Laser

Maliwan laser

“

Laser weapons never made it to Pandora because of a highly confidential and little-known incident involving Marcus and a straw. If you value your life, don't ask. Anyone. Ever. — Loading screen

”

Lasers are a separate weapon type first introduced in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

Overview

All lasers spawn with an element, Incendiary being the default and the most common. Exceptions to this rule are the E-GUN (formally non-elemental ), MINAC's Atonement (cycles between incendiary, shock and corrosive), and Laser Disker (explosive). Although lasers are only produced by four manufacturers (Hyperion, Dahl, Tediore and Maliwan), each manufacturer produces a very different style of barrel and body which are interchangeable with all laser types, making lasers perhaps the most varied weapon type in the game.

Being a distinct weapon type, lasers have their own unique ammunition pool (usually referred to as "cells"), represented by a coil icon and a pickup item reminiscent of a battery or power supply. Laser ammo has the highest storage capacity of any type, serving as a sort of universal power source: unlike most weapon types, lasers that use more than one round per shot are the norm rather than the exception, dramatically adding to their variety and versatility.

Naming

Title

Like all weapons in Borderlands, common-rarity lasers take their names from their body and barrel manufacturers.

Body		Barrel
		Dahl (Blaster)	Hyperion (Railgun)	Maliwan, Corrosive (Beam)	Maliwan, Cryo (Beam)	Maliwan, Incendiary (Beam)	Maliwan, Shock (Beam)	Tediore (Splitter)
Dahl		Blaster	Lazer Railgun	Scorpion Beam	Arctic Fox Beam	Beetle Beam	Eel Beam	Splitter
Hyperion	old	Revized Blaster	Rapier Railgun	Destabilizing Beam	Glacier Beam	Convector Beam	Motivator Beam	Partitioned Splitter
	new	Iterated Blaster	Lancer Railgun	Deconstructor Beam	Zero Beam	Afterburner Beam	Energizer Beam	Subdivided Splitter
Maliwan		Accelerated Blaster	Photon Railgun	Venus Beam	Comet Beam	Mercury Beam	Polaris Beam	Dichotomized Splitter
Tediore		Repeater Blaster	Phazer Railgun	Paintstripper Beam	Coolstream Beam	Enkindler Beam	Spark Beam	Refracted Splitter

Prefix

Laser prefixes are determined solely from the weapon's grip and element. The presence or absence of an accessory (rare, on a laser) has no effect on the weapon's prefix. Lasers can spawn with a melee attachment, though it's rare for it to happen. The Excalibastard is a case in which this accessory is fixed.

Incendiary lasers, the most common variety, take their prefix from the manufacturer of the grip part. Note that on a laser, the grip part extends horizontally from the left side of the foregrip, where it is difficult to identify in profile. The easily profiled handgrip on the rear of the weapon is part of its buttstock, which affects the weapon's recoil and handling, but not its name.

Body		Grip
		Dahl	Hyperion	Maliwan	Tediore
Dahl		Flashpoint	Star	Galactic	Planetary
Hyperion	old	Scalding	Calescent	Feverous	Sizzling
	new	Lensed	Hyper	Catalyzing	Heated
Maliwan		Conflagrating	Pyrophoric	Coruscating	Ebullient
Tediore		Nuclear	Thermal	Fusion	Torch

Lasers of other elements take their prefix from their element, disregarding the grip manufacturer.

Body		Element
		Corrosive	Cryo	Shock
Dahl		Disintegrating	Inhibiting	Catalyzing
Hyperion	old	Acerbic	Frosted	Dazzling
	new	Destabilizing	Niveous	Stimulating
Maliwan		Oxidizing	Cryogenic	Ionizing
Tediore		Alkaline	Refridgerated [sic]	Alternating

Weapon Barrels

A laser's Barrel gives the weapon its signature firing type.

• Dahl-barreled Blaster lasers resemble assault rifles in function, putting out a barrage of blaster bolts that travel at moderate speed with decent accuracy.
• Hyperion-barreled Railgun lasers fire a single powerful and accurate energy bolt that travels at a moderate velocity. Most railguns consumes 4 laser ammo per shot and the fire rate is often lower than 1.
• Maliwan-barreled Beam lasers put out a continuous beam that excel at damaging enemies for a long period of time. They have a short range, consume ammo quickly, and suffer from massive recoil, causing most Beam lasers to swerve wildly if fired continuously.
• Tediore-barreled Splitter lasers fire multiple beams in a spread while consuming 3 rounds per shot. Tediore Splitters fire six beams, while Splitters from other manufacturers fire three.

Dahl Barrel

Hyperion Barrel

Maliwan Barrel

Tediore Barrel

Weapon Bodies

Depending on the manufacturer of the laser's body, a laser can spawn with manufacturer-specific gimmicks that either coincide well with the laser's barrel, or barely elevate its usage.

• Lasers with Dahl bodies have the Dahl gimmick of burst-fire while scoped, along with recoil reduction. However, they also come with the innate ability to penetrate enemy targets, making them useful for crowd-control, especially when used after throwing a singularity grenade. Most barrels work well with Dahl bodies as there is typically no downside apart from occasional wastage of ammo if a single shot is sufficient to kill a target.
  • Dahl Beams fire a brief beam laser when zoomed in, which offers higher stability and burst damage in exchange for the ability to hold down the beam when scoped. Dahl Railguns burst fire when zoomed, ranging from 2-4 shots per burst. They also tend to stray off the crosshairs in a burst when not using a Dahl Blaster Barrel, which reduces the potential a Dahl Body Laser can have.
• Lasers with Hyperion bodies start off with low accuracy that increase the longer the weapon is fired (reverse recoil). Additionally, they are given a hefty critical hit damage boost, making Hyperion-bodied Railguns extremely useful as a sniper rifle of sorts. Hyperion Railguns also have perfect (100.0) accuracy indicated on the weapon card; this accuracy, however, is only attained when aiming down the sight.
  • A Beam laser with a Hyperion body offsets the typical huge recoil that Beam lasers suffer from, making them extremely accurate and damaging weapons even at medium-long ranges. Blasters also benefit from this aspect. Splitters do not benefit from the reverse recoil, as the lasers will still stray from the crosshair at max accuracy. Only Hyperion lasers can spawn with a melee accessory.
• Lasers with Maliwan bodies come with the highest elemental damage and chance out of all manufacturers, making them reliable for inflicting elemental status effects. They also come with a continuous damage bonus, making their lasers more damaging the longer the trigger is held. This coincides well if a laser spawns with a Maliwan Barrel, as the beam will be able to rack out significant amounts of damage over a short period of time, which is useful against larger and stronger enemies.
  • Due to Railguns being slow-firing and precision-focused, Maliwan Railguns usually cannot take advantage of the continuous damage bonus as easily as other Laser types.
• Lasers with Tediore bodies are generally weaker overall that other manufacturers, therefore having no synergy with other barrels whatsover. However, they retain the Tediore gimmick of being thrown like a grenade when reloaded, doing more damage if there is more ammo in the magazine. Additionally, thrown Tediore lasers act like Tesla grenades upon reload, weakly shocking nearby enemies until the weapon detonates. This makes Tediore-bodied lasers more useful than other Tediore-made weapons at reliably damaging enemies with a reload-throw, as even if the player misses a toss, enemies can still be damaged by the shock from said weapon.
  • Tediore Splitters will fire six lasers per shot, while other manufacturers will only fire 3 per shot.

Dahl-bodied Lasers reload by removing a chip-like magazine from the left of the weapon, then replacing a new one, finishing with a twist of a knob on the gun.

Hyperion-bodied lasers reload in a break-action fashion similar to Jakobs Shotguns, taking out the empty battery, loading a new one in, then closing the weapon.

Maliwan-bodied lasers eject a capsule from the left side of the weapon, where a new capsule is reloaded.

Tediore-bodied lasers, like all Tediore weapons, are not physicaly reloaded. The weapon is thrown forwards adhering to normal physics, and a new one is digistructed in the user's hands.