All Pearlescents' Mechanics, Licenses & Best Rolls

The Pearlescent rarity is a returning tier of loot rarity from the first two Borderlands games! These items feature their own unique effects and mechanics.

In this guide, I'll be breaking down the effects, acquirable licenses and the best rolls for each of these Pearls!

• Confused by terminology? Check out the Borderlands 4 General Damage Formula
• For more Gear Mechanics & Breakdowns, check out the Borderlands 4 Gearology

Many thanks to...

Girthquake, Grace, Iserrot, JoeForLong, Lango, Sinfector, wrw713, Steveo, Mattmab, Jack and Leo for their contributions to the Gearology guides.

Abyss Ripper Sniper Rifle

Abyss

It stares back.

Abyss - Increases damage the higher it is charged. If full charge is held too long, triggers a self-damaging explosion.

Mechanics

Rolls

• Kinetic only.

Conflux Maliwan Sniper Rifle

Conflux

It's self indulgent, I admit it.

Sinew - Deals +100% Damage per Status Effect on the target

Mechanics

• The Sinew +100% Damage is additive to On-Hit Damage boosts.
• Each Unique Status Effect provides +100% On-Hit Damage for the gun's shots.
• • This does not increase damage from other sources.
  • Skill Status Effects (like Bloodletter) are valid for Sinew.
  • The slowdown effect from Cryo immediately enables the damage boost.
• The valid Statuses for Sinew are:
• • Burning
  • Corroding
  • Slowed (Cryo & Northern Wind)
  • Irradiated
  • Shocked
  • Bleeding (Bloodletter)
  • Amon Weakness and Harlowe Daze statuses do not count.

Rolls

Constable Jakobs Shotgun

Constable

We see nothing truly till we understand it.

Lethal Deterrent - Leaves behind a trail of 'bubble' projectiles that explode on contact with an enemy or after some time.

Mechanics

The bubbles cause 3x Card Damage in a small radius.

• Bubbles receive splash, On Hit and On Shot Gun Damage.

Rolls

• Kinetic only.

Crazed Earl Ripper Shotgun

Crazed Earl

Earlescent.

BOGO - Fires Shards that stick into enemies. Meleeing enemies with Shards will explode the Shards and send them towards other nearby enemies.

Mechanics

Rolls

Crow-Sourced Order Assault Rifle

Crow-Sourced

And we had to share the rock!

Left of the Murder - Fires random objects

Mechanics

When charged, this gun shoots a number of projectiles equal to the square of the number of rounds fired:

There are multiple projectile types, at least five known:

Rolls

Eigenburst Tediore Shotgun

Eigenburst

An affinity for disobedience.

Determined - Damage increases as loaded ammo decreases

Mechanics

• The Determined damage boost is up to 100% when 0 shots are left in the mag.
• • It's additive to On-Hit Damage boosts.
• The boost is spread out over the entire magazine size, meaning a larger magazine takes longer to reach the last shot and, consequentially, the full boost.
• • Magazine refill effects bring down the boost in accordance to how much was refilled. A Witchy Trigger Finger proc, for example, will cause the effect to restart from 0%, since it's a full mag refill.
  • Staying at 1-0 ammo in the magazine results in full boost being applied to every shot.

Rolls

Gomie Jakobs Assault Rifle

Gomie

Still Got It.

Ascending Storm - On hit, gain a stack of Firestorm. Each stack increases weapon damage by 5%. Reloading unleashes Firestorm on nearby enemies.

Mechanics

Rolls

• Kinetic only.

Handcannon Torgue Pistol

Handcannon

Dangerous toys are fun, but you could get hurt.

Click Boom Boom - Sticky Projectiles deal Damage while attached to targets. Sticky fuse timer before auto-detonation is 6 seconds.

Mechanics

The Click Boom Boom special effect ticks 5 times over 5 seconds. Each tick uses 10% Card Damage as Base Damage. After the 6 second fuse passes, the stickies will explode, going through the usual Sticky Detonation formula.

• Stacking multiple stickies on the same target does not increase individual tick damage, but will create additional tick instances.
• The ticks are considered gun hits and can trigger gun-related effects. They go through the normal Gun Formula and receive all boosts, including Amp.

Even though the weapon card does not display a Sticky Multiplier per number of attached stickies value like on other Torgue guns, the weapon still receives normal access to it, with lower magazine sizes having a higher multiplier, as per usual.

• Since the fuse is 6s instead of the usual 10s, the player has to manually detonate much sooner, since auto-detonations do not benefit from the Sticky Multiplier.
• All damage boosts apply in accordance to the Torgue Sticky formula.
• • Gear Crit affects everything except the Click Boom Boom ticks from the Stickies.

Rolls

Herald Torgue Pistol

Herald

Out of 87 bazillion, ONE of them had to be the best.

Unkempt - Fires 3 bullets in a horizontal pattern that each split into 3 more bullets, for a total of 9 pellets per shot.

Mechanics

The central bullet spreads vertically instead of horizontally.

Rolls

• Can be Kinetic.
• Can be of any Element.

Jail-Broken Gatling Ripper Submachine Gun

Jail-Broken

Get busy shooting or get busy dying.

Jailbroken - On hit, gain a stack of Backfire. For each stack of Backfire, gain increased Fire Rate and an increased chance to fire off additional projectiles.

Mechanics

Maximum of 10 stacks. Each stack of Backfire provides:

• 8% On Shot Gun Damage
• ~10% Fire Rate

Whenever additional projectiles are triggered, the stacks are set back to 0.

The additional projectiles do not benefit from On Shot, Post-Add Amp and Amp damage boosts.

Rolls

• Can't be Kinetic.
• Always Elemental.

Juliet's Sparkle Maliwan Submachine Gun

Juliet's Sparkle

Dazzle the world.

Starfall - 33% Chance for Stars to fall for 1.25x Damage.

Mechanics

• The Star Projectiles are considered gun damage.
• • The 1.25x does multiply effects like Neutron Capture.
• The gun's projectiles have build-in piercing, which can be used for doubled hits through its splash radius when shooting through enemies at the ground.

Rolls

• Can't be Kinetic.
• Always Elemental.

Parasite Vladof Submachine Gun

Parasite

The obligation of the weak is to nourish the strong.

Devour - Hitting enemies with Locust Rockets increases their damage taken from Parasite's primary fire for 12s. Killing affected enemies with primary fire grants Overshield and refills 50% of the magazine.

Mechanics

• The increased damage taken is 30% On-Hit Damage. Effect doesn't stack.

Rolls

• Can't be Kinetic.
• Always Elemental (Any Element).

Screwstonian Daedalus Submachine Gun

Screwstonian

This reference was chopped.

Screwed Up - After consecutive bursts, Fire Rate is reduced and Damage is increased for 4 bursts.

Mechanics

Rolls

• Can't be Kinetic.
• Always Elemental (Any Element).

Solar Temper Order Sniper Rifle

Solar Temper

Carrington's Omen.

Temper - On Hit explodes. The explosion radius increases with each charge.

Mechanics

• The explosion is x1.25 Card Damage. It creates second gun damage instance that benefits from all relevant gun boosts, including On Shot effects like Amp.
• • It scales with charge level just like the normal bullet.

Rolls

• Kinetic only.

Soul Survivor Daedalus Pistol

Soul Survivor

At first I was afraid...

Adrenaline - Deals increased Damage for each ally in Fight For Your Life

Mechanics

Rolls

Elemental Override

Pearlescents have an intrinsic Elemental Override feature due to being infused with Ordonite.

The Elemental Override is a part that can be rolled as any of the available elements in the game. The weapon still rolls a base element as usual.

When a Pearl has an Elemental Override, it will convert the weapon's damage into that element whenever the player hits an enemy health bar that matches the Elemental Vulnerability of that respective element.

Pearl Part

Pearlescent Guns roll an extra weapon part. These Pearl Parts buff their respective stats to the detriment of the rest.

The only ways to know which Pearl Part you rolled is by knowing the specific attainable rolls of the weapon in question, or by using third-party editors and inspectors.

• Handling includes a multitude of stats related to Accuracy, Recoil, Spread and Projectile Speed.

This translates into Pearlescent weapons having extreme highs in terms of card stats, but also very low lows, turning the hunt for a perfect Pearl into a potentially longer grind than for any other gear in the game.

It's unknown why the Pearl Reload part also boosts Accuracy (and Handling?).