Last updated: 3 July 2026

Borderlands 4 Level Up Fast XP Farming Guide

Borderlands 4 has a level cap of 60 with 59 skill points to distribute across three skill trees. The main campaign gets most players to around level 40 naturally — the final 20 levels require focused endgame XP farming. This guide covers the fastest methods from level 1 through 60, including the most efficient Vile Bounty locations, the two best Drill Sites on Kairos, how to use Moxxi's Encore machines to reset events without loading screens, and what build elements speed up kill time during XP runs.

01Levels 1–40: Main Campaign

The single most efficient way to reach level 40 is to play the main campaign missions in order. Side missions provide meaningful XP but the main quest is tuned to bring you up to speed with the planet Kairos's story content and enemy scaling zones. Focus on main missions first; pick up side quests in the same zone and complete them while you are already in the area to avoid backtracking.

Key tips for campaign leveling:

• Keep your weapon level current. An on-level weapon (within 2–3 of your character level) will always outperform an under-level legendary. Check the Arms Dealer vendor and any loot drops at each major story checkpoint and replace weapons that have fallen more than 5 levels behind.
• Match elements to enemy health types. Fire works best against flesh enemies (human bandits, animals), shock against shields, corrosive against armour (loaders, robots). Switching to the correct element reduces time-to-kill by a significant margin even with lower-rarity weapons.
• Don't stop for every side quest. Side quests within your current zone are efficient; side quests that require backtracking to a completed zone are not worth the travel time during your first playthrough. Save zone-specific quests for when you have fast travel access.
• Use the Echo-4 drone companion. Echo-4 marks the fastest path to objectives. During XP farming you want minimal dead time between encounters — let the drone handle navigation so you focus on moving fast and killing efficiently.
• Unlock Moxxi's Encore machines as soon as you encounter them. These vendor-linked reset stations are critical for endgame farming (covered below) and become available at certain story checkpoints. Activating each one as you discover it costs nothing and saves time later.

You will likely reach levels 35–42 by completing the main campaign depending on how many side quests you complete along the way. At that point, transition to endgame XP farming methods.

02Levels 40–60: Vile Bounty Farming (Fastest Method)

Vile Bounties are repeatable kill contracts available from bounty boards in several of Kairos's regions. Each completed Vile Bounty awards a fixed XP payout per target killed, with individual targets granting approximately 15,000–16,000 XP per kill. A well-executed Vile Bounty run in Carcadia Burn can net up to 300,000 XP per hour — the highest consistent rate currently available in endgame content.

Where to find Vile Bounties: The Makeshift Chalet bounty board in Carcadia Burn has the highest concentration of high-value targets. Additional boards are located in Hungering Plain and Idolator's Noose. The Carcadia Burn board is the primary recommended starting point because its targets are densely clustered and the zone's enemy level scales with your character level in UVHM.

How to reset Vile Bounties: After clearing a Vile Bounty's targets, quit to the main menu and reload your session. Bounty targets respawn on reload. Alternatively, if you have activated a nearby Moxxi's Encore machine, use it to reset the zone's enemy spawns without returning to the main menu — this saves 30–60 seconds per cycle.

Build optimisation for Vile Bounties: The goal during XP farming is fast kill speed, not survival. Use high-AoE weapons (Torgue sticky ARs, splash-damage shotguns, rocket launchers with wide blast radius) that hit multiple targets per shot. C4SH players in Windfall state can clear entire groups before the Fortune stack decays, making him one of the fastest Vile Bounty farmers when properly built.

03Drill Site Farming (Best for Co-op)

Drill Sites are repeatable events spread across Kairos. Each site spawns dense waves of enemies when activated and rewards XP and loot on completion. In co-op, players share XP across all nearby team members, effectively doubling per-player XP if both players are actively killing in the same area.

Prospects Drill Site (Hungering Plain): Located in the Hungering Plain region. This is the best early-endgame Drill Site — enemy density is high, enemies are on-level for early post-campaign characters, and the site is compact enough that no time is wasted travelling between spawn clusters. Recommended as the first Drill Site to establish a farming loop.

Pitted Stain Drill Site (south of Idolator's Noose): Higher-difficulty Drill Site that rewards notably more XP due to spawning three simultaneous boss-tier enemies in the final wave. Requires better gear than Prospects to complete efficiently — arrive with at least one S-tier or strong A-tier legendary before farming here. The three-boss finale makes this the highest-ceiling Drill Site for players who can clear it consistently.

Moxxi's Encore reset: Each Drill Site has a Moxxi's Encore machine nearby. After completing a site, activate the Encore machine to reset the event without returning to the main menu or reloading. The reset costs a small in-game currency amount (scales with UVHM difficulty tier) and saves significant time over menu-based resets. Encore machines are the primary tool for sustained Drill Site farming loops.

Build for Drill Sites: Splash damage is king here. Torgue rocket launchers and sticky ARs that hit multiple enemies per shot pull XP from large enemy groups simultaneously. Rafa with Peacebreaker Cannon active during the finale bosses significantly reduces clear time on Pitted Stain.

04Other XP Sources Worth Knowing

• Circle of Slaughter (Patch 1.8): Wave-based survival challenge added in Patch 1.8. Each wave grants XP and a completion chest at the end of a full circle. XP per hour is lower than dedicated Vile Bounty farming but rewards loot simultaneously — good for players who want to combine XP and gear acquisition.
• Takedown at Hadron Abyss (Patch 1.8): The new endgame raid has a lengthy enemy count with high XP yield per encounter, plus one of the best curated loot pools in the game. Running the Takedown is not efficient pure XP farming, but any completed run grants a meaningful level push at high character levels.
• Side missions during the campaign: Optional missions awarded in the same region as the main quest are among the most efficient early-game XP sources because they do not require extra travel. An optional mission that adds 15–30 minutes but rewards 10–15% of a level is worth doing if you pick it up while passing through.
• XP firmware items: Equippable passive items (found as drops and vendor loot) that provide a percentage bonus to XP gained. These stack multiplicatively with the XP from Vile Bounties — a +15% XP firmware equipped during a Vile Bounty run meaningfully shortens the total number of runs needed. Prioritise finding at least one XP-boosting firmware before starting dedicated farming.

05Level Scaling and Enemy Levels

Borderlands 4 scales enemy levels to match your character in UVHM (Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode). This means the XP reward per kill also scales — you do not experience diminishing returns from farming the same location as your level increases, unlike some games where lower-level zone enemies stop giving meaningful XP.

However, staying within 2–3 levels of the enemies you are farming is still important for kill speed. If you are significantly over-level for a zone outside of UVHM, enemies die faster but award less XP. In UVHM, enemies always match your level, so kill speed becomes the primary factor in maximising XP per hour.

One practical tip: when switching between Vile Bounties and Drill Sites, check your weapons for level drift. After running 20–30 cycles, your character level increases and any on-level weapons you picked up early in the session may now be 3–4 levels below you. A quick vendor check and weapon refresh keeps kill speed consistent.

06Co-op XP Farming Tips

Co-op is the fastest way to level in Borderlands 4. XP is shared across all players in the session, and enemies do not scale health linearly with the number of players — adding a second player increases the effective XP generation rate substantially.

• Split Drill Sites: In a two-player session, one player handles Prospects while the other handles a secondary site. XP accumulates in parallel across both sites simultaneously since it is shared. Both players reach the same XP total as if they were farming the more efficient site together.
• Carry leveling: A level 60 player can bring a new character into UVHM sessions. The lower-level character earns full shared XP for every kill the higher-level player achieves. This is the fastest way to reach level 40+ on an alt character — faster than solo campaign play. Note that the under-level character may struggle to deal meaningful damage until their gear catches up.
• Coordinate elements: In co-op, two players with different elemental setups can exploit elemental weaknesses simultaneously. One player softens shields with shock while another applies corrosive to strip armour — dramatically reducing time-to-kill on armoured enemies that appear in Pitted Stain Drill Site's final wave.