Weapons


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

According to Gearbox, there are over 17 million 500 thousand different variations of weapons, as of release. The game uses a procedural process to generate its various guns in certain classes, such as handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and more, but with many variations of firing speed, reload speed, damage type and more.

Thankfully, there is an easy way to determine the basics of a weapon without having to pick it up and open an inventory screen. When you approach a weapon on the ground, a small holographic window appears above it that displays information such as weapon type (shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle, etc.), damage type (static, incendiary, caustic, etc.), monetary value, as well as the weapon's rarity using a color coding system.

If a human enemy is carrying a special weapon that they drop upon their death, they will wield it against the player. Otherwise they use a default weapon for their enemy type.

The different types of weapons are these:
 * Alien Rifles
 * Combat Rifles
 * Pistols
 * Revolvers
 * Rocket Launchers
 * Shotguns
 * Sniper Rifles
 * Sub-Machine Guns (SMG)

Effects
Found in the stats boxes of guns are sometimes cryptic or humorous messages. These lines indicate a certain effect on the gun. Several decoded messages are as follows:


 * Unrelenting Firepower - Regenerates ammo [Revolvers]
 * Never Stop Shooting - Regenerates Ammo [Repeater Pistols]
 * Hallelujah! - Regenerates Ammo [SMGs]
 * I Can Do This All Day... - Regenerates Ammo [Shotguns]
 * Hold Your Ground... Forever - Regenerates Ammo [Combat Rifles]
 * Sometimes, I Forget To Reload - unlimited clip/ammo
 * Bring The HEAT! - Explosive Rounds [Revolvers]
 * We Don't Need No Water... : Explosive Rounds [SMGs]
 * Feel the Sting - Fires two bullets per one ammo [Sniper Rifles]
 * A Lead Wind Blows... - Fires two bullets per one ammo [SMGs]
 * 2 More Bullets Makes All The Difference - Fires two bullets per one ammo [Unknown]
 * Fast Hands - Super fast reload
 * Ride the Wave Dude! - Bullets follow a wave pattern up and down as the go out from the gun
 * Cross Their Heart, Hope They Die - Spread follows a cross-shaped pattern. [Shotguns]
 * And they call me maaaaaaaaaaad! - Bullets zig-zag when fired. [Revolvers]
 * The ultimate close quarters feline. - Bullets follow a spiral path when fired. [SMGs]
 * Holy Crap, It Shoots Rockets! - shoots rockets intermittently while firing. [Shotguns] (Uses the weapon's ammo type, not actual rockets)
 * Big Tony says "Hi" - Massive Clip [Repeater Pistols]
 * Guns of the Revolution never fall silent. - Massive Clip. [Combat Rifles]
 * One Bad Dog - Massive Clip [Shotguns]
 * Be Careful Not to Drop It... Might Lose A Toe - +100% Melee Damage. [Repeater Pistols]
 * Beware The Horde - Once fired, one rocket becomes several. The longer the rockets travel, the more they split, which can lead to 20+ rockets for a single shot! [Rocket Launchers] (Sort of like a MIRV warhead.)
 * Monster Kill! - Fires several rockets simultaneously with each trigger pull. [Rocket Launchers] (Still only uses one ammo per shot.)
 * The Unstoppable Force! - Rockets periodically explode in mid-flight. [Rocket Launchers]
 * It Dives! - Rockets have an arced trajectory. [Rocket Launchers]
 * Why Don't You Go Shoot Yourself An Elephant? - Massive Damage; No Scope [Sniper Rifles]
 * The Cutting Edge - Shots have a chance to ignore shields.
 * Pele needs a sacrifice! - Massive Fire Damage.
 * Give Sick. - High chance for Corrosive damage; effect has a chance to transfer to nearby enemies.
 * I spy with my little eye... - Massive Weapon Zoom. [Sniper Rifles]
 * The All-Seeing Eye. - Massive Weapon Zoom. [Combat Rifles]
 * Sniper Rifles are for Chumps. - Massive Weapon Zoom [Shotguns]
 * Sniper Killer... Qu'est que c'est - Fully Automatic. [Sniper Rifles] (From the French, Un ami, qu'est-ce que c'est?, meaning 'what is a friend?' In this case, the ability clue asks, in French, 'What is a Sniper Killer?')
 * Lightning never strikes the same place twice, but it can strike freaking everywhere! - Area-of-Effect Shock [Alien Rifles/Eridian]
 * "I feel like I'm gonna break this thing." - Slows walking speed; Causes Massive Shock Damage [Alien Rifles/Eridian]
 * BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM! - While scoped, fires the entire clip in one burst. [Sniper Rifles]
 * The Destructor has come. - While scoped, fires the entire clip in one burst. [Combat Rifles]
 * Invade your skull. - While scoped, fires the entire clip in one burst. [Repeater Pistols]
 * A beast of many forms - Fire, Lightning, and Poison. - Bullets alternate between the 3 elemental damage types on every shot. [Revolvers]

Unknown Effects

 * Ahhh... Fresh Meat (Possibly a Transfusion effect?)
 * Aim for the Sniper
 * I Got Boohoo
 * Walk It Off
 * Long and Strong
 * PEW PEW PEW! (Chance for a bullet to home in on a target?) [Alien Rifles/Eridian]
 * Bring Out Your Dead!
 * I LIKE IT! (Chance for Massive Explosive Damage? [Sniper Rifles]?)
 * It's a painful thing.
 * Omnia Vincit Amor
 * The living legend.
 * I have you in my eyes, sir.
 * For the Motherland
 * Thwack! (Daze Effect? Shield Bypass?) [Sniper Rifles]
 * It's a helluva thing...
 * A hunter lives among the stars... - Chance to do Random Lightning damage in vicinity of user when fired. [Which weapon class?]
 * War is in your blood.
 * May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't. - [Revolvers]

Rarity
Borderlands uses a classification system for gear that is similar to Blizzard Entertainment's color-coding system. A common (white) gun would be average, money will glow (yellow) when dropped or found, an uncommon (green) would be slightly above average, a rare (blue) would be a premium gun, an epic (purple) would be a very strong gun, and legendary (orange) guns are the best of the best. The rarity of each gun is indicated by color as stated on the page of each gun. (See Category:Weapons)

White &lt; Green &lt; Blue &lt; Purple &lt; Yellow &lt; Orange &lt; Dark Orange &lt; Pearlescent

The rarity of a gun influences how good it will be, but you will find that some guns are exceptions to the color code. For example, you might find a rare (blue) gun that has drastically less damage than a common gun that has the rocket ammo effect.

Appearance
As far as we know, there are a lot of variables that determine the final weapon that you see. First, certain manufacturers have specific materials they like to make weapons out of (composite, plastic, metal, etc.), as well as signature features. Jakobs weapons have a signature wooden stock as well as higher quality resulting in higher damage. Vladof-made weapons shoot faster, but have less accuracy. Variations in the parts also change the appearance of the weapon. For example; a longer barrel would be more accurate, a wider muzzle would mean a higher caliber of damage, and obviously a scope would replace the iron sights. Randy Pitchford stated that experienced players would eventually be able to guess the stats of a weapon simply from looking at its features.

Based on appearance, a lot of the weapons would seem similar, but the variation of the quality of parts (barrel length, scope, magazine size, damage type, etc...) could make one weapon considerably deadlier than the other.

Generally, the physical color (not the rarity) of a gun determines the type of elemental damage it may have. Red or orange might indicate fire-elemental damage, blue might be shock, green might be corrosive, and yellow could possibly be exlosive. Always use the information windows for weapons, though, as many guns have a color with no elemental damage.


 * See also: Manufacturers

Elemental Effects
All weapons can have an elemental effect. These elements are fire, corrosive, shock, and explosive. They also have varying chances of triggering their elemental effect, represented by a x2, x3, or x4 in their description. The higher the number, the greater the chance. The different elements affect how the shots are represented when the gun is fired. See specific element pages for specifics on each element.
 * See also: Fire, Corrosive, Shock, Explosive

Gearbot
Gearbot is the AI that built all 17.6+ million of Borderland's weapons from a variety of parts and processes. It is also used to randomize enemies and encounters, that way on every playthrough things are slightly different. For example, on the New Game+ feature, there will be less cover to make things more challenging.

Weaponry List
Please see the Weaponry List category page to see all weapons added to the wiki thus far.