Borderlands developer Gearbox Software claims that the latest entry in their wildly popular looter-shooter series features over 1 billion guns. To help put that into perspective, 1 billion looks like this: 1,000,000,000. That’s nine zeros. Keeping that in mind, we could all use a resource to help keep track of which weapons do what, and thankfully the in-game naming conventions can help us to get started on building just that. Our Borderlands 3 weapon prefix list will tell you everything we know about these names and the effects they have.
Borderlands 3 Weapon Prefixes
With 2K Games’ biggest ever title still being relatively young, and probably nowhere close to the entire 1 billion strong rosters of firearms having yet been discovered, keep in mind that this is an ongoing venture and the list will be updated as new information becomes available.
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Now, prefixes in Borderlands 3 generally take the form of one adjective which is at least somewhat indicative of the bonus effect that the weapon in question offers over an alternative. For example, if you were to get a “Shocking” and a “Molten” version of the same pistol, as a base firearm the weapon would function in the same way only while inflicting shock and incendiary damage respectively. If you’ve played any of the previous three games in the franchise, you may already be somewhat familiar with how the process works.
While some prefixes will be more attractive to certain players and their differing personal play styles than others, unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee that you get a certain weapon prefix as they’re automatically generated. You’ll just need to pray to the randomized loot gods and hope that you get lucky. Failing that, you’re at least in the right place to learn how to make the most of any new weapon pickup.
With the basics out of the way, here’s the list we’ve managed to compile so far, organized in alphabetical order for your convenience:
Borderlands 3 weapon prefix list
- _TEMP_ – This prefix may be unintentional, or just a fourth-wall-breaking reference.
- Annexed – Simultaneously fires two splitter bullets.
- Bottomless – Boasts a larger ammo magazine.
- Burning – Inflicts incendiary damage on enemies.
- Cash-Infused – Defeated enemies drop more money.
- Cloning – Divides one thrown grenade into two.
- Cocky – Features increased damage and accuracy statistics.
- Dastardly – Increased critical hit damage.
- Dauntless – Increased rate of fire.
- Decaying – Inflicts radiation damage on enemies.
- Disciplined – Offers increased damage per second (DPS) output.
- Express – Increased weapon fire rate.
- Freezing – Inflicts cryo damage on enemies.
- Hazardous – Deals corrosive damage to enemies.
- Molten – Inflicts incendiary damage on enemies.
- Negating – Fires double (2x) shots.
- Nuclear – Inflicts radiation damage on enemies.
- Quickdraw – Improved weapon accuracy.
- Redundant – Fires double (2x) shots.
- Reflexive – Improved reload speed.
- Searing – Super effective against fleshy enemies.
- Shocking – Inflicts shock damage on enemies.
- Speedloadin’ – Improved reload speed (obviously).
- Stabby – Player deals increased melee damage.
- Stuffed – Improved splash damage for explosive weapons.
- Tamed – Reduced weapon recoil and increased handling.
- Triple-Penetrating – Highly penetrative shots.
- Turbo – Increased rate of fire.
- Unending – Boasts a larger ammo magazine.
- Venomous – Deals corrosive damage that’s effective against shields.
That’s everything we know so far for our Borderlands 3 weapon prefix list, though there are plenty more types — like Polite, Mocking, Stark, Unending, Wicked, and Expert — which have been discovered but their exact effects still remain unclear. As the community keeps digging and more information on the aforementioned prefixes and all-new ones comes to light, we’ll be back to update you with everything you need to know.
Until then, hopefully, the 30 prefixes and the functions that we’ve shared above can be of use in the meantime. Get out there and shock, stun, blast, and bludgeon your enemies with all of your fresh new knowledge, Vault Hunter!
