Scanning the Monster for digistruct
Digistruct is a futuristic technology featured in the Borderlands universe. Digistruct is the technique of having a digital blueprint of an item that allows for it to be built on demand. The exact nature of digistructing is uncertain, as while items are seemingly digitally constructed they behave more like real matter than holograms or even some imitation material. Items scanned by a digistructing device, person or device or even currency like dollars and eridium ingots are deconstructed and stored in a specialized storage systems ranging from planet spread terminals or personal backpack units. According to the Borderlands 2 development team, the digistruct concept has been used throughout both Borderlands and Borderlands 2. [1]
Digistructed items
- Weapons pulled from the holster
- Vehicles
- Axton's Sabre Turret
- The blade of Zer0's sword
- Gaige's melee claws when her Melee Override Skill, With Claws, is active.
- Deathtrap
- Deathtrap's claws [2]
- Tediore weapons in Borderlands 2, being so cheap, are tossed away like a grenade instead of reloading and a new copy of the weapon digistructs into the users hands (at no cost to the user).
- Characters respawning at New-U Stations
- Loaders and other Hyperion enemies spawned from Constructors and digistruct pedestals found in Hyperion-occupied areas.
- Explosive barrels on catapault Bandit Technicals.
Notes
- The first mention of the term "digistruct" is made by Scooter in the mission Bone Head's Theft. The objective of the mission is to recapture a stolen digistruct module in order to restore a Catch-A-Ride station.
- Claptrap has a built-in digistruct module contained in the tray that pops out of his chest. [3]
- Other items that may be presumed to be digistructed but not confirmed by Gearbox are:
- Weapons and items from vending machines and Slot Machines
- Grenades, Health Kits, and Ammo pulled from the backpack
- Brick's melee weapon
Trivia
- Digistruct technology is similar to the concept of solid light, a theory that light can behave as a solid.
- Digistructed items seem to behave exactly like the objects they copy, living or inanimate, and digistructed items such as vehicles leave behind parts after destruction. And people revived through the process eat and bleed real blood, and can apparently be eaten.
- According to Gearbox President Randy Pitchford, digistruct technology is "mostly unknown - derived from Eridian tech discovered by Atlas corp." [4]
- Digistruct technology is similar to what was shown in the film [i]Tron: Legacy.[/i] In that film, Kevin Flynn spoke about ending terminal disease in humans, presumably by digistructing a person on the Grid, editing their code to remove the cancer while they were in that form, and then reconstructing/transferring them back within the physical world.