Borderlands 3 has an ungodly amount of guns to choose from, and many of them come with special damage types to further diversify your armament. Not every damage type is well explained though, so we’re here to give you a crash course on what each damage type does and how to use them.
Every Damage Type in Borderlands 3 Explained
To get right to the point, there are six key types of damage in Borderlands 3: Normal, Shock, Incendiary, Corrosive, Cryo and Radiation.
Each one deals continuous damage in addition to the damage dealt by their weapon, and has specific instances where they’re more useful than other types of damage. As such, there’s ample reason to keep a weapon that can deal each type of damage on hand, either in your inventory or your item bank.
A detailed description of each damage type can be found down below.
| Normal Damage | – Basic damage with no special attributes. – Doesn’t cause any continuous damage, but effective against all enemies and health bars in Borderlands 3. |
| Incendiary Damage | – Sets enemies on fire.- Highly effective against flesh (red health bars) and organic enemies like Skags, Bandits and Fanatics. |
| Shock Damage | – Electrifies enemies for a continuous stream of damage. – Causes double damage if the shocked enemy is in water. – Highly effective against shields (blue health bars). |
| Corrosive Damage | – Melts away at enemies with acidic damag – Any enemies that touch an enemy hit with corrosive damage will start to take damage as well. – Especially effective against armored enemies (yellow health bars) like robots and mechs. |
| Cryo Damage | – Chills targets for continuous freezing damage. – Freezes targets solid if enough shots are landed in succession, making enemies more vulnerable to damage. |
| Radiation Damage | – Eats away at targets with radioactive energy. – Enemies hit with Radiation give off a harmful field of damage around them, spreading the effect to their allies (or you, if you’re too close). – If killed while radioactive, they’ll also explode and spread radiation damage all around them. |
When to Use Each Damage Type
As for when you should use each damage type in Borderlands 3, it varies depending on the situation you’re in.
If you’re in an area with plenty of fleshy enemies, keep an Incendiary weapon handy to sap their health bars quickly. For areas with more technologically advanced enemies, have Shock and Corrosive weapons on hand to deal with robots or shielded foes.
If you’re skilled at fighting up close and personal or need to immobilize enemies for melee attacks, have a Cryo weapon on hand. Counter to that, if you prefer to deal all of your damage from a safe distance, make sure you have a radiation weapon on hand.
Finally, as a rule of thumb, always have at least one normal damage weapon on hand. Though it may not deal as much damage as the other weapon types, it’ll allow you to take on enemies with elemental resistances without concern, and keep you from being cornered in an otherwise easily winnable situation.
That’s all there is to know about all Borderlands 3’s damage types. For more on the game, check out our guide on the game’s Proving Grounds, or our guide wiki for more tips, tricks, and information.
