If you’re in need of a powerful weapon that deals heavy damage, consider Rafa’s APOPHIS Lance skill. This disposable, digitally constructed cannon has the potential to dish out massive amounts of harm, but it requires suitable supporting skills and equipment before it can truly show off its firepower.
This APOPHIS Lance Rafa build focuses on swiftly annihilating enemies with a powerful, dual-element beam of fire and electricity. It is remarkably potent when wielded skillfully, making it ideal for players who enjoy frequent deployments of their Action Skill in Borderlands 4.
APOPHIS Lance Build Overview
Rafa’s APOPHIS Lance is a versatile weapon capable of inflicting Shock, Corrosive, or Incendiary damage. Initially, it may appear insignificant, but with the right abilities, APOPHIS Lance transforms into a potent nuke-type Action Skill, capable of vaporizing entire health bars in a single activation. Key aspects of this build include:
- APOPHIS Lance will deal both Incendiary and Shock damage.
- Your weapons and APOPHIS Lance can critically hit without hitting weakspots.
- APOPHIS Lance has a chance to deal double damage on top of critical strikes.
- APOPHIS Lance will be on a ~16 second cooldown, and it has a chance not to consume charges when fired.
- You’ll have 100% critical hit chance against Shocked enemies.
- You get increased Status Effect Chance and Shock Chance.
- Reduced Gun Handling when using APOPHIS Lance.
Borderlands 4 Rafa APOPHIS Lance Build Skill Tree
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Rinse | Increases Reload Speed. Less downtime is always good. |
| Preparado | Reloading increases Rafa’s Action Skill Cooldown Rate by up to 45%. Keep shooting and keep reloading to minimize APOPHIS Lance’s downtime. |
| Sangre Por Sangre (Augment) | When you use an APOPHIS Lance charge, Rafa gains Action Skill Cooldown Rate per charge consumed. Massively reduces your Action Skill’s cooldown just by using it. |
| Arriba | Kill Skill. Gain increased Ordnance Cooldown Rate when Rafa kills an enemy. This skill pairs nicely with lingering grenades. |
| Jaque | Gain stacks of Jaque everytime you damage enemies with a Skill. Each stack increases your Overdrive bonuses. Lose all stacks when Overdrive ends. A simple skill that makes you stronger every time you use APOPHIS Lance. |
| Mate | All Jaque stacks are converted to Mate stacks when Overdrive ends. Each stack of Mate increases Rafa’s Action Skill Cooldown Rate. All Mate stacks are lost once Rafa’s Action Skill is readied. This skill shaves a few precious seconds off of your skill cooldown. |
| PROJECT: Gorgon (Capstone) | APOPHIS Lance becomes an Incendiary laser beam that can chain between targets. This Capstone skill absolutely melts even Shielded and Incendiary-resistant enemies. |
| Drone Defense | Using your Ordnance spawns STRM Gliders, which absorb a portion of the damage Rafa takes. When a STRM Glider receives too much damage, it explodes, dealing Corrosive Splash Damage to nearby enemies. This boosts your survivability depending on how much you can spam your grenades. |
| Brain Dump | Rafa’s guns have a chance to critically strike while Overdrive is active. A comfort skill that removes the need to aim for weakspots. |
| El Catrin | Sliding makes Rafa’s Action Skills deal Bonus Shock Damage, and he gains bonus Critical Hit Damage. This lets you deal with Shielded enemies and even Element Eaters more efficiently with just APOPHIS Lance. |
| Awe | All shots fired at Shocked enemies are critical hits. Either use a Shock weapon, an underbarrel taser, grenades, or APOPHIS Lance empowered by El Catrin to use this skill. |
| Conductivo (3/5) | Gain increased Status Effect Chance and even more Shock Chance. |
If you aim to advance with this build, focus on enhancing these abilities in decreasing importance. Fully maximize them unless explicitly advised otherwise.
All the mentioned abilities reside within the ‘People Person’ skill tree, which houses APOPHIS Lance. To acquire skills from different trees, you’ll need to search for Class Mods that include the desired abilities.
Speaking of Class Mods, try fo find ones with the following skills:
- CYA (Red Tree): Restore a portion of Rafa’s shields on kill.
- Shield Barriest (Red Tree): Gain increased Shield Recharge Rate and improved Shield Regen Delay when Overdrive is active.
- Sitiar (Red Tree): Rafa gains increased Gun Damage.
- In The Zone (Green Tree): Freeze Overdrive’s duration on kill.
- Abajo (Blue Tree): When Rafa throws a grenade, he gains increased Action Skill Cooldown Rate.
- Fiesta (Blue Tree): When Rafa applies a Status Effect, his Action Skills consume no charges, nor do they consume Duration.
Specialization Skills
In this build, the primary damage source comes predominantly from the APOPHIS Lance. You’ll find that your regular gunfire serves more as supplementary attacks in contrast to your Action Skill. To balance out this emphasis, we’re opting for these specific Specialization abilities:
- I Am A Gun (Daredevil): Action Skills benefit from 50% of Gun Damage bonuses.
- Riddle You This (Brute): Gain stacks of Riddle You This when you deal Gun Damage. Stacks up to 50 times, and stacks are lost after not gaining new stacks after 6 seconds.
- Contamination (Killer): Your critical hits grant you bonus Status Effect Chance.
- Compounding Afflictions (Killer): Deal bonus damage based on how many Status Effects are affecting an enemy.
Recommended Items
Mentioned earlier, the APOPHIS Lance serves as your primary tool for inflicting damage. However, it’s also beneficial to carry weapons that complement your Action Skill effectively. Here are a few suggestions for such weapons:
1. Weapons that synergize well with your Action Skill could be worth considering.
2. To maximize the potential of both your APOPHIS Lance and your Action Skill, it’s advisable to choose compatible weapons.
3. Aim to equip weapons that work harmoniously with your Action Skill along with your main damage source, the APOPHIS Lance.
- Anything with an Underbarrel Taser. Fire the taser at your target, then beam them with APOPHIS Lance. All your hits will count as crits.
- Jakobs and Tediore weapons. APOPHIS Lance will cooldown faster if you can maintain your Preparado stacks.
- Radiation and Corrosive weapons. More elements equals more damage via Compounding Afflictions and DoT effects.
For enhancements, opt for one featuring increased damage with firearms, and ensure it complements the weapon manufacturers you prefer.
Legendary Gear
In essence, although farming legendary items isn’t strictly essential for this build to function effectively, possessing suitable ones can significantly enhance its performance. Notable legendaries for this setup include:
- Legendary Buster Class Mod: This gives you a 25% chance to not consume APOPHIS Lance charges when you fire APOPHIS Lance.
- Standard Augmenter AF1000 Repkit: This Repkit has a very short cooldown, and it restores a ton of health over a long duration. Get one of these that has the Accelerator effect so you can get 100% more Action Skill Cooldown Rate after using it.
- The Swarm Grenade: This grenade has a very low risk of self-damage, and it deals a boatload of sustained damage to targets.
- Noisy Cricket Pistol: An Order pistol that deals massive damage with each shot. Must be reloaded with every trigger pull, making it great for maintaining Preparado stacks, and it works wonders if you get some points into the First Impression skill. However, it does a poor job at using the Riddle You This Specialization skill.
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2025-09-12 21:07