Alright, I finally sat down and did it. With 100+ hours of Borderlands 3 playtime and hundreds of legendary drops, I’m finally comfortable making this list. A list that I’m sure many will disagree with, given that I may have left out your favorite, but I’m doing my best here. I haven’t used every single legendary in Borderlands 3 yet, but I’m certainly close, and there are ten I think stand out above most of the others.
I am going to rank these in rough order, but it’s also kind of hard because some guns are better for one class over another. A gun that’s amazing for FL4K’s Fade Away crit build might not be good for an Amara elemental build, obviously, so context counts.
But yeah, here are the ten best legendary guns in Borderlands 3 I can come up with, and I welcome your suggestions for alternatives.
10. One-Pump Chump
This shotgun is a rare drop from a specific boss (a special psycho in Lectra City), and it has a single shot that does just massive damage to the point where you can create a number of very cool one-shot builds with it. It also has the potential to not use up the shot you fire, meaning it’s often far more than just one shot. It’s not my favorite shotgun (as you’ll see), but I think it’s earned this final spot here by a nose.
9. Rowan’s Call
This is a Jakobs elemental assault rifle that I think does a hell of a good job of mob clearing. I use it as my FL4K crit build non-boss killer when I’m just playing normally, because crits refund two shots to the magazine and split out two shots to enemies. As such, you can send elemental rounds flying to an entire room without having to reload for a good long while. I love it.
8. The Duc
Another Jakobs weapon, this one attacks sticky rounds to enemies that do pretty massive damage, and the split shots of Jakobs crits means you can cover an entire room in stick bombs with some accurate shots (or a FL4K crit frezy).
7. Speedloadin’ Hellwalker
This double barrel shotgun is, yet again, another Jakobs, and weirdly, every single time I see this drop, it’s anointed, usually with the same perk increasing its elemental chance. The thing is great on almost all classes and a real blast to use, no pun intended. I prefer it to One-Pump, personally, but it still pales to a gun that will show up later on this list.
6. Lyuda
This thing is a Vladof, fully automatic sniper rifle that may not be great for moment to moment combat, but it is without question one of the best boss burners in the game when it empties that clip directly into a crit spot. Or again, with FL4K, of course.
5. King’s/Queen’s Call
(Update: I am knocking this down from #2 to #5 after recent nerfs literally an hour after I published this that reduce fire rate, and reduce damage for Jakobs revolvers).
The ultimate boss burning weapon in the game, this set of Jakobs revolvers essentially do the same thing, send loads of elemental rounds screaming at an enemy on crits, and the thing just eats through bosses. These only drop from the final boss of the game, but I’ve found them pretty easy to farm with just a few kills each. I still don’t know if there’s any actual difference between them.
4. Firesale Long Musket
This SMG is not an SMG at all, but a short range flamethrower that when throw, creates other, smaller short range flamethrowers. Its one disadvantage is its range, meaning you have to be up close and personal for it to do its work, but it absolutely melts when you’re in range and is a monster for burning through pretty much anything on any difficulty.
3. Laser-Sploder
I freaking love this gun. It’s essentially like firing two guns at the same time, as thanks to Torgue ingenuity, you are firing both a medium range elemental laser stream and also a bunch of explosive rounds at the same time. This is a great gun for any class and I have used it more than any other AR since I got it.
2. Night Hawkins
This Stranger Things themed SMG is one I honestly don’t even fully understand. It just does so much damage, especially in burst fire mode, that it outclasses almost everything else in the game I use. I think its perk is supposed to be that it does more damage at night, but really, it just does insane damage whenever I use it. Maybe rating it this high is a stretch for some, but I’m telling you, for whatever reason, this thing has just been monstrous for me.
1. Flakker
This freaking gun man. When I was making this list, I knew that there would be nothing else in the number one slot. The Torgue shotgun creates an absolutely massive explosion in the near vicinity of where you fire it, often one-shotting enemies in any Mayhem difficulty. It got to the point where this gun is so good on so many classes I actually stopped using it because it just wasn’t fun to only use it. But now I always keep one on me to wipe out annoying Anointed enemies as it murders them with 3x the efficiency as anything else. Oh and you can nuke most bosses with it too, because why not. This thing is an absolute destroyer of worlds.
All of these guns are random drops from anywhere except for One-Pump and King’s/Queen’s Call. Get to farming, and let me know your favorites that I may have missed that I should give a chance to.
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