Borderlands 4 Loveless: Skills, Trees and How to Get Her

Loveless the Hacker is the newest playable Vault Hunter in Borderlands 4, released as paid DLC on September 10, 2026 alongside Version 1.10 and Story Pack 2. She fights with Corrosive and Radiation damage, builds a RAM meter for empowered melee hits, and draws on three action skills: a Plague Star shuriken, a cloaking Visual Paradox Nexus and a summoned Wyrm. Below is how to get her, how each skill tree works and what the October 2026 balance patch changed.

We checked this against the official Loveless the Hacker spotlight, the Version 1.10 and 1.11 patch notes, the official DLC page, the Borderlands support FAQ on cross-saves and Mobalytics' elemental damage guide in November 2026.

Who Loveless Is and How to Get Her

The official description calls Loveless an ex-Anshin hacker turned assassin who shares her mind with a digital virus of her own creation. That virus can digistruct into a physical Wyrm, which acts as her companion in fights. Story-wise she is a character you play, not a character you meet, so you can pick her up without spoiling anything in the FL4K campaign.

Getting her is a purchase decision. The Version 1.10 notes say you must own the Loveless the Hacker DLC to play as her, and that she is included in the Borderlands 4 Super Deluxe Edition and the Vault Hunter Pack, or can be bought separately. The official spotlight adds that the Deluxe Edition only includes the Bounty Pack Bundle, so Deluxe owners do not get her automatically. A footnote in the patch notes also explains the structure: Story Pack 2 has two parts, the FL4K and the Last Resort story content and Loveless as a playable Vault Hunter. If you want to see where she sits among every add-on, our Borderlands 4 DLC list in release order lays out the full timeline.

She is also the second of two DLC Vault Hunters. When C4SH the Rogue launched on March 26, 2026, Gearbox's notes described him as the first of two new Vault Hunters arriving through paid Story Packs, and Loveless completes that pair.

The RAM Trait, Functions and Executables

Loveless' passive trait is RAM. The patch notes describe it this way: critical hits and status effects fill RAM, and when the meter is full her melee attack becomes Empowered, dealing extra damage and consuming all RAM. The fuller the meter, the more gun damage she gains, and the meter drains if she has not gained any recently. In practice that rewards a steady rhythm of crits and status procs, then a melee finisher, then building again.

Her action skills also add two input layers that no other Vault Hunter uses in quite the same way:

• Functions: tap the action skill button again while the skill is active. The notes describe them as low-cooldown, fast bursts of power.
• Executables: press and hold the action skill button. These carry longer cooldowns with a much bigger payoff.

Getting comfortable with the tap-versus-hold difference is the first thing to practice. Mixing them up means burning a long Executable cooldown when you only wanted a quick Function.

Plague Star and the Virology Tree

Plague Star sits in the Virology tree, listed as the green tree in the 1.11 notes. Loveless digistructs a large shuriken and throws it at a target: it pierces enemies, deals Corrosive action skill damage and applies Contagion, a Corrosive damage-over-time status. When an enemy carrying Contagion dies, the virus seeks new hosts and spreads a portion of its stacks to them, which is what makes this tree strong against packed rooms.

The Executable for Plague Star is the payoff. Pressing and holding the skill detonates every Contagion on the field, consuming the stacks and dealing Corrosive action skill damage in an area. A simple loop is to throw, let Contagion jump between enemies, then hold to pop everything at once.

Element choice matters here. Mobalytics' damage tables show Corrosive dealing up to 175% damage against armor on Hard and Ultimate Vault Hunter difficulty, but only 50% against flesh at the same setting. Our elemental damage chart for Borderlands 4 explains how to cover the gap with a gun of a different element.

Visual Paradox Nexus and the Hack / Slash Tree

Visual Paradox Nexus, the blue Hack / Slash tree's skill, is the stealth assassin option. Activating it raises Loveless' movement speed and critical hit damage for a duration. Killing an enemy while it is active puts her in stealth briefly and creates a Clone where the enemy died; only one Clone can exist at a time.

Its Function sends out a kusarigama slash that creates a wave of Radiation melee damage. If Loveless is in stealth when she uses it, the slash critically hits and ends stealth. That gives the tree a clear sequence: kill to vanish, line up the slash, crit, repeat. Radiation pairs well with this because Mobalytics lists it as strong against shields (up to 150% on Hard and UVH), though weak against armor.

One change matters for this tree in particular. Version 1.11 notes that the skill had been giving 50% extra gun damage while invisible without the Montage Maker class mod, and that Montage Maker is now required for that bonus. The same patch changed the Refactored Damage Formula passive to 1.5x or 2.0x damage and clarified its tooltip, with a developer note saying they did not want Montage Maker to be fully mandatory.

Malignant Construct and the Manifestation Tree

Malignant Construct, from the red Manifestation tree, summons the Wyrm to fight beside Loveless. Summoning it grants Symbiosis stacks, which unlock Symbiosis effects and deplete over time; she also gains Symbiosis when the Wyrm kills an enemy or through certain passives. The Function orders the Wyrm to teleport toward an enemy and deal Radiation damage in an area, while the Executable commands a powerful breath attack that deals Radiation melee damage.

This tree received the most attention in 1.11. Gearbox made the Wyrm more aggressive by raising its speed and turn rate, improved how it follows your ping when switching targets, and fixed it staying behind when Loveless leaves a game. The nuk.exe capstone's explosion now goes off at its Singularity rather than following the Wyrm, and Singularities disappear after 7 seconds. Pure Fusion now grants 10% maximum health per point, up from 6%, and the Martyr class mod no longer instantly kills the Wyrm.

Leveling and Building Loveless in November 2026

A fresh Loveless has a long road, since the level cap rose by 10 levels with Version 1.10, the same update that released her. Our Borderlands 4 level cap guide covers the current cap and the Specialization system that keeps rewarding XP after the campaign. If you own Story Pack 2, the 1.10 notes say you can roll a new Vault Hunter that starts directly at the FL4K and the Last Resort content at level 13, which skips the opening campaign for a second character.

Experimenting across trees is expected with a new character. Respec machines refund skill points for cash, and Version 1.7 made them reset augment slots along with your points, so swapping from Plague Star to the Wyrm is a clean break. Our guide to respeccing in Borderlands 4 explains where the machines are and what they cost.

Other 1.11 numbers worth knowing before you build: Contagion Executable damage rose by 33%, the Lag Switch augment's damage rose by 66%, Kernel Panic now grants 10% Executable damage per point per stack instead of 5%, and Contagion itself now grants RAM. Each of those pushes the Virology tree further toward a detonate-everything playstyle.

Which tree should a new Loveless start in? Think about how you like to fight rather than raw numbers, since the numbers keep moving with patches. Virology suits players who like to tag a crowd and let damage spread on its own, then cash it all in with one held button. Hack / Slash suits players who enjoy weaving in and out of stealth and timing a single big crit, and it leans on movement more than the others. Manifestation suits players who want a second body on the field drawing attention, with the Wyrm doing much of the work while you shoot. Because respeccing is cheap early on, spending a few levels in each tree before you commit is a reasonable way to find your fit, and the new class mods from Story Pack 2 give you more reasons to revisit the choice later.

Finally, cross-save players should know one limit. The Borderlands support FAQ explains that DLC Vault Hunters are not available on a platform unless you own the same DLC there, so buying Loveless on one system does not unlock her on another.

Want It Done for You?

A brand-new Vault Hunter means starting again from level 1, and not everyone has time to push a sixth character through the campaign. The store's Borderlands 4 section lists boosting services for the game, including level, skill point, specialization point, Eridium and gear packages. Those listings work from your SHiFT display name, found under Social in the main menu on the Account Details tab, rather than your account password.

If you go that route, check that each listing covers your platform first: the product pages list PSN, Xbox and PC.

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