Pearlescent (sometimes referred to as cyan) weapons and shields are the rarest loot in the games in which they appear.
Borderlands
In the first Borderlands game, Pearlescent items are included in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, where they can be dropped by Crawmerax the Invincible, Badass Bruisers, Lance Pyros, Badass Engineers, and Drifters. On rare occasions they can be found by opening Crimson Lance Chests, and even less commonly by the occupants of Lancers. They do not appear outside of this DLC.
Items
Each manufacturer has only 1 pearlescent weapon, and each weapon type has only 1 pearlescent (with two exceptions: there are no pearlescent Assault Shotguns or Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifles). There are 3 pearlescent shields. Atlas is the only manufacturer which has both a pearlescent weapon and a pearlescent shield.
A comprehensive drop guide for pearlescent weapons and shields.
Before General Knoxx
- Pearlescent was an old bug in Borderlands before the advent of the Secret Armory of General Knoxx where "white" weapons would appear over "dark orange" weapons in the inventory. It was fixed in the patch preceding The Secret Armory of General Knoxx . For all information for this old bug, visit Pearlescent (Before General Knoxx).
Traits
Pearlescent weapons are actually a hybrid cross between Unique and Legendary weapons. They are like Legendary weapons in that they can be looted from Crimson Lance Chest, and have both a Title and a Prefix (Unique weapons don't have a prefix). On the other hand, each Pearlescent weapon can only be rarely looted from a finite set of enemies, just like Unique weapons. Finally, Pearlescent weapons will spawn with some part restrictions, and always have specific material, just like Unique weapons.
Notes
- The chance of obtaining pearlescent weapons is exceedingly small, so much so that it cannot be properly conveyed with any ratio comparison to "Legendary" weapons.
- Each manufacturer has its own pearlescent weapon or shield, with the exceptions of Atlas, which has two; and Gearbox and Eridians, which have none.
- Pearlescent items can only be as high in level as 68.
Media
Borderlands 2
In Borderlands 2, Pearlescent weapons appear at the highest difficulty levels. They require at least one of the Ultimate Vault Hunter upgrade packs in order to spawn.
The first set of Pearlescent weapons is included in the first Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade pack. These will appear only while playing in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. While they can appear from any loot source, they have an increased chance to drop from Legendary Loot Midgets, tubby enemies, and the final boss in The Raid on Digistruct Peak. They can also be won from the slot machine in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, even in Normal Mode and True Vault Hunter Mode, making that slot machine the only source of Pearlescent weapons of level less than 50.
| Manufacturer | Weapon Type | Model Name |
|---|---|---|
| Dahl | Assault Rifle | Bearcat |
| Jakobs | Pistol | Unforgiven |
| Hyperion | Shotgun | Butcher |
| Maliwan | Sniper Rifle | Storm |
| Tediore | Submachine Gun | Avenger |
| Vladof | Pistol | Stalker |
| Bandit | Assault Rifle | Sawbar |
| Torgue | Rocket Launcher | Tunguska |
A second set of Pearlescent weapons is included in the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade 2 pack. These four weapons will only fall while playing in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, and only from tubby enemies of level 61 or greater.
| Manufacturer | Weapon Type | Model Name |
|---|---|---|
| Jakobs | Assault Rifle | Bekah |
| Jakobs | Sniper Rifle | Godfinger |
| Maliwan | Pistol | Wanderlust |
| Torgue | Shotgun | Carnage |
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