Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – Choosing the Best Element

Pulverize your enemies with the new elemental add-ons and weapon types available in Borderlands.

This past week, we published Beginners and Advanced tips for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, the latest chapter in 2K Games’ co-op first-person shooting series.

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Today’s mini-guide breaks down the five elements you can combine with guns to access different perks in the heat of battle. You’ll want to use these whenever you can, especially against bigger enemies that require a huge amount of firepower to bring down. 

Each of these elements are easy to apply to your gear, but you’ll want to make sure you save them for the right situations, rather than wasting them on soldiers you can easily kill with traditional weaponry and ground slams. Nevertheless, be sure to experiment and see which ones work right for you.

Cryo

This new element lets you stop an enemy in its tracks by turning it into a popsicle. Smaller guns may require more shots to freeze someone, but you should have little trouble with the bigger weapons.

However, the Cryo effect alone won’t kill them. It’ll just freeze them over. You’ll want to make sure you follow up with some form of secondary attack to shatter these bozos, such as a strong melee attack, ground slam or a powerful hit with a secondary weapon. Rocket launcher for the win!

This is great if you find yourself surrounded, as you can even the odds by freezing a batch of baddies with a few well-placed shots.

Just remember that freeze effects don’t work nearly as well against enemies with shields.

Incendiary

If you prefer something a little hotter, go with Incendiary capabilities with lasers.

For example, if you hit an enemy with a laser with a moderately good shot, you’ll set them ablaze. While that won’t stop them completely (depending on their strength, of course), it will produce additional damage, making it much easier to bring them down.

In addition, setting someone on fire will make him easier for co-op partners to identify.

Corrosive

Next up is Corrosive, an ability that’s perfect against larger, armor-wearing foes. You’ll run into a number of these guys while exploring Elpis, so you’ll want to make sure you have this on hand when the situation calls for it.

With Corrosive damage, you’ll be able to deal an additional 50 percent damage to armored foes, as it eventually chips away at their health and leaves them vulnerable enough for you to destroy them with your primary weapon.

However, there’s a drawback with this level of damage when it comes to regular and shielded enemies. Against regular types, the element does 40 percent less damage, while shielded baddies take 25 percent less damage.

Try to have someone on the team add a Corrosive element when you know you’re up against some well-armored soldiers. It’ll pay off in the long run.

Shock

If you prefer things to get electric in battle, your best bet is definitely Shock damage. By applying this to your gear, you’ll be able to deal additional damage to shielded enemies, delivering a shock to the system – literally.

With this element armed, you’ll achieve an additional 100 percent damage to shielded opponents. While it doesn’t provide a great wealth of power over the other types, it does deliver an interesting effect nevertheless, so keep it on hand when you get a chance.

Explosive

Finally, there’s the Explosive element, and this works in a similar manner to Incendiary, but with more of a kick. Once armed, you’ll be able to hit enemies with a one-two punch, so to speak, as the main impact of the weapon will do damage first, but then a burn-like effect will be left behind to hurt enemies even more. While no critical hits will come from using this, it’ll still do sufficient damage – and also light up enemies so your teammates can see them.

Keep in mind that shielded enemies are more prepared to take this damage, as they’re likely to receive 20 percent less pain from Explosive effects. Regardless, it’ll still do damage, and the bang just might be big enough to hit more than one foe if they’re close by.

Be sure to get the complete, official guide to Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, available now.

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel Guide


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