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 in BL4. The downside is actually figuring out what to do about these. 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, though.

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 getting to them 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 the orb before it’s too late. If you wait too long, it’ll re-attach to the enemy, and gain the portion of Vile Shield it lost when the orb broke away. They aren’t powerful, but they move around with the enemy you’re fight, so tracking them can feel frustrating.

When you destroy all of the Crystals and Orbs, you can fight the Vile Enemy as normal. It’s said that sometimes, they can regenerate the Vile Shield and you’ll have to do it all over again, too.

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

• All Weapon Manufacturers in Borderlands 4
• Who is the villain of Borderlands 4?
• What are Enhancements in Borderlands 4?
• Does Borderlands 4 have co-op and crossplay?

Edited by Jason Parker