u4gm Borderlands 4 weapons guide which makers really matter
-
So you have finally dived into Borderlands 4 and the loot flood hits you straight away. Every fight ends with a carpet of guns, and you are stood there wondering if that new drop is actually worth using or just more vendor trash. Those little green arrows help a bit, but they do not tell the full story, especially when you start caring about things like crit spots and ammo economy. The real trick is learning how each manufacturer changes the way a gun feels, and how it fits into your build, right down to how you move in a fight or when you spend your hard‑earned Borderlands 4 Cash on upgrades instead of spray‑and‑pray experiments.
Jakobs And Maliwan
Jakobs guns are still the show‑offs. If your aim is decent, they feel ridiculous in a good way. Big numbers, sharp sound, and that crit ricochet that lets you delete a second enemy without even looking at them. The catch is obvious the moment you whiff a shot. You are clicking as fast as you can, the fire rate is literally your finger, and every miss hurts. When you are calm and landing crits, they feel broken. When a psycho is in your face and you panic, they feel like dead weight. On the other side you have Maliwan. In older games the charge time put a lot of people off, but in 4 it is quicker and easier to live with. Being able to flip elements on one weapon mid‑fight is huge when you are swapping between shields, flesh and armour. You will notice the ammo drain though, so if you go heavy on Maliwan, you kind of sign up for more frequent reloads and more visits to the ammo machine.
Vladof And Dahl
Vladof is for players who like the feeling of holding the trigger down and watching the mag melt away. The accuracy is not amazing, and you will absolutely burn through ammo in long fights, but those under‑barrel toys change how you handle chaos. One second you are hosing bullets, the next you flip to a mini‑shotgun or a tiny grenade launcher to clear a group or stagger a boss. It is messy but it works. Dahl sits in a very different place. Burst fire while aiming feels clean, and the recoil is low enough that you can just track heads at range without fighting the gun. The raw DPS might not top the charts, yet if you like staying back, picking targets and not wasting rounds, Dahl fits that patient, tactical style better than most.
Tediore And Reload Tricks
People still joke about Tediore being the brand where you literally throw the gun away, but in Borderlands 4 it is not a throwaway gag at all. Every reload is a small explosion, and with the right parts it stops being a reload and starts being part of your damage rotation. You reload early to finish a mob, or to chunk a tankier target while you are moving to cover. It feels weird at first because years of shooters teach you to reload behind a wall, not toss your weapon at someone’s face. Once it clicks, you start timing reloads around enemy spawns and stagger windows, which is a very different rhythm compared with just keeping a magazine topped up.
Building A Mixed Loadout
The big mistake a lot of players make is picking one brand they like and trying to force it into every slot. Borderlands 4 really pushes you to mix things up. A typical setup that works well is running a Jakobs pistol or rifle for clean crits, a Maliwan SMG for breaking shields fast, and a chunky Tediore shotgun as your emergency button when enemies close the gap. That mix also spreads your ammo use so you are not dry on one type halfway through a boss. If a gun feels awkward, even if its level is higher, you are better off dumping it than fighting the gimmick. Pay attention to what you actually enjoy firing, what fits your cooldowns and movement, and where you want to spend your time and Borderlands 4 Cash buy when you start chasing a proper endgame build.