Tidal Wave is a unique shotgun in Borderlands 2 manufactured by Jakobs. Tidal Wave is obtained from the mission Uncle Teddy located in Arid Nexus - Badlands, by mailing the blueprints to Hyperion instead of Una.
Special Weapon Effects
Flee the Wave, Dude! – Fires 13 horizontal slow moving projectiles in a wave pattern that ricochets off of surfaces once if it does not hit an enemy.
Usage & Description
Due to the unusual nature of the pellet spread and behaviour, this gun is not much use past extreme close range. It is not good for fighting humanoid enemies due to their vertical frames and the horizontal spread of the shot. It is best for fighting wide-body enemies, such as skags and particularly loaders, as aiming can start at the critical locations in the leg joints and the recoil can rise up to the other three critical locations on the upper torso. It can, with some skill, be used to take rakk swarms, provided the swarm is grouped closely together, (the same can be said for bandits). Indoors, the ricocheting pellets may bounce off walls and hit enemies from behind.
One could use the Tidal wave to quickly take out crystalisks, via aiming for back leg, thus allowing the projectiles to not only hit all three critical locations, but also bounce back and hitting the front legs multiple times. However care must be taken in using this tactic, as the shots may rebound and considerably damage the user.
The Tidal Wave's spread and projectile path can be used to attack Saturn or Uranus without too much cover, eliminating their deadly explosive drones before they reach the character.
The Tidal Wave is also an ideal weapon to use against The Warrior, the final boss in the game. The pellets will typically be spread out to the point where The Warrior's entire chest will shatter if the gun is a high enough level.
Notes
- The Tidal Wave was dropped from DJ Tanner on Day 13 of the Borderlands 2 $100,000 Loot Hunt. A hotfix on that day increased the damage and makes the shots ricochet more.
- If fired inside cramped areas, especially the pipeline in the Badlands, the resulting ricocheting pellets can kill the wielder.
- A Maya build specializing in Life Tap and Inertia could use the tidal wave as an assault rifle replacement, utilizing it's unusual spread to hit multiple enemies and heal the user substantially, whilst giving it's already brief reload period an extra boost.
- A Gaige build utilizing Close Enough may find this weapon useful. Its projectiles will still ricochet towards enemies, piercing their bodies. This means that in very enclosed spaces, a projectile has the ability to ricochet multiple times, hitting multiple enemies or the same enemy for full damage.
Trivia
- This gun and its flavor text are a nod to the shotgun T.K's Wave and its Ride the Wave, Dude! featured in Borderlands. Its double barrel construction also resembles the shotgun used in TK's introduction from the first game much more than T.K.'s Wave, given to the player by Baha as "his shotgun".
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