Borderlands 4’s Shift Skins Keep Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

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The *Borderlands* games have always let players create unique characters, offering lots of ways to personalize their appearance. While finding great guns is a big part of that, players have also been able to change how their character looks since *Borderlands 2*. This customization has become more detailed with each game, and *Borderlands 4* takes it the furthest, letting you change your Vault Hunter’s head, body, and overall style. You can earn many of these options by playing the game, but the SHiFT system also lets you unlock new looks simply by entering special codes.

Since the release of *Borderlands 4*, players have been getting free skins for their characters through SHiFT codes. As the *Borderlands 4* community completes challenges, Gearbox releases a new code that unlocks a skin inspired by the character featured in that challenge. So far, Vex, Amon, and Rafa have each received a new skin based on the character shorts released before the game. While these free skins are nice, they’ve been fairly simple cosmetic changes. However, with Harlowe’s skin still to come, there’s hope that *Borderlands 4* will offer something truly special.

Borderlands 4’s SHiFT Skins Have Played Things Too Safe

Rafa’s SHiFT skin, based on his YOLT short, was released without issue, as Borderlands 4 already allows players to choose if Rafa wears a mask. However, the release of Amon’s Cult Classic skin sparked a pattern. While Amon’s skin included a body style inspired by his character short, his head remained unchanged, meaning his unique hairstyle wasn’t included. This trend continued with Vex’s Mass Market Appeal outfit, inspired by her “Purple Friday” short, which turned out to be just a different color scheme instead of the outfit seen in the video.

  • Rafa “Savings Savior” SHiFT Code: TZXT3-XJXCB-CXBJW-BTTJT-9SK6B
  • Amon “Cult Classic” SHiFT Code: JZ6BJ-SBR5J-WF3BK-BT3BB-TX9HB
  • Vex “Mass Market Appeal” SHiFT Code: BZ6JJ-CB6CT-WXJJW-3TT3B-56FZ5

Okay, so Rafa’s special SHiFT skin kinda slipped by unnoticed, but Amon and Vex haven’t been so lucky. Instead of getting a full, awesome new look like we were hoping, they’ve just gotten their outfits recolored. Honestly, it would’ve been way cooler if each character’s SHiFT skin included a completely new head, body, and overall style – something more than just a color swap, you know?

Harlowe’s Unrevealed SHiFT Skin Could Fix the Problem

Harlowe is the last Vault Hunter from *Borderlands 4* who hasn’t gotten a special SHiFT skin, and Gearbox has an opportunity to do something interesting with hers. While a simple style change based on her character short would be fine, they could really make it stand out by drawing inspiration from her Traunt heritage. Imagine a design with floating armor pieces, a glowing halo, and energy effects – it would make her truly unique. However, based on recent trends in *Borderlands 4*, it’s probably more likely she’ll just receive a new style instead of a full SHiFT skin.

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2025-10-16 01:01