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
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” |
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 (spawns without an element), MINAC's Atonement (cycles between incendiary, shock and corrosive), and Laser Disker (the only explosive laser). 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.
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 beam of energy of a specific element. They, however, suffer from a slow fire rate, usually never surpassing 1 shot per second, and cost 4 ammunition per shot.
- Maliwan-barreled Beam lasers put out a continuous beam that excel at damaging enemies for a long period of time, but despite their appearance, have a limited range and suffer from massive recoil.
- Tediore-barreled Splitter lasers fire multiple beams in a spread while consuming multiple ammunition per shot.
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. However, Dahl-barreled Railguns tend to stray off the crosshair when firing in bursts, unlike Dahl Sniper Rifles.
- 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.
- 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 purely Maliwan-manufactured, 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.
- Lasers with Tediore bodies are generally weaker overall that other manufacturers. 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.
