Loveless the Hacker costs $9.99 as a standalone purchase, and the early verdict is unusually clear: player reception is strongly positive, her kit genuinely adds playstyles the base four lack, and the pricing decision (character sold separately from the story DLC) has been actively praised. Here’s the honest worth-it breakdown.
What $9.99 Buys
- Loveless herself: the fifth Vault Hunter, playable across ALL Borderlands 4 content: base campaign, both story packs, UVH endgame, raids
- Her complete three-tree kit: the Virology, Hack/Slash, and Manifestation trees, the RAM trait, and the Functions/Executables system unique to her
- What’s NOT included: Story Pack 2 (FL4K and the Last Resort) is a separate $19.99; Loveless doesn’t need it and it doesn’t include her
Bundle math: the $49.99 Vault Hunter Pack and the Super Deluxe both include her; Deluxe Edition owners buy her separately (a wrinkle 2K took criticism for, while the standalone $9.99 option itself got press praise as fixing Gearbox’s old DLC-bundling mistake).
What She Actually Adds
The base four’s kits didn’t cover:
- Stealth gameplay (Hack/Slash’s kill-triggered stealth and clone)
- A dedicated pet class (Wyrm and the Symbiosis economy, the franchise’s hacker-flavored Beastmaster)
- The spread-and-detonate plague archetype (Contagion chains)
- A melee-loop trait (RAM) that makes crits and claws one economy
If one of those is your genre itch, she’s worth it on kit novelty alone. Players are already soloing bosses with her, and “insanely OP” is the phrase circulating in top Steam reviews (enjoy it while Gearbox’s balance team sleeps).
Who Should Skip
- You have one character slot of patience and it’s spent: a fifth hunter is content you’ll never touch.
- You exclusively play one archetype she doesn’t serve (dedicated tank players, she is not for you).
- You’re waiting for the endgame meta to settle before investing; fair, and the leveling consensus is the only settled thing so far.
The Verdict
At $9.99, Loveless is priced like a skin and delivers a class. For anyone still actively playing Borderlands 4 through the current UVH ladder and DLC cycle, she’s the easiest yes in the game’s whole monetization catalog. The hesitation cases are about your time, not her quality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does she start at level 1? Yes, or at level 13 via the Story Pack 2 boosted start if you own that DLC.
Can she use all existing gear? All standard gear; her class mods are her own, and the loot pool already includes them.
Is she in matchmaking co-op normally? Fully; she’s a first-class Vault Hunter, not a mode.
Will more Vault Hunters come? The roadmap’s pattern (packs plus a hunter) suggests the door is open; nothing’s announced.