Special Weapon Effects

Careful... you might put someone's eye out. – Magazine size of 20, high fire rate, reduced base damage, does not spawn with a scope.

Usage & Description

The Rider is a scopeless sniper rifle suitable for shooting near to mid-range targets. Due to its limited farming options, where it cannot be obtained beyond a narrow window of Playthrough 1 and Playthrough 2, it is frequently regarded as a poor choice of weapon.

Mechanics

The Rider gets its effect from the Ryder_mag5 magazine, which is responsible for the increased fire rate and ammo capacity. All other aspects are defined by the predetermined parts: sight_none, body5, barrel2, and stock2. The only un-defined part of the Rider is accessory. The Rider is made of Ryder_Material, which has absolutely no modifiers. Please see stat modifiers for an explanation on how to interpret all of these modifiers.

Notes

• The Rider is only obtainable from the red chests in the Hidden Basement.
• The Hidden Basement is only accessible during Another Piece Of The Puzzle. It can only be accessed before or after the mission with the medkit glitch.
• The Rider can be used by Mordecai as a cross between a Pounder combat rifle with its close to mid-range capability while retaining the high critical hit damage of a sniper rifle
  • This requires the right accessory, high sniper rifle proficiency, a class mod that boosts sniper rifle bullet damage and taking the Caliber and Deadly perks.
    • Despite its effectiveness, it uses sniper rifle ammo rather fast, draining ammo that would otherwise be used by a stronger sniper rifle.

Trivia

• The gun is a reference to A Christmas Story. The main protagonist, Ralphie, continually tells everyone that he wants a Red Ryder BB Gun, to which everyone (including Santa) responds, "You'll shoot your eye out."
• Aside from the pre-order "Mercenary Guns Pack" code and the six legendaries added in The GOTY Enhanced Edition, the Rider is the only weapon appearing in Borderlands that is manufactured by Gearbox. However, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx adds several more Gearbox-manufactured weapons. 
• The parts for the Rider have inconsistent spelling in the weapon code — some use "Rider", while others use "Ryder".

See also

• Whitting's Elephant Gun
• Borderlands pop culture references