Normal — borderlands

Borderlands

Non-elemental, normal or kinetic weapons are weapons that have no elemental effects or damage bonuses, easily identified by a lack of element listed on the item card. Many weapons at the beginning of the first playthrough will have no element until around level 15 or so. grenades are also considered to do normal damage until a grenade mod is applied. Some weapons like Eridian weapons and rocket launchers have no element listed, but they deal elemental damage because of their weapon type (shock for most Eridian weapons, explosive for launchers).

While non-elemental weapons don't have the damage over time perk of shock, corrosive or incendiary weapons, or the area of effect damage bonus of explosive guns, they tend to have higher base damage than their elemental counterparts and are more useful in general if specialization isn't needed.

Notes

Jakobs guns are always non-elemental.
Scythid have increased defense against elemental weapons, meaning non-elemental weapons will work better versus them.

Borderlands 2

Non-elemental damage returns in Borderlands 2, and follows many of the same rules that apply to it followed in Borderlands. No white weapons (excluding Maliwan weapons, rocket launchers, grenades, and Torgue weapons) will spawn with an element attached.

Non-elemental damage is normally effective against shields and flesh, but less effective against armored enemies. Compared to elemental weapons, non-elemental weapons have higher damage and are more common.

Special Variants

Non-elemental variants of some weapons will have glowing effects where an elemental capacitor would normally be; the effect is purely cosmetic and has no effect on gameplay. Possible colors include:

White: Non-elemental Shredifiers and Emperors exhibit a white glow on the parts of the gun where it would glow if it were an elemental variant.
Pink: Non-elemental variants of the Madhous! and Badaboom exhibit a pink glow on the parts of the gun where it would glow if it were an elemental variant.
Orange: Non-elemental purple rarity bandit weapons exhibit an orange glow on the parts of the gun where it would glow if it were an elemental variant.

Notes

Jakobs still produces only non-elemental weapons, excluding the Stinkpot (corrosive), Greed (incendiary), Cobra (explosive), Twister (shock), Cyber Eagle (shock), Too Scoops (cryo), Boomacorn (random) and Moonface (explosive).
Although Maliwan doesn't legitimately produce non-elemental weapons (excluding the E-GUN), there are programmed prefixes for Maliwan weapons without an element (e.g. Maliwan SMGs have the "Technetronic" prefix).
The E-GUN is a Maliwan laser that is non-elemental, although it behaves similar to an incendiary weapon, dealing high damage to flesh, but weak against armor and shields.
Launchers and grenades listed as non-elemental deal explosive damage instead.

Borderlands 3

Effectiveness

No enemy health types are weak against kinetic damage in Borderlands 3, but armor is partially resistant in both Normal and True Vault Hunter mode.

Jakobs and Atlas weapons will always spawn non-elemental, excluding certain legendary weapons.

	Flesh	Shield	Armor
Normal	100%	100%	80%
TVHM	100%	100%	80%

Borderlands 4

Effectiveness

Non-elemental weapons are designed as Kinetic in Borderlands 4. In contrast to previous games in the series, where they suffer a penalty to armor, kinetic damage in Borderlands 4 is fully effective against all enemy health types, regardless of difficulty.

Jakobs and Order weapons will always spawn Kinetic, excluding certain legendary weapons.

	Flesh	Shield	Armor
Easy	100%
Normal
Hard

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Effectiveness

In contrast to previous games in the series, where they suffer a penalty to armor, non-elemental damage in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is fully effective against all enemy health types, regardless of difficulty.

	Flesh	Ward	Armor	Bone
Relaxed	100%
Balanced
Intense