The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge is a legendary artifact in Borderlands 3 manufactured by Eridian. It is obtained at the beginning of The Call of Gythian from Claptrap, the last mission in Guns, Love, and Tentacles.
Special Effects[]
Knowing is half the battle. – Consecutive successful hits grant a 1% damage bonus for up to 15 times. At maximum stacks, an additional gun damage bonus of 90% is added.
Usage & Description[]
The exact way the Pearl of Ineffible knowledge works is misleading. With each hit, an additional 1% bonus "damage" is added, and when 15 stacks are reached, and additional 90% bonus "gun damage" is applied. In Borderlands 3, the more instances a character has of a single "types" of damage, the less effective it is, meaning it has diminishing returns. The 15% bonus damage is actually its own "type" of damage and is excluded from such penalties.
These attributes make this artifact incredibly effective, and under most circumstances will yield the largest overall damage boost. As such, it is often considered the best artifact in the game. Players should consider waiting to finish the DLC until their character is at max level to gain the most effective passive bonuses, although the difference between max level and slightly lower leveled pearls isn't very noticeable, as the damage bonus does not change whatsoever. Re-acquiring one can be simply done via resetting the DLC and playing through everything again or trading one with another player.
Stacks will decay very quickly and are all removed on a miss. This can be avoided in several ways to benefit from the 90% bonus:
- Large magazine weapons and sustained fire
- Guns with sticky ammo modes that can be triggered at once, like the Bangstick
- Using high fire rate guns like the Maggie combined with skills like Leave No Trace that return ammo, if necessary, to ensure one can continually deliver an endless amount of shots.
Stats[]
Affected Variable[]
The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge will grant two of the following bonuses.
- Fire rate
- Reload Speed
- Health regeneration
- Max health
- Experience Gained from Combat
- Magazine size
Notes[]
- As the Pearl is a quest-only reward, farming it is only possible by creating a back-up of the save file before the quest is turned in, with a new character or by resetting the DLC.
- A hotfix on April 2nd, 2020, increased the additional damage bonus to 90% from the original 20%.
- Even though the hotfix on April 2nd, 2020, increased the bonus damage on the item card, the total damage increase granted by the Pearl was reduced. The actual bonus damage of the original version was 120%, reduced to 90% in the hotfix.
- The Hunter-Seeker and Hex grenade mods are both great for quickly gaining stacks.
Trivia[]
- The flavor text is a reference to the 1985 animated series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero with the phrase "And knowing is half the battle" being said at the end of an episode as part of a public safety lesson.
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