Questions about Kunai

Borderlands 2 Zer0 the Assassin
#1

Question 1:
Wiki says this:
Death Mark can be applied with kunai, unlike the standard skill, kunai can apply Death Marks to multiple enemies at the same time. However, only a direct hit will inflict Death Mark; the elemental explosion will not suffice.

It says “Only a direct hit will inflict Death Mark”

What is a “Direct Hit?” All four of the knives…or ANY of the four knives??

Queston 2:
Is there ANY reason to throw multiple kunais at a big target like a Constructor or Badass…does it stack the 20% at all over and beyond the 80% of DM??

Question 3:
Wkiki says this:
The kunai count as melee attacks. They benefit from Roid Shield damage, melee damage bonuses from relics and class mods, and the Killing Bl0w skill. The C0unter Strike skill applies, but only on the first handful of kunai thrown

Does Kunai benefit from Melee BAR rank?
Does Kunai benefit from Elemental Damage bonuses from something like a Shock Bone of the Ancient?
Does Kunai benefit from explosive Damage boosts and is Explosive considered as one of it’s random elements?
And how on earth does Roid Shield damage benefit Kunai?..and is that damage ONLY added during the Roid phase or is it a constant bonus just from wearing the shield?

Thanks for being patient with me guys…I have sooooo much to learn!

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#2

There is the Kunai hit and then there is an elemental explosion (splash). You need to hit with a kunai, the explosions won’t trigger it.

Well, if you have the latest patch then it should just be a flat 80 % debuff, not 20 % and does not stack (on solo play, I actually don’t even know if it stacks on multiple Zer0’s still, probably should). They do quite nice damage by themselves but if you have multiple targets around and you are using guns and not melee then spread that DM love around. Throwing them all on a single target has a better chance of slagging that target, if you haven’t already, since it can roll a slag splash.

I’m not entirely sure about these actually but I’d wager the answer is yes to every one.

I only found about this one recently myself, though I’ve been playing him for ages, lol. If you shield is down then the extra damage from roid is applied on kunai, apparently. It does not work if your shield is up since you’d get no roid bonus then.

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#3

To paraphrase Axton: “A kunai for you. A kunai for you. Everybody gets a kunai!”

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#4

Kunai is calculated as melee damage for some reason and gains all its effects.

This includes roid damage while your shield is down, but you have to be wary with this since if you’re close to the enemy the increased damage on kunai can blow you up and kill you too (skips healthgate too iirc).

Kunai can stack up to 80 per cent bonus damage, but you only need to hit one to apply a death mark.

NB: Because Kunai was nerfed in a patch, the 80% debuff will only apply through a hotfix, meaning you need to be connected to the internet when you start the game to get proper kunai damage stacking.

Edit: For general usage deception > kunai is an initiator for either melee or deception sniper kills, so don’t stress too much about its damage. Use it for the death mark and debuffs.

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#5

This is starting off well :stuck_out_tongue:

Kunai explode and have splash damage, just like Torgue weapons. You need to hit with the Kunai to apply death mark, the blast radius will not apply it. The number of kunai that hit doesn’t matter.

Yes and no

It used to apply a 20% death mark that stacked to 80%, so there used to be a good reason to.
then it broke and didn’t stack, then it was patched then it broke again …
short version: it now applies death mark at 80%, so you should probably spread them around to DM multiple foes.

However, in practice, I often find myself throwing all 4 volleys at a single foe. It’s much faster and you increase your chance that you will have one of them that slags. Also, the Kunai can deal a respectable amount of damage, so you can often slag, strip shields and even kill outright if you get a good element RNG.

So either spread them around to benefit from DM, or spam a single foe to weaken it significantly.

The kunai themselves deal insignificant damage, the elemental splash is the only part worth mentioning.
I suggest you forget that whole “melee and roid” train of thought. :stuck_out_tongue: Yes it is melee, but that’s realy so that it can apply DM.
Yes, Kunai splash gets boosted by anything that boosts elemental damage or explosive damage.

At least you’re asking the right questions :stuck_out_tongue:

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#6

[quote=“johnrr6, post:1, topic:1554412”]The kunai count as melee attacks. They benefit from Roid Shield damage, melee damage bonuses from relics and class mods, and the Killing Bl0w skill. The C0unter Strike skill applies, but only on the first handful of kunai thrown[/quote]Interesting… there’s room for some serious abuse there. If these are true, then surely it gets Be Like Water buff if that’s on deck? Am I the only person who uses this skill? C0unter Strike and Be Like Water would be “consumed” by that first Kunai, but if the target’s health is in the zone, Killing Bl0w will still be available for Execute.

edit - …Kunai isn’t consuming C0unter Strike for me: anyone else down to confirm that this works? Does it get the buff without consuming it?

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#7

Hey! The wiki’s right! Most of the time…

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