Last week, a Borderlands 3 update buffed some of the game’s worst legendary weapons, including the Lob legendary shotgun and the Malak’s Bane legendary sniper rifle. Since then, players have been busy testing out these improved guns, and, in general, the community’s response to the buffs has been fairly positive. However, it seems that Gearbox Software is not done with buffing sub-par legendaries, and a brand new Borderlands 3 patch has quite a number of weapons in its sights.

The new Borderlands 3 update is set to go live today, March 5, before 12pm PST, and again it puts its primary focus on buffing legendary weapons. Gearbox indicates that its intention with these ongoing buffs is to get more legendaries “up to par” in preface of the launch of Mayhem 2.0, an endgame revamp that was recently given a release month via the Borderlands 3 spring 2020 roadmap.

With respect to the legendary weapons buffed in the Borderlands 3 March 5 patch, a portion of them have simply had their damage generally increased. This includes the Firestorm, Krakatoa, Nine-Volt, Smart-Gun, and Storm legendary sniper rifle, and players will need to wait for the BL3 update to go live to see exactly how much more damage these weapons can deal, as that information is not covered in the official patch notes.

Today’s patch also has additional improvements for the Faisor, Hellshock, and Sickle, which are coupled with damage increases for these weapons. Kicking off with the Faisor, fans will find that this BL3 legendary assault rifle has had its shotgun projectiles increased from six to eight and that the rate at which its under-barrel shotgun refills ammo has increased. The Hellshock, on the other hand, will now fire two projectiles per shot, while the Sickle’s increased damage is supplemented with an improved rate of fire.

There are also two weapons buffed in the Borderlands 3 March 5 update that have not simply received a blanket damage increase. They are Crader’s EM-P5, which will deal 80% more critical damage when airborne, and the Thunderball Fist, which has improved damage on specifically its Initial Shot and Thunderball. While it remains to be seen if any of these buffs will be enough to put these guns among the best Borderlands 3 legendary weapons, it should at least make them all more viable.

All of this said, legendary weapon buffs are not all to be found in today’s BL3 hotfix, as a number of general bugs have also been addressed. Additionally, the descriptions associated with several Vault Hunter skills have been updated to more accurately reflect what they do, and a damage penalty attached to Moze the Gunner’s Active Tracking skill has been removed. For players that would like a comprehensive understanding of these changes, the full patch notes can be found below.

Borderlands 3 March 5 Patch Notes

Today we will release a hotfix for Borderlands 3, which will be live on all platforms by 12:00 PM PST. This hotfix addresses concerns reported by the community and makes buffs to various Legendaries. To apply hotfixes, wait at the main menu until you see a sign that says “Hotfixes Applied”! If you are experiencing any issues or want to provide feedback, please submit a ticket to support.2k.com.

  • Addressed a reported concern that Moist Hand Luke and Grabby Gretchen would occasionally spawn inside of the wall during “Playing with Fire” Addressed a reported concern that Eridium jars in Atlas HQ were occasionally despawning when leaving the area Addressed a reported concern where characters could sometimes get stuck between a bush and the railing in The Spendopticon Addressed a reported concern where characters could sometimes get stuck between a Ratch nest and a tree near the beginning of the Market District Addressed a reported concern that players were sometimes able to escape the boss arena during the Trial of Cunning Addressed a reported concern that the “Like, Follow, Obey” skin was sometimes displaying corrupt textures on the Gunner

Vault Hunters

This week, we took a look at some character skills that were occasionally not properly reporting what was happening in-game. For these instances, we have updated the description text to show the actual in-game values and removed an instance of a penalty that was not reported on its skill description.

  • Addressed reported instances of the Gunner’s skill descriptions sometimes showing inaccurate values

  • “Hell on Rails” skill description was occasionally showing +30% Fuel Drain instead of the actual +8%

  • “Corrosive Sabot Round” skill description was occasionally showing -50% Railgun Damage and Fuel Drain instead of the actual -33%

  • Addressed a reported concern that the Gunner’s “Active Tracking” skill was receiving a 50% penalty to damage per missile and ammo capacity that was not listed in the skill description. We have removed this penalty Fixed a typo with the Beastmaster’s “Furious Attack” skill in English Addressed a reported concern that Blood Cooled Jackbot’s beam attacks were bypassing the Operative’s barrier

Weapons

We are also looking at some of our Legendary weapons to get them up to par as part of the impending release of Mayhem 2.0, one of the Spring 2020 content additions we discussed at PAX East.

Crader’s EM-P5

  • Increased Critical Damage by 80% while airborne

Faisor

  • Increased amount of shotgun projectiles from 6 to 8 Increased the reload time of the under-barrel shotgun (rate at which the under-barrel shotgun refills ammo) Increased weapon damage on both firing modes

Firestorm

  • Increased weapon damage

Hellshock

  • Increased number of projectiles per shot to 2 Increased weapon damage

Krakatoa

Nine-Volt

Sickle

  • Increased fire rate Increased weapon damage

Smart-Gun

  • Increased weapon damage and the damage on the thrown projectile

Storm

Thunderball Fist

  • Increased damage on the Initial Shot and the Thunderball

Borderlands 3 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

Source: Gearbox Software