Affecting Bullet Speed : Vel0city, Accelerate and Salvador's RL glitch

Borderlands 2 BL2 General Discussion
#1

Vel0city and its counterpart Accelerate have a familiar effect on weapons : increased bullet speed.

  • Accelerate grants 4% per level for a maximum of 44% at 11/5
  • Vel0city grants 20% per level for a maximum of 220% at 11/5

For this reason, only Vel0city will be addressed - one can easily infer Accelerate’s results.

Salvador’s rocket launcher glitch ( an empty RL in the right hand ) will also affect certain off-hand guns ( typically the Pimpernel ).

  • if the rocket launcher has abnormally slow rockets ( the Duurp ), it will actually have the opposite effect : a decrease in bullet speed , which is beneficial to the Pimpernel.
  • if the launcher has abnormally fast rockets ( those with a Vladof or Maliwan barrel , Maliwan exhaust and/or sight , or either of the missile speed accessories ), it will increase bullet speed , which is detrimental to the Pimp.
    Refer to this guide to see which parts will increase rocket speed.

There are three dynamics that need to be considered with increased bullet speed :

  • Bullet splitting : In all cases ( that I’m aware of ), this is based on time rather than distance. This is relevant because at 10/5 (200%), bullets will theoretically split at triple the distance, which potentially limits usage to mid- to long-range. Examples are Harold, Lyuda, Sawbar, Creamer, Pyrophobia, Bekah. In the case of the Godfinger, its already limited usage is reduced to zero.
    • a sub-category is guns that create new pellets after striking a target. Examples are Pimpernel and Thunderball Fists. The Pimp is the gun that seems the most negatively affected by increased bullet speed.
  • Trajectory : Several guns have bullets that travel in an arc. In this case the bullet is actually given more “lift” with increased bullet speed and will increase the trajectory’s total height and distance. Examples are Lead Storm, Hail and the Pimp’s flowering pellets.
  • Effects on B0re : Slow moving pellets will generally have more opportunity to pass through multiple hit-boxes thereby maximizing damage. The best example of this is the Twister.

The following videos will demonstrate the various effects.

In the case of the Pimpernel and Hail, it has been my personal experience that ~20% is just acceptable, which means 1/5 in Vel0city and 6/5 with Accelerate.

In the case of the Interfacer, the converge distance without adjustment is around 15 meters. The child projectiles evaporate once they converge - so any damage beyond this point will be significantly reduced. This means you should definitely have at least three points in Velocity for raids such as Terramorphous. Five points ideally (unboosted by COM that is).

In Sal’s case, the Duurp is a clear winner when compared against RL’s such as the Ahab even though their card damage is significantly higher. A tighter flower means a higher chance that each additional pellet will strike.

Please let me know if I’ve missed something or have gotten something horribly wrong.

Thanks @nat_zero_six for prodding me into getting this done.

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Need clarification on bullet speed
Just hit OP 8 with Maya
The Compleat Guide to Hail
Noob questions about TVHM and UVHM
#2

Thanks for doing this. Clear examples of things I’m aware of and consider, but am too lazy to test myself. I expect that this will help me use my myriad tools more effectively, rather than just avoid the skills or the gear that they effect. You da man. :+1:

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#3

Just out of curiosity, is the base Accelerate time-before-split (that’s a phrase now) known?

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#4

What I think you’re asking is : what is the inherent split time/distance for any given gun?

If so, then no, I have never seen those actual values ( latent bullet speed and time-before split ). Those two values are different for each gun - may be available to those who know how to dig into the code.

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#5

That’s basically what I was asking…whether there is a default value, or if it varies by weapon.

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#6

If I remember from my Wanderlust testing, Zer0 needs at least four points for Wanderlust darts to be able to catch in-flight Surveyors (so 80%). Maya couldn’t do that if she tried, but can Salvador get 80% or more with the correct off-hand weapon?

If you haven’t seen Wanderlust darts at 220% bullet speed hunt down and kill in-flight surveyors or Bandit Technicals driving full-speed across the dust, it’s something else. Once they lock onto a target, they can do full 180° turns in the air multiple times in pursuit, and also do penetrating testing on physical barriers between it and the target (like a homing grenade).

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#7

Next talk about the spread, like kittens, lascaux, jakobs and torgue shotguns.

Love the commentary btw :+1::+1:.

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#8

Small corrections:

  • As far as I know, the launcher doesn’t need to be empty for the projectile speed effects to be shared with the gun in Sal’s other hand. (You’re probably confusing this with Money Shot, but that’s a separate glitch.)
  • You missed the Maliwan launcher barrel when listing the parts increasing the projectile speed.
  • The decreased projectile speed is not limited to Torgue-made launchers with the Torgue barrel (which would be the Duuurp) - any launcher with this barrel receives it (Bandit -> Zooka, Maliwan -> Punishment, Tediore -> Bazooka, Vladof -> Hero).

It’s not listed in the parts guide, but I think other Torgue parts (grip, exhaust, sight) and the Maliwan grip also affect the projectile speed (the Torgue parts would slow it down, the Maliwan one speed it up). Needs confirmation though.
The launcher’s manufacturer may have an effect on the projectile speed too. Torgue definitely launches the slowest rockets, but I don’t know if this trait is shared with the weapon in the other hand.

It might be worth noting that mixing speed-affecting parts adds their effects up, so a “fiddle dee Duuurp!” (Torgue launcher with Torgue barrel and the rocket speed accessory) which happens to have a bunch of Maliwan parts will result in pretty fast projectiles despite being a Duuurp.
I’ll also list the prefixes corresponding to the two projectile speed accessories. The bigger boost comes from the dedicated rocket speed accessory, obviously; the prefixes it causes are Bandit -> Speeedee, Maliwan -> Punitory, Tediore -> Rocket Speed, Torgue -> fiddle dee, Vladof -> Paritisan. The other accessory boosting the projectile speed is the one better known for increasing accuracy, which is also reflected in the prefixes: Bandit -> Snyper, Maliwan -> Pertinent, Tediore -> Ultraprecise, Torgue -> gaa dunk ga, Vladof -> Victorious. (I love having this parts / names / prefixes quick reference under my screen.)

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#9

Perhaps not, but it does need to be empty to get the launcher’s card damage transferred to each pellet. So that’s going to be the default usage.

Good catch. I realized that was missing but didn’t bother to update it. Will do shortly.

Otherwise that’s some great stuff you’ve written. Always a treat to see to posting here @3298!

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#10

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this would be perfect, but has Maliwan sight. Which increases projectile speed, unfortunately.

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#11

I haven’t looked at other weapons that might benefit (or just be weird) with much lower projectile speed.

Would the Hail/Lead Storm just sort of drizzle out their projectiles?
Would the Octo, Tidal Wave, Twister, Shotgun-barrel Fibber, or Omen present a wall of projectile haze?
Would the Norfleet keep a tighter spread?
Would the Pyrophobia (itself governed by a slew of Torgue parts) be a rolling shockwave of fire novas? My current one is most (all?) Torgue parts, and its so slow that the first nova from a fired rocket hits me on its way out of the barrel.
What would the Flakker do?
Consider a Mongol or Prazma Canon - how many child bomblets would come out?
Would this bring the Bekah pellet split much closer to the player?

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#12

Sal is the only one who can reduce projectile speed using a RL with Torgue parts

The thing is, no one EVER talks about what other guns you can abuse with an empty RL in the right hand. I’ve heard the Sawbar works.

@nat_zero_six , @DeputyChuck , @Kurtdawg13 - do you guys know?

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#13

teeth of Terramorphous also works.

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#14

I have this mental image of firing a Hail and watching the projectiles travel about eight feet and then going ‘…meh…’ and dropping to the ground.

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#15

That’s a very weird thing. I wonder what makes it special or different from other shotguns…or is it special or different?

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#16

Ill just link Joltz…

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#17

So that’s the same as Flakker swapping ; does the same principle apply to Sal’s off-hand glitch?

If so then it sounds like the Pimp, Sawbar, Teeth and Flakker are the only known guns ( or were at the time of the video ).

I just tested the Flakker - it seems to work , but so far can’t tell with the other two.

By the way, I tried the Hail and it’s completely unaffected ( same trajectory ).

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#18

That is surprising. @Adabiviak looks like you’ve been answered. There isn’t many weapons for that list.

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#19

…lemme check somethin’.

edit - oh well, I was sure the Pyrophobia would have been slowed down by this, though maybe I’m doing it wrong (Pyrophobia in slot 1 (right hand) and some Torgue Duuurp thing in slot 2 (left hand)). The Duuurp moves super slow… if I fire it before I fire the Pyrophobia, the Pyrophobia shot will pass it, and detonate the Duuurp rocket in mid air when one of the novas hits it.

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#20

As far as damage value transfer, it’s a really short list, and it has more to do with the way those guns are coded than with the gun in the other hand.

The Pimp
Sawbar
Flanker

Are the only 3 I’m aware of that get the characteristics of the main hand weapon applied to their secondary projectiles, and they all have weird child projectiles.

Note that it’s only the secondary (or child) projectiles that are affected: the pin still shoots in the same element and at the same speed with the same damage when you look at the main bullet. That’s also the case for 99% of the guns out there.

I assumed that all those characteristics would come as a bundle, but never tested if some weapons would take on the speed but not the damage for example.

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