The Bee

See also: The Bee/Pre-Patch Variant Chart

The Bee
"Not the bees!"
Manufacturer:	Hyperion
Rarity:	Legendary
Element:	Any
Game(s):	Borderlands 2
Special Part(s): GD_Shields.A_Item. Shield_Impact_05_Legendary GD_ItemGrades.Shields.Item Grade_Gear_Shield_Impact_05_Legendary GD_Shields.Accessory. Accessory7_Impact_Legendary GD_Shields.Material. Material5_Legendary_Impact

The Bee is a legendary Amplify Shield made by Hyperion in Borderlands 2. The Bee is obtained randomly from any suitable loot source, but has an increased chance to drop from Hunter Hellquist located in Arid Nexus - Boneyard. As of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, the Bee has an increased chance to drop from Treants in the Forest.

Special Weapon Effects

Float like a butterfly... – High amp shot damage, 0 amp shot drain. Lowered shield capacity. Increased shield recharge rate. Increased recharge delay.

Usage & Description

The Bee, while having low shield capacity and a long recharge delay, gives extraordinary amp damage with zero shield drain per shot. This effectively provides endless amp damage until the user takes damage from an outside source. Due to having no amp drain, the Bee is best used with a weapon with a high rate of fire and large magazine size, as more amp damage can be put out in a shorter span of time. Shotguns are less desirable because the amp damage is divided among all pellets and not applied per pellet, and they cause overall less triggers of the Bee as consequence of the characteristic traits of shotguns: low rate of fire, magazine size, and reload speed.

The Bee is also deadly with multi-shot spread weapons (eg. Unkempt Harold), as the damage is not shared between each projectile as it would in any multiplier damage weapon like shotguns. This can allow for quick farming of bosses and even quicker with 'Slag and swap' tactics or enemies with large critical hit locations.

The Bee is also extremely effective with Vladof pistols, as their large clip sizes, which can range from twenty to nearly sixty bullets, coupled with their fast firing rates, can easily make them effective killing machines with the shield.

The Bee may also spawn with the Grounded, Inflammable, Alkaline, or Blast Proof prefixes, giving the wearer immunity to electrocution, burning, or corrosion status effects, or half protection from explosions, respectively.

Notes

• The Bee also affects vehicle guns and MG damage, but not saw blades, rockets, or explosive barrel. Damage taken by the vehicle does not count as shield damage on the driver, allowing the Bee to keep functioning even while taking fire.
• The Bee was rebalanced by Patch 1.2.0. The patch decreased the amount of Amp Damage (by about 10k for a level 50 example), increased Recharge Delay (by 2 more seconds), and reduced Recharge Rate (by 7k). Most significantly, Amp Shields have their Amp damage amount divided among the projectiles from multi-projectile weapons (all weapons with a yellow multiplier in the Damage stat), thus making all Amp shields, including the Bee, less effective on shotguns and other multi-projectile weapons, rather than more so. However, weapons such as the Sand Hawk, which fire out multiple projectiles but don't have a yellow multiplier have amp damage added to each individual projectile.
• The Bee also no longer adds amp damage to Tediore reloads, but still amplify damage of the Avenger.
• The drop chance from Hunter Hellquist is approximately 3.078%. This amount is an estimated value from killing Hunter Hellquist 1000 times.^{[citation needed]}
• When the Bee shield regains all of its shields, a distinct buzz sound can be heard. This buzz can also be heard from other players and Deathtrap if they have the Bee shield equipped. When the player equipped with the Bee shield connects a shot on to an enemy, a sting can be heard as well.
• All Characters, to some extent, can use their various skills, Action Skill, Class Mods and to a lesser extent Badass Rank to mitigate the Bee's downsides and maximize the benefits.
  • Krieg makes poor use of the Bee, if his skills that delay his shield recharge, set him on fire or Silence the Voices are used. Krieg can maximize explosive and overkill damage but must avoid normal core skills.
  • Axton's Preparation and Willing together increase shield capacity and recharge rate while reducing the delay, and his Sabre Turret, especially with Gemini, can viably draw fire from himself to maintain full shield capacity.
  • Maya's Kinetic Reflection can reach 100% with a class mod, giving Amp damage as long as she has killed an enemy and stays out of melee.
  • Although Deathtrap can draw fire, giving it a copy of the Bee from the Sharing is Caring skill will not add the amp damage to its attacks. Gaige can use Buck Up and Blood Soaked Shields to reset the amp damage.
  • While Gunzerking, the amp damage only applies to right-hand weapon. Salvador can use a Slag weapon in the left to maximize Amp damage.
  • Zer0's Decepti0n skill can give additional time for shield recharge to occur and Death Mark, F0ll0wthr0ugh and B0re skills maximizes damage.

Trivia

• The shield's flavor text is a reference to Muhammad Ali, who described his fighting style as "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Videos

Borderlands 2 - How to Farm The Bee Fast (Drops in the Video)

How to farm The Bee