Borderlands 4: How to deal with Vile Enemies

Borderlands 4 introduces Vile Enemies, which are completely invincible until you meet certain conditions. They aren’t a fun enemy archetype to deal with, but they can drop fantastic loot, and Vile Bounties are arguably one of the fastest ways to level grind your way to 50. The downside is actually figuring out what to do about these foes. You’ll start finding more of them as you hunt down Vile Lictor.

In fact, before you can get to him, you’ll have to overcome a duo of Vile Enemies in Borderlands 4’s His Vile Sanctum mission. Thankfully, you have Amara to help you get through that battle. Vile Enemies aren’t incredibly difficult to deal with once you know what you’re doing.

Tips for defeating Vile Enemies easily in Borderlands 4

Vile Enemies in Borderlands 4 are completely invulnerable until you break down their Vile Shield, a glowing purple health bar above their normal one. The trick to taking the shield down is simple enough. These enemies always have some kind of purple, glowing crystals on their body: target these until they break.

Just look for the glowing crystals; those are your targets (Image via 2K Games)

From there, a small glowing orb will begin to float around the Vile Enemy (Vile Ordonite). You need to immediately focus down on the Orb before it’s too late. If you wait too long, it’ll re-attach to the enemy, and the boss will gain the portion of Vile Shield it lost when the Orb broke away. These Orbs aren’t powerful, but they move around with the enemy you’re fighting, so tracking them can feel frustrating.

When you destroy all of the Crystals and Orbs, you can fight the Vile Enemy as normal. Sometimes, they can regenerate the Vile Shield, in which case you’ll have to do break it down all over again.

Vile Ordonite are the orbs that must be destroyed to progress (Image via 2K Games)

In a pinch, you can also use the Vile Ordonite Orbs as a Second Wind trigger, so that’s a positive about them. One way to get quick damage on Vile Enemies to break their Crystals are sticky bombs/shells. Just make sure you’re actually hitting their glowing Crystals, or nothing will happen. Weapons with splash damage can certainly make that go faster.

The most important thing is to immediately turn your attention to those hovering Orbs as soon as they appear, or a simple boss fight can turn into an infuriating slog, like when you’re dealing with Rocken Roller.

Check out our other Borderlands 4 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 15 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

Jason places high value on accuracy and relevance in his write-ups. He achieves this with thorough research to sift facts from rumors. One of the biggest highlights of his career is his interview with Canadian pro wrestler Kenny Omega about his inclusion in the Like a Dragon game series. He is also good friends with journalist Kazumo Hashimoto, who he admires for the kind of stories he works on and his deep ethics.

A true cinephile, one of Jason’s primary hobbies involves enjoying cinematic experiences. He also loves reading, be it fiction or manga, when not working. Additionally, he streams on Twitch and posts his gaming insights on YouTube.

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Edited by Jason Parker