Weapons

“

You won't last long here, not without help, not without guns... a hell of a lot of guns.— Helena Pierce

”

According to Gearbox, there are over "way too big of a number to fit here!" different variations of weapons in Borderlands V, as of its release.

Weapon Type[]

The different types of weapons are:

Flavor Text[]

Flavor text is red text found on unique, legendary, and pearlesceant weapons' item cards, just above any stat modifiers. Usually cryptic or humorous, these lines usually give a hint of what a weapon's special ability does, and are often a reference to a video game, movie, or any number of non-game things.

Manufacturer Distribution[]

Manufacturer V	Pistol	Machine Gun	Rocket Launcher	Shotgun	SMG	Sniper Rifle	Spewer	Melee	Grenade Launchers
Bandit	X	X	X		X		X	X	X
Dahl	X	X			X	X		X	X
Hyperion				X	X	X		X
Jakobs	X	X		X		X
Maliwan	X		X	X	X	X	X		X
Tediore	X			X	X
Torgue	X	X	X	X				X	X
Vladof	X	X	X			X	X
S&S munitions	X	X			X	X	X
Hydra	X	X	X			X			X
I.G.P.D.	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Titan	X		X	X				X	X

Rarity[]

A weapon's Rarity determines the overall quality of the weapon, the strength of bonuses applied to it, and also the rate at which it will drop from enemies and chests and be available at vendors.

Common weapons[]

Each manufacturer has weapon textures of increasing quality for non-unique weapons. Quality varies, with the weapon's stats being boosted more by each increasing rarity level. By rarities from most common to least common are White/Common, Green/Uncommon, Blue/Unique, Purple/Epic, Orange/Legendary, Cyan/Pearlescent and Lime.

White weapons will never have an accessory attached. Green and blue weapons have a chance of spawning with an accessory, while purple and higher rarity weapons will always have an accessory attached.

Unique & Legendary Weapons[]

Main article: Special Weapon Effects Borderlands V

These weapons are variants of standard gun models with special effects and bonuses added. Unique weapons are always of blue or purple rarity and are typically assigned as special rewards for quests or given for defeating named enemies. Legendary weapons are always of orange quality and are usually dropped by the toughest enemies on Pandora; they have the highest material bonuses, but are generally not directly comparable to lower-level weapons with the same barrel and body due to their various special effects, and have their own unique materials rather than using a standard one for their rarity. As with all loot, there is a very small chance of both types of weapons being found from any suitable loot source, but it is exceptionally rare.

See also: Legendary Items in Borderlands V

Pearlescent[]

Pearlescent weapons are cyan-quality weapons and are only obtained as drops via Badass enemies and Loot Midgets in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode albeit their drop rates are unknown. All but Anshin and Pangolin manufacture a Pearlescent quality item, it is debatable whether the Pearlescent weapons are more useful than the Legendary items produced. Players will need to acquire the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack in order to find these weapons.

Main article: Pearlescent

Lime[]

Lime weapons are Lime colored and are special in the sense that they will never drop from via chests or killing mobs. The only way they can be acquired is through buying or trading them on Eden-6. The always appear as the item of the day and have a price similar to purple rarity weapons but perform much better. All corporations aside from Anshin and Pangolin manufacture at least one lime weapon.

Main article: Lime

Upgraded []

Upgraded weapons have green colored item cards, and are only accessible after the main campaign has been completed. After the Devourer's defeat, the vault hunter gains access to the Forge Proper area on Mortis-4, where they can complete the forgemaster's trials in order to upgrade their weapons, shields and grenades.

Normally, upgrading a weapon gives it bonus stats or a random bonus effect. But choosing to upgrade certain weapons will instead result in completely new, more powerful weapons that are listed as Upgraded rarity.

Element[]

Most gun manufacturers (excluding Jakobs) add elemental modifications to their weapons to create a even stronger weapon. Possible weapon elements are:

Incendiary - Burn, baby burn.

Corrosive - Makes armor as weak as butter.

Shock - Sizzles shields, among other things.

Explosive - BOOM, CRASH, BANG.

Slag - Doubles damage for double trouble.

Sludge - Creates hazardous puddles.

Antimatter - Staggers enemies and pulls them closer.

Cryo - Slows enemies down and freezes them solid.

Radiation - Irradiated enemies damage other enemies nearby.

Black Ichor - Ravenously dissolves anything.