As with every other type of weapon, Borderlands 3 has a lot of legendary assault rifles for players to test out and try on different builds to see what can cause the most mayhem. These assault rifles range from being pretty useless to being some of the best guns in the game that can rip through enemy health in a heartbeat.
With there being so many and even more added through DLC, it can be hard to choose which ones work best and which ones can be thrown in the garbage or sold. So without further delay, here are the five best and five worst legendary assault rifles you can pick up in Borderlands 3.
10 BEST: Monarch
The Monarch has been a fan favorite since it was added during the Revenge of the Cartels event. It fires a spray of bullets at a rapid pace that can absolutely destroy enemies. To get this weapon, players need to farm Killavolt on mayhem level six or higher which can prove to be a little bit of a challenge but is totally worth it.
Each set of bullets it fires only costs one ammo making it capable of dealing a lot of damage with a single clip. It also has two fires modes and, when in bipod mode, deals double the damage at the cost of movement speed.
9 WORST: Bearcat
The Bearcat still has many problems that fans would love to have addressed. It is a Torgue assault rifle which means that it deals with explosions and due to its horizontal fire pattern, it tends to miss on smaller enemies making the explosions useless. Even worse, it consumes four ammo with each shot, making it run out of ammo extremely quick.
This ammo consumption wouldn't be so bad if it had an appropriate amount of damage to match it. Hopefully, this weapon gets buffed at some point but for now, the damage just isn't there.
8 BEST: Breath Of The Dying
The Breath of the Dying assault rifle is an interesting one, to say the least. It has a zero percent chance of applying the corrosive elemental effect that it always spawns with making it unable to cause damage over time. It makes up for that by causing elemental explosions every time you kill an enemy. This can be great for crowd control and bosses.
The other benefit of this weapon is the decent magazine size that it gets. While it isn't the biggest in the game, it can be increased with multiple skills from the different vault hunters.
7 WORST: Star Helix
The Star Helix assault rifle is a decent weapon, but not necessarily the best when it comes to damage. The reason for this is because of the way it shoots. The shots from this weapon end up traveling in a helix pattern making it harder to hit small targets with all three shots it fires.
When only hitting with one of the three bullets, the damage this weapon deals isn't worth the trouble of farming it. It can be useful for some of the bigger enemies, but players want something that works with every type of enemy.
6 BEST: Soulrender
Soulrender was added in DLC 2 and has an amazing special ability. The special ability of this weapon fires out skulls at random that can track to enemy crit locations causing massive damage. With the right build, Soulrender can rip through enemy shields and health.
It also has the added benefit that the skulls cause whatever elemental damage the gun spawn with. It is like have the Ghast Call grenade all the time which is extremely useful. It can be farmed Xam and Tom and has a decent drop rate.
5 WORST: Rebel Yell
The Rebel Yell is one of the original Borderlands 3 legendary assault rifles that even after the buff still isn't great. Its secondary fire mode shoots out tracker darts that cause shock damage and allow the regular bullets to always hit the enemy.
It is a fairly accurate weapon, but the tracker darts don't deal the damage they should to make it a viable weapon to use. It is hard to take down enemy shields with the little shock damage it deals and is often better to not use them at all.
4 BEST: Laser-sploder
Torgue has finally invested in laser weapons (which he probably hates). The Laser-sploder is an amazing weapon that fires a continuous laser with elemental explosions. It has a decent clip that can be further increased with the vault hunter skills and can absolutely destroy enemies.
It is mostly useful on Moze and Amara because of the bonuses that they get to elemental damage and splash damage. The added benefit of this weapon is the great accuracy that it has. It can be very forgiving even if you don't necessarily hit the enemy. This is because the laser bends slightly to hit enemies it is close to.
3 WORST: Ogre
The Ogre is a great weapon for Moze and Moze alone. If you aren't investing the time into making a Moze build, then this weapon is actually one of the worst to use due to its lack of damage and versatility. Most other assault rifles in Borderlands 3 are usable on most, if not all, of the vault hunters, making this a rare exception given how it's only beneficial to one specific build.
This weapon can't spawn with an element that limits its damage potential and deals nothing but splash damage. It is also hard to use this weapon at long range due to its massive bullet spread.
2 BEST: Rowan's Call
The Rowan's Call assault rifle is another version of the King and Queen's call pistols. It ricochets bullets every time you get a critical hit and returns two bullets to the magazine as well. This makes the weapons useful on multiple vault hunters. It also has the chance to drop with each of the elements.
Unfortunately, it can be harder to get this weapon since it is a world drop, but it is definitely a weapon to keep. The only downside to this weapon is that it doesn't deal great damage if you don't get critical hits. As long as your aim is good, this weapon is one of the best in the game.
1 WORST: Sawbar
The Sawbar is a returning weapon from Borderlands 2 that isn't absolutely amazing. It overheats very rapidly for a COV weapon despite having a reduced overheat rate. It is also limited with its potential because it always drops with the fire element.
Since it doesn't have a clip, it can be hard to pay attention to the magazine causing your bullets to run out very quickly. This weapon is dropped by Borman Nates and has a pretty low drop chance especially for a rare spawn enemy. It is better to save your time by farming for something else.