E-tech

E-tech guns are a type of weapon featured in Borderlands 2. They are weapons that have been upgraded with Eridian technology, and replace the Eridian weapons of Borderlands. Although they can be found almost anywhere, they are relatively rare loot, and color-rated as magenta rather than the rare purple. The component that determines whether a weapon is E-tech is the barrel; E-tech weapons have special barrels with hexagonal petal-like structures with glowing interiors, which open out as they fire.

All E-tech weapons shoot standard ammunition in a variety of different forms, ranging from lasers to energy balls to slow projectiles that ricochet. E-tech weapons almost always use multiple rounds of ammunition per shot, and usually have low muzzle velocity for their type but high damage. They are rare drops from standard chests, but are common finds in the Sanctuary loot chest. They will always have their manufacturer's highest-quality (purple) skin.

E-tech is introduced in Dr. Zed's mission Medical Mystery, where the Vault Hunters are asked to test out an E-tech weapon (seemingly always a BlASSter) belonging to Doc Mercy on the local bandits. Following this, Zed takes the weapon, but gives a Spiker or Dart as a reward.

The following are the weapon types:

Pistol

The pistol types are Spiker and Dart. Logan's Gun is a Dart, and the Dahlminator is a Spiker.

These pistols shoot "smart" projectiles that seek out the target in the crosshairs when the weapon was fired. The projectiles are slow-moving, stick to enemies, and explode after a delay; there is no immediate feedback regarding whether a shot has hit, since the damage number only pops up when the round explodes. An important note is that their high damage statistics are offset by the fact that neither type of weapon is able to cause critical hits. Also of note is that these guns will ignore the shield carried by some nomads.

Dart – Hurls projectiles that ricochet off surfaces but stick to enemies.

Hyperion – Boosted accuracy, capacity of ~20 rounds, firing increases accuracy (standard Hyperion bonus)

Maliwan – Uses Maliwan revolver frame, inherits high damage but low capacity.

Tediore – Thrown as a grenade when reloaded (standard Tediore bonus).

Hyperion Dart

Maliwan Dart

Tediore Dart

Spiker – Shoots projectiles that stick to enemies and surfaces.

Vladof Spiker

SMG

E-tech SMGs are called Plasma Casters. They have a special barrel with three muzzles and a flamethrower-like igniter underneath, and fire slow-moving energy balls. Projectile behaviour is highly dependent on the manufacturer.

Hyperion - firing increases accuracy (as usual with Hyperion)

Maliwan - slightly increased projectile speed, good accuracy (as in standard Maliwan SMG)

Dahl - burst fire while zoomed (as usual with Dahl)

Tediore – Thrown as a grenade when reloaded (standard Tediore bonus).

Bandit - Limited range, erratic projectile behaviour. The projectiles fired by bandit plasma casters swerve off course, in an expanding sine pattern, and explode at a set distance from the weapon. There seems to be a small chance to spawn a new projectile once one of them explodes (~<10%). This makes bandit plasma casters practically unusable at mid to long range. It does, however, make them excellent (if not at times superior, depending on weapon stats) shotgun substitutes, if one is not overly concerned with the monstrous ammo consumption such an approach results in.

Hyperion Plasma Caster

Maliwan Plasma Caster

E-tech Dahl smg.jpg

Dahl Plasma Caster

E-tech bandit smg.jpg

Bandit Plasma Caster

Shotgun

E-tech shotguns are called Splatguns or Splasher Blashters. Projectiles are lobbed.

Splatgun – Launches a single projectile. When it hits a surface, it splits like a MIRV grenade.

Splasher Blashter – Launches multiple projectiles with a fair sized explosive radius.

Bandit Splasher Blashter

Assault Rifle

Vladof and Dahl E-tech assault rifles are called Blasters. The Bandit version is called BlASSter.

Dahl – Spread gun, fires laser beams at three angles; alternates when unscoped, when scoped fires all three for every round fired.

Vladof – Ricochets on surfaces, extremely high fire rate.

Bandit – Huge magazine size.

Bandit BlASSter

Sniper Rifle

The sniper rifle types are Railer, Hybridification, and Moloko. All E-tech sniper rifles consume two ammo per shot. Shots are typically fired as beams and reflect off surfaces and enemies.

Maliwan – Railer  – Always elemental.

Dahl – Railer  – Burst fire while zoomed. Richochets off of terrain.

Hyperion – Hybridification  – Pierces through enemies.

Vladof – Moloko  – Ricochets off enemies

Dahl Railer

Rocket Launcher

Types include PRAZMA CANON, PBFG, Launcher, and Topneaa. All rocket launchers but PRAZMA CANNON deal maximum damage at a large affected area. They will only deal self damage when they are actually close to the wielder, no matter if you are inside the huge splash range.

PRAZMA CANNON – Hurls balls of energy that leaves and drops more balls of energy as it travels. Only Bandit is able to produce PRAZMA CANNONs.

PBFG – Consumes multiple ammo per shot, causes enemies to take more damage after the shot. If the initial shot hits an enemy, it will spread via blue spheres to the surrounding enemies in a large area, making it one of the best launchers for multiple target situations. The acronym may stand for "Pretty Big Fucking Gun". This is most likely a reference to the BFG from the Doom series.

Launcher – Tediore Large Launcher. Slow moving sphere. Explosions cause enemies to be encapsulated by a blue sphere (effects same as other launchers?)

Topneaa – Surrounds enemies in a large radius with damaging energy spheres. Dying enemies encapsulated in a blue sphere of energy will disappear. Consumes only one round (and sometimes even less) per shot.

Maliwan PBFG