Digistruct is a futuristic technology featured in the Borderlands universe. Digistruct is the technique of having a digital blueprint of an item, person, or creature that allows for it to be built on demand. The exact nature of digistructing is uncertain, as while items are seemingly digitally constructed they behave more like real matter than holograms or even some imitation material. Items scanned by a digistructing device, person or device or even currency like dollars and eridium ingots are deconstructed and stored in a specialized storage systems ranging from planet wide terminals to personal backpack units.

Digistructed items

• Weapons pulled from the holster
• Catch-A-Ride Stations and Vehicles
• Axton's Sabre Turret
• The blade of Zer0's sword
• Gaige's melee claws when her Melee Override Skill, With Claws, is active
• Deathtrap and its claws
• Tediore weapons in Borderlands 2 and onwards. On reload, they are thrown with all ammo left in the weapon and destroyed in an explosion. A new one is then digistructed in the user's hands at no additional cost.
• Characters respawning at New-U Stations
• Guardians spawned by various pedestals
• Loaders and other Hyperion enemies spawned from Constructors and digistruct pedestals found in Hyperion-occupied areas
• Explosive barrels on the catapult of Bandit Technicals and H3RL-E
• All enemies/loot chests on Digistruct Peak
• Moze' Iron Bear mech
• All enemies in The Holodome
• Several entities spawned by VaultHunter.EXE
• ECHO-4

Notes

• The first mention of the term "digistruct" is made by Scooter in the mission Bone Head's Theft. The objective of the mission is to recapture a stolen digistruct module in order to restore a Catch-A-Ride station.
• Claptrap has a built-in digistruct module contained in the tray that pops out of his chest.^[1]
• Other items that may be presumed to be digistructed but not confirmed by Gearbox are:
  • Weapons and items from vending machines and Slot Machines
  • Roland's Scorpio Turret
  • Grenades, Health Kits, and Ammo pulled from the backpack
  • Brick's melee weapon
  • Krieg's thrown buzz axe
  • Sawblades fired by Bandit Technicals

Trivia

• Digistructed items seem to behave exactly like the objects they copy, living or inanimate, and digistructed items. For example, digistucted vehicles leave behind parts after destruction. People revived through the process eat and bleed real blood (and can apparently be eaten).
• According to Gearbox President Randy Pitchford, digistruct technology is "mostly unknown - derived from Eridian tech discovered by Atlas corp. It's like harnessing fire before understanding it"^[2].
• The Borderlands 2 development team describes the digistruct concept: "...this means that a lot of things, including vehicles and some other weapons, are actually holographic or digital constructions, made out of whatever they came out from".^[3]

References