History ScrappyWeapon / Borderlands2

** Jakobs Shotguns due to being a CriticalHitClass combined with a low magazine, making them basically useless if missed. The Quad-barreled shotgun is a debatable example, but many argue whether or not the damage output is worth the constant reloading.

* The '''CHOPPER'''[[note]]Bandit Assault Rifle with a huge magazine size and huge accuracy that continuously fires 4 projectiles at the cost of 6, has low accuracy and decreased reload speed[[/note]] is an assault rifle that has a magazine equaling to 100% of your ammo capacity and is capable of firing automatically without holding down the fire button. For an assault rifle, the gun drains ammo way too fast and has barely any damage comparable to other assault rifles, especially when they have lower critical damage compared to other guns. The CHOPPER fires four bullets at the cost of ''six'' ammo, which hardly makes sense for an assault rifle that fires normal bullets. And the fact that this is dropped from Dexiduous the Invincible, who is infamous for its up to '''99''' Eridium cost compared to 8 from the other raid bosses, it's considered to be hardly worth farming by most players.

** The '''Midnight Star'''[[note]]Torgue/Bandit MIRV grenade mod with increased damage which spawns less child grenades in a shorter range[[/note]] may sound good on paper due to its high damage rating for a MIRV grenade... until you realize that its cluster bombs always launch themselves towards you.

* The '''Whisky Tango Foxtrot'''[[note]]Dahl Booster Shield mod that releases IED Boosters rather than regular boosters; the boosters release 3 shock grenades after some seconds[[/note]] is a booster shield with the gimmick of deploying IED Boosters instead of regular boosters when shot, which can be picked up to replenish shields like normal boosters but also spit out Shock grenades for a few seconds when spawned. Those grenades can also damage the wearer. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard You should be able to see the problem]]. It doesn't help that the WTF tends to drop from [[MetalSlime Chubby enemies]] in place of something more useful and less likely to kill you. Thankfully ''3'' fixes this problem as the IED Boosters no longer harm you.

** E-Tech sniper rifles are generally disliked for their inability to score meaningful critical hits in most cases, which is something of a problem given that the main advantage of a sniper rifle is the ability to score critical hits easily; a sniper [=Zer0=], with a bunch of critical hit damage enhancers, will generally do better by selling all of his E-Tech snipers and just [[RockBeatsLaser buying Jakobs guns instead]] -- the enormous critical damage bonus from a Jakobs Diaub or Muckamuck is much more rewarding and uses less ammunition.
** E-tech shotguns essentially shoot large balls of goop in a ballistic pattern, causing splash damage. However, ''{{Franchise/Splatoon}}'' this is not; it's still far more effective to play towards hitting critical zones for better damage, plus the fact that the goop bullets are affected by gravity, making these shotguns poor at range. The Swordsplosion and its Effervescent counterpart Unicornplosion are exceptions to this rule, though being explosive Torgue weapons, they were never really meant to cater towards critical hits anyway.
** E-tech assault rifles are basically what happens if Maliwan made assault rifles, but fall short. Dahl E-tech assault rifles fire in a trident pattern, which can make for some decent damage up close. At range, it falters against anything but the largest targets, and eats up more ammo per shot. The Dahl E-tech assault rifle is also made redundant with the legendary Veruc, a Dahl assault rifle that also shoots in the same pattern but doesn't consume nearly as much ammo. Vladof Blasters are less problematic to use since they fire in a relatively normal pattern and can ricochet off surfaces, but given that this is [[MoreDakka Vladof]], they chew through your ammo like nobody's business.
** The [=BlASSter=] E-Tech assault rifle is also widely disliked, due to its low damage and accuracy, yet massive ammunition consumption because that's what E-Tech does; in short, it has all the downsides of being a Bandit weapon and an E-Tech assault rifle. It also lacks an element that pretty much every E-tech weapon comes with, including other E-tech assault rifles. Being given one as a mission weapon for "Medical Mystery: X-Com-Municate" (which is an early-game mission so you WON'T have the assault rifle ammo capacity to keep up with it) just adds to the frustration (although the mission doesn't technically require it, it just specifies "an E-Tech weapon", meaning that [[LoopholeAbuse if you wish, you could go on a rampage with a PRAZMA CANON or plasma caster instead]]).

* '''Captain Blade's Midnight Star'''[[note]]Torgue/Bandit MIRV grenade mod with increased damage which spawns less child grenades in a shorter range[[/note]] may sound good on paper due to its high damage rating for a MIRV grenade...until you realize that its cluster bombs always launch themselves towards you. Pretty much all of Captain Blade's cursed weapons are indeed cursed and aren't worth using (the Rapier does see some use by melee [=Zer0=] and Krieg builds for its enormous melee damage boost, helped by them both having ways to shrug off its downside, while the Orphan Maker sees use in a certain Salvador build for its sheer stopping power).

[[folder:Manufacturers]]
Every manufacturer has at least one undesirable trait. Here's every manufacturer's main downsides with their products.
* Despite the deceptively high blast damage and a likable CEO, Torgue, for its slow projectile speeds. With some exceptions, one should ''never'' use Torgue weapons at long range or against flying targets. Despite this, purple-quality Torgue rocket launchers, quad-barrel shotguns, and rotary assault rifles, are generally agreed to be amongst the best non-unique weapons in the game.
* Hyperion, for their poor early game and low-quality selection of weapons, which often result in very high starting recoil. A Hyperion sniper rifle would be definitely a recipe for motion sickness, and many players will pass them up for Jakobs or Vladof snipers in a heartbeat. It's not ''all'' bad, though: the one type of Hyperion weapon that players are likely to admit they enjoyed is - strangely enough for such an accuracy-focused company - shotguns, which avert [[ShortRangeShotgun the usual engagement range of such weapons]] with gusto and often come with excellent fire rates, and their Pistols and Submachine Guns tend to be decent if they come with the right accessories. They dropped the pistols in ''3'' and added shields to their other weapons.
* Bandit. Their main selling point is their ridiculous ammo capacity (the main reason why the S&S corporation from the first game does not appear in this game is because the bandits had driven them to bankruptcy with their own DIY increased ammo capacity pipe-kits) -- for instance, some shotguns will pack over 12 shots when the average shotgun is hard-pressed to carry more than six, and their pistols can boast upwards of 40 rounds. The problem is that this comes at the expense of almost all of their weapons' other stats--the accuracy in particular suffers from horrendous penalties both on shot grouping and recoil/sway, and the reload time is almost criminal in some cases, going over ten seconds for some of their machine guns. Their damage, though increased compared to brands like Dahl and Tediore, is still not much to write home about. Taken together, these mean that, barring some ''really'' good luck with part generation (which ''can'' happen), a Bandit weapon is usually the last thing you want to pick up. The playerbase in general tends to not consider Bandit ammo capacities as an acceptable tradeoff for missing more shots and doing less damage; more ammo in the mag only means more ammo wasted[[note]]though some Bandit parts on weapons from other brands are usually positive –- a Bandit grip extends the gun's magazines for minimal drawbacks, and are generally seen as a boon especially on Hyperion and Tediore due to the quirks of the brands, since a Hyperion gun with Bandit parts means more times shooting while fully stabilized per reload, and a bigger mag on a Tediore means a bigger reload explosion; their triple shotgun barrel is also quite decent with ignorable tradeoffs[[/note]]. The only popular Bandit weapons are their various rocket launchers. [[MacrossMissileMassacre dropping three rockets of any element on someone for the price of one]] is pretty damn effective, and Bandit's signature large magazine characteristic helps offset the typical rocket launcher's weakness while not intruding much on its other stats (reload times are usually just as long on other manufacturers). That said, they were truly RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in [[Videogame/BorderlandsThePresequel the Pre-Sequel]], with Scav weaponry and by the time they become the Children of The Vault in ''[[Videogame/Borderlands3 3]]'', their weapons are reworked to have "infinite" ammo capacity albeit at the cost of overheating and breaking.
* For Maliwan, many players aren't willing to sacrifice raw damage in favor of elemental damage over time without class-specific skills to even the odds. Maliwan guns trade off fire rate, damage, ammo efficiency, projectile speed and accuracy for elemental effects, few players will opt for a Maliwan SMG with corrosive rounds to deal with armored opponents when a Hyperion shotgun or Vladof assault rifle have the same element, and better performance. This is especially bad with Maliwan pistols, which trade off high damage for requiring twice the ammo a normal gun does (and still being outpaced by better DPS manufacturers thanks to their low rate of fire), and Maliwan rocket launchers (where raw single-shot damage and burst damage output are practically the only things people look for, and Maliwan rockets have neither). So they decided to create alt-fire modes that changes the element when ''3'' rolls around.
* Tediore, for their often impractical means of reloading and otherwise not-so-noteworthy except for some very rare and legendary weapons. While it's [[AwesomeButImpractical awesome]] to throw the weapon as a means of reloading and dealing instant damage, it also consumes the entire magazine remaining, which can drain a lot of ammo, and potentially hurt the player if thrown at a wall. Compulsive reloaders and Gaige players absolutely despise this company for playing completely against their instincts. Tediore weapons also tend to come with mediocre stats that are only rivaled by Bandit weapons. After their defeat at the hands of Vladof's Iron Bear Corps, Tediore decided to make changes to their reload system by the time of ''3''.
* Jakobs weapons never spawn with elemental bullets outside of a few unique cases, which can cause them to fall behind in higher difficulties, and they tend to be a bit ''too'' ammo-efficient in a game where ammo is everywhere. They also tend to have small magazine sizes, which is basically a death knell to their shotguns, often containing as many shells as fingers on a person's hand. To say nothing of Gunzerkers with tired trigger fingers having to focus on tapping as fast as they can with such weapons... At least the damage is good, though. And they've improved by the time of ''3'' by having shots ricochet nearby enemies upon a critical hit.
* Dahl is usually considered to be a MasterOfNone class which tends to fall behind in terms of critical damage. Not helping is that their gimmick is virtually inaccessible to Gunzerkers, whose action skill prevents them from aiming down sights and thus burst-firing, and that the burst-fire means that, despite being semi-automatic weaponry, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory you can't just hold down the trigger while aiming down sights in a prolonged firefight]] unlike almost every other weapon manufacturer in the game. This also really harms their sniper rifles, whose burst firing can make accurate sniping a real chore and consumes large amounts of comparatively rarer sniper rifle ammo. ''3'' fixes this problem by giving Dahl weapons a fire selector that lets them switch between regular and burst fire.
* Vladof tends to get off the easiest compared to the other manufacturers, as all weapon types they make are viable in their own way. However, the biggest criticism that can be said about Vladof is their inane ammo consumption on account of their signature fire rate. While pistol and sniper rifle ammo can be gathered up in bulk fast enough to max out one's reserve in due time, assault rifle and rocket rounds aren't so lucky. To say nothing of the infamous Vladof gatling barrel, mentioned below. The Darazan Bay Massacre preceding ''3'' showed Vladof that MoreDakka isn't enough, so they decided to add in alt-fire barrels.
[[/folder]]

* The Midnight Star may sound good on paper due to its high damage rating for a MIRV grenade...until you realize that its cluster bombs always launch themselves towards you. Pretty much all of Captain Blade's cursed weapons are indeed cursed and aren't worth using (the Rapier does see some use by melee [=Zer0=] and Krieg builds for its enormous melee damage boost, helped by them both having ways to shrug off its downside, while the Orphan Maker sees use in a certain Salvador build for its sheer stopping power).
* The Bane is an intentional example -- it has a slow reload, it slows movement to a crawl, and every noise associated with it is intentionally obnoxious. It is, however, hilarious to watch, and it actually [[LethalJokeWeapon packs quite a punch]].
* Few things beat out the Landscaper in terms of sheer universal hatred - a square shot pattern that is nigh impossible to aim at anyone, and low DPS make it nigh-impossible to like. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It also lacks a punchline to make it a funny]] JokeWeapon, unlike more self-aware cases such as the Bane, Morningstar, and Tidal Wave. This weapon, among other reasons, is why some people always side with the Zafords over the Hodunks at the end of the Clan War arc.
* The Bearcat is exceedingly unpopular for being an unimaginative pearlescent weapon based on an already-reviled weapon type: the Grenadier, Dahl's Torgue-barreled assault rifle. While it does consume less ammo per grenade than a Grenadier, each shot fires three grenades, resulting in a net increase in ammo consumption per shot. It also features a hefty spread, making it inaccurate at anything but short range. And it makes a return in ''Borderlands 3'', where it is admittedly a ''little'' better, but still not worth using.
* The Storm is considered to be, if not, one of the worst sniper rifles out of the Borderlands games. It is a pearlescent sniper rifle that instead of firing normal bullets, it fires exploding lightning bullets that release several shock orbs that zap nearby enemies. The catch? The bullets barely do any damage, and given this is a sniper rifle, it is very slow even taking in mind that the Storm is not bolt-action. As for the shock orbs, they barely deal any damage and have very little range to boot, as they require the enemies to get really close to even attack. Thankfully it has improved greatly in ''3''.
* The CHOPPER is an assault rifle that has a magazine equaling to 100% of your ammo capacity and is capable of firing automatically without holding down the fire button. For an assault rifle, the gun drains ammo way too fast and has barely any damage comparable to other assault rifles, especially when they have lower critical damage compared to other guns. The CHOPPER fires four bullets at the cost of ''six'' ammo, which hardly makes sense for an assault rifle that fires normal bullets. And the fact that this is dropped from Dexiduous the Invincible, who is infamous for its up to '''99''' Eridium cost compared to 8 from the other raid bosses, it's considered to be hardly worth farming by most players.
* The Emperor is a submachine gun with a good amount of damage and a huge clip, but gets flak for its horrendously slow fire rate that really cripples its DPS. As a result, it's simply outclassed by numerous other options, Legendary or otherwise - while its burst fire can be decently strong, its damage output is outperformed by the Lascaux, which becomes available at around the same time as the Emperor and is a ''guaranteed'' drop if you know where to look, and the Sand Hawk from the Scarlett DLC simply blows the Emperor out of the water.
* The Madhous! is fairly unpopular even for a Bandit weapon due to its bullets following an erratic waving pattern in the air; despite these bullets being able to split on contact with walls and terrain, it's still so inaccurate that using the weapon is essentially like playing Anarchy Gaige but without the damage bonus. It's not unheard of for the Madhous! to empty half a clip at enemies within almost point-blank range and still miss a good number of its shots.
* The Whisky Tango Foxtrot is a booster shield with the gimmick of deploying IED Boosters instead of regular boosters when shot, which can be picked up to replenish shields like normal boosters but also spit out Shock grenades for a few seconds when spawned. Those grenades can also damage the wearer. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard You should be able to see the problem]]. It doesn't help that the WTF tends to drop from [[MetalSlime Chubby enemies]] in place of something more useful and less likely to kill you. Thankfully ''3'' fixes this problem as the IED Boosters no longer harm you.
* The Cradle is a unique case of a weapon getting shafted not by its concept, but by an unfortunate bug that somehow went unfixed throughout the game's update history. It's a Legendary Tediore shield that is thrown away and explodes after being depleted, which could make for a cool item concept (particularly for Gaige and her ability to instantly recharge it with Blood-Soaked Shields). Unfortunately, the explosion damage doesn't scale properly, meaning The Cradle essentially has no gimmick as it barely tickles enemies at even moderately high levels.
* The Dalhminator is no different to E-tech pistols, so they contain all the negative traits of those weapons. What's worse about this weapon is that it's a reward for completing a fairly lengthy side mission. The Vault Hunters had to go through all the trouble with finding a secret treasure in the Caustic Caverns just to find this weapon.

* Despite the deceptively high blast damage and a likable CEO, Torgue, for its slow projectile speeds. For obvious reasons, one should ''never'' use Torgue weapons at long range or against flying targets. Despite this, purple-quality Torgue rocket launchers, quad-barrel shotguns, and rotary assault rifles, are generally agreed to be amongst the best non-unique weapons in the game. There are a couple of weapons that prove the exception to the rule. Still they decided to add in sticky rockets alt-fire mode in ''3''.

** E-tech shotguns essentially shoot large balls of goop in a ballistic pattern, causing splash damage. However, {{Franchise/Splatoon}} this is not; it's still far more effective to play towards hitting critical zones for better damage, plus the fact that the goop bullets are affected by gravity, making these shotguns poor at range. The Swordsplosion and its Effervescent counterpart Unicornplosion are exceptions to this rule, though being explosive Torgue weapons, they were never really meant to cater towards critical hits anyway.

** E-tech shotguns essentially shoot large balls of goop in a ballistic pattern, causing splash damage. However, {{Videogame/Splatoon}} this is not; it's still far more effective to play towards hitting critical zones for better damage, plus the fact that the goop bullets are affected by gravity, making these shotguns poor at range. The Swordsplosion and its Effervescent counterpart Unicornplosion are exceptions to this rule, though being explosive Torgue weapons, they were never really meant to cater towards critical hits anyway.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Unique Weapons and equipment]]

* E-tech weapons are universally seen as a major disappointment, considering they're hyped up in an early sidequest. Whether it be their added ammo consumption, strange and often PainfullySlowProjectile[=s=], low DPS, and the difficulty (if not near impossibility) in scoring critical damage, people tend to jump off the E-tech hype train pretty quickly. E-tech pistols and E-tech sniper rifles are universally hated due to their weakened projectiles (and in the case of spiker pistols; having ''no direct damage input whatsoever''), E-tech shotguns can't benefit from critical hits, and E-tech assault rifles simply consume too much ammo to be considered viable. Overall, the cons of E-Tech outweighed the pros so much that many weapon companies decided to ditch E-Tech in favor of adding alien tech barrels based on Eridian technology in ''3'' and they're far more powerful. Only the submachine guns[[note]]because they still fit well into the close-range spray-and-pray nature of other submachine guns with essentially no noticeable downside, and SMG ammo is plentiful enough for them to be decently sustainable[[/note]] and rocket launchers[[note]]for their comically huge blast radius that can even hit enemies ''through walls'', combined with a potent DamageOverTime effect on anything that survives and a much smaller self-damage radius so you don't kill yourself every time you shoot one[[/note]] are considered worthwhile. To elaborate:

** Both E-tech pistols, the Spiker and Dart, fire rounds that stick to enemies and detonate after a little while[[note]]think the Mine Thrower from the ''Resident Evil'' series[[/note]], and while the damage they cause is comparatively high, they can't crit, consume more than one round per shot (up to 3), and the delay means more hurt coming your way before the enemy dies, which becomes more troublesome as levels increase and by very very late-game (Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode with Overpower Level 10) they're pure VendorTrash. Good luck trying to survive Fight For Your Life with one. Better to just pick a Jakobs or Torgue if you're REALLY transfixed by the high damage per shot, or a Maliwan for elemental effect. Special mention must go to the Wanderlust, a pearlescent-rarity E-Tech pistol that sacrifices absolutely all of its accuracy and a bit of damage for the ability to ricochet its projectiles towards enemies.

* The Storm is considered to be, if not, one of the worst sniper rifles out of the Borderlands games. It is a pearlescent sniper rifle that instead of firing normal bullets, it fires exploding lightning bullets that release several shock orbs that zap nearby enemies. The catch? The bullets barely do any damage, and given this is a sniper rifle, it is very slow even taking in mind that the Storm is not bolt-action. As for the shock orbs, they barely deal any damage and have very little range to boot, as they require the enemies to get really close to even attack.

* The Whisky Tango Foxtrot is a booster shield with the gimmick of deploying IED Boosters instead of regular boosters when shot, which can be picked up to replenish shields like normal boosters but also spit out Shock grenades for a few seconds when spawned. Those grenades can also damage the wearer. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard You should be able to see the problem]]. It doesn't help that the WTF tends to drop from [[MetalSlime Chubby enemies]] in place of something more useful and less likely to kill you.

* E-tech weapons are universally seen as a major disappointment, considering they're hyped up in an early sidequest. Whether it be their added ammo consumption, strange and often PainfullySlowProjectile[=s=], low DPS, and the difficulty (if not near impossibility) in scoring critical damage, people tend to jump off the E-tech hype train pretty quickly. E-tech pistols and E-tech sniper rifles are universally hated due to their weakened projectiles (and in the case of spiker pistols; having ''no direct damage input whatsoever''), E-tech shotguns can't benefit from critical hits, and E-tech assault rifles simply consume too much ammo to be considered viable. Only the submachine guns[[note]]because they still fit well into the close-range spray-and-pray nature of other submachine guns with essentially no noticeable downside, and SMG ammo is plentiful enough for them to be decently sustainable[[/note]] and rocket launchers[[note]]for their comically huge blast radius that can even hit enemies ''through walls'', combined with a potent DOT on anything that survives and a much smaller self-damage radius so you don't kill yourself every time you shoot one[[/note]] are considered worthwhile. To elaborate:

** Overall, the cons of E-Tech outweighed the pros many weapon companies decided to ditch E-Tech in favor of adding alien tech barrels based on Eridian technology in ''3'' and they're far more powerful.

* Players often lament that Jakobs weapons never spawn with elemental bullets outside of a few unique cases, which can cause them to fall behind in higher difficulties. They tend to be a bit ''too'' ammo conserving in a game where ammo is handed out sporadically. They also tend to have small magazine sizes, which is basically a death knell to their shotguns, often containing as many shells as fingers on a person's hand. To say nothing of Gunzerkers with tired trigger fingers having to focus on tapping as fast as they can with such weapons... At least the damage is good, though. And they've improved by the time of ''3'' by having shots ricochet nearby enemies upon a critical hit.
* Dahl is usually considered to be a MasterOfNone class which tends to fall behind in terms of critical damage. Not helping is that their gimmick is virtually inaccessible to Gunzerkers, whose action skill prevents them from aiming down sights and thus burst-firing, and that the burst-fire means that, despite being semi-automatic weaponry, [[DamnYouMuscleMemory you can't just hold down the trigger while aiming down sights in a prolonged firefight]] unlike almost every other weapon manufacturer in the game. This also really harms their sniper rifles, whose burst firing can make accurate sniping a real chore. ''3'' fixes this problem by giving Dahl weapons a fire selector that lets them switch between regular and burst fire.

* Torgue, for its slow projectile speeds despite the deceptively high blast damage and a likable CEO. For obvious reasons, one should ''never'' use Torgue weapons at long range or against flying targets. Despite this however, purple-quality Torgue rocket launchers, quad-barrel shotguns, and rotary assault rifles, are generally agreed to be amongst the best non-unique weapons in the game. There are a couple of weapons that prove the exception to the rule. Still they decided to add in sticky rockets alt-fire mode in ''3''.
* Hyperion, for their poor early game and low-quality selection of weapons, which often result in very high starting recoil. A Hyperion sniper rifle would be definitely a recipe for motion sickness, and many players will pass them up for Jakobs or Vladof snipers in a heartbeat. It's not ''all'' bad, though, the one type of Hyperion weapon that players are likely to admit they enjoyed is - strangely enough for such an accuracy-focused company - shotguns, which avert [[ShortRangeShotgun the usual engagement range of such weapons]] with gusto and often come with excellent fire rates, and their Pistols and Submachine Guns tend to be decent if they come with the right accessories. They dropped the pistols in ''3'' and added shields to their other weapons.
* Bandit. Their main selling point is their ridiculous ammo capacity (the main reason why the S&S corporation from the first game does not appear in this game is because the bandits had driven them to bankruptcy with their own DIY increased ammo capacity pipe-kits) -- for instance, some shotguns will pack over 12 shots when the average shotgun is hard-pressed to carry more than six, and their pistols can boast upwards of 40 rounds. The problem is that this comes at the expense of almost all of their weapons' other stats--the accuracy in particular suffers from horrendous penalties both on shot grouping and recoil/sway, and the reload time is almost criminal in some cases, going over ten seconds for some of their machine guns. Their damage, though increased compared to brands like Dahl and Tediore, is still not much to write home about. Taken together, these mean that, barring some ''really'' good luck with part generation (which ''can'' happen), a Bandit weapon is usually the last thing you want to pick up. The playerbase in general tends to not consider Bandit ammo capacities as an acceptable tradeoff for missing more shots and doing less damage; more ammo in the mag only means more ammo wasted[[note]]though some Bandit parts on weapons from other brands are usually a boon –- a Bandit grip extend the gun's magazines for minimal drawbacks, and are generally seen as a boon especially on Hyperion and Tediore due to the quirks of the brands, since a Hyperion gun with Bandit parts means more times shooting while fully stabilized per reload, and a bigger mag on a Tediore means a bigger reload explosion; their triple shotgun barrel is also quite decent with ignorable tradeoffs[[/note]]. The only popular Bandit weapons are their various rocket launchers. [[MacrossMissileMassacre dropping three rockets of any element on someone for the price of one]] is pretty damn effective, and Bandit's signature large magazine characteristic helps offset the typical rocket launcher's weakness while not intruding much on its other stats (reload times are usually just as long on other manufacturers). That said, they were truly RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in [[Videogame/BorderlandsThePresequel the Pre-Sequel]], with Scav weaponry and by the time they become the Children of The Vault in ''[[Videogame/Borderlands3 3]]'', their weapons are reworked to have "infinite" ammo capacity albeit at the cost of overheating and breaking.

* E-tech weapons are universally seen as a major disappointment, considering they're hyped up in an early sidequest. Whether it be their added ammo consumption, strange and often PainfullySlowProjectile[=s=], low DPS, and the difficulty (if not near impossibility) in scoring critical damage, people tend to jump off the E-tech hype train pretty quickly. E-tech pistols and E-tech sniper rifles are universally hated due to their weakened projectiles (and in the case of spiker pistols; having ''no direct damage input whatsoever''), E-tech shotguns can't benefit from critical hits, and E-tech assault rifles simply consume too much ammo to be considered viable. Only the submachine guns and rocket launchers are considered worthwhile. To elaborate:

** E-tech assault rifles are basically what happens if Maliwan made assault rifles, but fall short. Typically, these assault rifles fire in a trident pattern, which can make for some decent damage up close. At range, it falters against anything but the largest targets, and eats up more ammo per shot. The E-tech assault rifle is also made redundant with the legendary Veruc, a Dahl assault rifle that also shoots in the same pattern but doesn't consume nearly as much ammo.
*** The [=BlASSter=] E-Tech assault rifle is also widely disliked, due to its low damage and accuracy, yet massive ammunition consumption because that's what E-Tech does; in short, it has all the downsides of being a Bandit weapon and an E-Tech assault rifle. It also lacks an element that pretty much every E-tech weapon comes with, including other E-tech assault rifles. Being given one as a mission weapon for "Medical Mystery: X-Com-Municate" (which is an early-game mission so you WON'T have the assault rifle ammo capacity to keep up with it) just adds to the frustration (although the mission doesn't technically require it, it just specifies "an E-Tech weapon", meaning that [[LoopholeAbuse if you wish, you could go on a rampage with a PRAZMA CANON or plasma caster instead]]).
*** Overall, the cons of E-Tech outweighed the pros many weapon companies decided to ditch E-Tech in favor of adding alien tech barrels based on Eridian technology in ''3'' and they're far more powerful.

While Borderlands has become well-loved for fun, engaging randomized loot, it's not to say that ''every'' weapon here can be good...

[[AC: Manufacturers]]

[[AC: General Weapons and equipment]]

[[AC: Unique Weapons and equipment]]

* The Madhous! is fairly unpopular even for a Bandit weapon due to its bullets following an erratic waving pattern in the air; despite these bullets being able to split on contact with walls and terrain, it's still so inaccurate that using the weapon is essentially like playing Anarchy Gaige but without the damage bonus. It's not unheard of for the Madhous! to empty half a clip at enemies within almost point-blank range and still miss a good number of its shots.

* The Midnight Star may sound good on paper due to its high damage rating for a MIRV grenade...until you realize that its cluster bombs always launch themselves towards you. Pretty much all of Captain Blade's cursed weapons are indeed cursed and aren't worth using (the Rapier does see some use by melee [=Zer0=] and Krieg builds for its enormous melee damage boost, helped by them both having ways to shrug off its downside).

* The Bearcat is exceedingly unpopular for being an unimaginative pearlescent weapon based on an already-reviled weapon type: the Grenadier, Dahl's Torgue-barreled assault rifle. While it does consume less ammo per grenade than a Grenadier, each shot fires three grenades, resulting in a net increase in ammo consumption per shot. It also features a hefty spread, making it inaccurate at anything but short range. And it makes a return in ''Borderlands 3'', where it is admittedly a ''little'' better, but still not worth using.

* The Midnight Star may sound good on paper due to its high damage rating for a MIRV grenade...until you realize that its cluster bombs always launch themselves towards you. Pretty much all of Captain Blade's cursed weapons are indeed cursed and aren't worth using.
* The Bane is an intentional example -- it has a slow reload, it slags you, it slows movement to a crawl, and every noise associated with it is intentionally obnoxious. It is, however, hilarious to watch, and it actually [[LethalJokeWeapon packs quite a punch]].

* Tediore, for their often impractical means of reloading and otherwise not-so-noteworthy except for some very rare and legendary weapons. While it's [[AwesomeButImpractical awesome]] to throw the weapon as a means of reloading and dealing instant damage, it also consumes the entire magazine remaining, which can drain a lot of ammo, and potentially hurt the player if thrown at a wall. Compulsive reloaders and Gaige players absolutely despise this company for playing completely against their instincts. Tediore weapons also tend to come with mediocre stats that are only rivaled by Bandit weapons. After the defeat at the hands of Vladof's Iron Bear Corps, Tediore decided to make changes to their reload system by the time of ''3''.
* Players often lament that Jakobs weapons never spawn with elemental bullets outside of a few unique cases, which can cause them to fall behind in higher difficulties. They tend to be a bit ''too'' ammo conserving in a game where ammo is handed out sporadically. They also tend to have small magazine sizes, which is basically a death knell to their shotguns, often containing as many shells as fingers on a person's hand. To say nothing of Gunzerkers with tired trigger fingers having to focus on tapping as fast as they can with such weapons... At least the damage is good, though.

* The Bearcat is exceedingly unpopular for being an unimaginative pearlescent weapon based on an already-reviled weapon type: the Grenadier, Dahl's Torgue-barreled assault rifle. While it does consume less ammo per grenade than a Grenadier, each shot fires three grenades, resulting in a net increase in ammo consumption per shot. It also features a hefty spread, making it inaccurate at anything but short range. And it makes a return in ''Borderlands 3'', where it is admittedly a ''little'' better, but still not worth using.
* From ''Borderland 3'''s DLC, we have the Jakobs Shoddy, another intentional example. It is described as a ShoddyKnockoffProduct and it has literally ''zero'' range; the pellets drop to the floor the second they leave the barrel. It is part of a side-quest involving the player running around to their their money back.