Borderlands 3 has 6 different (elemental) damage types, each one has its strengths and weaknesses, and in this guide, I’m going to explain what each one exactly does and how you can best utilize them.
Table of contents
Introduction to (elemental) damage types
The weapons in Borderlands 3 can inflict various types of damage on your enemies. Besides having the normal projectiles that deal physical damage, there are also a variety of elemental damages in the game.
These elements are; fire, corrosive, shock, cryo, and radiation. Each of them behaves a bit differently and excels at dealing damage to specific enemies.
You will encounter a lot of different enemy types throughout Borderlands 3. Each one has its own abilities, behavior, weak points, and so on. But all of them have a life bar, and this is where the elemental damage comes into play.
There are 3 types of life bars in Borderlands 3. You got your regular red health gauge, a blue shield gauge, and a yellow armored gauge. Each of these gauges has its strengths and weaknesses because dealing damage with one element will deal increased damage, while another element will deal less damage.
For example, a fire weapon is strong against flesh targets, dealing 150% damage. So if your fire weapon says it deals 1000 damage on its item card, it will deal 1500 damage against flesh targets. However, fire is weak against Shields and Armor and only deals 70% against those types of enemies, and therefore only deals 700 damage.
Exploiting an enemy’s weakness is very beneficial and becomes more important on higher difficulty settings like True Vault Hunter Mode and Mayhem Mode.
Elemental Damage Types
The various damage types each have their own effectiveness in Borderlands 3. These traits – both pros and cons – are boosted in True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM). The elemental effectiveness in TVHM and Mayhem Mode is the same.
Choose your (elemental) damage type wisely, Vault Hunter!
Physical Non-Elemental Damage (Kinetic)
Physical Damage is useful against everything. It has no special properties but also does not suffer weaknesses. Kinetic damage are your plain bullets, explosions, and melee attacks.
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 100% | 100% | 80% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 100% | 100% | 80% |
| Mayhem Mode | 100% | 100% | 80% |
Note: Kinetic weapons have a hidden elemental damage and chance stat. This is used if you have anointed gear that triggers elemental damage on your weapon.
Fire Damage
Fire damage is strong against Flesh and can cause targets to burn. Burning deals high damage over a 5-second duration (15 ticks).
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 150% | 70% | 70% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 175% | 50% | 50% |
| Mayhem Mode | 175% | 50% | 50% |
Corrosive Damage
Corrosive damage is strong against Armor and causes targets to melt. Melting deals high damage over a 7-second duration (21 ticks).
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 80% | 70% | 150% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 65% | 50% | 175% |
| Mayhem Mode | 65% | 50% | 175% |
Shock Damage
Shock damage is strong against Shields and causes targets to be electrocuted. Electrocution deals very high damage over a 3-second duration (9 ticks).
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 80% | 200% | 80% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 65% | 250% | 65% |
| Mayhem Mode | 65% | 250% | 65% |
Cryo Damage
Cryo damage doesn’t deal damage over time, but slows enemies down and eventually freezes them solid for 5 seconds. Cryo efficiency is the percentage of damage dealt that is applied as Cryo, at 100% efficiency, enemies will freeze at 20% health. Frozen enemies are unable to move and take 300% Melee damage
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 100% | 70% | 120% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 100% | 50% | 150% |
| Mayhem Mode | 100% | 50% | 150% |
Radiation Damage
Radiation damage can cause targets to become Irradiated. Irradiated enemies deal Aura Damage to nearby enemies for 8 seconds (24 ticks). If an Irradiated enemy dies, they explode, Irradiating any enemies damaged by the explosion (~2 meters or ~7 feet).
Weapons with the Radiation element will show up in the game once you reach level 13 with your character.
| Playthrough | Health | Shield | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 100% | 120% | 70% |
| True Vault Hunter Mode | 100% | 150% | 50% |
| Mayhem Mode | 100% | 150% | 50% |
Elemental Effectiveness Infographic
Each of the (elemental) damage types has its own effectiveness against certain enemies. You have enemies with Health, Shield, Armor, or a combination of these gauges. Check out the infographic below to see how effective each element is against each of these life bars.
| Life Bar | Color |
|---|---|
| Health/Flesh | Red |
| Shield | Blue |
| Armor | Yellow |
Best Elemental Damage Type in Borderlands 3
The classic elemental damage types – Fire, Shock, and Corrosive – all excel in one thing: they are the best option against bosses with that specific weakness.
Cryo and Radiation are both great damage types while mobbing in Borderlands 3, as their weaknesses don’t dip as much as the classic elemental damage types.
That said, keep your character build in mind when picking the best element. Did you know you can really increase your damage to new heights by adding the right anointment to your weapons?
Notes
- An enemy can suffer from multiple DoTs if they are all from different elemental damage types.
- An enemy can only suffer from multiple DoTs from the same elemental damage type if they come from a different damage source. For example, the first coming from a gun and the second coming from a grenade.
- The Shotgun DoT chance applies to every pellet, so hitting more pellets increases the chance to trigger the status effect.
- Artifacts and Anointments are great tools to increase your elemental damage outside of your character’s skill tree.
- Frozen enemies don’t take increased damage from Critical Hits, as in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel.
