The best Amon builds in Borderlands 4: Forgeknight guide

Built like a Viking, Borderlands 4's Amon is the biggest playable character the series has seen. As the Forgeknight, the best Amon builds use a variety of elemental weapons, from hammers, axes, and swords, to shields and even drones to get up in enemies' faces before pulverising them.

With arguably the most complex action skills and trait of all the Borderlands 4 characters (it's certainly more hands-on than Rafa's, for example), Amon could prove challenging to wrap your head around at first. Fear not, though, as I'll go over three of the best Amon builds at max level below, covering the skills, augments, and capstones to pick, alongside what gear works with them. I've also created an levelling build to get you through your first run.

Best Amon builds in Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 - Official Gameplay Overview - Amon - YouTube

Watch On

Like the other Vault Hunters, Amon has three distinct skill trees to pick from:

• Vengeance: Amon's tanky, brawler playstyle couldn't be more apparent than here, using both a shield, damage-boosting barrier, and other heavy weapons to stay kicking and dish out the pain. This tree plays very well into ordnance-based builds, using heavy weapons for massive damage.
• Calamity: This tree has one goal in mind, and that's to become the iconic Doom Slayer. Run around with faster movement speed and rocket-punch enemies into dust. Obviously, there's a big focus on melee damage and action skill use in this tree, though there's also a lot of potential for hybrid builds using close-range weapons.
• Cybernetics: Fully taking advantage of Amon's arsenal of Forge weapons, this tree is all about spamming action skills to deal heavy damage and control the battlefield. You can swap between different elemental Forge weapons, spawn Forgedrones for extra support, and use Forgeskills to detonate enemies for even more damage.

Amon's trait is Forgeskill: Amon gains a unique Forgeskill ability depending on his equipped action skill. These are activated by holding the action skill button, and are given additional properties with certain skills, augments, and capstones.

Now onto the best builds for Amon, beginning with the strongest of the bunch: an ordnance-based Vengeance setup. In the tables below, I've listed the skills, augments, and capstones in the order you'll want to unlock them, though remember that you can always respec if you'd like to tweak things while levelling.

Amon build: Heavy Weapons Warrior

Image 1 of 2

• Primary skill tree: Vengeance
• Action skill: Scourge
• Favoured element: Cryo
• Best skills for class mods: Explosive Cyborg class mod for points in Endless Bombardment, Endless Surge, and Ballistic Bulwark
• Recommended items: Any heavy ordnance weapon (eg. Bottled Lightning or Ootka), Super Soldier (legendary shield)
• Firmware: Deadeye, Airstrike
• Specialisations: Tripwire, Full Spectrum Arsenal, Fragmentation Payload, Riddle You This

The Vengeance skill tree really only has one clear build option: ordnance damage, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, as it does it incredibly well. Primarily, this build focuses on increasing ordnance and gun damage (heavy ordnance weapons also benefit from weapon buffs), and regenerating ammo. If you're bored with crit knife builds already, then this is a very fun alternative that's also incredibly powerful.

Just a note that your action skill really isn't important here. I like running with Scourge for added protection, and even bonus damage with the Cryonic Thrum augment, though Crucible is arguably the better option. Why? Because it has the shortest cooldown, which lets you lean into the Tripwire specialisation to effectively instantly recharge your ordnance if it runs out.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing you'll want to do is increase the power of your ordnance, and that's easily done with Scorched Kairos and Tail of the Comet at the top of the Vengeance tree. With how much ordnance damage you'll be dishing out, the cryo status effect from Tail of the Comet will be active pretty much all of the time, and it pairs with the Icy Rage perk later on to increase gun damage. Again, any gun damage buffs also apply to ordnance weapons (not grenades).

The big kicker is the Primal Surge perk, which restores ammo (including ordnance weapons) whenever you apply a status effect. Obviously, this works well with Tail of the Comet but also Bullet Hail's ricocheting cryo shards, to consistently resupply your ammo. When paired with points in Cybernetics' Endless Bombardment skill from your class mod, you'll effectively have infinite ordnance ammo.

Moving over to the Calamity tree, we'll find even more damage boosts, primarily from Wield the Storm and Bullet Storm. The former improves status effect power, while the latter increases your gun damage whenever you apply a status effect, which synergises nicely with earlier points in the Vengeance tree.

The Calamity tree is also home to the Berserk effect, which grants you slow immunity and bonus cryo damage after activating your Forgeskill. However, There Is Only Red turns this into a Kill Skill too, while also increasing its damage bonus. It's a huge buff that's easy to keep active, even in most boss fights.

Here's where you should spend your skill points:

Amon build: One-Punch Man

Image 1 of 2

• Primary skill tree: Calamity
• Action skill: Scourge (Vengeance)
• Best skills for class mods: Shatterweight with points into Berserk
• Recommended items: Hot Slugger (legendary shotgun), Triple Bypass (legendary repkit), Shatterweight (legendary class mod), Heavyweight (legendary shield), throwing knife with penetrator augment
• Firmware: Reel Big Fist, Action Fist
• Specialisations: Bear Arms, Groundbreaker, Now With Caffeine, The Best Defence

While Borderlands is all about the guns, there are those who love the simplicity of a melee build, and it can't get any better than this. By stacking damage buffs between the Berserk and There Is Only Death perks, and the Groundbreaker specialisation, you're able to hit for billions of damage in a single haymaker.

Now, to get the elephant out of the room, this build ironically doesn't use Amon's Onslaughter action skill—a rocket punch—as it's too slow (not to mention clunky) to maintain damage buffs. Instead, I recommend using the Scourge action skill from the Vengeance tree for added protection while you punch away. However, you could run around with dual axes using Crucible instead.

Berserk causes gun and, more importantly, melee attacks to deal bonus cryo damage after activating a Forgeskill. There Is Only Red turns this into a Kill Skill (and further increases its damage), which plays into My Touch Is Death for a chance to trigger Kill Skills on melee damage. In other words, with each punch, we have a high chance of stacking more and more bonus damage. Since this skill's bonus damage isn't considered melee damage, we're also able to trigger Groundbreaker for even more damage per punch.

When this cocktail is paired with simple skills like Discombobulate, Tritanium Knuckles, and Gut Punch, your punches hit hard, and you'll need little else in the way of damage boosts.

All you need now is some survivability, which comes in the form of high defences and long action skill duration/quick regeneration. The Best Defence provides overshield on melee hits, Brimming Vigour increases your health (and your damage the more full your health is), and The Thrill increases your damage and damage reduction the closer you are to your enemies. Likewise, Eternal and Warrior's Cup from the Vengeance tree ensure your action skill is active for longer, the latter of which synergises with the Triple Bypass repkit for multiple activations in a short amount of time.

Here's where you should spend your skill points:

Amon build: Cyber Viking

Image 1 of 2

• Primary skill tree: Cybernetics
• Action skill: Crucible
• Favoured element: Incendiary
• Best skills for class mods: Elementalist class mod for points in Freezer Burn, Icy Rage, and Raging Burn
• Recommended items: Hot Slugger (legendary shotgun), Rainbow Vomit (legendary shotgun), Elementalist (legendary class mod), Heavyweight (legendary shield)
• Firmware: Action Fist, Reel Big Fist
• Specialisations: Bear Arms, Groundbreaker, I Am A Gun, Riddle You This

Amon's Cybernetics skill tree is the most action skill spammy setup of the bunch, seeing you lob massive axes (swords later on) and a twinned axe like a boomerang that'll prime and detonate enemies. You'll also create Forgedrones to lend a helping hand. Between all that, you'll have amped up gun damage and critical hit chance, so it's a build that can do it all.

On the ability front, you'll want to nab the Cast Iron and Destruction Engine perks, increasing Forgeskill cooldown and damage, respectively. Likewise, What Burns Within, Discombobulate, and Titanium Knuckles from the top of the Calamity skill tree all combine to increase the damage of your action skill. Since these don't require kills to trigger, like lots of similar skills across the four Vault Hunters, they're invaluable against tougher enemies and bosses, where it's typically harder to rack up Kill Skill stacks.

Grab a point in Tempered Pyre and Twin Vipers to spawn two Forgedrones for bonus passive damage, which'll all have their durations restored when you use a Forgeskill. While these drones won't deal heaps of damage by themselves, they can be boosted using the Escalation and Honed Point perk. The main reason for having these drones is that Honed Point also causes them to boost your action skill cooldown when they critically hit.

Last but not least is how this all contributes to boosting your gun damage. The most important skill here is Bellows, which increases weapon damage when you activate a Forgeskill. Then there's Executioner to increase critical hit damage, which is doubled for a duration after dealing melee damage—including your action skill and Forgeskill. Any increases to elemental damage will also apply to your guns, as well, so long as it's not a kinetic weapon

Here's where you should spend your skill points:

Borderlands 4 Amon levelling build

Image 1 of 2

With a lot of his best perks so spread out—both in individual trees and across all three of them—Amon's arguably the hardest character to start with when it comes to levelling. However, he's actually got one of the strongest levelling builds: perma-freeze.

Using his Crucible action skill and a few key skills, you're able to freeze most enemies in their tracks with cryo axes. Not only is this the perfect opportunity to unload a shotgun shell in their noggin, but it also means they're not damaging you. On the other hand, when it comes to bosses, you'll want to spam fire axes instead, since larger enemies can't be frozen.

While this build doesn't require any specific gear, I can't ignore just how well the easy-to-get legendary Hot Slugger shotgun works with this build. Since you're in the enemy's (often frozen) face at all times, this shotgun makes quick work of them.

It's not necessary, but it's a great pick that won't require too much farming since there are no alternate rolls for this legendary. Since our skills give us bonus cryo damage, rather than increasing the power of cryo or anything like that, the element of your guns doesn't actually matter all that much either.

Alongside the Hot Slugger, I'd recommend keeping an eye out for the following legendaries as you go:

• Firewerks shield from Splashzone in the Riptide Grotto, Coastal Bonescapes, in Fadefields. Aim to get the radiation version to benefit from all the radiation-based skills in the build.
• Aegon's Dream assault rifle from Horace in Horace's Oversight, Hungering Plains, in Fadefields. This gives you a chance to apply both incendiary and cryo status effects, which are a key part of this build.
• Elementalist class mod from Primordial Guardian Inceptus, the final boss of the Fadefields vault. You'll need to find all the vault key fragments in this region to unlock this boss.

Outside of these legendaries, any Jakobs (or Jakobs' part) shotgun generally does the trick, as do Vladof SMGs—basically anything that likes to be up close and personal.

You'll also want to be on the lookout for an Outlaw or Stormcaller purple class mod. The former synergises very well with the existing perks in the build, while the latter provides more shock elemental damage if you're struggling with shields (fire handles flesh and cryo deals with armour, so it's the only resistance missing).

Here's how the levelling process looks for this Amon build:

Levels 2-6:

1. Starting in the Cybernetics tree, put five points into Cast Iron to increase your Forgeskill cooldown duration, letting you spam your second ability much more often.
2. Activate the Endless War augment just to gain some additional gun damage when you prime enemies with your Crucible action skill. If you detonate primed enemies using your Forgeskill, you'll also create a Forgeaxe companion for a moment.

Levels 7-11:

3. Put five points into Destruction Engine to improve your Forgeskill and detonation damage, which synergises well with Cast Iron.
4. With these skills unlocked, now's a good time to farm Splashzone for a Firewerks shield if you want to. It's not a massive difference, but I'd aim for an ice resistance version, as this makes the rockets it fires cryo as well.

Levels 12-16:

5. Max out Bellows with five points to boost your gun damage after using a Forgeskill. Bellows, combined with the previous two skills, make for a strong early game loop of throwing out your cryo Crucible axes, then using your Forgeskill, and then blasting away with a gun.
6. Activate the Searing Cold augment to replace Endless War, mainly to cause cryo axes from Crucible to instantly freeze enemies, though flame axes passing through enemies can also be useful.

Levels 17-21:

7. Jump over to the Calamity tree and put three points in Impetus. This Kill Skill gives us some added speed and survivability from increased shield regeneration, which is key for a brawler like Amon.
8. Spend two points on Heavy Plate for additional survivability.

Levels 22-26:

9. Use three points to max out Gut Punch, causing melee and ordnance damage to weaken enemies, meaning they both take more damage and deal less. We'll mainly activate this through our action skill and Forgeskill, but you can't argue with bonus damage and defence in a single perk.
10. Put two points in Tritanium Knuckles to improve melee and skill damage. Since your action skill and Forgeskill count as melee damage, this perk actually double-dips.

Levels 27-31:

11. Pick up Forged In Steel for one skill point to become immune to all damage for a short duration after using your Forgeskill. This is incredible for survivability, and with previous points in Cast Iron, you'll be able to trigger it much more often.
12. Next, put two points in Metal Urge to raise action skill cooldown rate for a duration after dealing gun damage. This is easy to trigger, and it basically lets you freeze enemies more often or deal more burst damage against bosses.
13. Add an additional two points in Tritanium Knuckles.
14. Now's a good time to farm Splashzone for a higher-level Firewerks shield, a legendary weapon like Aegon's Dream from the main story boss Horace, and the Elementalist class mod from Primordial Guardian Inceptus in the Fadefields vault.

Levels 32-36:

15. Max out Berserk with five points to get one of Amon's most powerful buffs. After using your Forgeskill, you'll now deal bonus cryo damage with guns and melee (remember Crucible and Forgeskill count).

Levels 37-41:

16. Put three points in There Is Only Red to improve Berserk, giving it a Kill Skill effect that restores the buff duration and further increases the bonus damage.
17. Use two points on Bloodlust to gain bonus reload speed and lifesteal when your shield breaks. Importantly, this is also triggered on action skill use, which is almost constant with Crucible's three charges.

Levels 42-44:

18. Spend three points on My Touch is Death for a high chance to trigger Kill Skills with melee. Basically, this is just to activate There Is Only Red to keep Berserk active more often.

Levels 45-50:

19. Max out Into the Fray with five points to gain increased damage and damage reduction based on how close you are to the enemy. Like Gut Punch, it's a great way to raise both your damage and survivability at once.
20. Use your final point on Permafrost back in the Cybernetics tree to create cryo hazards under frozen enemies. This is effectively guaranteed to trigger when you throw a cryo Crucible axe at a non-boss enemy, so it's great for mobbing.

Once you hit max level, you have two main options: continue with this perma-freeze setup, farming for additional gear like the Rainbow Vomit or Super Soldier shield, or respeccing into one of the endgame builds above. Amon's One-Punch Man and heavy weapons warrior build are great fun and strong at the endgame, despite what you might have heard.

Reach max level with this Amon levelling build, and your skill tree will look like this:

Borderlands 4 Shift codes: The new key connection.
Borderlands 4 Black Market location: New legendaries, no grind.
Borderlands 4 vault key fragment locations: Crack open Kairos.
Borderlands 4 characters: Meet your new Vault Hunters and find out who's strongest.
Borderlands 4 Harlowe builds: The amped-up Gravitar.
Borderlands 4 Rafa builds: The speed-demon Exo-Soldier.
Borderlands 4 Vex builds: The spooky Siren.