The Avenger: This is how it works

The Avenger is a Pearlescent SMG manufactured by Tediore. Here’s my breakdown of it I was amazed at the results. Not only the bouncing projectiles are unique but also the calculation of the final explosion. This makes the Avenger the most powerful Tediore weapon. If you don’t want to read the whole post just scroll down. At the end you you’ll find the complete formula, conclusion and a video.

The Avenger has some noticeable characteristics:

  • ammo regeneration
  • decent overall stats
  • consumes only one bullet per shot
  • fairly big magazine size
  • huge reload-thrown explosion radius
  • the standard bouncing/traveling distance of the thrown weapon is
    about 20-25 meters
  • an extremely powerful possibility of combination … but you have to
    read at least the last part of this post for this one

These are the items I’ve used for the tests:

  • two versions of the Avenger, same parts, just another accessory
    (reload/mag size & damage)
  • a common Grenadier class mod (+35% grenade damage)
  • Bone of the Ancients (+30% fire damage)
  • The Bee (+52746 amp damage)

Test #1: Does the bullets left in a mag affect the reload throw damage?

Short answer: Yes and no. I’ve tested this with the Hefty Avenger.

Full magazine (48 bullets):

Empty magazine:

Test results:

  • With 48 bullets left the projectiles deal 11396 damage.
  • With 0 bullets left the projectiles deal 11396 damage.

But the amount of bullets left affects the final explosion. More about the explosion you’ll find in the end of this post.


Test #2: Does the base gun damage which is listed on the item card affect the projectiles of the special effect?

Short answer: Yes.

Refill Avenger (reload/mag accessory) with 5987 base damage:

Hefty Avenger (damage accessory) with 6512 base damage:

Test results:

  • With a base gun damage of 5987 the projectiles deal 10477 damage.
  • With base gun damage of 6512 the projectiles deal 11396 damage.

Equation:

  • projectile damage / base gun damage = modifier/multiplicator
  • 10477 damage / base gun damage of 5987 = 1,75
  • 11396 damage / base gun damage of 6512 = 1,75

Conclusion:

The projectiles apply the element of the weapon. Due to the fire element and the fleshy target the projectiles of the reload thrown weapon deal 175% of the gun base damage which is listed on the item card. The crucial part is that the projectile damage depends on the weapon base damage.


Test #3: Does an increase of grenade damage also affect the projectiles besides the final explosion?

Short answer: Yes.

Damage with a common Grenadier class mod (+35% grenade damage):

Test results:

  • Without an increase of grenade damage the projectiles deal 11396 damage.
  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35% the projectiles deal 15431 damage.

Equation:

  • projectile damage with grenade damage bonus / projectile damage without grenade damage bonus = modifier/multiplicator
  • 15431 damage / 11396 = 1,35

Conclusion:

The grenade damage bonus enhances the projectile damage 1:1 without any kind of modifier/dimishing returns.


Test #4: What if we increase grenade and gun damage?

Damage with a common Grenadier class mod (+35% grenade damage) and 5 points in Impact (+20% gun damage):

Test results:

  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35% the projectiles deal 15431 damage.
  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35% and gun damage by 20% the projectiles deal 18517 damage.

Equation:

  • projectile damage with grenade and gun damage bonus / projectile damage with grenade damage bonus = modifier/multiplicator
  • 18517 damage / 15431 = 1,2

Conclusion:

The grenade and gun damage bonus enhance the projectile damage equally without any kind of modifier/dimishing returns.


Test #5: What if we add an elemental relic?

Damage with a common Grenadier class mod (+35% grenade damage), 5 points in Impact and a Bone of the Ancients (+30% fire damage):

Test results:

  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35% and gun damage by 20% the projectiles deal 18517 damage.
  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35%, gun damage by 20% and fire damage by 30% the projectiles deal 24127 damage.

Equation:

  • projectile damage with grenade, gun and fire damage bonus / projectile damage with grenade and gun damage bonus = modifier/multiplicator
  • 24127 / 18517 = 1,3

Conclusion:

It seems the fire damage gets added 1:1 to all the other bonuses as contrasted with how the elemental damage gets calculated on gun damage.


Test #6: Finally The Bee!

Damage with a common Grenadier class mod (+35% grenade damage), 5 points in Impact, a Bone of the Ancients (+30% fire damage) and The Bee (+52746 amp damage):

Test results:

  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35%, gun damage by 20% and fire damage by 30% the projectiles deal 24127 damage.
  • With an increase of grenade damage by 35%, gun damage by 20%, fire damage by 30% and The Bee (+52746 amp damage) the projectiles deal 186000 damage.

Test #7: How about the throwing/bouncing distance?

With nearly full ammo capacity:

With ~half the ammo capacity:

With ammo capacity twice the mag size:

Just enough ammo for a full mag:

Not enough ammo for a full mag:

Just a few rounds left:

Nearly out of ammo:

Test results & conclusion:

The covered distance of the weapon depends on the remaining ammo. If you have enough ammo spare to fill the magazine fully the previous thrown weapon will cover the full distance. If you don’t have enough ammo to fill the next mag fully the weapon will explode earlier. The less ammo you have in your mag after reloading the less is the covered distance.

Keep in mind that as long as you have enough ammo spare for a fully next mag the count of the projectiles fired off while bouncing doesn’t depend on the ammo in the mag before throwing. With an empty mag the weapon will fire off the same amount of projectiles as with a full mag. The count is equal to the standard mag size. Only the final explosion is affected by the remaining bullets in a mag.


[SIZE=“3”]Final Equation:[/SIZE]

Projectiles:
base gun damage x (1 + elemental damage bonus [TVHM & UVHM: 75% or 0,75]) x (1 + grenade damage bonus) x (1 + gun damage bonus) x (1 + elemental damage relic bonus) + amp damage bonus x (1 + elemental damage bonus [TVHM & UVHM: 75% or 0,75]) x (1 + grenade damage bonus) x (1 + elemental damage relic bonus) = DAMAGE PER PROJECTILE

Final Explosion:
(base gun damage x (1 + elemental damage bonus [TVHM & UVHM: 75% or 0,75]) x (1 + grenade damage bonus) x (1 + gun damage bonus) x (1 + elemental damage relic bonus) + amp damage bonus x (1 + elemental damage bonus [TVHM & UVHM: 75% or 0,75]) x (1 + grenade damage bonus) x (1 + elemental damage relic bonus)) x remaining bullets in the magazine / 2 = EXPLOSION DAMAGE
or
projectile damage x remaining bullets in the magazine / 2 = EXPLOSION DAMAGE


[SIZE=“3”]Final Conclusion:[/SIZE]

  • Only the final explosion is affected by the remaining bullets in the magazine. So, even if you throw it with an empty magazine, the damage of the special projectiles is equal to the damage of the special projectiles if thrown with a full magazine.
  • The projectiles apply the element of the weapon and their damage is equal to the base gun damage (listed on item card), therefore a Avenger with more gun damage will be “better”.
  • Grenade, gun and elemental damage bonuses affect the damage of the projectiles and the final explosion equally, which means that these can be added 1:1 on the base gun damage.
  • Amp damage gets calculated separately and added in the end. The difference is that gun damage doesn’t affect the amp damage.
  • The fact that the final explosion is also affected by all these modifiers makes this the most powerful Tediore weapon.
  • As long as you have enough ammo for a full magazine (after reloading the gun) the weapon will cover the full distance. Otherwise the distance depends on the bullets you have left for the next mag.

[SIZE=“3”]Videos:[/SIZE]

This is how the Avenger works:

Showcasing the damage potential on Axton:

Krieg’s Avenger Damage Potential:

Raid Bosses:

Hyperius Speed Kill (2TUSimon):


F.A.Q.:

  • Do Zer0’s Decepti0n bonus, Gaige’s Anarchy and Maya’s Cat class mod affect the Avenger?
    — Yes. Their bonuses are considered as an increase in gun damage which boosts the reload damage of the Avenger. Furthermore Zer0 can throw/reload Tediore weapons in Decepti0n without breaking Decepti0n.
  • Do skills like B0re (Zer0), Chain Reaction (Maya) and Close Enough
    (Gaige) affect the special projectiles of a reload?

    — As far as I could test that, no.
  • How is it possible to handle this weapon properly?
    — You have to learn it. Throw it and memorize the traveling/bouncing distance. Don’t throw it against obstacles if you
    don’t know what you’re doing because then the behavior is much harder to predict. The big radius of the final explosion makes it easier to hit smaller/moving targets.
10 Likes

I’m having a go at this now and am having an operational difficulty that I didn’t foresee that I’m hoping you may have already dealt with and solved?

I want to use the Avenger specifically for the higher-damage final explosions. For the purposes of these runs, I’m not using another SMG so I can be basically out of ammo to get the explosion range down to “customizable” levels.

During normal combat with my other weapons, when an opportunity comes up to nail an enemy with a reload explosion, I switch to the Avenger and wait a moment for the ammo regen to throw enough rounds into the bank to put the final detonation where I want (which is tricky given that enemies are rarely maintaining a constant distance from me, but my Avenger is corrosive, so I’m only using it against Loaders, and they don’t move too fast). When the ammo count matches the distance, I reload.

What’s nice about it is that, since I’m constantly operating at ammo levels below full magazine size, I can just hit the reload button to toss another one (I don’t have to fire off a round first). Alternately, if the target is in my face, I can just hold down the fire button, and toss reload after reload, fine-tuning the distance by moving.

What happens in practice is that, because I’m basically out of SMG ammo, most of the ammo drops are for SMGs, which I pick up as I walk over them. Then when I switch to the Avenger, I’m suddenly sitting on a few hundred rounds that I have to burn off to get down to the amount needed to customize the detonation distance. In addition, when checking crates for ammo for my other weapons, they’re flooded with SMG magazines, and I can’t use the “scoop up everything” button.

So my question is: what is the most elegant method you have found to deal with that? When preparing to hit a target, “throw away” a few reloads to get the mag size down? Fire it like normal until you’re down? Also, would you prefer a larger magazine size to facilitate these ammo burns, or a smaller magazine size that should theoretically give you quicker distance-per-round adjustments?

For the record, I’m playing Maya with an atrocious build (I like Cloud Kill), a Witch COM, all e-tech weapons besides the Avenger (Retcher, Spiker, and a Launcher), and a Cracked Sash. Even my grenade is some corrosive Tediore thing with a 3+ second fuse. :muscle:

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I’ve got so many Avengers stashed away that I hope to use one day. Only problem is, they’re almost all non-elemental >_<

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The evils of boredom here comes the Avengers. The path is never clear but that is how they operate.

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Do you know if an explosive relic will also increase the damage of a Slag Avenger in any way?

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It doesn’t. An explosive relic only increases the reload throw damage of a non-elemental one.

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Thank you! So the explosive reloc will only increse purely the finl explosin of a nonelementl, and nothing else, not the thrown projectiles?

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Correct. If you’d have a fire Avenger and a fire relic the relic would increase the damage of the base gun projectiles, the special projectiles and the final explosion.

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Do slagged enemies take the extra 1.5 damage from being slagged by the Avenger? in other words, if i slag someone and hen hrow the reload, will the slag explosion do 1.5 damage?

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I could be wrong but I think I see where you are going with this and trust me…

A slag Avenger is NOT going to be your boss killer…or your all-in-one, do everything gun. And you should practice matching elements (IMHO) if at all possible as THAT is what will get you along the path of success in the higher levels of UVHM and the OP levels…especially OP8.

The OP levels have damage REDUCTION penalties which almost require you to take advantage of ANY positive damage multiplier such as matching elemental bonuses and that absolute HEAVY use of slag from a differnt weapon or source so the entire 3x multiplier kicks in.

The Avenger is a niche gun. Supremely powerful…but with so many limitations and such a high learning curve. If you try to use an Avenger in a big mob fight…or an arena…or even on a boss without a REALLY good reconnaissance and strategy and practice…

Well…good luck with that.

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I’d say drop the Avenger for mobbing. Save it for raid bosses. If you want a Tediore weapon to chuck around while mobbing, use a Baby Maker instead. Yes, the damage potential of the Avenger is ridiculously high, but it only comes together when everything lines up just perfectly and that isn’t really gonna happen a whole lot when you’re facing multiple moving targets amidst the chaos of battle. It’s just not a weapon for general use, unless you’re planning on using it as an actual SMG. Then it’s just alright.

Also, concerning slag, the purpose of it is to “tag” an enemy and then kill it using some other element or regular bullets. Slag on slag is never gonna top the damage you’ll do when you match elements or use an explosive/non-elemental weapon on a slagged target.

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You read my mind! i was playing with it the other day, and noticed that if you empty the clip you can reload constanty, throwing mini grenades by the second. if these mini grenades are, say, explosive, boosted by gun daage and grenade buffs, wouldnt they do a ton of damage even with only one round or so in the clip?

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Also, if I can get a nonelemental one with 58 rounds in the clip and 277,779 damage, with all Axton’s grenade perks and an Explosive relic, will this explosion basically overpower anything else in the entire game?

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Sorry to bother you again, but would a nonelemental Avenger still have grenade boosted special projectiles, or would it need to be elemental?

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The special projectiles of a non-elemental one are affected by grenade damage bonuses.

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^ What @DankRafft said.

And there’s no need to say you’re sorry. You’re not bothering me at all. If I know the answer to your questions, I’ll gladly answer them.

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When thrown, do the special projectiles receive the amp damage from the bee shield? Pleaaasseee tell me it does!

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That question is answered in the OP.

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Well excuse me for bothering you, but it was just a yes or no question, now since I’m new and or stupid, now I have to ask what OP means, the only OP I know of about this game is over power levels.

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Chill. OP means the beginning of the thread. Did you read it?

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