Loveless the Hacker, Borderlands 4‘s fifth Vault Hunter ($9.99, released September 10), runs on systems no other character has: a RAM meter that converts crits into melee power, and action skills split into Functions (tap, quick effects) and Executables (hold, big finishers). Her three trees build three different assassins. Here’s the full kit.
The RAM Trait
Loveless’s class trait is RAM: critical hits and status effect applications fill the bar, and:
- A full bar empowers her next melee (the Techno-Kagi claws) with dramatically increased damage
- Gun damage scales with the RAM fill percentage
- The meter drains over time, so she’s built for tempo: keep critting, keep proccing, stay loaded
Functions and Executables
Unique to Loveless: every action skill has a Function (tap: low-cooldown utility) and an Executable (hold: the high-impact version). It’s two buttons of decision on every skill, and her trees key off both.
Virology (Green): The Plague Spreader
Action skill: Plague Star, a digistructed piercing shuriken dealing Corrosive damage and applying Contagion, a damage-over-time that spreads to nearby enemies when its host dies. The Executable detonates every active Contagion at once. Branches build sustain, splash explosions, or crit stacking. The mob-clearing tree: infect a crowd, pop the room.
Hack/Slash (Blue): The Stealth Assassin
Action skill: Visual Paradox Nexus, a mode granting movement speed and crit damage where kills trigger brief stealth and spawn a clone. The Function performs kusarigama slashes (Radiation) with guaranteed crits while stealthed. Builds run stealth-assassin, sniper, clone, and radiation-melee directions. The boss-and-badass tree.
Manifestation (Red): The Pet Handler
Action skill: Malignant Construct summons Wyrm, her digital pet (Radiation damage), and the tree runs on Symbiosis stacks for pet synergy. Functions teleport Wyrm in radiation novas; Executables trigger breath attacks; the deep tree gets berserk states, singularities (the nuk.exe augment), the Giga Bite heal, and a death-triggered Dead Code spawn. The tree most recommended for leveling, since the pet doesn’t care what gun you found (our Loveless build guide runs the specifics).
Reading Her Design
Each tree answers RAM differently: Virology fills it with status procs, Hack/Slash with guaranteed crits, Manifestation lets Wyrm carry while RAM charges gun damage. The respec machines make trying all three cheap, and she slots into the current UVH climb without catch-up mechanics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need Story Pack 2 for Loveless? No, she’s sold separately ($9.99) or via the Vault Hunter Pack and Super Deluxe; she plays all content.
What’s her lore? Ex-Anshin hacker turned assassin, sharing her mind with a digital virus she created; the trees are the virus metaphor made mechanical.
Is she good at endgame? Top Steam reviews are already calling her boss-soloing strong; five days in, the meta is forming, not formed.
Melee or guns? Yes. RAM exists to make you alternate: crits load the meter, the meter supercharges melee, repeat.