Borderlands 3 Will Not Have Slag Weapons

The infamous Slag weapons from Borderlands 2 will not be appearing in Borderlands 3, according to Gearbox's Randy Pitchford.
In a response to fan questions on Twitter, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says that Slag weapons will not be returning to Borderlands 3 when it releases later this year. This is not the first time Pitchford has answered questions about the game on Twitter, as he recently discussed the reasoning behind the six-month exclusivity on the Epic Games Store for Borderlands 3 to a curious fan.

Pitchford was asked on Twitter by a user if Slag would be in Borderlands 3, and he responded with good and bad news. Slag will not be returning, but there will be a new “element” type called Nuclear. Nuclear weapons will cause “increased vulnerability and a damage-over-time component.” This may not be big news to people outside of the Borderlands community, but it is definitely a big topic due to the mixed reactions that Slag had in Borderlands 2. Pitchford explained in his tweet:

There is no slag - we replaced it with something that actually makes a little sense. The new “element” damage type, which is like a nuclear radiation effect, has a similar effect to slag (increased vulnerability by those affected) and also has a damage-over-time component.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 16, 2019

Slag is an “element” type known from Borderlands 2, a purple ooze-like substance that makes it so that enemies covered in it take more damage by other elemental weapons like fire and corrosive.

With Pitchford says that Nuclear weapons will cause increased vulnerability, it sounds like Nuclear will make enemies vulnerable to all weapons instead of just elemental damage like Slag did in Borderlands 2.

Obviously this isn’t a huge piece of information about the game, but the world gameplay reveal is coming early next month so we’ll get to hear more about the game soon. That being said, Pitchford is really excited about the game so it makes sense that he would release some information as soon as he can to get fans excited.

Borderlands 3 is coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC on September 13, 2019.