The Flame of the Firehawk is a Legendary item in Borderlands 2. This is a powerful Maliwan shield which repeatedly releases novas for as long as the shield remains depleted. If you use this shield be mindful of the skills you pick as some of the shield boost skills will nullify the special effects of the Flame of the Firehawk.
Elements:
Fire
Special Weapon Effects:
From the ashes, she will rise.
- Constant fire nova effect when the shield is depleted.
- This effect lasts indefinitely, as long as the shield remains at 0, and triggers roughly every second. Any shield recovery forces for a complete shield recharge before the effect can trigger again.
How to get the Flame of the Firehawk?:
You can get the Flame of the Firehawk from the optional side mission ‘Cult Following: The Enkindling’ located in ‘Frostburn Canyon’. This is the last mission involved in the Cult Following mission series.
Notes:
- On average (i.e., for most shield parts combinations), only the Black Hole and Hide of Terramorphous provide greater base nova damage; in practice, the Flame of the Firehawk will still deal more nova damage, because it can fire more than one nova burst. Only the Hide of Terramorphous has a wider blast radius.
- The Flame of the Firehawk can spawn with a Maliwan capacitor, granting the “Inflammable” prefix and fire immunity to its wearer. It cannot spawn with resistance against any other element.
- The reward icon for this item is purple for ‘very rare’, contrary to the orange rarity on the card when checked at any other time.
- The center of this shield is purple like common for a purple-rarity shield, while the prism of other legendary shields is normally yellow.
- When paired with the Grog Nozzle pistol, the Flame of the Firehawk’s nova damage will heal the wearer if triggered.
- A close range play-style as well as skills, class mods and relics that increase shield recharge delay or fire damage greatly improve the effectiveness of this shield. This tactic makes Krieg ideal as his skills not only increase fire damage and increase recharge delay drastically, but the nova blasts can active the skills Burn, Baby, Burn and Fuel the Fire setting him on fire and refreshing the time it takes for his shields to recharge.
- Moxxi weapons and Krieg’s skill Elemental Empathy allow the novas to heal the wearer, ensuring longer staying power than normal.
- When paired with Gaige’s skill Sharing is Caring, this shield allows Deathtrap to become a walking explosion, dealing massive damage to all nearby enemies.
Trivia:
- The Flame of the Firehawk is the only legendary item in the game given as a mission reward.
- Although Flame of the Firehawk is a legendary item, it is treated as a unique (not unlike the Norfleet) and can only be obtained as a mission reward.
- The name of the shield and its special effect is reminiscent of Lilith’s Phoenix skill from Borderlands.
- In recognition of the popularity of equipping Krieg with the Flame of the Firehawk, the “Meat Unicycle” Action Package for VaultHunter.EXE causes Claptrap to continuously emit fire novas while active, mimicking the behavior of the legendary shield.
- The flavor text refers to the mythological bird known as the Phoenix, which was said to die in a burst of flames and to emerge from these flames reborn, effectively being immortal.
