Some of the other threads and guides from the old forums that I reference in this guide are lost deep in the wayback machine or do not exist anymore, so until someone finds or recreates them the dead links are colored read for convenience.
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This is a guide to introduce new players to the Borderlands weapon system. Mainly this guide focuses on the different aspects of a weapon that go into it’s creation and the different effects that the parts offer. I’m just covering the basics in this thread to help get people started, I’m not going to post any technical stats and I’m not going into all the elitist stuff about tech levels, HEEC vs. VHEEC, which gun is best in this or that situation, or exact DPS over a certain time figured by (Dmg x Rof x Clipsize x Reload speed) / Number of times your mom calls you to take out the trash = Total Hours of Life Wasted Playing This Game. Screw it, you people have Scottes for that stuff. I should also point out that I’m getting the info for some of this from the wiki and gearcalc to fill in the gaps in my own knowledge, so if you see anything that is off feel free to call me out on it.
Anyways, it’s the first time I’ve made a thread like this for any game so I’ll probably be editing the layout and rewording this a bunch of times to try and simplify it as best I can. Please be patient with me and feel free to ask questions if you need. Also, I’m not doing Eridians or Gearbox. I just don’t like Eridians, they don’t have enough variety in parts and the parts that do have variety all seem to give the same stats for some reason. With Gearbox guns, they are ridiculously rare and I just don’t know enough about them. You rarely see them anyways (usually come from quest rewards) so having just the base manufacturers should be enough for a starting point.
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TERMS
There are a few terms used in this guide and in these forums that you should know before reading.
RoF - Rate of Fire - The amount of bullets a weapon can fire per second. In the game this is called Fire Rate, but here in the forums it is usually referred to as rate of fire.
DPS - Damage Per Second - This is a term used to describe how much damage a weapon can do over a certain amount of time. It is determined by multiplying the damage by the rate of fire. (DmgxRoF=DPS)
Tech - Tech is a statistic used for elemental damage. Each weapon has this and it works similar to a magic bar in a fantasy game. The more tech you have the more elemental damage you can do, and the faster the tech regen rate the more quickly you can build it back up. Also, different weapon types have different tech levels so some types are better for elements than others. The Elements, Multipliers, and YOU thread gives more info on how elements work. Also, Scottes has a few threads on testing elemental effects here.
Proc - Elemental weapons always cause elemental damage when their bullets hit, but they also have a chance to cause larger splashes of the element when they hit the target. This is referred to as procing. When fire, shock or acid proc they coat the target in that element and it causes them to take continual damage over a certain time (this is referred to as Damage Over Time, or DOT). If more bullets proc then the damage stacks and the target takes damage more quickly. Explosive rounds do not cause DOT, instead when explosive rounds proc they simply cause even more impact damage. How often a weapon will proc is dependent on the amount of tech within the weapon. Weapons with higher amounts of tech will proc more often and cause more elemental damage when they do proc.
Legendary - Legendary weapons are special weapons made by each manufacturer. They all have a unique part that gives the weapon a special ability. Each manufacturer has a legendary weapon for each weapon type it manufactures.
Pearlescent - Pearlescent weapons are similar to Legendaries but they are far more rare. In addition to having a unique part each pearlescent weapon also has a unique material as well. Instead of having one for each weapon type like Legendaries, each manufacturer only has one Pearlescent in the whole game. Unfortunately they are not a part of the original Borderlands game and you must have The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC to find them.
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WEAPON CREATION
There are 12 different aspects for a weapon that the game must determine when a weapon is created. The aspects are the weapon type, manufacturer, weapon grade, material, body, barrel, magazine, accessory, sight, stock (or action for pistols), grip, and level.
The first three aspects that are determined are the weapon type, manufacturer, and weapon grade. The weapon type determines the basic type of weapon that you will have. There are 11 basic weapon types that we will discuss, though if you include the Eridians then there are a total of 16 different weapon types. The 11 basic types are-
-WeaponType_combat_rifle
-WeaponType_support_machinegun
-WeaponType_repeater_pistol
-WeaponType_machine_pistol
-WeaponType_revolver_pistol
-WeaponType_patrol_smg
-WeaponType_assault_shotgun
-WeaponType_combat_shotgun
-WeaponType_sniper_rifle (this is for bolt-action snipers)
-WeaponTyple_sniper_rifle_semiauto
-WeaponType_rocket_launcher
The weapon grade specifies which version of a weapon will spawn. Every weapon type has a basic weapon grade that is used for regular weapons and legendaries. Pearlescents, unique weapons, Gearbox weapons, and Eridians all have their own unique weapon grades. Each type also has a separate grade for mission rewards, though the reward grade doesn’t seem to offer anything different from the base grade so I don’t know why they bothered with it. There are 77 weapon grades in total, though the majority of them are for unique items.
The manufacturer is the company that builds the weapon within the game’s story. There are 9 basic manufacturers, though if you add Eridians and Gearbox then there are 11. Each manufacturer has different stat bonuses and features and they each only manufacture certain weapon types. The basic manufacturers are Atlas, Dahl, Hyperion, Jakobs, Maliwan, S&S Munitions, Tediore, Torgue, and Vladof. There are some other manufacturers that only make items, but since this is a weapon thread I won’t include them here.
The exact order that these are selected in is unknown. After a discussion between myself, Scottes, Maxxfury, and a few others we made an educated guess that either the weapon type or manufacturer would be first, with type being more likely, and the weapon grade mostly likely being third. We believed this because it would severely cut down on the amount of work the program has to do when creating the weapon. If weapon grade were first then the game would have to randomly select from 77 different options (depending on where the weapon is spawning from). If the type and manufacturer go first then the program would only have to go through the 16 types, select the manufacturer from those that make the selected weapon type, and select a grade that is from that weapon type and made by the selected manufacturer.
For example imagine you have just opened a lance chest (The Secret Armory of General Knoxx only). For the weapon spaces on the chest it must pick from the 16 weapon types. After selecting WeaponType_revolver_pistol it must select a manufacturer from the 5 that make revolvers- Atlas, Dahl, Jakobs, Maliwan, and Tediore. After selecting Atlas as the manufacturer it must pick between the weapon grades that fit both the revolver weapon type and are made by Atlas, in this case the normal RevolverPistol grade and the AtlasAries grade. The different spawn points in the game (chests, enemy drops, rewards, etc.) can have restrictions on what weapons can spawn from them, and for the lance chests only the basic and pearlescent weapon grades can spawn from them. So between the 16 types, the 5 manufacturers from that type, and the two grades available after that the game only had to go through 23 options to spawn a weapon instead of going through all of the weapon grades. (Or all those that can spawn in a lance chest anyway)
Once again I have to stress that this order is not 100% for certain. This is just more or less guesswork on the part of the community around here, albeit highly educated guesswork from individuals who are very experienced with this game. After those three have been established the game will construct the weapon by selecting the material, body, barrel, magazine, accessory, sight, stock (or action for pistols), and grip. Each part affects different stats of the weapon, and some weapons (Legendaries, Pearlescents, and Unique weapons) have unique parts that offer special effects not available to normal weapons.
After the weapon has been constructed it must be named. The name is determined based on different parts and stats of the weapon. The naming process is rather complex so I will save the details for the Weapon Naming section later on in this guide.
At some point in the creation process the weapon’s level must be determined. The level affects the weapon’s damage output as well and the level your character must be at to use said weapon, and once again it is unknown exactly where in the process this takes place. Personally I think the level would be decided at the very end of the process since it only alters the damage and no other aspect of the weapon. Technically, though, it could be decided at any point and would still work.
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WEAPON TYPES
There are 7 basic weapon types in Borderlands, and some of those have 2 seperate types so there are actually 11 types in total. The types are Combat Rifles, Machineguns, Repeaters, Machine Pistols, Revolvers, Submachine Guns, Assault Shotguns, Combat Shotguns, Bolt-Action Sniper Rifles, Semi-Auto Sniper Rifles, and Rocket Launchers. In this section I’ll just list what each type does and fill in the details in the following sections. The legendary and pearlescent weapons have unique effects that are different from what are listed below but I’ll set aside a section for that at a later time.
Assault Rifles
There are two types of Assault Rifles, Combat Rifles and Machineguns.
-Combat Rifles are burst-fire weapons, usually firing 3-round bursts. They tend to have high accuracy and bullet damage, good reload speed and recoil reduction, but smaller magazines (12-18 rounds usually).
-Machineguns are fully automatic weapons with large magazines, medium to medium-high damage and accuracy, average fire rates, and slow reload speeds.
Pistols
There are two types of Pistols, Repeaters and Machine Pistols
-Repeaters are your basic, single-fire pistol. They tend to have average stats all around with a little bit higher accuracy.
-Machine Pistols are fully automatic pistols. They have higher fire rates but lower accuracy.
Revolvers
Revolvers are powerful handguns, and pretty much my personal favorite weapon type. They have good damage and accuracy, but usually have poor fire rates, slow reload speeds, and small magazines.
Submachine Guns
SMGs are rapid fire weapons. They usually have low damage, very high fire rates, good reload speeds, and average to good recoil reduction. The accuracy can range anywhere from really good to really horrible. Probably is the most varied of the weapon types.
Shotguns
Shotguns (probably don’t need explaining on this but I feel like being thorough) have low accuracy and small magazines, but very high damage. Damage will have varying multipliers from x7 to x12 for most shotguns, though there is one Legendary called the Butcher which has x3. The accuracy on these can go anywhere from decent to non-existent. (Some Matadors and Shredders can have 0 accuracy) There are two types of Shotguns, Assault Shotguns and Combat Shotguns.
-Assault Shotguns have good fire rates as well as much greater accuracy than the Combat Shotguns. But they tend to have lower damage, smaller clips, and longer reload times as well.
-Combat Shotguns have very high damage and good fire rates, but very poor accuracy. Their reload speeds are dependent on the size of the magazine, the larger the mag the longer it takes.
Sniper Rifles
There are two types of Sniper Rifles, Bolt-Action and Semi-Auto.
-Bolt-action snipers have extremely high damage and accuracy, but have very low fire rates and clip sizes.
-Semi-auto snipers have less damage and accuracy than bolt-action, but have much higher fire rates as well as slightly larger magazines.
Rocket Launchers
Rocket launchers fire, well, rockets. You all know what those are so I don’t feel the need to explain that further. They have extremely high impact damage as well as varying splash damage, low fire rates and smaller magazines. Though they are not actually considered separate types there are 4 different versions of rocket launchers that operate very differently.
-Single-fire launchers fire a single, very accurate, rocket and have greater damage and a larger splash radius.
-Triple launchers fire a burst of 3 rockets in a nearly straight line.
-Spread launchers are like the burst rockets but they fire in a horizontal line. They can have 5 or 6 round clips, but even with 6 rounds they still only fire the first 5 as part of the burst.
-Helix launchers split a single rocket into 3 smaller rockets in a tight spiral pattern. Because of this helix rockets tend to have a smaller blast radius then other launchers.
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MANUFACTURERS
This is what company in the game made the particular gun you are holding. Each manufacturer has different general strengths and weaknesses, and they each only manufacture certain weapon types. The manufacturer is displayed in the upper right part of a guncard below the picture of a claptrap. This Wrath, for example, is made by S&S Munitions.
Atlas
-weapons have above average damage and magazine capacity. They are some of the best weapons in the game.
-manufactures Machineguns, Repeaters, Revolvers, Combat Shotguns, and Bolt-Action Snipers.
Dahl
-weapons have very high recoil reduction, but slightly less accuracy.
-manufactures Combat Rifles, Repeaters, Revolvers, Submachine Guns, Combat Shotguns, and Semi-Auto Snipers.
Hyperion
-weapons have high recoil reduction and accuracy.
-manufactures Combat Rifles, Repeaters, Machine Pistols, Submachine Guns, Assault Shotguns, Semi-Auto Snipers, and Rocket Launchers.
Jakobs
-weapons have extremely high damage, but lower fire rate and recoil reduction. They never make elemental weapons.
-manufactures Revolvers, Combat Shotguns, and Bolt-Action Snipers.
Maliwan
-weapons have slightly increased accuracy and quick reload speeds, as well as increased tech regen rates. They only make elemental weapons.
-manufactures Repeaters, Revolvers, Submachine Guns, Assault Shotguns, Bolt-Action Snipers, and Rocket Launchers.
S&S Munitions
-weapons have very large magazines
-manufactures Repeaters, Machine Pistols, Assault Shotguns, and Semi-Auto Snipers.
Tediore
-weapons have extremely fast reload speeds, but slightly less damage and accuracy.
-manufactures Combat Rifles, Repeaters, Revolvers, Submachine Guns, and Combat Shotguns.
Torgue
-weapons have high damage and fire rate, but less accuracy and recoil reduction.
-manufactures Machineguns, Repeaters, Submachine Guns, Combat Shotguns, Semi-Auto Snipers, and Rocket Launchers.
Vladof
-weapons have very high fire rate and good recoil reduction, but have much lower accuracy.
-manufactures Machineguns, Repeaters, Machine Pistols, Assault Shotguns, Bolt-Action Snipers, and Rocket Launchers.
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LEVEL
The level of a weapon restricts the amount of damage a weapon can do. The higher the level of a weapon, the more damage it can put out. The level only affects damage, however. Accuracy, fire rate, recoil, and other stats are not affected at all. In addition, your character must be at the same level as the weapon before you can use it. This prevents someone from getting, say, a lvl61 Double Savior at level 5 and running around ****** everything without having to pick up ammo.
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RARITY
A weapon’s rarity is simply a way to show the overall value of the parts that a weapon is made of. Though the rarity does not have any effect on the stats it does reflect the overall quality of the gun so you will want to look for higher rarity weapons as they almost always have the best performance. There are 8 rarity levels and are represented by the color of the wepaon’s name with White being the lowest and Cyan being the highest.
White
Green
Blue
Purple
Yellow
Orange
Dark Orange
Cyan (The Secret Armory of General Knoxx only)
White, Green, Blue, and Purple are for regular, non-legendary weapons. For non-Legendary weapons Purple is the highest rarity that you can have.
Yellow, Orange, and Dark Orange are for legendary weapons. Any time you find a legendary weapon (Penetrators and Dracos aside since they are glitched) they will have one of these rarities, with Yellow being the lowest and Dark Orange being the best.
Cyan is a rarity reserved specifically for Pearlescent weapons. All Pearlescent weapons will have the Cyan rarity, and you cannot have Cyan on any non-Pearlescent weapon. Also note that you must have The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC to find Pearlescent weapons, they do not exist in the original game.
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WEAPON PARTS
Each gun has a Material, Body, Barrel, Magazine (or clip), Accessory, Grip, Sight (or scope), and Stock. The only exceptions to this are the Repeaters and Machine Pistols, as they don’t have a stock but have an Action instead. Keep in mind that a weapon can only have one of each part (kind of obvious, but still worth pointing out). The Part Spotters Guide shows what each of the parts looks like and can help you spot which parts your gun has.
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Materials
A weapon’s material is the metal that the gun is made of, though in practice it looks more like a paintjob than anything. Each manufacturer has 3 material levels that give different stat bonuses. For roughly 7 times out of 10 you are going to want material 3. There are certain times when having a certain prefix can give you better stats but the mat3 prefix overrides it, so having a lower material would be better in those cases. I cover this in the Weapon Naming section later on. For right now I’m just going list the materials that give the best stat bonuses. If you want to know the exact stats of each material the Shared Material Parts chart from the Borderlands Modding Resource lists the effects of every material in the game.
For Atlas, Maliwan, S&S, Tediore, Torgue, and Vladof the best material is mat3. The other manufacturers have 2 or 3 materials worth using.
Dahl - Desert (mat3) gives the best stat boost (mainly damage and recoil reduction), but there are a lot of people who like Urban (mat2) for the way it looks, and the stat differences are not too great to make it unusable.
Hyperion - Hyperion has two materials worth using. The Red (mat2) material gives a sizable boost to fire rate, and the Crimson (mat3) gives a damage boost and slightly quicker reload speed.
Jakobs - This is the only manufacturer where all 3 materials are considered worth using. Mat1 gives balanced stats between the other two, mat2 gives the highest accuracy bonus, and mat3 gives the best damage bonus.
Most manufacturers will put an indicator after the numbers in the gun’s name to show you what material the weapon is. For example, this Wrath has a .3 after the numbers so that tells you it is S&S material 3.
However each manufacturer does this differently so you just have to remember which indicator is which.
Atlas doesn’t really give any indicators, you just have to be able to tell which shade of white is which and it is a real pain telling between mat1 and mat2. Though the Pearl (mat3) prefix does usually override other prefixes so Pearl guns almost always have the Pearl prefix. (Not to be confused with pearlescent rarity, that’s something else entirely) Check out the Atlas Material Chart for help in telling which material is which.
Dahl will have a letter after the numbers for mat2 and mat3. Urban (mat2) will have a U after the numbers and Desert (mat3) will have a D.
Hyperion gives a .W for Red material (mat2) and a .G for Crimson material (mat3).
Jakobs gives a ZZ for mat2 and XX for mat3.
Maliwan gives a B for Blue material (mat2) and a C for Cobalt material (mat3).
S&S gives a .2 for mat2 and .3 for mat3.
Tediore gives an -A for mat2 and a -B for mat3.
Torgue is like Atlas in that it doesn’t give an indicator and the Steel (mat3) prefix overrides almost all other prefixes. Again, check out the Torgue Material Chart for help telling which is which.
Vladof gives a /V2 for mat2 and a /V3 for mat3.
Again all of these will come after the numbers in the gun’s title. If your gun doesn’t have any of these (and isn’t an Atlas or Torgue) then you have a mat1 gun.
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BODY
Each weapon type can spawn with five different bodies, except rockets which only have three, and again each gives different levels of stat bonuses. For most types body 5 will give you the best possible stats for a weapon, the exceptions to this are snipers and pistols and I will explain those in a moment. You can tell what body your gun has by looking at the letters at the beginning of a gun’s name. For example, this Wrath has PPZ at the beginning which tells us it is body 5.
The letters that go with each body are different for each weapon type so I will list them all here along with the bonuses. In addition to the regular bodies, Tediore’s legendary weapons all have their own unique bodies and therefore they have unique letters that cannot be found on any other weapon.
Assault Rifles
-Body1 - CR - (Combat Rifles only) slightly decreases damage.
-Body2 - HVY - (Machineguns only) slightly increases damage, slightly decreases fire rate, and adds recoil.
-Body3 - TCH - increases fire rate, decreases damage, reduces recoil, and adds tech.
-Body4 - HLK - increases damage, decreases fire rate, and adds alot of recoil.
-Body5 - AR - (Preferred) increases damage, greatly increases fire rate, and reduces recoil.
-Tediore Guardian - GRD - (Combat Rifles only) increases damage, reduces fire rate, adds alot of recoil, adds alot of tech, and adds ammo regen.
Revolvers
-Body1 - RV - slightly reduces damage.
-Body2 - DL - slightly increases damage, slightly reduces fire rate, and adds recoil.
-Body3 - MAL - slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds alot of tech.
-Body4 - KLR - increases damage, reduces fire rate, adds alot of recoil, and adds a little tech.
-Body5 - AX - (Preferred) increases damage, greatly increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds a little tech.
-Tediore Equalizer - EQ - increases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, adds a huge amount of tech, and adds ammo regen.
Submachine Guns
-Body1 - TD - slightly decreases damage.
-Body2 - KKA - slightly increases damage, sightly decreases fire rate, and adds recoil.
-Body3 - TEK - slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds alot of tech.
-Body4 - RF - increases damage, reduces fire rate, adds alot of recoil, and adds a litte tech.
-Body5 - HX - (Preferred) increases damage, greatly increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds a little tech.
-Tediore Savior - SV - increases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, adds a huge amount of tech, and adds ammo regen.
Shotguns
-Body1 - SG - slightly decreases damage.
-Body2 - SPR - slightly increases damage, slightly reduces fire rate, and adds recoil.
-Body3 - ZX - slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds alot of tech.
-Body4 - BA - increases damage, reduces fire rate, and adds alot of recoil.
-Body5 - ZPR - (Preferred) increases damage, greatly increases fire rate, and reduces recoil.
-Tediore Defender - DEF - (Combat Shotguns only) increases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, adds alot of tech, and adds ammo regen.
Rocket Launchers
There are actually only three bodies for launchers. Bodies 2 and 4 were meant to be for Grenade Launchers but those weapons were cut in the final version of the game.
-Body1 - RPG - slightly decreases damage.
-Body3 - SPC - slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds alot of tech.
-Body5 - RWL - (Preferred) increases damage, greatly increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds a little tech.
Sniper Rifles
Snipers are a bit different. They still have five bodies but 3 are for Bolt-Action only and the other two are for Semi-Auto only.
Bolt-Action
-Body1 - GGN - slightly decreases damage.
-Body3 - VRR - (Preferred RoF and Tech) slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds alot of tech.
-Body4 - DVL - (Preferred Dmg) increases damage, reduces fire rate, adds alot of recoil, and adds a litte tech.
Semi-Auto
-Body2 - LB - slightly increases damage, slightly decreases fire rate, adds recoil, and adds a litte tech.
-Body5 - PPZ - (Preferred) increases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds a litte tech.
Repeaters/Machine Pistols
Like snipers, Pistols have five bodies but bodies 1, 2, 3 and 4 are for Repeaters and body 5 is for Machine Pistols. So if you have a machine pistol it will always be body 5.
There are 2 preferred bodies for Repeaters. Body 3 (TK) give a higher fire rate while body 4 (HRD) gives a higher damage boost. Which one is best is a preference choice but in most cases TK is preferred since a higher rate of fire usually results in better DPS. Again though, it is up to preference.
Repeaters
-Body1 - BLR - slightly decreases damage.
-Body2 - RF - slightly increases damage, slightly reduces fire rate, and adds recoil.
-Body3 - TK - (Preferred Rof) slightly decreases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, and adds tech.
-Body4 - HRD - (Preferred Dmg) increases damage, reduces fire rate, and adds alot of recoil.
-Tediore Protector - PRO - increases damage, increases fire rate, reduces recoil, adds alot of tech, and adds ammo regen.
Machine Pistols
-Body5 - TMP - offers no stat bonuses.
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BARREL
Barrels have the most influence on the damage and accuracy of your gun. With the exception of rockets, the rocket barrels work completely different than the other guns, each weapon type has 5 different barrels, though for every type you will almost always want barrel4 or barrel5. These two give the best overall stats with barel4 giving a higher damage bonus and barrel5 giving a higher accuracy bonus. For example, this Wrath has barrel 5 which gives it high accuracy.
Assault Rifles
-Barrel1 has the lowest damage and low accuracy. (Combat Rifles only)
-Barrel1_starter has the lowest damage and has a slight accuracy increase. (Combat Rifles only)
-Barrel2 has high damage and the lowest accuracy. (Machineguns only)
-Barrel3 has average damage, high accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage and average accuracy.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the highest accuracy.
Pistols
-Barrel0 has the lowest damage and very low accuracy. (Pistols are the only weapon type with a barrel0)
-Barrel1 has low damage and low accuracy.
-Barrel2 has high damage and the lowest accuracy.
-Barrel3 has average damage, high accuracy and a tech boost.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage, average accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the highest accuracy.
Revolvers
-Barrel1 has the lowest damage and low accuracy.
-Barrel2 has high damage and the lowest accuracy.
-Barrel3 has average damage, high accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage, average accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the highest accuracy.
Submachine Guns
-Barrel1 has the lowest damage and low accuracy.
-Barrel2 has high damage and the lowest accuracy.
-Barrel3 has average damage, high accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage and average accuracy.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the best accuracy.
Shotguns
-Barrel1 has the lowest damage and low accuracy.
-Barrel2 has high damage and the lowest accuracy.
-Barrel3 has average damage, high accuracy and a tech boost.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage, average accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the highest accuracy.
Snipers
-Barrel1 has the lowest damage and low accuracy.
-Barrel2 has high damage, the lowest accuracy and a slight tech boost.
-Barrel3 has average damage and high accuracy.
-Barrel4 has the highest damage, average accuracy and a tech boost.
-Barrel5 has high damage and the highest accuracy.
Rocket Launchers
Rockets are in their own league when it comes to barrels. They are the only weapon type where the barrel actually determines what kind of rocket launcher the gun is. There are three basic rocket launcher barrels (the other two were for Grenade Launchers but they were cut from the game) but barrel 1 has four different variants so there are actually 6 distinct types.
-Barrel1_3shot makes the launcher fire a single rocket with a 3-round clip.
-Barrel1_helix makes the launcher fire helix rockets, which are three small rockets traveling in a spiral pattern.
-Barrel1_spread makes the launcher burst fire five rockets in a horizontal pattern.
-Barrel1_triple makes the launcher burst fire three rockets in a normal, straight forward pattern.
-Barrel2_2shot makes the launcher fire a single rocket with a 2-round clip.
-Barrel4_1shot makes the launcher fire a single, very powerful rocket with only a 1-round clip.
(I got the barrel names off of the gearcalc so that’s why they are written like that)
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Unfortunately, there is no way to tell what barrel you have except by looking at the gun and identifying it visually. The Part Spotters Guide should help out as a reference as to which barrel is which. The basic stats for barrels tend to be the same across all weapon types (rockets aside) so if you rank the power and accuracy of all the barrels from best to worst it looks like this-
Power
-Barrel4
-Barrel2 and Barrel5 (usually just about the same, might be a few points off)
-Barrel3
-Barrel1
Accuracy
-Barrel5
-Barrel3
-Barrel4
-Barrel1
-Barrel2
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Some gun types do have non-legendary special barrels which offer different effects. They are actually modified versions of normal barrels so they have almost the same stats with the extra ability tagged on.
Submachine Guns
-Barrel3_Twisted. This barrel causes the gun to fire bullets in a spiral pattern that can ricochet off surfaces. In addition the barrel also gives a large tech bonus. On elemental SMGs the spiral pattern is canceled out so even with the Twisted barrel elementals will fire normally.
Combat Shotguns
-Barrel2_Shredder. This barrel give a slight damage boost and increase the pellet count to x11. They also lower the accuracy of the shotgun a ton, some guns actually have 0 accuracy with the Shredder barrel.
-Barrel3_Carnage. This barrel turn the buckshot into rockets, so the shotgun actually becomes a miniature rocket launcher. Since shotguns usually have low accuracy the rockets from these tend to go all over.
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MAGAZINE
Obviously the magazine determines the amount of ammo your gun can fire before you have to reload. In addition, some magazines can alter the damage, fire rate, reload speed and tech. There are also some magazines, like the CR Pounder mag, which can change the way the weapon performs. Which magazine is best is usually a matter of opinion. For example, this Wrath has the Semi-Auto Sniper mag5.
Combat Rifle
-Mag1 offers no stat bonuses.
-Mag1a_pounder changes the rifle into a single shot weapon with high damage, low fire rate, and reduced clip.
-Mag3 increases the clip size while slowing reload speed.
Machinegun
-Mag2 slightly faster reload speeds.
-Mag4 gives a slight damage boost, increases the clip size and has a slower reload speed.
-Mag5 gives a larger damage boost, has the largest clip and the slowest reload speed.
Repeaters
-Mag1 slightly faster reload speed.
-Mag2 increases the clip size.
-Mag2a gives the largest clip and fastest reload speed.
Machine Pistols
-Mag2 offers no stat bonuses.
-Mag3 increases clip size.
Revolvers
-Mag1 reduces damage and has a faster reload speed. (6 shot)
-Mag2 offers no stat bonuses. (6 shot)
-Mag3 reduces the clip size and increases tech. (3 shot)
-Mag4 increases the fire rate. (6 shot)
-Mag5 has a reduced clip size, greatly increased damage, faster reload speed, and increased tech. (2 shot)
Submachine Guns
-Mag1_thumper reduces the clip size, greatly reduces the fire rate, greatly increases damage and has a faster reload speed. This is very similar to the AR’s pounder magazine.
-Mag2 slightly faster reload speed.
-Mag3 increased clip size, the fastest reload speed and increased tech.
-Mag4 has the largest clip size and slowest reload speed.
-Mag5 has a large clip size, a slow reload speed and a slight tech increase.
Assault Shotguns
-Mag3 offers no stat bonuses.
-Mag3a increases the clip size.
Combat Shotguns
-Mag1 reduced damage and faster reload speed.
-Mag2 has the largest clip size and the slowest reload speed.
-Mag4 gives no stat bonuses.
-Mag5 reduced clip size, greatly increased damage and a fast reload speed.
Bolt-Action Snipers
-Mag1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Mag3 reduces the clip size, increases damage, increases tech and has a fast reload speed.
-Mag4 has an increased fire rate and the fastest reload speed.
Semi-Auto Snipers
-Mag2 gives no stat bonuses.
-Mag5 increase clip size, increased fire rate and a faster reload speed.
Rocket Launchers
The size of a launchers clip is usually limited by the barrel type, only a few types let the clip size change.
-Mag1 slightly faster reload speed.
-Mag2 gives no stat bonuses.
-Mag3 faster reload speed.
-Mag4 increased damage and slower reload speed.
-Mag5 increased clip size (when possible) and the fastest reload speed.
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ACCESSORIES
Accessories alter the performance of the weapon in various ways. They can change the stats of the gun, or more commonly they add elemental effects to your weapon (Strangely there are some non-elemental accessories that can add tech, but since you can only have one accessory this makes the tech boost rather useless). There are 4 types of elements- fire, acid, shock, and explosive. If a weapon does have an element then the element is displayed on the right side of the guncard. For example, this Wrath has the Shock elemental accessory.
Combat Rifles
-Acc2_Intense increases accuracy, gives a +50% critical hit bonus and increases tech.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Deathly reduces recoil and increases damage.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
Machineguns
-Acc1_Frantic increased fire rate and faster reload speed.
-Acc1_Shattering increases damage and has the fastest reload speed.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Deathly reduces recoil and increases damage.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
Repeaters
-Acc1_Fanged gives a +100% melee damage bonus.
-Acc1_Lacerator gives a +200% melee damage bonus.
-Acc2_Stabilizer greatly reduces recoil.
-Acc3_LaserSight reduces accuracy loss while firing so your shots do not spread out as much.
-Acc4_DoubleShot causes the gun to fire 2 rounds at once.
-Acc5_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
-Acc5_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
Machine Pistols
-Acc1_Fanged gives a 100% melee damage bonus.
-Acc2_Cold increases damage, greatly reduces recoil, increases knockback, greatly reduces bullet velocity and adds tech.
-Acc2_Rage adds a large amount of tech and causes the weapon to fire in 5 round bursts.*
*The Rage burst effect doesn’t actually come from the accessory. Any normal MP with that accessory will have the Rage title in it’s name and the burst effect actually comes from having that title. Any legendary or pearlescent MP with the Rage accessory will not have the burst effect.
-Acc2_Stabilizer greatly reduces recoil.
-Acc3_LaserSight reduces accuracy loss when firing.
-Acc4_DoubleShot causes the gun to fire 2 rounds at once.
-Acc5_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
-Acc5_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
Revolvers
-Acc1_Bladed gives a 100% melee damage bonus.
-Acc1_Razor gives a 200% melee damage bonus.
-Acc2_Masher causes the gun to fire multiple pellets like a shotgun.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Stabilized reduces recoil.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
Submachine Guns
-Acc1_Relentless slightly increased the fire rate.
-Acc2_Ruthless reduced recoil and faster reload speed.
-Acc2_Vector increased fire rate, faster reload speed and greatly reduced recoil.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Double increases the magazine and causes the gun to fire 2 rounds at once.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
Assault Shotguns
-Acc1_Spiked gives a +100% melee damage bonus.
-Acc2_Raging increased the fire rate and faster reload speed.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Painful increased damage and increased knockback.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
*Assault Shotguns cannot have an incendiary accessory.
Combat Shotguns
-Acc1_Jagged gives a +150% melee damage bonus
-Acc2_Frenzied increases the fire rate.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Terrible increases damage and increases knockback.
-Acc5_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
Bolt-Action Snipers
-Acc1_Rolling gives very fast reload speed.
-Acc2_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc2_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Heavy increases damage, increases recoil and adds tech.
-Acc5_Long gives a slight accuracy bonus and gives tech.
Semi-Auto Snipers
-Acc1_Brisk increases the fire rate and gives faster reload speed.
-Acc2_Explosive adds explosion elemental damage.
-Acc2_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Deep increases damage.
-Acc5_Sober increases accuracy and gives tech.
Rocket Launchers
-Acc1_Recoiless increases accuracy and greatly reduces recoil.
-Acc2_Evil increases the fire rate, increases the projectile speed and adds tech.
-Acc3_Corrosive adds acidic elemental damage.
-Acc3_Shock adds electric elemental damage.
-Acc4_Devestating increases damage and adds tech.
-Acc5_Incendiary adds fire elemental damage.
*Rockets cannot have an explosive accessory since they are explosive by default.
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SIGHT
A weapon’s sight (or scope) determines the amount of zoom when looking down the barrel. Most weapon types can spawn without a sight, meaning the weapon will have just the base iron sights. However Combat Rifles, Snipers, and Rocket Launchers cannot, they will always have a sight. Also, some of the zooms (like pistol sight 3) have iron sights instead of a scope but still give the listed zoom.
The zooms listed with each sight can actually be a bit misleading. Each gun type has a “default” zoom that it always has even without a sight. The zoom multiplier listed with the sight actually multiplies the “default” zoom rather than the regular view when hip firing. The easiest example of this is with snipers. The sights on snipers actually give much lower multipliers then the sights of other weapons even though they are the weapon type with the longest range. However, the lowest sniper zoom lists its multiplier as 1.0x, meaning that the zoom stays the same and is not increased at all by that scope. But, when you look through a 1.0x scope, it does still zoom in on what you are pointing at. The reason for this is that snipers have a much longer “default” zoom than any other type of weapon, and the listed multipliers for the other scopes actually multiply what you saw in the 1.0x sight. The Scope Project thread discusses this in greater detail.
The sight is generally a matter of preference as some people like to have the maximum zoom on their weapon while others prefer smaller sights for closer range fighting. For example, this Wrath has sight5 which gives the weapon a 2.7x zoom and is the largest sight for Snipers.
Combat Rifles
Cannot spawn without a sight.
-Sight1 - 1.4x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.0x zoom
-Sight3 - 2.4x zoom and adds tech
-Sight4 - 3.2x zoom
-Sight5 - 3.6x zoom
Machineguns
Machineguns have only 2 possible sights.
-Sight1 - 2.1x zoom
-Sight2 - 1.4x zoom
Repeaters/Machine Pistols
-Sight1 - 1.8x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.6x zoom
-Sight3 - 3.1x zoom
-Sight4 - 4.1x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.6x zoom and adds tech
Revolvers
-Sight1 - 1.6x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.3x zoom
-Sight3 - 2.8x zoom
-Sight4 - 3.7x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.2x zoom
Submachine Guns
-Sight1 - 1.7x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.4x zoom
-Sight3 - 2.9x zoom
-Sight4 - 3.9x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.3x zoom
Assault Shotguns
-Sight1 - 1.7x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.5x zoom
-Sight3 - 3.0x zoom
-Sight4 - 4.0x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.5x zoom
Combat Shotguns
-Sight1 - 1.5x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.2x zoom
-Sight3 - 2.7x zoom
-Sight4 - 3.6x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.0x zoom
Snipers
Cannot spawn without a sight.
-Sight1 - 1.0x zoom
-Sight2 - 1.5x zoom
-Sight3 - 1.8x zoom and adds tech
-Sight4 - 2.4x zoom
-Sight5 - 2.7x zoom
Rocket Launchers
Cannot spawn without a sight.
-Sight1 - 1.9x zoom
-Sight2 - 2.7x zoom
-Sight3 - 3.2x zoom and adds tech
-Sight4 - 4.3x zoom
-Sight5 - 4.9x zoom
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STOCK
A weapon’s stock can affect the recoil and sometimes the reload speed of the gun. The better stocks usually offer the best recoil reduction but can sometimes slow the reload speed as well. Due to this, the stock is another part where the “best” is a matter of preference. For example, this Wrath has stock4 which gives good recoil reduction but has a slower reload speed.
Like with the sight, some weapons can spawn without a stock while others cannot. Also, pistols are unique in that they are the only weapon type that cannot have a stock.
Assault Rifles
Combat Rifles can spawn without a stock but Machineguns cannot.
-Stock_none increased recoil and faster reload speed. (Combat Rifles only)
-Stock1 gives no stat bonuses. (Combat Rifles only)
-Stock2 reduced recoil and slows reload speed. (Machineguns only)
-Stock3 reduced recoil.
-Stock4 gives greater recoil reduction and slightly slower reload speed.
-Stock5 gives the largest recoil reduction.
Pistols
Repeaters and Machine Pistols do not have stocks.
Revolvers
-Stock_none increased recoil and faster reload speed.
-Stock1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Stock2 gives the largest recoil reduction and slowest reload speed.
-Stock3 reduced recoil.
Submachine Guns
-Stock_none increased recoil and faster reload speed.
-Stock1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Stock2 reduced recoil and slower reload speed.
-Stock3 reduced recoil and adds tech.
-Stock4 greatly reduced recoil and slightly slower reload speed.
-Stock5 gives the largest recoil reduction and adds tech.
Shotguns
-Stock_none increased recoil and faster reload speed.
-Stock1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Stock2 gives the largest recoil reduction and slowest reload speed.
-Stock3 reduced recoil.
Snipers
Snipers cannot spawn without a stock.
-Stock1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Stock2 reduced recoil and slower reload speed.
-Stock3 reduced recoil and adds tech.
-Stock4 greatly reduced recoil and slightly slower reload speed.
-Stock5 gives the largest recoil reduction.
Rocket Launchers
Rocket Launchers cannot spawn without a stock.
-Stock2 reduced recoil and slower reload speed.
-Stock3 reduced recoil.
-Stock4 greatly reduced recoil and slightly slower reload speed.
-Stock5 gives the largest recoil reduction.
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ACTION
Actions are a part unique to Repeaters and Machine Pistols. They can affect the pistol’s fire rate, recoil, or damage. If you need help telling what Action your gun has check the The Part Spotters Guide.
-Action1 gives no stat bonuses.
-Action2 gives a slight boost to the fire rate and increases recoil.
-Action3 increases the fire rate, reduces recoil and adds tech.
-Action4 reduces the fire rate, greatly increases recoil and greatly increases damage.
-Action5 (preferred) greatly increases the fire rate and increases damage.
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GRIP
The grip of the weapon is predetermined by what manufacturer your gun is made by. Each manufacturer has one grip for each weapon type so there really is no variation in this part. For example, all Maliwan Submachine Guns will have the same grip, all Jakobs Revolvers will have the same grip, and all Atlas Shotguns will have the same grip. Since they are always the same there is no real need to list them.
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LEGENDARY and PEARLESCENT UNIQUE PARTS
The Legendary and Pearlescent weapons all have a unique part that gives the weapon their special abilities. In addition, Pearlescents all have a unique material as well so they technically have two unique parts. These parts are always the same and cannot change. The Definitive Ultimate Red Text Bonus List Spoilers thread gives more info on the unique abilities of each weapon.
Some of the abilities of these weapons are glitched and do not function properly, see the Weapon Glitches section below for more on these glitches.
Combat Rifles
Dahl Raven - magazine - Fires 5 round bursts instead of 3.
Tediore Guardian - body - Ammo regeneration.
Hyperion Destroyer - barrel - Fully automatic when zoomed.
Tediore Avenger - sight - High zoom, +50% critical hit damage, single fire and slow ammo regeneration. Basically a Pounder on steroids.
Machineguns
S&S Draco - accessory - Extra incendiary damage and extended magazine. Name is glitched.
Atlas Ogre - accessory - Extra explosive damage and proc chance.
Torgue Bastard - barrel - Very high damage.
Vladof Revolution - magazine - Large magazine, faster reload, reduced fire rate and extra recoil reduction.
S&S Serpens - accessory - High corrosive damage and a huge tech pool. Higher procs can cause bullets to travel in a wave pattern and ricochet of walls.
Repeaters
Atlas Troll - accessory - Very slow health regeneration.
Dahl Hornet - accessory - High corrosive damage and fires in 2 round bursts.
Hyperion Invader - sight - Fires the entire magazine at once when zoomed with a greatly increased fire rate.
Maliwan Firehawk - accessory - Extremely high fire damage and proc chance.
S&S Gemini - accessory - Fires 2 round bursts and fires 2 bullets for each shot, so each burst fires 4 bullets.
Tediore Protector - body - Ammo regeneration.
Torgue Violator - barrel - Fires 3 round bursts and fires 3 bullets for each shot, so each burst fires 9 bullets.
Vladof Rebel - magazine - Large magazine, increased fire rate, and higher damage.
Hyperion Nemesis - accessory - High chance to proc shock damage, but bullets also have a chance to split into multiple corrosive bullets after striking the target. *The Nemesis can also sometimes spawn with the Invader scope which gives it the properties of both weapons.
Machine Pistols
Hyperion Reaper - accessory - Causing melee damage will absorb health from the target, supposed to have +300% melee damage but is glitched.
S&S Thanatos - magazine - Very large magazine.
Vladof Vengence - barrel - Chance to ignore shields, this ability is glitched.
Vladof Stalker - barrel - Fires wave pattern bullets that ricochet multiple times, cannot be elemental.
Revolvers
Atlas Chimera - accessory - Shots that proc have random chance of being explosive, fire, shock or acid. Shots that do not proc cause base explosive damage.
Dahl Anaconda - barrel - Balanced power and accuracy, a mix of barrel4 and barrel5.
Jakobs Unforgiven - barrel - 200% critical hit damage.
Maliwan Defiler - accessory - Very high corrosive damage, will always proc, procs have large splash so nearby targets may take corrosive damage as well.
Tediore Equalizer - body - Ammo regeneration.
Atlas Aries - accessory - Shock damage, shots have random chance of absorbing health from target similar to transfusion grenades.
Submachine Guns
Dahl Wildcat - magazine - Large magazine, low accuracy, reduced reload speed and large amount of tech.
Hyperion Bitch - barrel - High amount of tech, makes elemental versions more powerful. +50% critical hit bonus is gliched.
Maliwan Hellfire - accessory - High incendiary damage, always procs, larger procs can cause nearby enemies to catch fire also.
Tediore Savior - body - Ammo regeneration.
Torgue Gasher - barrel - Fires 3 round bursts.
Maliwan Tsunami - accessory - Fires wave pattern bullets that ricochet off walls, has random chance to proc either shock or corrosive element.
Assault Shotguns
Hyperion Butcher - barrel - Fires 5 round bursts, only fires 3 pellets per shot.
S&S Crux - accessory - Pellets fire in cross shaped pattern, always explosive.
Vladof Hammer - accessory - Pellets fire in hammer shaped pattern, always explosive.
Maliwan Plague (Crux) - accessory - High corrosive damage and proc chance. Name is glitched.
Combat Shotguns
Atlas Hydra - accessory - Pellets are fired in 5 groups along a horizontal line.
Torgue Friendly Fire - accessory - Pellets fire in a smiley face shaped pattern, always incendiary.
Dahl Bulldog - magazine - 20 round magazine, increased reload speed, increased fire rate, and extra tech.
Tediore Defender - body - Ammo regeneration.
Jakobs Striker - barrel - High accuracy, low fire rate, +30% critical hit damage.
Dahl Jackal - barrel - Fires grenades in an arc pattern.
Bolt-Action Snipers
Atlas Cyclops - sight - 5.2x zoom, increased bullet velocity.
Vladof Surkov - barrel - Very fast reload.
Maliwan Volcano - accessory - Very high incendiary damage, will always proc, procs have large splash so nearby targets may take incendiary damage as well.
Jakobs Skullmasher - barrel - Fires a 6 pellet shotgun style spread.
Jakobs Bessie - sight - +500% critical hit damage, 100% accurate when zoomed, increased bullet velocity.
Semi-Auto Snipers
S&S Orion - accessory - Large magazine, high shock damage, shots can ricoccet of walls and split into 3 or 4 weaker projectiles.
Dahl Penetrator - barrel - High fire rate, fully automatic. Rarity color is glitched.
Torgue Cobra - accessory - High explosive damage, always procs, large splash damage from proc.
Hyperion Executioner (Invader) - magazine - Fires 5 round bursts when zoomed. Name is glitched.
Rocket Launchers
Vladof Mongol - barrel - Fires a single rocket that shoots out smaller rockets as it flies, uses 3 ammo per shot.
Hyperion Nidhogg - barrel - Fires a single rocket that air-bursts into smaller rockets in a wide spread pattern.
Maliwan Rhino - barrel - Fires elemental rockets that cause repeated procs as they fly.
Torgue Redemption - barrel - Fires a very slow but extremely powerful rocket with the largest splash radius, uses 4 ammo per shot.
Torge Undertaker - barrel - 8 or 10 round magazine, large splash radius, faster rocket velocity.
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Keep in mind that some unique weapons can spawn with legendary parts on them. It’s hard to tell when you get one by looking at it since some of them have the legendary name and some have the unique name, the only way to know for sure is to try them out since they will have the special effects of both weapons.
TK’s Wave (combat shotgun) can spawn with the Bulldog magazine.
Roaster (rocket launcher) can spawn with the Rhino barrel.
The Dove (repeater) can spawn with the Hornet accessory.
Bone Shredder (smg) can spawn with the Savior body.
Chiquito Amigo (repeater) can spawn with the Protector body.
Reaver’s Edge (semi-auto sniper) can spawn with the Penetrator barrel.
Boomstick (combat shotgun) can spawn with the Friendly Fire accessory.
Kryo’s Power (bolt-action sniper) can spawn with the Cyclops sight.
Ajax Spear (machinegun) can spawn with the Ogre accessory.
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I decided not to list all of the parts on the unique weapons because a lot of them have multiple unique parts and it would be a pain. The Sentinel, for example, only allows the accessory to change and all other parts are set. Not really worth the time I think.
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WEAPON NAMING
The naming of a weapon can be rather confusing so I’m going to make this as simple as possible. There are still some things that I do not understand myself so if you feel this section falls a bit short then the Determining a weapon’s max stats through its Weapon Name thread explains naming in more detail. There are usually 5 parts to the weapon’s name- the letters at the beginning, the numbers afterward, the material indicator, the prefix and the title. Every weapon will have the beginning letters, the prefix and the title, but some guns can spawn without any numbers or a material indicator. For example, this Wrath has the letters PPZ at the beginning, the numbers 470, a material indicator of .3 , the prefix Liquid and the title Wrath.
Letters - The beginning letters, as stated before, will indicate what body your weapon has. I don’t know if they are abbreviations or just randomly put together letters that they thought sounded cool, in the end I guess it doesn’t really matter. See the body section under Weapon Parts to see what body goes with which letters.
Numbers - The numbers are actually determined by the stock and magazine (pistols only use the magazine since they don’t have a stock), and what number you end up with changes depending on the weapon type. A weapon can sometimes spawn without a number if it spawns with the right stock and mag, though this usually indicates the lowest parts available. If you need help telling what the numbers mean then visit The Numbers Guide.
Material Indicator - The material indicator is shown right after the numbers (or letters if there are no numbers). Remember that there are no indicators for material 1 weapons, and Atlas and Torgue do not have any indicators at all. Look at the materials section under Weapon Parts to see what material gives which indicator.
Prefix - Now it gets complicated. The prefix can alter the stats of the gun and is determined by them. Usually certain prefixes are determined when one of the stats of a weapon reach a certain point. Some good examples of this are the revolver prefixes Savage and Swift. The revolver prefix Savage only appears when a revolver’s damages gets high enough to allow it, and Swift only appears when the fire rate is fast enough. In addition certain materials from certain manufacturers have their own prefixes, and there are prefixes for most accessories as well (maybe all of them, not really sure).
Every prefix has a priority assigned to it and the prefix for your weapon will be the one with the highest priority from the different parts and stats your weapon has. In addition, prefixes caused by stats can further alter the stats as well (Material and accessory prefixes do not since their parts already alter the stats). This combined with the priorities can lead to some unusual situations where having slightly lesser parts (almost always the material) can cause a weapon to have better stats. Look at these two Bruisers-
They both have the same body, barrel, accessory, and magazine, however the first Bruiser has material 3 and the second Bruiser has material 1. Both Bruisers have enough damage to have the Malevolent prefix which increases the damage even more, but Torgue’s material 3 gives the Steel prefix which has a higher priority than the Malevolent prefix. Because of this the Material 1 Bruiser gets the Malevolent damage boost but the Steel Bruiser does not making the Malevolent the better weapon.
Title - Like the prefix, the title is determined by the performance of the weapon and can sometimes alter it as well. In some cases a weapon’s title can be given by a certain accessory (For example, revolvers with the Masher accessory will have Masher for a title), but most of the time it is determined by the stats of the gun. Take the snipers for example. Wrath can only spawn on a sniper with a high enough tech level. Usually this only occurs on snipers with an element, but there are part combinations which give it enough tech without an element (though these are extremely rare). Thunder can only spawn on snipers with high enough damage, and Lance requires a high enough rate of fire. There are also some titles that only spawn when a stat becomes low enough. Take Matador shotguns for example. When a shotgun has low enough accuracy it is possible for it to spawn with the Matador title. When a shotgun becomes a Matador the pellet count is increased to 12 which greatly increases the weapon’s power to offset the loss in accuracy. As with the prefixes, every title is assigned a rarity and the title with the highest rarity will be given to the weapon. If you want to know more about the priorities of different titles and prefixes then you should visit the Laws of Weapon Creation and Naming thread.
Some titles require even more specific circumstances to spawn. The best example of this (that I can think of) is the Anarchy title for SMGs. The Anarchy is an SMG with extremely low accuracy but ridiculous power as it fires 4 projectiles at once. An Anarchy can only spawn if an SMG has the Double accessory and has very low accuracy (only barrels 1 and 2 have low enough accuracy for this).
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WEAPON GLITCHES
There are a number of glitches in Borderlands where a gun’s color, stats, name, or other things may not be listed properly. In most cases (Reaper and Bitch aside) this does not affect the function of the weapon, it just cause a headache for those trying to figure out how their gun works.
Some of these have been fixed in the Game of the Year edition but not all, I’ll have to go through and find out which ones are.
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Atlas Cyclops - The text on a Cyclops guncard lists the sight as having a 3.2x zoom. This text is incorrect as the Cyclops sight has an actual zoom of 5.2x.
Maliwan Plague - The Plague is improperly named, it appears with the name Crux (which is an S&S legendary shotgun) instead of the name Plague.
Dahl Penetrator - The Penetrator is a legendary rarity weapon and therefore is supposed to have it’s name in orange letters. However the gun appears in game with the regular rarity colors. (Purple, Blue, or Green depending on the quality of parts it spawns with)
Hyperion Executioner - Like the Plague, the Executioner is improperly named and shows up with the name Invader instead (Invader is a Hyperion repeater).
S&S Draco - The Draco is another legendary weapon that appears with regular rarity colors, but in this case they have the name wrong as well. If you ever find a Draco it will not have the proper name, but will be listed with normal Machinegun names instead (Old Machinegun, Glorious Machinegun, Glorious Massacre, etc.). If you find an S&S machinegun with an x3 or x4 flame element (if you have the lowest quality parts possible you can get an x2), higher damage, extra rounds in the clip and a dark cylindrical accessory then you probably have a Draco. (The damage depends on the level, obviously. Dracos around the lvl 60ish area with good parts should have 200+ damage)
Hyperion Bitch - the Bitch is supposed to have a +50% critical hit damage bonus but it does not happen.
Vladof Vengence - The Vengence is a weapon that has a chance to ignore shields, but the ability is bugged and only works if you have the weapon equipped when you enter the game. If you do not have it equipped and equip it later then the special effect will not work. On the plus side, if the Vengence is equipped when you enter the game then all of your weapons will have a chance to ignore shields.
Hyperion Reaper - The Reaper has a melee accessory that supposed to give 300% melee damage, unfortunately it does not work and the gun actually gives no melee bonus at all.
Weapon Level - This is not really a glitch but should probably still be mentioned. You may have noticed that the listed weapon of a level will sometimes change once it is equipped. This is because of a scrapped idea the developers had where you could equip weapons with higher levels than your character as you raised your weapon proficiency. The idea was scrapped but the bit that changed the shown level of the weapon after it is equipped was left in. This does not affect anything, however, as you still have to be at the weapon’s regular level to equip it no matter what level your proficiency is.
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REFERENCE LINKS
Throughout this guide are a number of links to other threads and pages that discuss different aspects of the game in more detail. This section is a quick reference to those pages in case you are looking for one and cannot remember where it was.
Again, some of the threads I have not been able to find working links for yet so those are listed in red.
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Borderlands Wiki - A wiki dedicated to Borderlands, keep in mind that as a wiki all content is user added and can sometimes be a little off.
Gear Calculator - A program that recreates weapons by reassembling the parts and calculating the stats. (made before the last patch so only goes up to lvl 61) Sadly the calc ran on Flash so it died when Flash got wiped from the internet.
Elements, Multipliers, and YOU - A thread that discusses the specifices of tech and elemental effects in great detail.
Scottes Tests - In these threads Scottes researches different aspects of tech and elemental procs.
The Part Spotters Guide - A guide to help identify the various weapon parts.
Shared Material Parts - Borderlands Modding Resource chart that lists the effects of every material in the game.
The Scope Project - Discusses the differences in zoom levels between different weapon types.
The Definitive Ultimate Red Text Bonus List * Spoilers* - This thread lists the special effects of every legedary, pearlescent, and unique weapon in the game.
Determining a weapon’s max stats through its Weapon Name - Describes how to tell the parts of a weapon by looking at the weapon’s name.
The Numbers Guide - Lists all possible number combinations for weapons based on the stock and magazine.
Laws of Weapon Creation and Naming - Lists all of the titles and prefixes for each weapon type and their priorities.
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This should be enough to get anyone started. I hope this helps all the newcomers to better understand the game and the discussions here in the forums.