.

Stacks of Drink Full are lost if a new Stack has not been gained for Duration.

Fire Rate: +0.12% per stack
Max Stacks: 50
Duration: 5 seconds

Drink Full is helpful if there is a gun you like that has a slower rate of fire, but because it’s not a permanent increase to Fire Rate, I would not recommend using this skill to increase a slower gun’s fire rate. Use it for anything with a rate of fire of 8 seconds or higher.

5 Points in Mortal Terror - Green Incarnate Tree

Chance to trigger Kill Skills when Critically Hitting enemies.

Chance: +1%

All of our Kill Skills have stacks that max out at 3, so because we’re not using other skills like Grave Power (increased Max Stacks) or Channeling (increased Action Skill Duration), it’s important to keep our max stacks at 3 as much as possible. Mortal Terror allows us to do that with relative ease.

This skill is another reason why it’s essential to use a high Fire Rate gun. This skill only gives a 5/100 chance to activate a Kill Skill, but when you’re outputting 8-12 shots per second, that chance goes way up.

Mortal Terror also helps against bosses who have few additional enemies to shoot to activate Kill Skills. With Mortal Terror, you can focus on the boss, landing crits, and activating Kill Skills in the process.

At this point, you should be about level 41 and be able to equip the bottom middle Capstone from the green tree. But before we get into that, here is one last skill to equip, and then I will present my recommended Augment, and three options for the final four points of your tree.

5 Points in Grave Vitality - Green Incarnate Tree

Kill Skill. Vex gains increased Maximum Health Capacity and Health Regeneration.

Maximum Health Capacity: +1.0% per Stack
Health Regeneration: +0.1% per Stack
Stack Duration: 20 seconds
Max Stacks: 10

Even though it’s only 10 Stacks, Grave Vitality is very useful when you’re able to score a lot of kills and then maintain a high stack with Mortal Terror. It is less effective against bosses that tend to have few additional enemies to kill, but bosses tend to hit you with burst damage, and outside of damage reduction, I haven’t found anything in Vex’s trees that adequately helps against burst damage.

4 Points in Sanguine Friends - Blue Tree: Kill Skill. Vex and her Minions regenerate Health over time. 

This skill goes well with Grave Vitality to give health generation without a kill. You might be able to substitute this for Grave Vitality.

Or

4 Points in Enchantment - Red Tree: Vex gains Bonus Kinetic Damage with Weapons while her Action Skill is active.

If you’re using an elemental gun, that gun can also do Kinetic damage while the Action Skill is active. This effect allows you to use other guns that do not have Kinetic damage, but you’re only able to gain the Kinetic Damage while your Action Skill is active. That’s leaving a lot of damage from Kinetic guns on the table when your Action Skill isn’t active. You could opt to switch to an elemental gun when you activate your Action Skill to take advantage of elemental weaknesses and Bonus Kinetic Damage, but that seems too specific to be able to cover as many enemy scenarios efficiently. Enchantment could also be an option if you want 60% Kinetic damage while your Action Skill is active. If you don’t care about increased survivability, this is certainly worth considering.

Or

3 Points in Hasty Friends - Red Tree: Vex and her Minions gain increased Movement Speed and Damage Reduction.

The downside to this build is that it is very open to burst damage. Giving yourself Damage Reduction helps a lot. You can only have up to 3 points in this particular skill, so you would have to figure out where to place your last point, but 21% unconditional Damage Reduction is beneficial.

We have used up all our points. Let’s talk about the Augment and Capstone and how this build operates as you’re in the fight.

Augment

Witchy Trigger Finger - Bottom Middle Augment in Green Tree

Dealing Damage with Eldritch Blast or Phase Explosion will Reload Vex’s current Gun and grant a stack of Witch Trigger Finger, increasing Gun Damage for a Duration.

Stacks of Witchy Trigger Finger persist even after Incarnate ends.

Gun Damage: +15% per Stack

Max Stacks: 3

Stack Duration: 15

Witchy Trigger Finger is the main reason why it’s crucial to have a gun with a high Fire Rate. Each time you’re able to use Eldritch Blast (and land the blast on an enemy), you’re increasing your Gun Damage by another 15% for 15 seconds. So, Incarnate as a skill is mediocre, but its ability to strengthen your guns is excellent.

Capstone

Vibe Check - Middle Capstone in Green Tree

Eldrich Blast is now a Charge Skill (3).

Activating Eldritch Blast consumes all Charges to Ricochet on hitting an enemy, for each Charge consumed.

Eldritch Blast’s Cooldown reduction from Gun Damage is doubled.

Witchy Trigger Finger makes this build cool. Vibe Check makes this build fun. 

Eldritch Blast functions as usual. Activate Phase Explosion, your Action Skill becomes Eldritch Blast, and you must use Gun Damage to make it cool down faster. But now, if you hold Eldritch Blast, you are charging up three additional blasts that ricochet after your initial blast makes contact with an enemy. The fun part is that the ricochets also proc Witchy Trigger Finger, allowing you to maintain up to 45% more Gun Damage and, depending on the gun, an infinite magazine since Eldritch Blast damage reloads the gun you’re using.

To maximize this damage, you’ll want the best guns and the right equipment. This is where your variety and creativity come in as you’re finding all kinds of loot–some I haven’t likely seen yet, either. I’m going to list weapons that are an absolute must and others that you can get away with, and will do the same for gear.

Weapons

The top gun type you should be looking for is SMGs. They usually have the highest fire rate, and that is the highest priority for this build. You need guns with at least 8 shots per second. Anything less than that and you’re not going to get good productivity from this build because it will take too long for Eldritch Blast to cool down per shot, diminishing your damage.

Vladof guns are the highest priority manufacturer to look for. If you see a Vladof gun of any kind, at least check it out, but especially SMGs. Vladof’s are known for their high fire rate. They also tend to be Kinetic, which makes these guns best suited for this build.

Ripper SMGs are decent. These guns tend to hang around the 8 second per shot range, but each bullet hits harder because of the slower fire rate. I’m not a fan of the charge mechanic (I was okay with Maliwan’s charging in BL3 for some reason–weird, I know), but I’ve used a few Ripper’s and they’re worth considering if you’re having trouble finding suitable high fire rate SMGs. Also, be mindful that many Ripper guns are not Kinetic. So while you might find a Ripper SMG at 10+ shots per second, it may not be Kinetic, which doesn’t help this build.

Don’t be fooled by Jakobs. They tend to have high fire rates ranging from 9 to 11 shots per second, but that’s only if you can shoot that fast with your finger. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to do that consistently during big mob fights and bosses. It’s also harder to hit critical shots as Jakobs are typically single-fire guns. They’re great for activating Kill Skills because they hit hard, but critical damage is important for maximizing this build’s damage, and Jakobs can’t do that.

If Daedalus guns weren’t burst-fire like Dahl weapons in BL3, I’d recommend Daedalus. You can get away with it if you have nothing else, or if you really like the way Deadalus guns feel, go for it.

Any other gun manufacturer doesn’t matter for this build, unless they miraculously have a high fire rate.

Recommended Specific Guns

Boory - Vladof SMG

If there is any gun you want for this build, it’s the Boory. It has one of the highest Fire Rates in the game, ranging between 10 and 13 shots per second. It mostly comes as a Kinetic gun–perfect for utilizing Kinetic damage, and I have found it in three rarities (green, blue, and purple).

Rogue Luty Madlad - Daedalus SMG - Legendary

Easily one of the strongest SMGs in the game. It has an absurd Fire Rate and comes with a COV perk, bolstered by its legendary perk where it overheats quickly, but also Cools down quickly. It chews through ammo, so you'll need max SMG SDUs to get the most out of this gun, but even an underpowered version like mine can do ridiculous damage. I still wouldn't choose this over a Boory with the Extra Barrel Alt Fire, but this would be my second choice.

Buzzymuzzy - Vladof Assault Rifle

The Buzzymuzzy is fast and hits hard, too. It’s slightly slower in Fire Rate compared to the Boory SMG, but it still can reach Fire Rates above 10 seconds. The real use behind an Assault Rifle is the larger magazine size, which works very well with the Capstone combo. You might not like how the Buzzymuzzy feels, as it has a slower startup, but once it’s revving, it shreds. If you don’t like how the Buzzymuzzy feels, consider the next Assault Rifle option.

Gruppagrak - Vladof Assault Rifle

The Gruppagrak also shoots fast but typically has a slightly faster reload speed than the Buzzymuzzy. But they’re so identical, it comes down to feel and base damage, ultimately. The Gruppagrak also boasts a Fire Rate above 10 and has a good-sized magazine that is helpful with the Capstone combo. If you see a Gruppagrak, definitely take a look at it.

God Gun

The above three guns work exceptionally well with this build. As mentioned, you’re free to use a variety of high Fire Rate guns, so long as it’s 8 or higher. But there is one gun variant that stands above the rest.

Boory - Vladof SMG, [Alt Fire] Extra Barrel - Enables a Secondary Barrel, increasing Fire Rate by 75%

If you find a Boory, that’s wonderful. If you find a Boory with this perk as the alternate fire form, no other gun matters. This is the perfect gun for this build.

Without the build, it’s already a mighty gun, but with it, it sends the damage from this gun through the atmosphere. It also seems this alternate fire is exclusive to Vladof SMGs.

It still comes with downsides. It has a small magazine and you will likely not benefit from the Capstone/Withcy Trigger Finger combo. Your Kill Skills will stay active, so it might be worth looking into using Grave Power (Vex’s Kill Skills gain increased Max Stacks), making it outrageously good for mobbing, but not as great for bossing, though it is still excellent. In boss situations, you might want to use a Buzzymuzzy or a Gruppagrak or something else with a slightly slower Fire Rate and larger magazine to take full advantage of your build’s strengths. With that said, it’s still an excellent gun for any activity you’re participating in.

Gear Considerations

Gear is going to be a lot about playstyle. None of these are absolutes (particularly when there is so much more loot to find), but these are recommended suggestions that make this build perform even better. But I acknowledge there could be more optimal gear as more people explore Kairos and show off their gear. I will go in order of gear slots and add my recommendations.

Repkit Recommendation
Any repkit with the Accelerator Perk. The Accelerator Perk reads:

Accelerator - On use, grants increased Action Skill Cooldown Rate by +100% for 8s.

Cooldown Rate and duration may vary, but I’m sure you see the immediate value here. Incarnate will always have a 55-second cooldown unless you decide to reduce Action Skill Cooldown Rate. But Accelerator is great when your Cooldown is down to about 15 seconds and you jam the Repkit in your body; now you only have 8 seconds left on your Cooldown.

Order manufacturer Repkits tend to have 2 uses before a full Cooldown. If you can find an Order Repkit with Accelerator, that’s a great scenario.

Ordnance Slot Recommendation
Ordnance is entirely your choice. I have fallen in love with knives that have Singularity, which pulls in enemies. It’s great for crowd control. No Ordnance that I’ve seen enhances the build, so how Ordnance enhances your build is based on what makes you more effective.

Class Mod Recommendation

Like the rest of your gear, Class Mods and what they do with your build largely depend on what drops for you and what skills they modify. Borderlands 4 continues the effect that if you don’t have skill points in a particular skill, if your Class Mod places points into that skill, you will get the benefits of that skill. There are a lot of combinations you can achieve with that effect.

I’m not sure a God roll Class Mod is even possible with all the combinations, but if you were to ask what are good modifiers to look out for, always go for Class Mods that include Gun Damage and SMG Damage. The third modifier is up to you. I have two Class mods, both with Gun and SMG damage, but one has added Movement Speed, and the other has Melee Damage. The one with Melee Damage puts points into Target Prescience (Gun Damage gains Critical Hit Chance against any part of enemies), which is a fantastic bonus. But my other Class Mod has significantly increased Gun and SMG damage, even though the skills it boosts have no bonus on this build.

I think the best rolls would include Gun Damage, SMG Damage, and Action Skill Cooldown or additional Kinetic Damage. I’m not sure that’s a combination that’s possible, but that’s what I would look for.

Shield Slot Recommendation

Barrage Fireworks - Torgue - Legendary

Bundled - On kill, spawns Missiles that home in on nearby enemies and deal 2,041 Damage each

Heavy Plating - Grants up to +20% Damage Reduction, scaling with broken Armor Segments [impermanent roll]

Missile Swarm - On Armor Segment break, launches 3 Missiles, each dealing 408 Damage

Barrage Fireworks is a mid-level capacity shield, but it packs a massive punch, as any Torgue anything would. It is a new type of shield, one with armor segments that drop on the ground should you lose them, and you can pick them back up (they also constantly recharge, but segments take longer to form again as you take damage). They are my new favorite form of shield, and this one does an exceptional job. Barrage Fireworks reads

The Bundled perk is the most useful perk on here. It helps activate Kill Skills easily because the Missiles launched on kill tend to one-shot everything. If it doesn’t, the Boory easily cleans up the rest of their health. The Bundled missiles also do decent damage to bosses after killing the additional enemies.

Shields don’t necessarily buff this build in significant ways, so choose one that helps you succeed. If you take a lot of damage, pick a shield that gives you Damage Reduction. If you tend to take a lot of melee damage, look for a shield that punishes enemies for melee damage.

Enhancement Slot Recommendation

Enhancements are the game’s new version of Anointments from Borderlands 3, but now those anointments are given their own slot and called Enhancements. They enhance the properties of all kinds of guns. Think of them as Class Mods for gun manufacturers. My recommendation:

Dog of War - Vladof

Underdog - Guns with Vladof-licensed parts gain +50% Underbarrel Damage

Guess what gun has an underbarrel? The Boory. What counts as an underbarrel? The Alt Fire Extra Barrel that gives 75% increased Fire Rate. With the Dog of War, now that’s +50% more damage when you’re using it.

Enhancements come with perks as well that are universal, no matter what gun manufacturer you’re wielding. This one currently has SMG Fire Rate increase, Assault Rifle Accuracy, and Gun Critical Damage increase. I would trade the SMG Fire Rate increase for something else, as it’s just diminishing returns at this point, but the Assault Rifle accuracy and Gun Critical Damage are useful.

Of course, if you can find something that increases damage output, great. If you need increased Fire Rate, this helps, but it’s got to have the Underbarrel Damage from Vladof.

I will continue to update this build with new findings. Feel free to comment with modifications and variations that you have found to work for you. I will credit as needed.

Enjoy!