The Pearlescentrarity 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!
Girthquake, Grace, Iserrot, JoeForLong, Lango, Sinfector, wrw713, Nepta, Steveo, Mattmab, Jack and Leo for their contributions to the Gearology guides.
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.
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 benefitfrom 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.
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.
Starfall- 33% Chance for Stars to fall for1.25x 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.
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.
Raiden- On Kill, spawn a Projectile Count Booster that increases the projectiles per shot for 14 seconds. Pickup effect stacks.
Mechanics
Anything that ends up killing an enemy will spawn a Projectile Count Booster at the current location of the Vault Hunter if and only if they have the weapon in hand. The kill doesn't have to be from the Raiden itself.
Projectile Count Boosters can only spawn and be picked up while the Vault Hunter has the weapon in hand.
The duration of each stack is individual.
The maximum Projectile Count Boosters that can be active at once is 10.
Each booster adds one full projectile count to multiprojectile weapons. So a Spread Launcher at 10 boosters shoots FIFTY FIVE grenades.
The formula is: Weapon Projectile Count + (Booster Count x Weapon Projectile Count) = Total Projectiles
Vex's Heirloom can be given the weapon and spawn boosters on itself, but those will only spawn if the kill was caused by Heirloom.
Projectile Count Booster effect persists on weapon swaps for its remaining duration, works on other weapons and even underbarrels.
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.
Adrenaline - Deals increased Damage for each ally in Fight For Your Life
Mechanics
Rolls
Drop Source
Available Licenses & Parts
Best Rolls
The Penitent Steel
COV (Unlimited Mag) (Fixed)
Hyperion (Accuracy Grip)
Atlas (Dart Underbarrel) (Fixed)
Atlas (Grenade Underbarrel) (Fixed)
GBX Removed most licensed parts on this DLC's Pearls
Pearl Mechanics: Elemental Override
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.
Override Element
Overrides when hitting
Armored Health Bar
Flesh Health Bar
Shielded Health Bar
Shielded Health Bar
If the base element isn't Shock
Flesh Health Bar
If the base element isn't Incendiary,Cryoor Kinetic
Armored Health Bar
If the base element isn't Corrosive
Flesh Health Bar
If the base element isn't Incendiary, RadiationorKinetic
Armored Health Bar
If the base element isn't Corrosive or Cryo
Flesh Health Bar
If the base element isn't Incendiary, Radiation or Cryo
Shielded Health Bar
If the base element isn't Shock or Radiation
Pearl Mechanics: Pearl Part
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?).
