[Guide] Top Gear for Claptrap


Thanks To:
@Exotek for the banner.
@Charrisx for his amazing work in adding picture links for all of the TG
@Charrisx again because I’m a terrible person and he puts up with me
@Wingsday, @ThatOneGuy23, and @Gulfwulf for their efforts in keeping this up
@Chuck80 for Theorybuilding Help
@Sljm for his custom corrosive emoticon

This is a list of the gear that we, as the community, feel is the best for Claptrap in each category. This is a community guide, so if you don’t see something on here that you think should be, post your recommendation.

The structure of the guide will be as follows: 3 to 6 slots in each category will be reserved for Top Gear: the best bits of gear from that type in terms of kit synergy and overall DPS. Each piece of Gear will be accompanied by a short rundown on the weapon, what it does, ideal parts,and where you can find it.

##Table of Contents

  1. Weapons
    1.1 Shotguns
    1.2 Pistols
    1.3 Sniper Rifles
    1.4 Assault Rifles
    1.5 Lasers
    1.6 Submachine Guns
    1.7 Rocket Launchers
  2. Items
    2.1 Grenade Mods
    2.2 Shields
    2.3 Class Mods
    2.4 Oz Kits
  3. Future Testing Candidates
  4. Additional Resources

Note: Elements, Parts, and Weapons are shown in order of preference.




#Shotguns
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Flakker

Increased Damage, consumes 4 Ammo per shot, Rounds detonate in a wide conic spread after reaching a certain distance. The Flakker is extremely good against large targets, such as the Invincible Sentinel or Iwajira.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Grip
    Hyperion Stock
    Casual (Projectile Count) Prefix
    Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from Even-More-Disgusting-Tork in Stanton’s Liver
    Grinder/World Drop

Ravager

Torgue Shotguns with the Torgue barrel. The Ravager benefits from the Explosive and Grenade Damage bonuses in Claptrap’s tree, in addition to OLT. I prefer the purple 8 Mag Size variants for maximum Damage OLT’s every other shot, but you can also use the Glitched variants for the larger Mag Size and Glitch Effects. It should be noted that a Pounder could be used as a more Ammo efficient option for mobbing.

Note: If you were to use a Glitch variant, go for Error Code O0L4M0A4 or O4L4M4A4

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Jakobs, Tediore, or Hyperion Grip
    Hyperion Stock
    Impetuous (Reload Speed), Potent (Accuracy), or Sinewy (General Boost) Prefix
    Boominator (Grenade Damage) or Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Quad

Jakobs Shotguns with the Torgue Barrel. Greatly increased Damage and Critical over similar Shotguns. With a Tediore, Torgue or Hyperion Grip, most Glitched Quads hit a Mag Size of 8 for premium OLT abuse, while still benefiting from the Glitch Effects. It should be noted that a Coach Gun could be used as a more Ammo efficient option for mobbing.

  • Elements: Only :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Tediore or Hyperion Grip
    Hyperion Stock
    Doc’s (Critical) or Rustler’s (Pellet Count) Prefix
    Error Code O4L0M4A0 or O4L0M0A4
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Moonface

Projectiles fire in a smiley face pattern, with low velocity and a lazy sinusoidal trajectory. Pellets deal Non-Elemental Damage, with 50% Explosive Splash Damage on impact. With a Mag Size of 2, you can reap the rewards of OLT on each shot, making it an excellent gun for mobbing.

  • Elements: Only :no_entry_sign:
    Note: Pellets do both :no_entry_sign: and :boom: Damage
  • Best Parts:
    Tediore or Jakobs Grip
    Hyperion Stock
    Rustlers (Projectile Count) or Doc’s (Critical) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “Red, Then Dead”

Shotgun Supreme!

The Shotgun Supreme! is a Tediore Shotgun with a Torgue Barrel. A blue rarity Shotgun Supreme! hits exactly 8 Mag Size, and therefore allows us to get the most out of OLT, basically functioning as an Elemental Quad.

  • Elements: :zap: :snowflake:   :fire:   :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Jakobs or Hyperion Grip
    Hyperion or Torgue Stock
    Royal (Critical) or Original (Accuracy) Prefix
    Punisher (Critical) or Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Thinking

A Hyperion Shotgun with a Hyperion barrel. While the base Damage and Pellet Count are very low, it boasts a high Fire Rate and low Ammo consumption in comparison to other Hyperion Shotguns, especially when affected by the yellow Glitch effect. It serves as an accurate and Ammo efficient choice for DPS, which is especially important for builds that don’t heavily rely on OLT.

  • Elements: :zap: :snowflake:   :fire:   :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Hyperion Grip
    Torgue Stock
    Practicable (Projectile Count) or Critical (Critical) Prefix
    Error Code O0L4M0A4
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest

#Pistols
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Luck Cannon

An interesting Jakobs Pistol. This gun only has one round in the chamber, but each shot has a chance to “Money Shot” for a huge multiplier as Explosive Damage. Naturally, this Pistol is a perfect fit for Claptrap. Using this weapon generally means you have all five stacks of LnS up at all times, plus a mini OLT on each shot. The initial shot also has a chance to proc CC.

  • Elements: Only :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Jakob’s Grip
    Two Fer (2x Projectiles) or Dastardly (Damage) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from Badass Glitches
    Grinder/World Drop

88 Fragnum

Fires 5 bullets that spread rapidly at the cost of 3 Ammo per shot. It also has a 25% bonus additive Critical bonus. For any other character, the Fragnum is basically a lower DPS version of a purple Torgue Pistol, but it’s very good on Claptrap specifically, because it greatly benefits from OLT, LnS, and Grenade Vent, all of which add considerable DPS, especially when combined with a Loose Cannon COM.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Grip
    Hard (Damage) or Explicit (Accuracy) Prefix
    Boominator (Grenade Damage), Punisher (Critical), or Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

T4s-R

Fires lasers. High Fire Rate, Accuracy, and Elemental Effect Chance. While this gun can be used for some solid DPS, it’s of more use in a DoT focused build as its high Elemental Effect Chance works well with ML.

  • Elements: :snowflake:  :zap:   :fire:
  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Grip
    Dynamic (Fire Rate) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Holodome (Guaranteed in Round 1)

Probe

Low Damage. Heals the user for a percentage (~5%) of all Damage dealt while it’s held. Even after the nerf, it’s still amazing as a SWAB enabler in mobbing scenarios or as a survival tool in an ML-based tank build.

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:  :no_entry_sign: (Randomized)
  • Best Parts: Randomized
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Item from “Torgue-O, Torgue-O!”

Anarchist

Vladof Pistols that use Vladof Barrels. These weapons burn through Ammo very quickly, which is beneficial when considering Claptrap’s kit. It must be noted Clappy’s DPS skills don’t suit non-Explosive weapons that burn through Ammo as well as their Explosive counterparts. That being said, they are still solid as vanilla DPS weapons, especially since the yellow Glitch Effect lets you have long chains of shots with reduced Ammo consumption.

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:  :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Vladof, Maliwan, or Torgue Grip
    Purging (Damage) Prefix
    Error Code O0L4M0A4 or O0L0M4A4
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest


#Sniper Rifles
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Plunkett

Critical Hits remove Ammo from the wielder’s Ammo Pool instead of the Magazine. This gimmick works extremely well with OLT, provided you can constantly land Critical Hits.

  • Elements: Only :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Jakobs Grip
    Hyperion or Dahl Stock
    Hyiu (Mag Size) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Holodome (Guaranteed in Round 5)

Snider

Maliwan Sniper Rifles using a Maliwan or Dahl barrel. These work great with CC and/or Sniper Subroutines coupled with Tripleclocked. The Maliwan barrel increases the Element Effect Chance and Accuracy, while the Dahl reduces Recoil at the cost of Damage, making it inferior to the Maliwan barrel on almost all fronts. Regardless, the Snider works really well as a Cryo/DoT tool when coupled with ML, as its splash makes it almost guaranteed to proc. In addition, the Glitch Effects add insane DPS to this weapon, and the Mag Size boost lets it do that Damage for longer.

  • Elements: :snowflake: :zap:   :fire:
  • Best Parts:
    Maliwan Barrel
    Maliwan Grip
    Dahl or Hyperion Stock
    Barking (Damage) or Gentleman’s (Critical) Prefix
    Error Code O4L4M0A0 or O4L0M0A5
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest

Pitchfork

Fires 5 horizontal shots in a line, shaped in a “V” pattern. Consumes 2 Ammo per shot. This weapon performs amazingly against bosses, hitting several bullets on their generally larger Critical Hit Spots with each trigger pull.

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:  :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Dahl Grip
    Dahl or Hyperion Stock
    Pacifying (Damage) or Night (Critical) Prefix
    Punisher (Critical) or Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Droog

A Vladof Sniper with a Vladof barrel. Like the Anarchist, the Droog outputs an insane amount of DPS at the cost of extreme Ammo inefficiency. Like the Anarchist, this Ammo drain isn’t necessarily boosted by Claptrap’s DPS skills, but the yellow Glitch Effect coupled with the increased Mag Size makes it a decent weapon by itself.

  • Elements: :snowflake: :zap:   :fire:   :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Vladof Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Gromky (Damage), Razrez (Critical), or Skorry (Fire Rate) Prefix
    Error Code O0L4M0A4
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest


#Assault Rifles
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Kerboom

Consumes 4 Ammo per shot. Each shot fires one projectile which has a straight trajectory and explodes on impact. The explosion releases a grenade which also explodes one second later. Greatly lowered Fire Rate coupled with the fact that it cannot Crit. Works great with the Boomtrap tree, especially against frozen enemies. Can also be used as a mini-sniper with the proper scope.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Nasty (Damage) or Slippery (Bullet Speed) Prefix
    Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) or Boominator (Grenade Damage) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Torgue Rifle

A Torgue AR with the normal Vladof or Scav barrel. A Rifle with a Vladof Grip and Barrel perrforms the best with Clappy’s Fire Rate Buffs, but other Vladof or Scav barreled Rifles are also good. Also features a bonus 90% Explosive Splash Damage on impact.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Vladof or Scav Barrel
    Vladof or Torgue Grip
    Dahl Stock
    WIld (Fire Rate), Slippery (Bullet Speed) or Nasty (Damage) Prefix
    Error Code O0L4M0A4
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest

Hail

The Hail is a unique Vladof Assault Rifle with a steep learning curve. The bullets, upon firing, go skyward in a parabolic arc. When the bullets reach the apex of the arc, they split in two and rain ugly death. This Rifle has an uncharacteristic positive Critical Damage multiplier, coupled with 80% Elemental Splash Damage. On top of all that, it is also a Moxxi weapon, meaning that it will heal the wielder for about 3% of all Damage dealt while it’s held. A pretty big payoff for learning the janky firing pattern, don’t cha think?

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:
  • Best Parts:
    Vladof Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Rabid (Fire Rate) or Ferocious (Damage) Prefix
    Note: The Swift (Bullet Speed) Prefix makes the arc go EVEN HIGHER. I do not recommend.
  • Obtaining:
    Dropped from Iwajira in Serenity’s Waste

Major Tom

Fires a five shot burst, each firing three bullets at a time at the cost of two Ammo per shot. The Major Tom is basically the Veruc, as it performs largely the same. The reason why this is good, however, is the fact that each pellet can proc Coincidental Combustion.

  • Elements: :snowflake: :zap:   :fire:  :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Dahl Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Attack (Damage) or Deep (Bullet Speed) Prefix
    Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) or Punisher (Critical) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop.

Gatling Gun

Jakobs AR with the Vladof “spinigun” barrel. Fires 3 bullets at the cost of 3 Ammo per shot. It features High Damage coupled with a nice Type B Critical bonus which, when coupled with Fuzzy Logic and OLT, make it a well rounded AR.

  • Elements: Only :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Jakobs Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Boss (Damage) or Horse (Stability) Prefix
    Error Code O4L4M0A0
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest


#Lasers
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Absolute Zero

This. This is the top Laser for Claptrap. As a Beam Laser with only 12 Mag Size, one would question its usefulness on anybody other than Willhelm or Jack. Claptrap, however, probably uses this thing better than both of them. This thing comes straight out of the box with ~200% Continuous Damage Bonus coming off a base damage that is almost double that of the Thorny Ol’ Rosie. This base damage, coupled with OLT, CC, LnS, and its low Mag Size ALONE would make this TG on Claptrap. However, the Absolute Zero goes one step beyond, as it’s a Cryo Laser with ~20% Freeze Chance and a stupid high DoT. On top of ALL THAT, it controls amazingly for a Beam Laser. I think we as a Claptrap community can die happy knowing that this glorious thing is in the game.

  • Elements: Only :snowflake:
  • Best Parts:
    Maliwan Grip
    Dahl Stock
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from EOS in Deck 13.5
    Grinder/World Drop

Laser Disker

Boom, you got an Explosive Laser. It fires little disks that fly quickly and deal Explosive Damage. More importantly, it is the first Laser to feature Explosive Tediore Reloads.The disks themselves aren’t too important as the Magazine Size is so large that firing this gun won’t stack LnS quickly enough, but chucking this thing with a bunch of LnS stacks will destroy the sorry sucker unfortunate enough to get smacked with it. The Laser’s Reload throws aren’t as intuitive as the SMG’s or Pistol’s, but with enough practice, Boomtraps will have a new powerhouse in their hands.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Tediore or Maliwan Grip
    Dahl or Hyperion Stock
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from 5H4D0W-TP in The Cortex
    Grinder/World Drop

Mining Laser

Increased Damage. Possesses railgun barrel but fires three projectiles in a tight spread at the cost of seven Ammo per shot. Fixed triangular spread pattern. It has a 50% Critical Damage bonus and its beams penetrate targets. Very reliable for freezing ot applying DoTs, especially when combined with ML.

  • Elements: :snowflake: :zap: :fire: 
  • Best Parts:
    Maliwan or Hyperion Grip
    Hyperion Stock
    Blade Attachment (No other Attachments)
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “Infinite Loop”, when turned in to DAN-TRP.

Splitters

Lasers that use the Tediore “splitter” barrel shoot like Shotguns. Both Maliwan and Tediore Splitters come with some heavy DPS for the elemental-focused Claptrap. Tediore Refracted Splitters have twice the Projectiles as other Splitters, allowing them to stack ML quickly, while Maliwan Dichotomized Splitters have more DPS do to their Continuous Fire Bonus. Since they’re mostly agnostic to most of Clappy’s traditional DPS skills, it’s better to go with the Glitch variants to boost standalone DPS.

  • Elements: :snowflake:    :zap: :fire: 
  • Best Parts:
    Maliwan Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Error Code O0L4M4A0, O0L4M0A4, O4L4M0A0, or O4L4M4A5
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest


##SMGs
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IVF

Upon reloading, it is thrown like a typical Tediore weapon and explodes. The resulting explosion spawns two smaller guns that also explode. The smaller guns deal reduced Damage. The IVF works well on any character, but is amazing on Claptrap. A Non-Elemental IVF will greatly benefit from LnS, and any IVF will benefit directly from GV and Organized Guns Are Happy. It also benefits indirectly from You’re…GOING TO LOVE ME!!!

  • Elements: :no_entry_sign: :snowflake: :zap::fire:
    Note: Reload will be :boom: if the gun is :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Scav or Tediore Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Refill (Reload Speed) or Hefty (Damage) Prefix
    Boominator (Grenade Damage) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from The Bosun in Pity’s Fall.
    Grinder/World Drop

Torrent

Increased Damage, Mag Size, Burst Count, and Fire Rate. No Movement Speed penalty while ADS and almost no Recoil.

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:  :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Dahl Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Flying (Bullet Speed) or Stopping (Damage) Prefix
    Punisher (Critical) or Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from Meg in Hyperion Hub of Heroism
    Grinder

Fridgia

Always Cryo. Very high Elemental Effect Chance and Burst Count. Fires two projectiles at the cost of 1 Ammo per Shot. Cryo guns sporting a high Freeze Chance are very good with Claptrap, and the Fridgia is no exception. A very reliable freeze tool.

  • Elements: Only :snowflake:
  • Best Parts:
    Dahl Grip
    Dahl or Hyperion Stock
    Flying (Bullet Speed) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “In Perfect Hibernation”

Fast Talker

With its high Fire Rate, large Mag Size, and fast Reload Speed, the Fast Talker is an amazing vanilla DPS weapon. However, Claptrap, unlike other characters, doesn’t perform at his maximum potential with large Mag Size weapons. Even with basically no kit synergy, it’s a fantastic weapon for DPS.

  • Elements: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:  :no_entry_sign:
  • Best Parts:
    Scav Grip
    Dahl Stock
    Kwikner (Bullet Speed) or True-Blue (Damage) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Tales from the Borderlands Season Pass


#Rocket Launchers
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Nukem

This Torgue Rocket Launcher fires straight before taking a nosedive into a giant mushroom cloud of an explosion. This RL does a crap ton of Damage and can be used to clear an entire room of baddies quickly. It’s small Mag Size coupled with it’s Ammo Consumption of 2 works really well with getting constant OLT nukes out, while the super long Reload Speed can be mostly mitigated by Clappy’s skills.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Tediore or Torgue Grip
    Torgue or Maliwan Exhaust
    Tediore Sight
    dippity (Reload Speed) or Fwap A (Weapon Swap Speed) Prefix
    Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from Flame Knuckle in The Holodome
    Grinder/World Drop

Badaboom

As the premiere Rocket Launcher for the Pre-Sequel, it’s no surprise that the biggest boom on Elpis is a great fit for Claptrap. Fires six mini-rockets for the price of one Rocket Ammo, which is super good considering the rarity of Rocket Ammo in the borderlands. It should be noted that the Berrigan performs quite similarly to the Badaboom on Claptrap, and is probably the better choice for mobbing due to its faster Fire Rate and Reload Speed.

  • Elements: :boom: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:
  • Best Parts:
    Scav Grip
    Torgue Exhaust
    Maliwan or Tediore Sight
    Heap’d (Damage), Clever (Reload Speed), or Kwik-Change (Weapon Swap Speed) Prefix
    Piercing Rounds (Shield Bypass) Luneshine
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Duurp

At a glance, this Torgue-barreled Torgue Launcher is just an weaker, more Ammo efficient Nukem. However. the addition of Glitch Effects really makes this thing shine. Just imagine a Berrigan burst firing rockets, now imagine those rockets deal almost five times the Damage. Now imagine red Glitch Rockets. I think we’re done here. It should be noted that while you can use a purple Duurp with a Mag Size of 3 to better abuse OLT, the Nukem generally does this job better.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Grip
    Maliwan or Scav Exhaust
    Maliwan or Tediore Sight
    dippity (Reload Speed), Fwap A (Weapon Swap Speed), derp (Damage), or dum pa (Fire Rate) Prefix
    Error Code 04L4M0A0
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Glitch Chest

Kaneda’s Laser

This Tediore Rocket Launcher is unique in the fact that instead of Rockets, it fires a highly accurate Explosive Laser that can Crit. The reload is nothing special,but the fact that you can snipe Crit Spots with a giant Rocket Launcher that can also proc OLT and LnS is insane.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Best Parts:
    Tediore Grip
    Torgue or Vladof Exhaust
    Torgue Sight (Fixed)
    Damage, Reload Speed, or Weapon Swap Speed Attachment
    Note: The weapon will be called “Kaneda’s Laser” regardless of its Attachment, so look out for that
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Mongol

The Mongol fires a single large rocket that sporadically releases multiple mini-rockets at random angles along its flight path at the cost of two Ammo per shot. The important part of to take away is that all of these rockets benefit from OLT, making this one of Claptrap’s best Launchers for large bosses, like EOS.

  • Elements: :boom: :zap:   :snowflake:  :fire:
  • Best Parts:
    Vladof Grip
    Torgue Exhaust
    Tediore Sight
    Rugged (Damage) or Moscovite’s (Weapon Swap Speed) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    World Drop/Grinder


#Grenade Mods
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Note: Assume the preferred Fuse Time for all Grenades to be 0.0s, and the preferred Delivery method to be Longbow/Sticky Longbow.


Quasar

Always Shock Singularity Grenade. Reduced Damage but increased Blast Radius (larger Singularity pull and Tesla effect). Enemies pulled within the Blast Radius suffer Shock DoT until the explosion occurs. Great Grenade for battlefield control, as well as stripping Shields. A Meganade follows a similar purpose with a focuses more on crowd control than Damage or DoT application.

  • Elements: Only :zap:
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from Felicity in The Holodome and Titan Production Plant
    Grinder/World Drop

Cryo

A Vladof Cloud Grenade that deals constant Cryo Damage to any enemy in its Area of Effect. This is a great way to freeze multiple enemies at once, setting them up for Explosive Damage and/or Crits! If you don’t want to use a Cryo weapon, grab one of these instead.

  • Elements: Only :snowflake:
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Pandemic

Always Corrosive. After the Grenade’s initial explosion, three more homing child Grenades are spawned. These will home in on enemies and deal Corrosive Damage before seeking out another target. This will continue until the Grenades disappear. This is a great ML stacker and will deal with armored enemies in short time. It will also seek out flying enemies. The Storm Front follows a similar focus but for Shock, whose DoTs are generally more useful but don’t last as long.

  • Elements: Only
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Bonus Package

Always Explosive. After the Grenade’s initial explosion, it releases several child Grenades, that release even more child Grenades. Utter chaos in Claptrap’s hands. Nobody is safe.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop


#Shields
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Shield

Tediore Shields have low Capacity, high Recharge Rate, and a low Recharge Delay. Because of this, they’re usually back up as soon as they go down, especially with Wax Off, Wax On and Defensive Subroutines. .

  • Best Parts:
    Dahl Body
    Hyperion Battery
    Maliwan Capacitor (Corrosive Immunity)
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop/Golden Chest

Haymaker

An interesting Adaptive Shield manufactured by Dahl, as it comes with the ability to fist punch your DoTs away, which helps with Claptrap’s Corrosive weakness. Also features the largest Health the highest Health boost out of all Adaptive Shields, which works extremely well with skills like Killbot and You’re… GOING TO LOVE ME!!

  • Best Parts:
    Maliwan or Hyperion Body
    Maliwan or Hyperion Battery
    Hyperion Capacitor
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “DAHL Combat Training: Round 5”

The Rerouter is an Amp Shield that restores Health equal to the Amp Drain whenever you fire an Amp Shot. This serves as an excellent Offensive/Defensive choice for Claptrap, especially while he’s running a Shield Subroutine.

  • Best Parts:
    Torgue Body
    Anshin Battery
    Maliwan Capacitor (Incendiary Immunity)
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from 5H4D0W-TP in The Cortex
    Grinder/World Drop

Shield of Ages

The Shield of Ages has the largest Capacity of all turtle Shields, and has a comparatively low Health penalty. The catch is that it has fixed Parts, and those parts gives it fairly poor Recharge stats. Luckily, Clappy has a lot of workarounds for this downside, so it ends up being quite the powerful pick.

  • Best Parts: Fixed Parts
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “The Temple of Boom”, when turned in to Gladstone

Naught

An interesting Shield with ZERO Recharge Delay, which means that it is constantly recharging. There are some interesting quirks with this special ability when combined with some of Clappy’s Nova skills, most notably Element of Surprise, resulting in a constant stream of Novas. However, as payment for the ability to constantly have a Shield up, the other stats are relatively poor. Safety First helps alleviate this weakness, especially when Tripleclocked.

  • Best Parts:
    Scav Body
    Scav Battery
    Scav Capacitor
  • Obtaining:
    Tales from the Borderlands Season Pass


#Class Mods
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Sapper

+33% Explosive Damage Resistance / +49% Explosive Damage
Killbot / Start with a Bang / One Last Thing

The Sapper Class Mod offers a lot for the bulky Boomtraps that elect not going very deep into the FF tree. Boosting OLT makes this COM extremely lethal with the right set-up. It can also abuse the Defensive Subroutines by taking a lot of points in KB and SWAB, while also boosting Explosive Damage.

Note: If you don’t want to use SWAB, use an Audacious Sapper (+6 OLT, +5 KB) instead.

  • Best Parts:
    Audacious (+5 OLT, +4 KB, +4 SWAB) or Foolhardy (+5 SWAB, +4 KB, +4 OLT) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Loose Cannon

+25% Pistol Fire Rate / +51% Pistol Damage
Drop the Hammer / Load n’ Splode / Death Machine

Great Class Mod for abusing Load n’ Splode, the Pistol buffs also turns weapons like the Fragnum into demolition tools with OLT and LnS

Note: If you don’t want to spec that far into the Fragmented Fragtrap tree, use a Gratuitous Loose Cannon (+6 LnS, +5 DtH) instead.

  • Best Parts:
    Gratuitous (+5 LnS, +4 DtH, +4 DM) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Chronicler of Elpis

+49% Freeze Chance / +49% Cryo Damage / +14895 Shield Capacity
Load n’ Splode / Start with a Bang / Wax Off, Wax On / Death Machine / Grenade Vent

This Class Mod caters almost perfectly to a Freeze and Boom Claptrap style. Boosting Freeze Chance is huge for high Freeze Chance weapons, and the skills it boosts are incredibly good on their own. A great all-purpose COM.

  • Obtaining:
    Holodome (Guaranteed in Round 3)

Eridian Vanquisher

+49% Elemental Effect Chance / +92% Air Control/ +11657 Max Health
Killbot / Start with a Bang / Maniacal Laughter / All the Things are Awesome / Death Machine

This COM offers a little bit of everything for Claptrap, dipping into each of his desired playstyles; a solid pick, especially for the more defensive DoT-based builds.

  • Obtaining:
    Drops from X-STLK-23 in Research and Development and the Emyrean Sentinel in Eleseer

Factory Second

+33% Reload Speed / +25% Fire Rate
Fuzzy Logic / Suprised? Stabilize! / Death Machine

For all of you Subroutine slingin’ DPTY-TP’s out there, THIS is the COM for you! This thing boosts FL for a gross amount of bonus Crit, SS for an Accuracy and Recoil Reduction Boost, and DM for a huge boost to Damage, Reload Speed (There is also a static boost to Reload Speed), and Movement Speed. I swear, if @Chuck80 isn’t salivating at the sight of this COM, I’ll eat my shoe.

  • Best Parts:
    Malfunctioning (+5 FL, +4 SS, +4 DM) or Warranty Void (+5 DM, +4 SS, +4 FL) Prefix
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop


#Oz Kits
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Systems Purge

This Oz kit uses some of your Oxygen in order to deal more Damage on hit. Also replenishes Oxygen on kill, Since Clappy doesn’t need Oxygen, the Purge gives you a fairly consistent boost to DPS, especially in Atmosphere.

  • Elements: :snowflake:    :boom: :zap:  :fire:
  • Obtaining:
    Mission Reward from “Eradicate!”, when you destroy CL4P-L3K

3DD1.E

In combat, there is a random chance for Shields and Health to rapidly regenerate. When damaged, there is a random chance continuously Shock nearby enemies. When killing an enemy, there is a random chance to release a care package, which provides Health, Ammunition and/or Money drops. Also boosts Laser Damage. This is a great all-around Oz Kit based solely on the utility it provides.

  • Elements: Only :boom:
  • Obtaining:
    Drops from CL4P-L3K in Veins of Helios, if it is destroyed in “Eradicate!”
    Grinder/World Drop

Bomber

This thing gives you Grenade Damage. Most Torgue and Tediore weaponry benefits from Grenade Damage, so naturally, this Oz Kit has some serious synergy with Claptrap. Additionally, it also gives you a chance to not consume Grenade Ammo when you throw 'em while midair, which is a nice bonus.

  • Elements: :snowflake:    :boom: :zap:  :fire:
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Duality

These Oz Kits are a little tricky to pin down as they provide a variety of bonuses in both Vacuum and Atmosphere environments: ranging from gun bonuses (Damage and Recoil or Fire Rate and Reload Speed) for any gun type, Elemental Damage bonuses, Melee Damage bonuses, and Shield bonuses. The Moonlight Saga is an epic Duality Oz Kit that basically turns all of your weapons into Moxxi Guns in a vacuum, and it basically makes Claptrap unkillable. With such a large collection of different combinations to choose from, there’s a Duality Oz Kit for every build, especially when used to supplement other Oz Kits that are less useful in a particular environment (like other Dualities).

  • Elements: :snowflake:    :boom: :zap:  :fire:
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

Strafing Run

This Oz Kit provides Fire Rate and Reload Speed while airborne. While Claptrap doesn’t care too much about more FR, he really really cares about Reload Speed. You see, when one of the more important aspects of your DPS revolves around landing several OLTs in quick succesion, you’re going to reload a lot. That’s where the Strafing Run comes in. It’s probably one of the best ways to boost DPS on things like the Quad-barreled Shotguns.

  • Elements: :snowflake:    :boom: :zap:  :fire:
  • Obtaining:
    Grinder/World Drop

#Future Testing Candidates
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Have a suggestion? Don’t like some of the entries here? Post below and discuss with the community! We’re still a little bit short on data, especially involving Glitched weapons.

Current Candidates

#Additional Resources
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9 Likes

I would first like to address if you notice any obvious faults or consistency issues (I tried to catch everything) let me know and I will update the OP accordingly.


Secondly, now that Claptastic Voyage has been released, I would like to start the conversation on a few items of interest and their potential viability on this list (I intentionally did not include DLC4 items in the OP for this reason):

  • Glitch Guns:

Are there any currently top gear items in this list that are flat out obsolete as of the inclusion of glitch guns? Things like Ravager, Slapper, and other purple weapons come to mind. If so what glitch is the “best”" for that weapon.

Do guns move up or down due to these new glitch options?

Do other purple guns gain Top Tier or Honorable Mention status now that they have a higher magazine glitch variant. Weapons I’d like to personally introduce include the Pounder and the Bangstick, but the possibilities are infinite, so throw your hat in.

  • New Guns

There are a few new guns in this DLC that looks really good, I’m sure you’ve all had plenty of experience with these new guns, and I would love to hear from your experience. Guns that I’m looking at include:

  1. Absolute Zero,
    Thunderfire,
    Laser Disker,
    Fusillade,
    Luck Cannon,
    Hard Reboot,
    Kaneda’s Laser (JUST REALIZED THERE WAS NO RL SECTION)
    Flayer
    Cheat Code
    Fast Talker
    Omni-Cannon,
    Meganade
    Data Scrubber

Please make your voice heard, share your opinions!


Thirdly, If anyone would like to help with some video production, please message me or post below, as I am on xbox and can’t really record content. Nothing special, just a quick run of a room or something to show the synergistic qualities of said gear, etc.

Great guide!

Nothing much I could add to it, except maybe a recommendation for Clappy’s “Chronicler of Elpis” COM. It’s fantastic for Explosive and/or high DPS builds. Gives you increased Freeze chance for your Cryo weapons, while also giving your explosive weapons more power with “Load ‘n’ Splode” and “Grenade Vent”. It also increases “Killing Machine”, making all of your weapons more powerful in general, and has both base Shield Capacity increases as part of the COM’s bonuses, AND boosts “Wax On, Wax Off”. And as a bonus, you get a boost to “Start with a Bang” as well.

A Glitch Maliwan Blaster with O0L4M0A4 (yellow and cyan) is awesome with Fragtrap. I have a cryo version and love it.

MINAC unique (also a Maliwan Blaster) has great synergy with Maniacal Laughter because it randomly fires corrosive, fire or shock.

The Naught shield you can get if you also have Tales from the Borderlands (season pass for consoles or regular Steam version for PC) has 0 recharge delay. Making it great for Fragtrap with any glitch gun that has the cyan glitch as the amp drain from using that glitch is instantly refilled.

Data Scrubber is a cool grenade mod. When you damages an enemy it refills your shield as if you’d picked up a booster dropped by booster shields. This works similar to how Transfusion grenades do for health.

Hard Reboot is a good shock pistol. Just keep in mind its shots have splash damage so at point blank range you will get hit with the splash damage.

I like your input, I have also personally tried the Naught shield thinking it would be perfect for clappy, but the catch is that the recharge rate takes a HUGE hit for it’s zero recharge delay, so a Purple Tediore shield with a 1.09 second delay generally outperforms it.

I usually play explosive, but I was thinking about Minac’s Attonement on clappy, I was thinking it was a little too gimmicky, especially for UVHM and their huge penalty for using the wrong damage type. Coupled with the low firerate of ~3.5, Every two shots will be doing noticeably lower damage very slowly, which kind of outweighs the usefulness of a bunch of different DoTs

I’ve basically Presumed that the best glitch on most guns was Yellow-Blue, and clappy is no exception especially with those builds that don’t go deep into the subroutine tree, as you get infinite shield regen approximately half the time.

My only boon to the claptastic grenades is that their delivery methods are sub-par imo. But if they outperform similar grenades in their field it might not matter.

I’ll have to get my hands on the Reboot, laziness has given me the scrubber instead.

As a heads up, you have the badaboom in here twice and the two in two scoops is spelled wrong.

Also, this is looking really good, I’m glad to see that somebody steped up after I abandoned TOG back in december :sweat:

Copypasta is a powerful weapon, Lol when i was editing the Too Scoops, i thought it was spelt like the saying (Two Scoops). It’s actually Too Scoops, but I botched fixing it, good catch.

Also I retroactively thanked you in the beginning, it did start with you and ThatOneGuy right? :stuck_out_tongue:

What? It’s called Too Scoops?!? I always called it TWO Scoops,because it has TWO projectiles…

I’m going to re-evaluate the current list for UVHM over the next week or so before trying to test the new stuff (I think some of the SWAB combo falls off a little bit with each explosion doing only about half a million damage to trash mobs even with a bunch of LnS, but that was just with Luck Cannon testing so I’ll try a couple runs on Titan and see how it holds up). If anyone could help with the evaluation, either through mob run like Hub, a raid/pseudo raid run Eclipse, or a mob/boss run like Titan, at level cap on UVHM, it would be appreciated.

How exacly is Hyperion stock better than Dahl for snipers? And from what I heard,Torgue stock is the best for Hyperion shotguns,not Hyperion. :confused:

Thanks so much, @Hoyle4, for doing this – looks very good and eager for more development as people test new weapons and get to level 70.

INB4 @Chuck80 comes by to say: “Not saying the Fragnum can’t be used, but a purple slapper is just plain better. Comparable damage, 1/3 the ammo consumption (which also means 1/3 the time reloading…thus higher DPS) and faster bullets…slapper wins” !! Not sure we need more Fragnum vs. Slapper discussion – I try them both, off & on, but use the Fragnum for mobbing more (bigger enemies I just take out a Flakker).

1 Like

I’m not a sniper guy so I trusted the peeps b4 me. But looking into it more, Hyperion stocks are used because Dahl decreases accuracy, Hyperion stocks increase accuracy as opposed to recoil reduction, which I know is better for the skullmasher. Also recoil reduction is less valuable when ur fire rate is so low that ur gun resets between each shot.

As far as Torgue stock, I’m not too sure, but I was using the VM on UVHM and I don’t even think its good anymore, so basically gonna test the bullpup (which is locked to hyperion anyway) and glitched development when It comes down to it. It might be better it might not be. It would make sense that Torgue is better for Hyperion tho because fast recoil recovery isn’t all that great when ur shots are more accurate the longer u go before resetting. Seems like more of a short term v long run argument.

Also stocks were never really the biggest of deals to begin with so the blanket Dahl if not Dahl Hyperion works good enough.

Lately I’ve been almost exclusively relying on a Fridgia + Laser Disker combo to take out UBAsses in Level9 arena rounds. The single shots aren’t that impressive, but with some skill useful against small flying bots.

Fully loaded chucks however, with matching Tediore Grip bringing reload speed down to 1.4 s, outdamage optimal IVF throws by around 3x (3 x 1000k vs 9000k). The trajectory takes only a little practice to get down.

I like the slapper, on everyone but clappy. When all of ur kits damage relies on you constantly going through ur ammo and reloading, its hard to justify waiting to get through 20+ shots to do so.

I’m definitely considering the disker, especially considering boosted dmg to airborne targets just trying to get the list down before claptastic junk. But I mean ur numbers are totally off, I’ve found its closer to ~3200k plus 2x 2500k vs ~17000k. The difference is you could get more reliable Dps off the ivf off reloads alone. Not saying that the disker isn’t TG quality. Just that the IVF is the more reliable option as a chucking weapon.

OH ****

the Laser Disker can also be used like logans gun with the sham to regen rockets… now whered i put that Kaneda Laser…?

Can’t argue about that.

Seems like the best stock depends on your play style:for agressive sniper like myself Dahl works better,but for longer range accurate sniper Hyperion is better.

Still,Pitchfork can get an extra shot in burst with Dahl Stock.

As for VM,it’s not good enough to stay here,especially if you are going to include TFTB weapons.Company Man is not only better than VM,but also the Bullup (for longer battles) .

Here’s a comparison of Bullup vs Company Man to back up my claim.This is from my “Non-red text items worth using” guide,so there is no direct comparison unfortunately.

Thinking vs Bullup
Thinking vs Company Man

My argument was gonna be use Dahl on Dahl and vladof snipers, Hyperion elsewhere. I’m at school ATM so I’ll update the pitchfork when I get home, I’ll need to test company man and bullpup too, cuz on paper conpany man looks like a meh bullpup. All I’ve done so far is scoops vm and the jakobs family of flayer quad and coach, four of which deserve to be on the list.

I’ve never used the company man, what does it do?

OK, so I’ve gone through some more shotgun evaluations:

The current roster of shotguns all seem to keep their power in UVHM, except the Viral Marketer, which REALLY underperformed, not only doing obviously worse than the Bullpup, but even the Company Man was more successful. I could rarely find scenarios where it’s elemental advantage was useful, and even when I had it, let’s just say 220 rounds barely got Felicity to 3/4 health, the lack of options really makes this thing suffer.

I evaluated the Development Shotgun, which I think belongs on this list now thanks its new glitch variant, the chance at a yellow glitch to vampire its ammo back, coupled with the increased mag size push its already disgusting damage over the top.

I also evaluated the Jakob’s shotgun and I have a bit of trouble making a decision Between the Flayer and the Coach Gun : the Flayer has better stats all around (2 more pellets more accuracy and larger mag), but the Coach has access to glitches. Is one definitively better? Do both get on the list as basically trade-offs of the coach gun?

Quad is fine, glitch makes it better cuz free ammo and bigger mag, i mean 5% grenade damage or 10% crit are nice and all but I mean automatic jakob’s chains that add ammo are a thing.

In addition to the bullpup (still good) I tested the Company Man. I was surprised on how well it performed, considering its general blandness. I feel it performed just as well as any random purple hyperion shotgun if not slightly better thanks to its 32 mag size. It didn’t seem to be all that special, but may be HM worthy, as the VM somehow got on there.