Everyone knew this day was coming, and it's finally here. What was once Borderlands 4Most of the OP build has been reduced to ashes, leaving Vex players who once relied on it no doubt looking for better options. The build in question, coined by the community as “Infinite Bleed”, was previously labeled as “unintended” by Gearbox, and although the developer never directly pointed to the build when mentioning the upcoming nerf for Borderlands 4it's so strong that it's clear which gearbox he's always been referring to.
To Gearbox's credit, it's actually surprising how long the build took. Shortly after Borderlands 4Creative Director Graeme Timmins assured players at launch that the team would “not be knee-jerk on anything”, referring to the early OP builds. Considering how long Vex's Infinite Bleed build has survived, it seems like Gearbox has kept that promise. If that wasn't enough, the patch was expected to arrive earlier in the week – potentially on Monday or Tuesday – but the developer surprised players with a minor delay. Borderlands 4 nerf. However, it only delayed the inevitable as today's patch finally made it official.
Vex's Infinite Bleed Build no longer exists
Before we get into the specifics of the patch, it helps to understand why Vex's Infinite Bleed build was such a hot topic Borderlands 4 commonwealth. The build took advantage of how her Bloodletter skill applies Bleed on critical hits and then uses gear interaction to turn that Bleed into compound damage. It might look pretty simple, but with the right pieces in place, the damage would scale at a rate that could basically take out bosses Borderlands 4.
Here's how Vex's Inifinite Bleed build worked Borderlands 4:
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Use a throwing knife with the Penetrator Augment to make all damage critical hits during a short window.
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With the Bloodletter skill, critical hits have a chance to apply the Bleed status effect.
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Combine Bleed with the Contamination skill, which improves the chance to apply a status effect when players crit, so each Bleed can potentially trigger another Bleed.
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Gear/skill synergy focuses on kinetic weapon damage, lifesteal, and crit/stat chance to tank loop.
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Rotation: throw knife > trigger crit window > fire high damage kinetic/crit gun > Bleed starts to build up and cascade > enemy melts.
How the Patch Affects Vex's Bleed Build
While the latest patch comes with a number of changes, the expected “Vex-killing” change is perhaps one of its biggest innovations. Of the four Vault Hunters in Borderlands 4Vex actually received the least number of edits, and fixing her unintended Infinite Bleed build is simple enough that it only required one line.
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Bleed from Bloodletter has been updated so that it no longer triggers itself recursively, preventing unwanted damage loops.
That's actually all that's needed to build Vex's Infinite Bleed Borderlands 4 to be in the grave at this moment. With the fix in place, Bleed effects applied via Bloodletter can no longer cause them to re-process additional Bleed stacks purely from their own damage. In other words, once Bleed is applied and ticking, its own tick of damage will no longer count as a crit or damage that will trigger Bleed again. As a direct result, the looping nature of the build is significantly dampened. Players can still get Bleed from critical hits, but the infinite loop effect is removed. Instead, players now have a more standard Bleed over time effect without the self-trigger aspect.
On the other hand, it gives more room for Vex's other abilities to shine for once, with Trouble in particular even receiving a damage and duration buff. Borderlands 4latest patch. Additionally, as mentioned, the update also brings significant improvements to other builds, essentially leveling the playing field even more for the four vault hunters. and finally, Borderlands 4The limited-time Horrors of Kairos event kicks off with the release of this patch, and the game has also received a significant number of quality-of-life improvements – including changes to equipment sorting that fans have been asking for for quite some time.
- Released
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September 12, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Crude Language, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
