Borderlands 4’s Amon Has 87 Passives — More Than All Previous Borderlands Combined
Gearbox says Borderlands 4 will give players far more choices when building Vault Hunters, with a much larger passive pool and a redesigned skill system that pushes the game toward deeper action‑RPG mechanics. The game is set to launch on Sept. 12 and introduces four new Vault Hunters, including Amon the Forge Knight, while lead character designer Nick Thurston has described several changes to skills, passives, and specialization systems.
- What new characters and systems the game includes
- How the skill trees, Augments and Capstones work
- Concrete numbers on passives and build options
- Direct quotes from Gearbox designers about design goals
New Vault Hunters and Amon, the Forge Knight
Borderlands 4 adds four new Vault Hunters. In particular, Amon the Forge Knight mixes melee and tech: he manifests weapons with cybernetic drones and has a backstory as a cult survivor. According to Thurston, early drafts considered other concepts for Amon, including a nanobot user and a pseudo‑Iron Man, but those ideas were changed during design.
Revamped skill system and more passives
Gearbox rebuilt the series’ skill systems. Specifically, the game introduces an Augment and Capstone system that forces tradeoffs and changes how abilities behave. Thurston said these systems “force you to make a choice and all of them drastically change the ability that each player has.”
Moreover, the team says the new game will include a much larger set of passive abilities. Thurston is quoted saying, “We also have more passives than all the previous Borderlands combined.” He adds concrete numbers: Amon has 87 passives, and most Vault Hunters have about 80.
Paths and build variety
Each Vault Hunter’s tree splits into distinct paths. For example, Amon’s tree includes an Onslaught path focused on melee and health regeneration, a Scourge path for ordinance and heavy weapons, and a Crucible path for long‑range and area effects. Additionally, there are sub‑paths such as a “pet build” that treats drones like summons. As a result, developers expect more specialization and varied builds compared with previous entries.
Design intent and RPG influences
Thurston described the team’s aim to make builds feel more like crafted RPG choices. He cited influences from other role‑playing games and said he is a min‑maxer: “When I play an action RPG, I want to hit the end game and be doing billions of damage, but I want to do it in the way I want to do.”
Consequently, players will need to make meaningful decisions during progression rather than unlocking every node by the end. Thurston noted a goal where players can group with the same Vault Hunter and still play differently: “we have four Amons in this group and every single one of them has a different build.”
