Borderlands 3 Weapons Guide

Some games are known for their realistic graphics, while others are loved for the gameplay or narrative. Borderlands 3 is unique in that one of its signature features is that it has a billion guns to loot. The number of unique Legendary guns alone far outpace what any one player can hoard. With so many guns in a game, it can be hard to decide which is the best for you, which is exactly why we've our Borderlands 3 Weapon Guide will show you the best types of guns to pursue, wield, and shoot. 

Atlas

If you’ve ever wanted to repeatedly shoot someone in the face but didn’t want to put any effort, then Atlas guns are for you. Pick up one of their excessively large and boxy rifles or flying saucer-shaped pistols, and you’ll be able to land headshots with ease thanks to their use of tracking bullets. Practically every Atlas gun also has a secondary feature that lets you mark a target. After marking a target, all bullets fired from that gun will seek that target. You could be looking in the exact opposite direction of a marked target and the bullets will still hit.

Unfortunately, Atlas guns have somewhat small magazine capacities and low fire rates. Given that they have fairly high damage per shot, Atlas guns are still always solid choices. The Rebel Yell Legendary assault rifle mitigates the fire rate problem by being fully automatic, though it possesses no other obvious special traits.

Children of the Vault (COV)

The bandits of Borderlands 3 have united under a single banner, and they are making their own guns. Cobbled together with gun parts from previous games and random junk, COV guns have incredible variance. Their one common feature is that they overheat instead of having to reload. As a result, you can do surprisingly consistent damage over time. Unfortunately, COV cooling durations are generally longer than the average reload time. Curiously enough, COV Legendary weapons like the Sawbar are rather decent and may be worth using if you really need to have active on-hit abilities.

Dahl

Sometimes, you don’t really need a gun that makes everything explode or melt faces. For those situations, Dahl has the most well-rounded guns made for every conceivable encounter. Sporting a very modern tactical look, Dahl guns uniquely have fire selectors so that you can have full auto, burst, or semi-auto options for every range. They also have very low recoil and middle-of-the-road stats in every respect, which makes Dahl assault rifles and SMGs excellent primary weapons.

The Legendary Night Hawkin SMG is especially good as it combines low recoil, a relatively high elemental effect chance, and decent damage into one package. Perhaps not the flashiest Legendary, the Night Hawkin is still exceptional for a primary weapon.

Hyperion

The Hyperion company is making a return in Borderlands 3, evidently surviving the events of previous games. Their weapons are much more angular than before. As you fire, Hyperion guns become more accurate. In addition, aiming causes your gun to project a small shield. Theoretically, this small shield makes Hyperion guns excellent defensive weapons. In practice, there’s too much incoming damage in Mayhem 3 for the shield to matter. Still, the reverse recoil feature makes it trivial to land consistent headshots. Never necessarily the worst option, yet better weapons do exist.

Jakobs

With their Western cowboy aesthetic and general lack of elemental effects, Jakobs guns are very old-fashioned. The vast majority of their guns are semi-automatic, with somewhat low magazine capacities and reload speeds. What Jakobs guns offer in return are the highest damage-per-shot weapons in Borderlands 3. It’s not unusual for Jakobs weapons to have as much damage per shot as Sniper Rifles made by other manufacturers. Jakobs pistols are particularly heavy hitters, proving to be quite viable at extended ranges.

The Wagon Wheel Legendary pistol is an especially great example of Jakobs firearms. It's not flashy, in spite of the fact that it has high damage and accuracy for a pistol. It also heavily rewards accuracy, with bullets that ricochet all over the place whenever you hit an enemy.

Maliwan

The polar opposite of Jakobs, Maliwan specializes in futuristic guns that only have elemental damage. Maliwan guns also tend to have rather oddly enjoyable quirks like a charge-up period or unique projectiles. The result is that while Maliwan guns have high damage potential, they can also fail to impress due to how elemental resistance works. This dual nature can be seen in their Sniper Rifles, which could be decent, but the charge-up period absolutely hampers their potential as Sniper Rifles. On the flip side, Maliwan Shotguns are reasonably good as they can have extreme knockback effects on top of the raw damage output.

Tediore

Despite their boxy shape and mundane color schemes compared to the rest of Borderlands 3’s arsenal, Tediore guns are actually respectable weapons. Their overall stats are on the low side, counterbalanced by the fact that instead of reloading, Tediore weapons are thrown. Once thrown, they can either explode as a rather lethal grenade or function as a fully autonomous weapon. The more ammo left in the magazine, the more damage they can do when thrown. As such, even if a Tediore gun is terrible at being a gun, you can use it as a grenade.

If you want to see the best that Tediore has to offer, you need to get your hands on a Long Musket SMG. Its unassuming features hide the fact that it is a flamethrower. Needless to say, it literally melts enemies. Having a second autonomous Long Musket chase after enemies while setting them on fire brings a rather new and amusing take on crowd control.

Torgue

Rocket launchers seem to be underpowered in Borderlands 3, yet that doesn’t matter because Torgue guns exist to fulfill all of your explosive desires. Unlike other guns, which fire normal bullets, Torgue guns always fire micro-rockets. Unlike other weapons, Torgue guns have amusing naming patterns and aesthetics based on car engines. As a result, Torgue guns typically have extremely high burst damage, limited range with slow projectile and reload speeds. Torgue Shotguns and Pistols tend to be especially good as the range limitations are not as much of a problem for these types of weapons.

The Flakker Legendary shotgun is undoubtedly top of its class by amplifying Torgue weapons traits to the next level. It doesn't just fire explosive projectiles, it essentially fires a cloud of explosions at enemies. The Flakker's range is limited, but when you can make an explosion that takes up the entire screen, the range is hardly ever an issue. It is also hilariously powerful against mid-sized bosses like Captain Traunt.

Vladof

The Vladof design philosophy is a very simple one: more bullets lead to more hits. To this end, all Vladof guns have multiple barrels, huge magazine capacities, and very high rates of fire. The damage is slightly on the low side, which is a tradeoff for having surprisingly manageable recoil. Interestingly enough, Vladof guns have the most varied alternate fire abilities. You can find Shotguns and Grenade Launchers on virtually every Vladof gun, alongside some more exotic attachments. While not capable of competing with their full-sized counterparts, these attachments are nice to have if you wish to have a weapon for every situation.

No gun better personifies Vladof's design philosophy than the Lyuda. This Legendary Sniper Rifle is fully automatic and can be used like an assault rifle in a pinch. In addition, each bullet fired from Lyuda splits into three bullets with minimal dispersion. Few weapons are better for boss farming in Borderlands 3 than the Lyuda, especially if you are farming the Graveward.

Weapons in Borderlands 3 come in many different shapes, sizes, and capabilities. Always be sure to use what you enjoy handling, but do give yourself the extra oomph to defeat waves of enemies.

Be sure to check out our review of Borderlands 3 and our deep dive into the Borderlands 3 end-game.