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! - Incendiary Rounds [Revolvers]
 * We Don't Need No Water... : Incendiary 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 5 round burst instead of standard 3 round burst [Combat Rifles]
 * Fast Hands - Super fast reload
 * Ride the Wave Dude! - Bullets follow a wave pattern up and down as they 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]
 * War is in your blood - Massive Clip [Combat Rifles]
 * 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] (Note the rocket continues traveling to hit its mark, regardless of how many times it explodes in flight.)
 * 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 Have You In My Eye Sir (Massive Zoom, Seen on a white sniper rifle)
 * The All-Seeing Eye. - Massive Weapon Zoom. [Combat Rifles]
 * Sniper Rifles are for Chumps. - High Accuracy; Tight Pellet Spread [Shotguns]
 * Sniper Killer... Qu'est que c'est - Fully Automatic. [Sniper Rifles] (Reference to the song Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads, the lyrics are "Psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est?" The phrase is French, Un ami, qu'est-ce que c'est?)
 * 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." - Faster walking speed while held; Causes Massive Shock Damage [Alien Rifles/Eridian] (Reference to the movie 'Men In Black'; Specifically, the ridiculously-powerful miniature handgun, 'The Noisy Cricket')
 * 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]
 * Make Their Anus Hurt - Each shot fires a shotgun-like burst. [Sniper Rifles]
 * Aim for the Sniper - Better accuracy while scoped. [Shotguns]
 * Walk It Off - Chance to score a Critical Hit on an enemy's legs. [Sniper rifles]
 * A hunter lives among the stars... - Chance to do Random Shock Damage in vicinity of user when fired. [Sniper Rifles]
 * Five Heads of Death - Each shot fires five tightly-grouped bursts, spaced out along a horizontal path. (Example) [Shotguns]
 * Have A Nice Day - Shots create a 'smiley-face' pattern.
 * Your Move, Creep - Fires a three-round burst per one ammo [Repeater Pistols] (References the movie Robocop; the clue is one of the character's catchphrases, and the three-round burst is indicative of his signature sidearm, the Auto-9)
 * A Gift from Papa Krom - Fires a three-shot burst when aiming. [Repeater Pistols]
 * Gonna cook someone today - Creates small nuclear explosion when fired. [Rocket Launchers]
 * For the Mother Land - 10x Grenade damage. [Sniper Rifles].

Note: Some of these effects may not be 100% accurate.

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.

Note: May Be hard to spot the difference between White and Pearlescent, Pearlescent will be placed above Dark Orange guns or at the top of your backpack, and will usually have red text In the stat/description box of the gun.

Guaranteed Weapons
This category includes weapons and modifications that have a 100% chance to drop off a specific enemy or be contained in a specific location.
 * See Article Guaranteed Drops

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