Borderlands 4 Loveless the Hacker: Best Builds for the Stealth Sniper, Clone Swarm, and Pet Playstyles
Loveless the Hacker is Borderlands 4’s newest playable Vault Hunter, added through Story Pack 2 alongside a level cap increase to 70. She is built around RAM, a resource that fills every time she lands a critical hit or applies a status effect: the fuller her RAM bar gets, the more gun damage she deals (up to roughly 30% at a full bar), and a completely full bar empowers her next melee strike before draining back down. Between her hacking-themed abilities and her three very different skill trees, Loveless supports several genuinely distinct playstyles, and we have broken down the three that build-crafters have landed on as the strongest starting points.
Her Three Skill Trees at a Glance
Loveless’ kit is split across Manifestation (Malignant Construct), Hack/Slash (Visual Paradox Nexus), and Virology (Plague Star). Manifestation summons and buffs the Wyrm, a Radiation-damage pet companion that generates Symbiosis stacks over time. Hack/Slash is the stealth, melee, and critical-damage tree, splitting further into sniper, clone-summoning, and melee sub-branches. Virology is her status-effect and Corrosive damage tree, built around stacking Contagion on enemies. Every action skill pairs a Function (tap) and an Executable (hold), though only one action skill can be equipped at a time, so picking a tree means committing to its core gimmick.
Best Build #1: The Level 70 Stealth Sniper
The highest ceiling build right now blends Hack/Slash and Virology and needs all 69 skill points at level 70 to fully come online. The action skill is Visual Paradox Nexus with the Stack Overflow augment and the accelerat.exe capstone. On the Hack/Slash side, Refactored Damage Formula roughly doubles sniper damage (a 2.2x multiplier), Infinite Murder Hack refunds ammo on critical hits, and Methodical and Killing Machine round out the sustain. Virology contributes When it Rains / It Pours and Cat 5 / It’s Super Effective for Contagion scaling, plus Toxic Chat and Depletion Load / Turbo Button. For gear, the build leans on the Flashy Montage Maker class mod, a MAD Exfoliatrix shield (or Watts 4 Dinner as an alternative), a Surplus Socialized Exhibition sniper rifle as the primary weapon, and a Ceramic Pre-Emptive Bod shotgun for when enemies close the distance. Specialization picks round things out with I Am A Gun, Riddle You This, Now With Caffeine, and Groundbreaker.
Best Build #2: The Clone Swarm Generalist
If you are still leveling and do not want to commit to a specific gun type, the Clone Generalist build inside Hack/Slash is weapon-agnostic and leans on Loveless’ clone-summoning sub-branch: Third Party, Merry Bandwidth, The Sweet Science, Siliconventional Warfare, End Process, and Swarm, capped off with the synchroniz.exe capstone. It is forgiving while leveling because it does not depend on a specific weapon archetype dropping, and the clones themselves add consistent crowd control against the kind of enemy groups you will run into long before you have your endgame gear locked in.
Best Build #3: The Manifestation Pet Build
For a more hands-off, pet-focused playstyle, the Manifestation leveling build starts with Drift Compatible, Corrupted Path, and Fusion Friends-y, then layers in IDDQD, Overclock, Finisher, IDKFA, Optimization, Pure Fusion, Antivirus, and Critically Acclaimed on the way to the enrag.exe capstone. The Wyrm pet handles a chunk of your damage here, so Radiation SMGs are the recommended weapon type for clearing trash mobs while the Wyrm’s Symbiosis stacks do the heavy lifting against tougher targets. Worth noting: Radiation explosion damage scaling has a known calculation bug at the time of writing, so treat the exact numbers on this tree as provisional until Gearbox patches it.
Getting Started
Loveless requires Story Pack 2 to unlock, available through the Super Deluxe Edition or as a standalone purchase; you can see current pricing and the full Vault Hunter spotlight on the official Borderlands 4 site. Picking up the DLC or gearing up your account? Dragon4Deals carries Steam Wallet codes for PC, plus Xbox and PlayStation Network credit for console Vault Hunters, and you can browse more RPG and looter shooter titles while you are at it.
