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Borderlands 4 Weapon Rarities, Manufacturers And Licensed Parts System Explained

Posted: Sep 16, 2025 Views: 2464

Posted: Sep 16, 2025

Source:  IGGM

Views: 2464

As the official sequel to Borderlands series, Borderlands 4 has finally arrived after years of polish. The series is known for its absurd humor, frenetic shooting gameplay, and generous loot system, and Borderlands 4 is undoubtedly the culmination of all of this.

Compared to its predecessor, Borderlands 4 players will undoubtedly feel that everything about the game has become more complex, from the storyline to the character skills and even the weapons.

Borderlands 4 Weapon Rarities, Manufacturers And Licensed Parts System Explained

Weapon Rarities

Compared to other shooters, Borderlands 4 doesn't really prioritize your gun skills, and it is more similar to games like Diablo IV or Path of Exile 2. The core gameplay revolves around finding higher-rarity guns.

Gun rarity increases with the rarity of the gun, with some delivering incredibly powerful bullets, while others can even fire grenades. The guns in the game are made by different gun manufacturers. Starting with Borderlands 2, the differences between the weapons made by these gun manufacturers have become more and more obvious. In the third generation, the guns of each brand have a different style.

Borderlands 4 gives these guns from different manufacturers a chance to merge, but this is related to the rarity of the gun. The higher the rarity of the gun, the more guns and accessories from other manufacturers can be used.

  • Common (1 slot): Trash.
  • Uncommon (2 slots): Usable but slightly less powerful.
  • Rare (3 slots): Average, some guns have traits.
  • Epic (4 slots): Very good, and most equipment has traits.
  • Legendary (3 slots and Legendary effect): Equipment with a unique Legendary effect.

Weapon Manufacturers

Borderlands 3 has 9 weapon manufacturers, while Borderlands 4 has 8 weapon manufacturers, 5 of which are old manufacturers and 3 are new manufacturers.

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Old Manufacturers

  • Jakobs: Focuses on high damage, emphasizing headshots. Some weapons have ricochets on critical hits.
  • Maliwan: Specializes in elemental damage (fire, shock, corrosion, etc.). Weapons typically require charging, but can inflict lasting elemental effects.
  • Vladof: Guns with high rapid-fire speed and large magazines are enjoyable to shoot.
  • Tediore: When reloading, the weapon is thrown like a grenade, dealing damage, and then a new gun is spawned from the hand. Weapons typically reload quickly.
  • Torgue: Weapons focus on explosive damage. Bullets are often slow but powerful.

New Manufacturers

  • OrderCreates weapons that charge and release explosives.
  • Ripper: Emphasizes fully automatic fire.
  • Daedalus: Reliable and easy to use, supporting a variety of ammunition types.

While gun styles vary significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer, ammunition types don't differ significantly. Some weapons require Borderlands 4 cash for restocking, besides enemy drops. Be careful not to run out of money when using fast-depleting guns like Vladof and Ripper.

Licensed Parts System

Licensed Parts system is a new weapon system in Borderlands 4 that allows any weapon to be loaded with Borderlands 4 items from other manufacturers. These parts significantly alter how a weapon functions, going beyond simply providing stat bonuses.

For example, a Maliwan SMG could be equipped with a Jakobs part to gain Jakobs special effect, allowing bullets to ricochet on critical hits. It could even be equipped with a Torgue part to allow ricochet bullets to attach explosions.

Players are guided through the system, and some manufacturers' higher-tier parts may not begin dropping until they reach a certain level. Furthermore, as players progress through the game, acquiring higher-rarity guns through drops and gambling with Borderlands 4 money, the number of parts available on their gear increases accordingly.

However, not all parts are licensed. The system retains traditional passive bonuses like increased reload speed and critical damage. These bonuses can come from any manufacturer, but they do not grant signature effects.

Each manufacturer's signature effects are granted only by its specific type of licensed parts. For example, only a Jakobs barrel grants a weapon Critical Bounce ability, and only a Torgue magazine grants a weapon Stick Explosion ability, while you can't use a Jakobs scope to grant Bounce ability. This ensures that the system's craziness remains structured and manageable.

Legendary Weapons

The unique effect of a Legendary is considered a fixed Legendary part, occupying a part slot. Therefore, a Legendary weapon may have fewer base part slots than an epic weapon because one slot is already occupied by Legendary effect. This limits the randomness of Legendary weapons, ensuring their core identity remains unchanged while allowing them to become more powerful or unique through additional parts.

However, this also means that Legendary weapons aren't necessarily the most powerful; some Epic weapons with specific combinations may even surpass Legendary weapons in power.

Special Weapons

Compared to the gun system, the rules for special weapons like grenades and rocket launchers are more complex and independent.

This system consists of several components:

  • The manufacturer's unique detonation method.
  • The payload determines the grenade's core effect (e.g., a sustained payload releases a continuous electric shock, while an MV payload may split into multiple smaller grenades).
  • Augments enhance the payload (e.g., increasing duration, damage, or range).
  • Stat Adjustment provides passive because of the onuses (such as concussion effects).

Additionally, weapons like throwing axes can now be equipped with licensed parts. You can add Jakobs parts to them for projectiles, potentially increasing the combo potential and power of weapons even more insane than in Borderlands 3.

Some players worried that all weapons would lose their manufacturer's uniqueness and become homogenized due to the mixing and matching, but the unique identities of each manufacturer are still preserved. Perhaps the greatest impact of the new weapon system is that it addresses the useless of presence of epic weapons in the late game. In the late game, epic equipment combined with four top-tier licensed parts may be the most powerful combination.

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