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Free Radical is a legendary pistol in Borderlands 3 manufactured by Maliwan and is exclusive to the Director's Cut DLC. It can be obtained as a drop from Hemovorous the Invincible, The Seer, Sumo and Beef Plissken.
Special Weapon Effect
Don't be so negative. – Greatly increased weapon damage (4.0x), increased fire rate and magazine size. Small splash damage area on impact. Always shock. Spawns homing projectiles on hit.
Usage & Description
The extremely large weapon damage multiplier also increases the status effect damage to remarkable levels, and the weapon inherits the natively high status chance of Maliwan pistols. It always spawns with at least one barrel accessory that increases status effect damage, and has a 50% chance of spawning with both such barrel accessories, as well as a 50% chance of spawning with a status effect damage magazine accessory. As a result, the Free Radical is an extremely strong weapon choice, especially for Moze and Amara, both of whom specialize in using status effects in combat.
Notes
- Care should be taken not to shoot targets (or obstacles) too close to the player. While the splash damage range of the pistol is not particularly large, the extreme damage, status effect chance, and status effect damage means that even a single self-inflicted shot could be sufficient to cripple the player.
Trivia
- A free radical is an atom or molecule with unpaired valence electrons (electrons in the outer orbital or layer of an atom), which make them highly reactive, and they will often spontaneously form bonds with other groups of atoms. As electrons are negatively-charged particles, the flavor text refers to the absence of one or more electrons from the valence shell compared to the state of a bonded atom or molecule. The homing projectiles the weapon produces are also a reference to the spontaneous formation of these bonds.
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