Maliwan

For the Borderlands 3 enemy faction, see Maliwan (faction).

“

Isn't it time you take your weapons to the next level? Sure, old-fashioned slug throwers have served you well in the past, but so did Bologna sandwiches. You've grown. Your tastes have changed. They've refined. It's time you had a gun that evolved with you and didn't feel like a family heirloom. Maliwan believes in honoring the past by embracing the future. Every Maliwan weapon is designed by the skilled technicians in our bleeding-edge laboratories to pack as much elemental punch as possible. Our staff of artisans crafts each weapon to look as good as it performs. Maliwan offers a full line of pistols, shotguns, rifles, and rocket launchers to fit every style. If it's not elemental, it's not a Maliwan. — Maliwan sales pitch, Official Borderlands Guide

”

Maliwan
Type	Mega-Corporation
Status	Active
Locations	Promethea
Divisions	Private Army
Rivals	Atlas
Appearances	Borderlands Borderlands 2 Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Borderlands 3

Maliwan is a weapons manufacturer. Their weapons are typically based around some form of elemental technology, with their main source of damage normally being in damage over time. Base firepower, in particular, seems to suffer as a trade-off. Maliwan weapons are distinguished by their bright contrasting colors, sleek weapon designs, and futuristic bullets such as energy bolts, balls or beams.

Borderlands

Products

A poster advertising Maliwan weaponry

Maliwan manufacturers assault shotguns, repeaters, revolvers, rocket launchers, pump-action sniper rifles, submachine guns, Grenades, Shields, and Class Mods.

The following are products made by Maliwan.

Unique weapons:

• Revolver – Madjack
• Rocket Launcher – The Roaster

Legendary weapons:

• Repeater Pistol – Firehawk
• Revolver – Defiler
• Rocket Launcher – Rhino
• Shotgun – Crux
• Sniper Rifle – Volcano
• Submachine Gun – Hellfire

Class Mods:

• Hunter – Assassin, Survivor
• Siren – Catalyst, Firefly, Specialist Maliwan Loyalty
• Soldier – Shock Trooper, Tactician

Grenade Mods:

• Contact – Corrosive, Incendiary, Shock

Shields:

• Shock Burst, Wave, Nova

Pearlescent weapons:

• Submachine Gun – Tsunami (The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC only)

Weapon Tiers

• Maliwan Standard = Level 13 - 21
• Maliwan Sterling = Level 22 - 30
• Maliwan Prototype = Level 31 - 39
• Maliwan Paradigm = Level 40 - 47
• Maliwan Pure = Level 48+

Quotes

• "Is shooting bullets just not cool enough for you? Get a Maliwan and light some people on fire!" – Marcus Kincaid
• "Maliwan guns shoot more lightning than the next leading competitor!" – Marcus Kincaid
• "Where Form meets Function." – Maliwan poster
• "Ride the lightning while spitting balls of fire. Buy a Maliwan." – Mad Moxxi
• "Do you like melted chocolate? Do you like melted faces? Melt whatever you want with a Maliwan!" – Mad Moxxi
• "Maliwan ... Where form meets function." – Mad Moxxi
• "Maliwan ... high tech solutions for violent problems." – Mad Moxxi

Trivia

• Maliwan manufactures over 32,400 repeater pistol, 45,000 revolver, 14,400 assault shotgun, 81,000 patrol submachine gun, 16,800 sniper rifle, and 18,900 rocket launcher varieties (Information taken from the Borderlands manual).
• Official company mottos are "Technology will set you free." and "Where form meets function" (Information taken from the Borderlands manual).

Borderlands 2

Products

The following are items made by Maliwan.

Common weapons

• Pistols
  • Aegis • Animosity • Phobia • Torment • Umbrage
• Submachine guns
  • Gospel • SubMalevolent Grace • Provacateur • Revenant • Trance • Venom • Vexation
• Sniper Rifles
  • Corinthian • Jericho • Rakehell • Snider
• Rocket Launchers
  • Panorama • Projectile • Prowler • Punishment

E-tech weapons

• Pistols – Dart • Spiker
• Submachine guns – Plasma Caster
• Sniper Rifles – Railer
• Rocket Launchers – PBFG

Unique weapons

• Pistols – Rubi • Little Evie • Grog Nozzle
• Submachine guns – Bad Touch • Good Touch • Chulainn • Crit
• Sniper Rifles – Chère-amie • Pimpernel
• Rocket Launchers – Hive

Legendary weapons

• Pistols – Thunderball Fists
• SMGs – HellFire
• Sniper Rifles – Volcano
• Rocket Launchers – Norfleet • Pyrophobia

Seraph weapons

• Pistols – Infection
• SMGs – Florentine

Pearlescent weapons

• Pistols – Wanderlust
• Sniper Rifles – Storm

Effervescent weapons

• SMGs – Nirvana

Class mods

• Catalyst • Rogue • Zapper
• Legendary Binder • Legendary Catalyst • Legendary Ninja • Legendary Siren • Slayer Of Terramorphous (Mechromancer, Psycho and Siren)

Grenade mods

• Transfusion Grenade
• Fireball • Kiss of Death • Lightning Bolt • Magic Missile
• Chain Lightning • Fire Storm • Leech
• O-Negative

Shields

• Nova Shield • Spike Shield • Kite Shield
• Black Hole • Flame of the Firehawk • Impaler
• Antagonist
• Easy Mode

Prefixes

Weapons without accessory but with elemental capacitor

Capacitor	Corrosive	Fire	Shock	Slag
Pistols	Trenchant	Inflammatory	Electrified	Scoria
SMGs	Caustic	Fervid	Storming	Feculent
Sniper Rifles	Bumblebroth	Scarlet	Zooks	Deuced
Rocket Launchers	Paraquat	Pyroclastic	Parelectronomic	Purulence

Weapons with weapon accessory, with or without elemental capacitor

Accessory Effect	Pistols	SMGs	Sniper Rifles	Rocket Launchers
Accuracy +	Punctilious	Guileless	Dandy	Pertinent
Fire rate +	Expeditious	Impetuous	Banbury	Predacious
Bullet speed +	-	-	-	Punitory
Damage +	Potent	Consummate	Barking	Puissant
Reload speed +	-	Apt	-	Prudential
Swap speed +	-	-	-	Parataxis
Stability +	Elegant	Lucid	Fashionable	-
Melee +	Evisceration	Acuminous	Sublime	Proximate
Critical +	-	-	Gentleman's	-
Magazine size +	Surfeit	-	Monstruous	Plenteous
Double	Binary	-	-	-

• Regardless of the elemental capacitor, launchers with Bandit (bladed) grip receive the Proximate prefix and 50% of unlisted melee damage.

Gun Appearance by Quality

Maliwan pistols at increasing rarity levels, common, uncommon, rare, and very rare

• White weapons
  Mostly white with faded light blue and orange bars at rear of weapon.
• Green weapons
  More vibrant colors; front of weapon is dark blue, middle is orange, rear is white.
• Blue weapons
  Reflective frame with honeycomb texture; front is orange and blue, white middle, black rear.
• Purple weapons
  Metallic frame with honeycomb texture; front may be black and orange, middle white and orange, and rear black.
• Gemstone weapons
  Weapons with prefix Aquamarine. Metallic frame with honeycomb texture; colors alternate from navy blue to purplish-grey. Parts of the weapon feature a reflective light blue material.
• E-tech weapons
  E-tech weapons use the same color scheme as Purple weapons.

Maliwan pistols at increasing rarity levels, E-tech, Gemstone, Legendary, Seraph, and Pearlescent

• Legendary weapons
  • Hellfire: Matte blue with yellow accents and a diagonal white stripe.
  • Pyrophobia: Singed metallic light orange and red with black accents.
  • Volcano: Charred colour scheme similar to Blue quality variants, but with more saturated colours and reversed pattern.
  • Thunderball Fists: Metallic red and silver with blue accents and thunderbolt decal on the magazine.
• Seraph weapons
  • Infection: Similar to a White Maliwan pistol, but is a shiny seafoam green with accents of other colours.
  • Florentine: Similar design to the Hellfire, but with silver and black instead of blue and white (respectively).
• Pearlescent weapons
  • Storm: Re-used from purple rarity weapons.
  • Wanderlust: Metallic dark orange, cyan and black.

Rarity-specific visual changes:

• Blue and purple SMGs have a magazine that is shaped like a disk that spins as the weapon is fired.
• White and blue Pistols lack the triangular casing over their magazine that their variants of other rarities feature.

Usage

• As the elemental specialists, Maliwan guns tend to excel against one specific type of enemy and to have severely reduced effects on others (e.g. incendiary weapons are very effective against flesh enemies, but armored enemies and shields are highly resistant). This encourages Maliwan users to carry spare guns with different elemental effects at all times and use them according to the opposition they are facing.
  • As a result, players are encouraged to use Maliwan in the later gameplay such as in True Vault Hunter mode, when they have more inventory slots, and the elements do more damage to their corresponding enemy.
• Choosing the right element for the right opponents can make Maliwan weapons extremely effective despite their generally low bullet damage.
• Some enemies (like crystalisks with the exception of explosive) are immune or resistant to any kind of elemental damage. Maliwan weapons will perform very poorly against them.
  • Slag will still do normal damage, although cannot apply effect if the target is immune.
  • Maliwan explosive grenade mods will also be capable of damaging them.
• Maya uses the elemental properties of Maliwan guns to great effect, as her Cataclysm skill tree have several skills that improve elemental damage and effects. Gaige and Krieg also paired well with Shock and Incendiary Maliwan weapons if invested Little Big Trouble or Hellborn skill tree.
• Upon impact, bullets from Maliwan firearms will explode and deal elemental damage in a small radius.
• Bullets from Maliwan firearms tend to have slower traveling speed than most other brands, only faster than Torgue gyrojets or E-tech projectiles.

Quotes

• "Maliwan - Where form meets function." (Borderlands 2 - Maliwan Weapons Trailer)
• "The voice of the Maliwan corporation speaks. The hordes stand assembled, frothing at the mouth. Thirsty for blood. They know not of the terror they shall feel, the beautiful destruction that will befall them. For in the hands of their ostensible victim, polished to a sheen and wielding the power of every element under the sun, lies a Maliwan rifle. The deus ex arma. The god in the weapon. Maliwan." (Radio advertisement)
• "Combat is an art. Maliwan weapons are the paint. Our elemental tech transforms the battlefield from a cacophony of idiocy, into a masterpiece of destruction. The unwashed hordes will burn, and fry, and melt, into a portrait of exquisite death. Maliwan. Beauty through destruction." (Radio advertisement)
• "Maliwan is pleased to offer technologically advanced weapons for the more... discerning warrior. Every Maliwan gun places the power of the elements in your hands – the elegance of their form matched only by the deadliness of their tech." (Radio advertisement)

Notes

• Maliwan guns are always elemental (either slag, corrosive, incendiary, cryo or shock, but not explosive) and generally have increased elemental effect chance and damage when compared to guns from other manufacturers.
  • Transfusion grenades are the only Maliwan items that utilize explosive elemental tech.
• Most Maliwan weapon types almost always have the "Bonus Elemental Damage" trait, the amount of bonus damage differing between weapon types
  • Pistol bonus damage is equal to 100% of the damage listed on the item card.
  • Sniper rifle bonus damage is equal to 60% of the damage listed on the item card.
  • Rocket launcher does not seem to deal bonus damage directly, but a fraction of the damage value is delivered in a short radius around the point of impact.
  • SMGs do not typically have the "Bonus Elemental Damage" trait.
• Maliwan guns tend to have quick reload times and reasonable accuracy, but come with limited magazine size and bullet damage (due to elemental effect reducing raw damage).
• Maliwan weapons in Borderlands 2 have unique reload animations. Sniper rifles use a break-action system in which the player inserts an elongated magazine, pistols use revolver-like triangular cartridges, submachine guns use either an energy pod (white or green rarity) or a constantly rotating ammunition disc that is wound when reloaded (unique, purple, and legendary rarity), and rocket launchers use a large, segmented cartridge of rockets that spin into place.
• Maliwan weapon sights often share similar characteristics; rocket launcher sights are small and rectangular with detailed screen statistics, SMG and pistol sights are small hubs that produce a holographic, rotating reticle, and sniper rifles have futuristic scopes that feature a hexagonal pattern when zoomed in.
• Maliwan sniper rifles have slightly different appearances depending on their element: Incendiary sniper rifles have small orange exhaust tubes; Shock rifles have a blue battery; Corrosive and Slag rifles share a nondescript elemental capacitor. On all other guns, the element is indicated by colored windows and/or lights somewhere on the weapon.
• Prior to Patch 1.7.0, purple-rarity Maliwan submachine guns were more common than those of other manufacturers, and the only blue-rarity Maliwan SMG was the Chulainn. All other SMGs were affected by a bug in the parts list for blue-rarity Maliwan SMGs which mandated use of the "Type C" body. When present, the "Type C" body automatically elevates the weapon to purple rarity, including the inherent boosts to weapon damage and price. This was fixed in Patch 1.7.0 which allowed blue-rarity Maliwan submachine guns to spawn naturally.
  • Though stats-wise such "attempted blue" submachine guns are identical to their fully purple counterparts, the automatic increase in rarity will not change the skin used by the weapon, making it possible to determine if a weapon is "naturally purple" by careful visual inspection.
  • Despite the patch, "attempted blue" Maliwan SMGs in players' backpacks and storage are still considered valid, and retain purple rarity. This includes any Crits already in possession. Previously a purple mission reward, the Crit is the one unique Maliwan SMG affected by the fix.

Gallery

Poster advertisement

Color scheme of coloring weapons of different rarity

Media

Borderlands 2 - Maliwan Weapons Trailer

Borderlands 2 - Epic Maliwan Weapons - Animations & Sounds w Slow Motion

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

In addition to their full range of common pistols, submachine guns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers, Maliwan manufacture in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel include the items listed below.

Products

Common weapons

• SMGs – Hyperborean
• Lasers — Beams • Blasters • Railguns • Splitters

Unique weapons

• Pistols – Electrified Aegis • Hard Reboot • Probe
• SMGs – Frostfire
• Lasers – Bright Spadroon • E-GUN • Freezeasy • MINAC's Atonement • Ol' Rosie • Tannis' Laser of Enlightenment • Vibra-Pulse

Legendary weapons

• Lasers – Absolute Zero • Thunderfire
• SMGs – HellFire
• Sniper rifles – Magma
• Rocket launchers – Cryophobia

Shields

• Nova Shield • Spike Shield
• Rapid Release
• Avalanche • Black Hole • Flyin' Maiden • Supernova

Class Mods

• Cowgirl • Crème de la Crème • Desperado • Dragon • Gentry • The Kid • Roboninja • Short Circuit • Storm • VIP
• Celestial Fragtrap • Chronicler of Elpis • Eridian Vanquisher

Grenade Mods

• Transfusion Grenade
• Data Scrubber • Kiss of Death
• Leech

Oz Kits

• Oxidizer

Prefixes

Weapon prefixes remain generally the same as in Borderlands 2 with a few changes:

• Slag weapons are replaced with cryo weapons.
• Introduction of laser weapons.

Weapons without weapon accessory but with cryo elemental capacitor have prefixes listed below.

Weapon Type	Prefix
Pistols	Coldest
SMGs	Frosted
Sniper Rifles	Frozen
Launchers	Refreshing

Lasers' titles and prefixes are listed in the respective article.

Quotes

• "Maliwan weapons – form and function fused together into an artist's scalpel. A paintbrush with which to create the masterpiece of your enemy's demise. Desire and destiny. Violence and magnificence. Maliwan." (Radio advertisement)
• "Maliwan hands you control of the battle. Mixing elemental damage with elegant design, Maliwan weapons let you unleash your inner death artist. Expression and extermination. Maliwan." (Radio advertisement)
• "Maliwan. Mix the elements together to discover your favorite lethal combination. Fire. Ice. Corrosive. Shock. Use the Maliwan palette to paint your victory on the corpses of your enemies. Death and delight. Maliwan." (Radio advertisement)

Notes

• Maliwan weapons are always elemental (either cryo, corrosive, incendiary or shock, but not explosive) and generally have increased elemental effect chance and damage when compared to guns from other manufacturers.
• Most Maliwan weapon types almost always have the "Bonus Elemental Damage" trait, the amount of bonus damage differing between weapon types
  • Pistol bonus damage is equal to 100% of the damage listed on the item card.
  • Sniper rifle bonus damage is equal to 60% of the damage listed on the item card.
  • Rocket launcher does not seem to deal bonus damage directly, but a fraction of the damage value is delivered in a short radius around the point of impact.
  • Submachine guns do not typically have the "Bonus Elemental Damage" trait.

Borderlands 3

Maliwan weapon samples in Borderlands 3

Maliwan retains its specialty of elemental damage but with the additional perk of their weaponry having two elements that can be toggled. Certain models now also require a charge up before being fired while other models have the option of a charge up to deal additional damage.

Products

Common weapons

• Pistols
  • Atomizer • Blaster • Devourer • Melter
• SMGs
  • Heliophage • Nebula • Pulsar • Quasar
• Shotguns
  • Cyclotron • Interloper • Shockwave • Terminator
• Sniper rifles
  • Antimatter Rifle • Particle Rifle • Proton Rifle • Multiplex

Unique weapons

• Pistols – Starkiller
• SMGs – Crit • E-Gone • Kevin's Chilly • The Emperor's Condiment • Vibra-Pulse
• Shotguns – Shrieking Devil
• Sniper Rifles – Soleki Protocol

Legendary weapons

• Pistols
  • Beacon • Frozen Devil • Grease Trap • Hellshock • Hyper-Hydrator • Ice Pick • Sellout • Superball • Thunderball Fists
• SMGs
  • Cloud Kill • Cutsman • D.N.A. • Devoted • Ember's Purge • Flipper • ION LASER • Kyb's Worth • Plasma Coil • Polyaimourous • SF Force • Spinner • Tsunami • Vault Hero • Westergun
• Shotguns
  • Blind Sage • Chandelier • Frequency • Insider • Kill-o'-the-Wisp • Mind-Killer • Nothingness • Projectile Recursion • Trevonator • Vosk's Deathgrip
• Sniper Rifles
  • ASMD • Complex Root • Firestorm • Krakatoa • Storm

Trivia

A bottle of Maliwan Black Label.

• Most of the named and legendary weapons seem to be named after destructive natural elements and events.
• In Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel, Maliwan no longer manufactures shotguns. However, they appear again in Borderlands 3.
• In the Maliwan radio ad in Borderlands 2, a rifle named Deus Ex Arma is mentioned.
• Maliwan produces its own brand of alcoholic beverage named "Maliwan Black Label", that can be found scattered across Pandora and Elpis.
• Throughout the game series, Maliwan does not manufacture combat rifles in Borderlands, and assault rifles in Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Borderlands 3.
• The Emperor tank cut from Borderlands 3 was to be produced by Maliwan.