Borderlands 3 is ditching Slag for a new weapon element: Radiation

There’s no shortage of ways for you to horribly maim and mutilate bandits inside of Borderlands. After all, they called you nasty names, hurt your feelings and they totes deserve to have their faces set on fire with an alien shotgun that shoots an entire siege of Leningrad’s worth of ammo right into their squishy heads. Overreact much? NO DAMMIT, GET OFF MY BACK MOM!

Back in Borderlands 2, Gearbox introduced an interesting new mechanic to the carnage that you could wreak. Called “Slag”, this new element allowed you to fire questionable toxic criticism and rave-goers with dodgy virtue at enemies. No wait, it was some kind of funky weird purple slime. What would slag do to anyone caught in the crossfire?

It’d pretty much weaken them, make you do even more damage and melt the sponginess off of some of the hardiest threats on Pandora. It was a property that came about from Handsome Jack’s mining of Eridium on the planet, and with the Hyperion CEO now no more by the time that Borderlands 3 begins, it looks like vault hunters will have a new element to play with that takes the place of Slag. Say hello, to Radiation:

“There is no slag – we replaced it with something that actually makes a little sense,” Gearbox CEO and magician Randy Pitchford wrote on Twitter.

The new “element” damage type, which is like a nuclear radiation effect, has a similar effect to slag (increased vulnerability by those affected) and also has a damage-over-time component.

I like that, a corrosive element to play around with. I’m also hoping that Borderlands 3 will also see the return of laser weapons from the Pre-Sequel, especially those ones that have a magnificent beam attack. Just remember, don’t cross the beams in co-op. Borderlands 3 will be out on September 13 for console and PC. Wub wub.

Last Updated: April 23, 2019