Vault Hunting 101: An Intro to Weapon Parts & Names
Note: This post is a port’n’merge of several posts from the old forum archives that were featured in the original “Lootology 101” post. This includes parts of:
- Skyline’s original post for the Part Spotters Guides in the BL2 Vault of Marvelous Gear (sites no longer available)
- Loot Turtle’s comprehensive List of Gun Prefixes
- Loot Turtle’s comprehensive List of Gun Titles
- Loot Turtle’s original tables of gun parts (hat-tip to @Poisd2Strike)
The huge variety of different weapons in BL2 comes from the combination of basic type (assault rifle, shield, etc.), manufacturer (Dahl, Hperion, Vladof, etc), and the various parts that can be exchanged or added to change properties and stats. Weapons can also have up to two accessories, which further modify the the weapon’s stats and behaviour. Knowing how to recognise the different parts from both the item title and its physical appearance can help when deciding between items, or farming for an optimal mission reward or boss drop.
The Sum of the Parts
The different manufacturers each have their own “gimmick” which differentiates their weapons from the others. Although there are some unique items in the game that break these rules, generally:
- Bandit: very high ammo capacity but slow reloads and low accuracy
- Dahl: burst-fire mode when aiming down sites (ADS)
- Hyperion: a reverse-recoil effect that improves accuracy with each shot
- Jakobs: high damage and fire rate, always non-elemental, low capacity
- Maliwan: always elemental with chance to add damage over time
- Tediore: thrown as a grenade whenever reloaded; ammo in clip increases grenade damage
- Torgue: shoots slow moving explosive projectiles
- Vladof: high fire rate but lower damage and accuracy
Weapons can spawn with individual parts from different manufacters, modifying the behaviour and performance of the item. The base name of most weapons is determined by the combination of manufacturer and barrel. Sometimes, however, the barrel type can only be determined from the firing behaviour or specific weapon stats (e.g. the Fibber).
All guns and rocket launchers also have a chance to spawn with or without and accessory. There are different accessories, each of which boosts a different weapon statistic (some alter more than one stat) and imparts a unique name prefix depending on the weapon type and manufacturer. The number and set of possible accessory effects also varies with weapon type. Here’s a summary, compiled from Loot Turtle’s original tables of gun parts:
Weapons can also spawn with an elemental effect, where each projectile has a chance to add damage from that element over time. The element (acid, fire, shock, or slag) will contribute a prefix to the item name if the item lacks an accessory i.e. the accessory takes precedance over the element in determing the items full name. Note that Torgue’s explosive does not count as an elemental property in this regard. The elemental type appears on the item stats card where present, so the fact that the accessory prefix negates the elemental one is inconsequential.
Of the remaining parts, generally only the grip can impart a name prefix, and only if the item lacks an accessory and is non-elemental or explosive. (Again, there are a few odd exceptions amongst unique, e-tech, and legendary items.)
The Parts of a Name
As mentioned above, item names are derived from their type, manufacturer, accessory, elements, and parts, according to a set of pre-defined rules built in to the game:
-
Prefix, prioritized in the order:
- Gemstone
- Introduced in Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep
- Only applies on weapons obtained from Butt Stallion
- Gemstone
- Accessory
- Element
- Grip
- Special, associated with specific character:
- “Thre”, “Flynt’s”, “Tiny Tina’s”, “Sir Hammerlock’s”, “Miss Moxxi’s”, etc
- only appears on unique items under specific circumstances
- Barrel (but only on certain generic shotguns, assault rifles & pistols)
- Impossible (these exist in the code but shouldn’t appear; a good indicator of a modded item)
-
Base name, determined by manufacturer and barrel
- Special barrels have unique names (e.g. Norfleet, Sawbar, Grog Nozzle, etc.)
- Maliwan SMGs have a unique base name for each element type
Note: Purples, E-techs, Legendaries (except the Infinity), Seraphs, and Pearlescents always spawn with an accessory attached.
List of Gun Prefixes
List of pistol accessory, element, grip, and barrel prefixes
- Note 1: Jakobs guns are non-elemental (apart from certain specific unique examples) and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 2: Torgue guns are always explosive and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 3: Maliwan guns are always elemental and so can not show a grip prefix
- Note 4: Vladof pistols cannot spawn with either a Bandit or Tediore grip
Barrels:
Specific barrel prefixes that may be found in-game are:
- Homering: Any Bandit pistol with homing E-tech barrel, any accessory, any element, any type of grip
- Rapid: The Infinity, no accessory, non-elemental, any type of grip
- Basic: The first pistol awarded to the player from the mission “My First Gun” will always have this prefix
List of assault rifle accessory, element, grip, and barrel prefixes
- Note 1: Jakobs guns are non-elemental (apart from certain specific unique examples) and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 2: Torgue guns are always explosive and so will not have an elemental prefix
Barrels:
Barrel prefixes apply to only a few generic assault rifles. These have higher priority in naming than the grip prefixes shown above.
List of SMG accessory, element, and grip prefixes
- Note 1: Maliwan guns are always elemental and so can not show a grip prefix
- Note 2: The Tattler will always spawn with a Bladed prefix
List of shotgun accessory, element, grip, and barrel prefixes
- Note 1: Jakobs guns are non-elemental (apart from certain specific unique examples) and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 2: Torgue guns are always explosive and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Footnote (1): The grip prefixes for Bandit, Hyperion & Torgue shotguns only apply to those that have the Tediore single barrel or Torgue quad barrel
Barrels:
The following table only applies to Bandit, Hyperion & Torgue shotguns that have either the Hyperion single barrel, Jakobs double barrel or Bandit triple barrel:
List of sniper rifle accessory, element, and grip prefixes
- Note 1: Jakobs guns are non-elemental (apart from certain specific unique examples) and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 2: Maliwan guns are always elemental and so can not show a grip prefix
List of rocket launcher accessory, element, and grip prefixes
- Note 1: Torgue launchers are always explosive and so will not have an elemental prefix
- Note 2: Maliwan launcers are always elemental and so can not show a grip prefix, with the exception of note 3
- Note 3: The Bandit Grip acts like the Blade accessory but it does not prevent the launcher from spawning with another accessory. Even though it is not shown on the display card, it does indeed provide +50% Melee Damage. Also, it has a higher priority than elemental prefixes, unlike other grip prefixes.
List of Parts Effects
So how do the parts relate to the performance of the weapons? In the following lists, green indicates an increase, while red indicates a reduction.
The general effects of each type of barrel
- Bandit: Gun Damage, Min Accuarcy, Weapon Spread
- Dahl: Max Accuracy, Accuracy Regen, Accuracy Impulse, Burst Impulse, Weapon Spread, Gun Damage
- Hyperion: Min Accuracy, Accuracy Impulse, Weapon Spread, Mag Size, Gun Damage
- Jakobs: Gun Damage, Min Accuracy, Weapon Spread, Accuracy Impulse, Fire Rate
- Maliwan: Max Accuracy, Weapon Spread
- Tediore: No effects
- Torgue: Gun Damage, Accuracy Impulse, Min Accuracy, Fire Rate, Reload Speed
- Vladof: Fire Rate, Mag Size, Accuracy Impulse, Weapon Spread
The general effects of specific assault rifle barrels
- Torgue (rocket/grenade): Gun Damage, Mag Size, Accuracy Impulse, Fire Rate, Reload Speed
- Vladof Minigun: Fire Rate, Mag Size, Accuracy Impulse, Weapon Spread
The general effects of specific SMG barrels
- Dahl: Max Accuracy, Accuracy Impulse, Burst Impulse, Weapon Spread, Gun Damage
- Maliwan: Max Accuracy, Weapon Spread; Elemental Effect Chance
- Tediore: Reload Speed, Accuracy Impulse, Gun Damage
The general effects of specific rocket launcher barrels
- Maliwan: Rocket Speed, Max Accuracy, Weapon Spread
- Torgue: Rocket Damage, Min Accuracy, Accuracy Impulse, Reload Speed, Rocket Speed
- Vladof: Fire Rate, Rocket Speed
Note: The exact magnitude of the stats modified by the barrel varies according to each weapon. Also, matching a gun with a barrel from the same manufacturer does not provide any bonuses (although Dahl weapons gain an extra pellet in burst fire.)
The general effects of each type of grip
- Bandit: Magazine Size, Reload Speed, Weapon Spread
- Dahl: Accuracy Regen, Accuracy Impulse, Max Accuracy, Gun Damage
- Hyperion: Accuracy Regen, Weapon Spread, Gun Damage
- Jakobs: Gun Damage, Accuracy Impulse, Reload Speed, Fire Rate
- Maliwan: Elemental Effect Chance
- Tediore: Reload Speed, Gun Damage, Magazine Size
- Torgue: Gun Damage, Accuracy Impulse, Weapon Spread, Reload Speed
- Vladof: Fire Rate, Accuracy Regen, Gun Damage
Note: The exact magnitude of the stats modified by the grip varies according to each weapon. Also, matching a gun with a grip from the same manufacturer will provide the gun with bonuses to magazine size and reload speed.
Visual Part Spotter’s Guides
Update Jan 2016: It looks like the domain for the original “BL2 Vault of Marvelous Gear” galleries has gone dead. However, the original graphics can still be found on the archived Gearbox forum pages using the links below.
- Barrel parts guide
- Grip parts guide
- Stock parts guide
- Shield parts guide
- Sight parts guide
- Rocket launcher exhausts
There is a set of full poster graphics combining all the information for each weapon category (by Zikel) here and an easier-to-navigate version here (link updated). You can also find a text description within @Blutfatal’s DDD Guide to Min/maxing, under the “M0. Nonvisual parts guide” sub-heading. For a quick visual tour of gun part prefixes and their effects, you can also see @xmngr’s guide here
To understand how the various parts affect weapon performance, Loot Turtle’s post on gun titles provides an excellent qualitative summary, while the Gear Calculator lets you calculate actual stats.
Max Stats and Top Gear Guides
Zoo’s original max stats guide had its links broken when the old forum archive was created. Here are the corrected links to the google docs spreadsheets:
- Assault rifle stats
- Pistol stats
- Rocket launcher stats
- Shotgun stats
- Sniper stats
- SMG stats
- Shield stats
- Grenade stats
- Class mod (COM) stats
- Relic stats
- Gear locations and loot pools
To see how all this works with each character’s skill tree, check the relevant Top Gear Guide for each character. Top gear for:
haha