Manufacturer

There are twelve official manufacturers in Borderlands, each with their own characteristics and trademarks. The manufacturers produce all of the offensive and defensive equipment encountered throughout the game. Each manufacturer also classifies weapons based on their strength which can be seen here.

Two of the manufacturers, Anshin and Pangolin, do not produce projectile weapons.

Weapon Manufacturers
These are the primary producers of the equipment encountered on Pandora. These companies produce Weapons, Grenade Mods, Class Mods and shields.

Appearance note: The appearances listed here are accurate with most weapons, and vary according to Material Grade.


 * Atlas - Above average damage and magazine capacity.
 * Appearance: White, with more black detailing at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "Buy an Atlas and you too can see what it feels like to hold the power of the gods in your hands."
 * Marcus: "Atlas spares no expense in making guns that excel in every area."


 * Dahl - High recoil reduction, at the cost of accuracy.
 * Appearance: Various camouflage patterns differing across material grades.
 * Marcus: "Dahl's guns absorb a lot of recoil, allowing you to stay accurate throughout the fight!
 * Marcus: "Dahl make guns for professional Mercs. They're heavy, accurate, and effective... assuming you're strong enough to hold one."


 * Eridian - Alien weaponry, deals generally high damage with unlimited ammunition but often suffers from slow recharge.
 * Appearance: Organic, easily told apart from normal weapons.


 * Hyperion - Very high recoil reduction and accuracy.
 * Appearance: Red, darker and more metallic at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "Hyperion asks, "What good is a gun that doesn't shoot where you point?" Get a gun that's as accurate as you are!"
 * Marcus: "Enemies only die if you hit em'. So buy Hyperion today."


 * Jakobs - Never manufactures elemental weapons. Very high damage, but with lower fire rate and recoil reduction.
 * Appearance: Orange and brown, with wooden gloss finishes at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "If it took more than one shot, you weren't using a Jakobs!"
 * Marcus: "Jakobs guns do one thing really well, power!... and honestly, what else do you need?"


 * Maliwan - Only manufactures elemental weapons, which have much higher tech regeneration rates. Also benefits from marginal increases to accuracy and reload speed.
 * Appearance: Hues of blue, brighter colors at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "Is shooting bullets just not cool enough for you? Get a Maliwan and light some people on fire!"
 * Marcus: "Maliwan guns shoot more lightning than the next leading competitor."


 * S&S Munitions - Very high magazine capacity. Usually manufactures elemental weapons.
 * Appearance: Yellow and black, more contrast at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "The S&S philosophy is: Tech plus Ammo Capacity equals I WIN!"
 * Marcus: "If you find that your gun just doesn't hold enough bullets, then S&S has the solution! More bullets! All S&S guns have extended magazines."


 * Tediore - Extremely fast reload speed, with a slight compromise on damage and accuracy.
 * Appearance: Matte gray, lighter gray to beige at higher material grades
 * Marcus: "Cheap, reliable, lightweight and incredibly fast reload speeds. Tediore makes an easy to use gun."
 * Marcus: "If you're on a budget, Tediore is always the way to go!"


 * Torgue - High damage and slightly higher fire rate, but suffers from much lower accuracy and recoil reduction.
 * Appearance: Dark gray to black, darker and more metallic at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "400 percent more awesome! Also, Torgue doesn't make their guns out of freakin' wood!"
 * Marcus: "Torgue combines good damage, high firerate, and recoil reduction into one lethal weapon."


 * Vladof - Very high fire rate, good recoil reduction, but suffers from much lower accuracy.
 * Appearance: Orange and black, more contrast at higher material grades.
 * Marcus: "Vladof: you don't need to be a better shot, you just need to shoot more bullets!"
 * Marcus: "Wanna shoot a lot of bullets really fast? Vladof has your needs covered!"

Non-Weapon Manufacturers
These two manufactures produce no weapons. Instead they produce high-quality Class Mods, Grenade Mods and Shields.


 * Anshin - Transfusion Grenades and Rapidly Recharging Shields.
 * Pangolin - Rubberized Grenades and High-Capacity Shields.

Special Manufacturer
During the game the player may run across special items bearing the game-developer's mark. The best known example of this is the Rider sniper rifle.
 * Gearbox - Manufacturer using the name of Borderlands' development studio. All weapon types have a Gearbox variant and statistically have increased damage and slightly higher recoil.
 * Appearance: Bright, unorthodox colors varying by grade.
 * Stock - No mark appears but the items exist : the manufacturer is used for health vials and packs as well as stock weapons (The guns enemies use that they don't drop)

Cut Manufacturer
So far only one manufacturer has been found that has been cut from the game.
 * Corazza - Likely shield energy leeching grenade mods and some form of useful shield ability.

Favorite Manufacturer
In the character info tab, behind the character is the logo of a "favorite manufacturer". This means that the character has fired the most bullets from that specific manufacturer.

Class Mods, Grenade Mods, Shields and Action Skills do not affect this. Therefore, it is impossible to get Anshin or Pangolin as a favorite manufacturer.

Most Outrunner-weapons, including those from DLC3, and the Mulciber Mk2 are considered Tediore-weapons. The only exceptions on this rule are the Blast and Mine seat from the Lancer, which are manufactured by Atlas.

Multipliers such as on a Double Anarchy or a Shotgun do not assist in bullet-count. Firing a Dahl Shotgun once only counts as one bullet for Dahl.

Material Grade Notes
Generally, a weapon of a higher Material Grade will be better in all aspects than exactly the same weapon with a lower grade. However, several manufacturers have a few distinct differences between grades 2 and 3 that do not apply to this general rule.
 * With Jakobs manufactured weapons, weapons of grade 2 are more accurate than the other grades, have a lessened Rate of Fire and have less of a damage boost than grade 1, grade 2 also boosts the weapon's zoom level slightly. Grade 3 has the largest damage boost the lowest accuracy and gives the weapon's projectiles a knockback effect.
 * Hyperion weapons with grade 2 have a rate of fire bonus that grade 3 weapons do not have, on the other hand the same weapon in grade 3 has a reload speed bonus instead as well as even further increased accuracy over grade 2.

Some manufacturers materials also specify the prefix of their weapons' names (e.g., Hyperion Crimson, Atlas Pearl). At priority level 3, these prefixes often override other would-be beneficial prefixes. For example, an Hyperion "Genocide Destroyer" becomes a "Crimson Destroyer" when material 3 is present, losing the effect of the "Genocide" prefix.
 * Manufacturers that exhibit this naming behavior are: Atlas, Dahl, Hyperion, Maliwan and Torgue.
 * Manufacturers that do not exhibit this behavior are Jakobs, S&S Munitions, Tediore and Vladof.