Less than a week after release, Borderlands 4 players found an “infinite damage” build that can drain bosses in seconds. Gearbox developed the game, and the trick utilizes a throwing knife, combined with Vex passives, to transform normal hits into repeated critical bleed ticks, which directly threaten big boss fights.
“Nothing is safe from Borderlands 4’s ‘oinfinite damage’ build,” which wipes out bosses in under 10 seconds. Players weren’t going to let the Diablo crowd have all the fun, since builds that deal so much damage have appeared elsewhere. The write-up notes that the exploit appeared within less than a week of launch. For background on the release and trailers, see Borderlands 4.
The core of the trick is a throwing knife with the Penetrator Augment, featuring a Damage stat on Vampiric Vivisecting Throwing Knives. That stat converts normal damage into critical damage, regardless of the weapon level. Vex’s Bloodletter passive applies a bleed from gunshots, and the bleed ticks become crucial hits when the knife is used, stacking the damage quickly. The loop becomes infinite because Vex’s Contamination passive raises status application chance until every tick can spawn more bleed, so the damage keeps compounding.
NickTew’s demonstration shows a level 50 character using a level 35 knife, and the effect still works, because the augment stat doesn’t change with item level. The build is effective against high-health targets, provided the player can survive long enough for the ticks to run. The author of the video warns co-op players that the knife appears to fail if multiple players try to use the same trick at once. Farming the knife can be slow, and community threads suggest that Splashzone is a worthwhile farming area.
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