The Bee is a Legendary item in Borderlands 2. This Hyperion shield may have a low shield capacity and a long recharge delay, however, that shouldn’t scare you away from this shield. The Bee has an extraordinary AMP damage output while not suffering from any shield drain, something which is present on other AMP shields. The shield drain would normally take place when your shield gauge is full and you start shooting your weapon. The drain is specified on the gear card, in the case of the Bee this is zero drain. Therefore, this combination of stats results in a ‘High Risk, High Reward’ gameplay style.
Because the Bee doesn’t suffer from any shield drain you can double down on this advantage by using weapons with a high fire rate. Since Patch 1.2.0. avoid shotguns as the AMP damage is now divided over the number of pallets that are on the gun card. Also, shotguns are known for their low fire rate, magazine size, and reload speed. However, Pre-Patch the “Bee + Conference Call” combo even destoryed raid bosses in a few seconds.
Since the rebalance of the Bee there are still a few weapons that you can use and take advantage off the AMP bonus. With some weapons, the projectiles split into multiple projectiles and because they are not specified on the gun card they all get the bonus AMP damage. This kinda makes these weapons overpowered. Therefore the Unkempt Harold, The Sandhawk, and a few others are very popular among players.
Elements:
Incendiary, Shock, Corrosive, or None
Special Weapon Effects:
Float like a butterfly…
- High amp shot damage.
- Zero amp shot drain.
- Lowered shield capacity.
- Increased shield recharge rate.
- Increased recharge delay.
How to get the Bee?:
- You can get the Bee randomly from any obtainable loot source but has an increased chance to drop from ‘Hunter Hellquist’ located in ‘Arid Nexus – Boneyard’.
- Hunter Hellquist is the radio host that is working for Hyperion. You can fight him in the side quest “This Just In”. He is located in Arid Nexus – Boneyard, at the top of a radio station just east of the Fast Travel.
- The Bee also has an increased chance to drop from ‘Treants’ in ‘the Forest’ in the “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep” DLC.
Borderlands 2 Legendary Bee Shield Location Guide
Notes:
- The Bee also affects vehicle guns and MG damage, but not saw blades, rockets, or explosive barrel. Damage taken by the vehicle does not count as shield damage on the driver, allowing the Bee to keep functioning even while taking fire.
- The Bee was rebalanced by Patch 1.2.0. The patch decreased the amount of Amp Damage (by about 10k for a level 50 example), increased Recharge Delay (by 2 more seconds), and reduced Recharge Rate (by 7k). Most significantly, Amp Shields have their Amp damage amount divided among the projectiles from multi-projectile weapons (all weapons with a yellow multiplier in the Damage stat), thus making all Amp shields, including the Bee, less effective on shotguns and other multi-projectile weapons, rather than more so. However, weapons such as the Sand Hawk, which fires out multiple projectiles but doesn’t have a yellow multiplier have amp damage added to each individual projectile.
- The Bee also no longer adds amp damage to Tediore reloads but still amplify damage of the Avenger.
- When the Bee shield regains all of its shields, a distinct buzz sound can be heard. This buzz can also be heard from other players and Deathtrap if they have the Bee shield equipped. When the player equipped with the Bee shield connects a shot on to an enemy, a sting can be heard as well.
- All Characters, to some extent, can use their various skills, Action Skill, Class Mods and to a lesser extent Badass Rank to mitigate the Bee’s downsides and maximize the benefits.
- Krieg makes poor use of the Bee, if his skills that delay his shield recharge, set him on fire or Silence the Voices are used. Krieg can maximize explosive and overkill damage but must avoid normal core skills.
- Axton’s Preparation and Willing together increase shield capacity and recharge rate while reducing the delay, and his Sabre Turret, especially with Gemini, can viably draw fire from himself to maintain full shield capacity.
- Maya’s Kinetic Reflection can reach 100% with a class mod, giving Amp damage as long as she has killed an enemy and stays out of melee.
- Although Deathtrap can draw fire, giving it a copy of the Bee from the Sharing is Caring skill will not add the amp damage to its attacks. Gaige can use Buck Up and Blood Soaked Shields to reset the recharge delay.
- While Gunzerking, the amp damage only applies to the right-hand weapon. Salvador can use a Slag weapon in the left to maximize Amp damage.
- Zer0’s Decepti0n skill can give additional time for shield recharge to occur and Death Mark, F0ll0wthr0ughand B0re skills maximizes damage.
Trivia:
- The shield’s flavor text is a reference to the late boxer Muhammad Ali, who described his fighting style as “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
