Talk: Flame of the Firehawk

Is it possible to get a level 50 of this?

Yes. Beat the game once, and you will begin "True Vault Hunter Mode," or playthrough 2. While you are doing playthrough 2, DO NOT ACCEPT any quests which have a reward that you would like to have at level 50. You can TALK to the quest giver, but do NOT START the quest. You have to beat playthrough 2 (complete the story, beat the final bosses, everything) and THEN the game enters what is called "playthrough 2.5"... This is not a restart of the story - the game is still beaten and the story is over, but the entire game world will now scale to your level. NOW you can go back and accept all those side-quests, and the rewards will be scaled to your level (undoubtedly 50 by then). So, to recap: play the game all the way through, doing all the quests if you like. Start a 2nd playthrough, and AVOID sidequests with rewards you want at 50. Beat the game for a SECOND time, and THEN go back and get those quests... and the rewards will be level 50. Hope this helps! 12.204.48.130 03:48, October 20, 2012 (UTC)

^yea i did all my sides before the boss, haha fuck oh well

Is this a Legendary item?

Since it is given as a mission reward, and drops nowhere else in the game, I consider it a Unique item with a deceptive flame-orange color. Dämmerung 17:14, November 24, 2012 (UTC)

The game considers it one. It may be a gimmick but it still is one and, if you get a decent one, it's absurdly powerful. There are Unique guns that don't do anything truly special that are acquired elsewhere in the game, so there's really absolutely no defined line in the difference of the two other than the rarity mechanic. — Ilvandel (talk to me)   22:51, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

Does the game truly consider it as Legendary? The mission card shows the reward shield as purple-rarity, not orange. And unlike any other legendary shield (compare: The Bee, Impaler, Tortoise), the shield itself has a pale purplish center, not a pale orange-ish one. This isn't an argument as to the value of the shield -- there are devastating builds that this shield enables -- but as to its essential nature. It is more akin to Deadly Bloom or Love Thumper, two other powerful Unique shields, than a Legendary. There is also no other mission that guarantees a Legendary reward: mission rewards, when guaranteed, are Unique. Dämmerung 23:30, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

Wait, it's noted as purple in the mission reward card? I think we found our Draco/Penetrator of this generation. 23:32, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

Kind of the complement of Draco/Penetrator, yeah. It's anomalous. It's either a Legendary that does not drop anywhere else, has an anomalous item color, an anomalous mission reward card color, and falls like a mission reward, or else it's a Unique (assuming current bag-of-whatever definition of "Unique") with an anomalous inventory name color. I favor calling it Unique because that involves fewer caveats. Dämmerung 23:58, November 29, 2012 (UTC)z

I think this will finish the argument: it's worth noting that the parts list agrees with Dämmerung.

• All legendary weapons, shields, mods, etc, use at least one part or material which is clearly named Legendary; and the Flame of the Firehawk does NOT have such a part.
• In the same way, all unique, legendary, and seraph gear uses at least one part with a unique name (although for legendary and seraph gear, this is often the same part that is labeled legendary/seraph); and the Flame of the Firehawk MUST spawn with the uniquely named Phoenix accessory, which does NOT have a rarity label.
• Finally, regarding non-legendary non-seraph gear, the material grades and a select few other parts follow a straightforward rarity naming scheme: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, alien, legendary, and seraph; and the Flame of the Firehawk MUST spawn with a Nova shield material labeled VeryRare.

So regardless of why it's orange — be it because of a rarity bug like the Penetrator's, some artistic reason, whatever — it's clearly a unique non-legendary, and probably meant to be purple. DamianDavis (talk) 01:11, November 30, 2012 (UTC)

I was hoping that somebody with one in inventory would break down its parts (I don't have one at hand). Thank you. Dämmerung 01:34, November 30, 2012 (UTC)

It may help that we actually come up with a formal definition of "Unique" when it comes to weapon rarity. But in Borderlands 1, we applied it to any non-orange weapon that had flavor text, regardless of if it was a quest reward or not. (See: The Chopper) I see no reason why we shouldn't continue that way of doing things. Makes it simple.

Legendary = Orange, regardless of attachment to quest or lack thereof.

Unique = Non-orange w/ flavor text intact, regardless of attachment to quest or lack thereof.

23:20, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

"Unique" has drifted a bit from BL1. In BL1 it was usually a drop from named enemy such as Reaver or Motorhead, though there was also Lady Finger and the like. You could even farm Uniques (making them no longer unique, but hey) by camping out on poor Moe and so forth. In BL2 it's picked up some new possible meanings, but it's usually a mission reward, and they're usually not farmable at all. Though some new Uniques are farmable, sigh. Formal definition would probably help. Dämmerung 23:58, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

I don't know about other factors, but the game does count it as a Legendary for the loot collection Badass Challenges.99.2.104.129 06:29, December 4, 2012 (UTC)

I consider it to be both. It's obviously Legendary, as it's orange and counts towards the legendary badass challenge; and it's also obviously unique, as it's a guaranteed quest reward that can't be gotten anywhere else. Amonynous (talk) 06:57, December 4, 2012 (UTC)

I believe the text of Nothing Rhymes With Orange makes reference to orange loot, not a named rarity. Still, good to know that it does count. As long as the game is consistent. DamianDavis (talk) 02:12, December 5, 2012 (UTC)

Orange loot is legendary rarity. the color coding of items represents the rarity scale. "The item rarity scale, from least to most rare, goes: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange." an item can't be orange, yet not legendary. Amonynous (talk) 02:49, December 6, 2012 (UTC)

The main page for this states that the novas continue even in Fight For Your Life, but that hasn't been my experience.   Do they or don't they?    T3hkender (talk) 04:49, January 16, 2013 (UTC)

salvador combo

• There is an interesting effect with the Flame of the Firehawk if coupled with an Orphan Maker and a Rubi in the hands of a gunzerker. A player can bring down his/her shield with the orphan maker, gunzerk, then continue to shoot the orphan maker to keep the shield down and the novas occuring. The rubi in the other hand assures that all of the damage from the novas will also heal salvador. - 09:33, 12 May 2013‎ Caledrayer23

krieg

Given that Krieg the Psycho has numerous traits which increase his shield recharge delay such as Feed the Meat and Embrace the Pain, the Flame of the Firehawk's effectiveness can be greatly increased: the longer the sheild recharge delay, the more novas that can occur. - from article

someone said something about Light the Fuse and blast radius?   Dr. F            20:23, May 18, 2013 (UTC)