BL4 Legendary SMGs Best-in-Slot & Farming Guide

The Maliwan Plasma Coil is the highest DPS SMG in the game and honestly it's not even a debate, shock and radiation elements cover two health types, you charge it up for max damage, and it drops from the Guardian Takedown endgame activity at 10% from bosses, and yeah farming it is pain because the Takedown is the hardest content in the game but once you have a good one you've basically beaten BL4. The Maliwan Flipper is a 9-projectile split SMG with splash damage that's excellent on Amara for Sustainment lifesteal and Moze for splash synergies, drops from Minosaur in the Floodmoor Basin, honestly, and tbh I prefer this over the Plasma Coil for general play because it's more forgiving and the lifesteal makes you basically immortal. The Hyperion Reflux is a corrosive SMG with chain lightning on crit that's perfect for mobbing groups of armored enemies, drops from GenIVIV in Voracious Canopy, literally, and it clears waves in the Slaughter Shaft faster than any other weapon I've tested at M10 and all that.

The Dahl Sand Hawk is a three-projectile burst SMG where each projectile splits again for extreme single-target damage, drops from Katagawa Ball in Skywell-27, and at close range against a big boss hitbox every pellet hits and the damage stacks up faster than the Plasma Coil if you land all the splits. The Hyperion Night Hawkin auto-switches between cryo and incendiary based on time of day for versatile element coverage, drops from Demoskaggon in The Droughts, kinda, ngl, and it's honestly the best leveling SMG in the game because you always have the right element without swapping. And the Dahl Breath of the Dying is a corrosive SMG with a guaranteed nova explosion on kill for excellent add-clear, drops from a specific boss, and the chain reaction kills when mobs are grouped up are so satisfying to watch and all that.

SMGs shine on elemental-focused builds and Amara's Fist of the Elements tree with Sustainment makes Flipper and Plasma Coil lifesteal machines that heal you faster than enemies can damage you. Moze with splash damage skills turns Plasma Coil into infinite-ammo room clear with Fire in the Skag Den adding bonus incendiary to every splash proc basically FL4K with Fade Away gets massive crit damage from Dahl burst SMGs and a well-timed Fade Away with the Sand Hawk deletes bosses in seconds ngl and stuff like that.

If you look at the top builds across every Vault Hunter in BL4 you'll notice something and it's that almost all of them use an SMG as either their primary or secondary weapon and there's a reason for that tbh. SMGs in BL4 combine high fire rate good elemental scaling manageable recoil and solid ammo economy in a package that no other weapon type matches and they're not the best at any one thing, shotguns do more burst damage, snipers have more range, ARs have better ammo, tbh, but SMGs are second best at everything and that versatility is what makes them meta and I didn't appreciate this until I'd played through with every weapon type. The Plasma Coil alone is responsible for like half the M10 viable builds in the game and the Flipper with splash damage synergies out-damages most heavy weapons which is kind of insane when you think about it. And the elemental variety on Maliwan SMGs means you've always got the right tool for the job and I've played through the entire game with every weapon type and SMGs just feel the smoothest because the fire rate is high enough that missing a few shots doesn't matter, the reloads are fast enough that you're never caught with your pants down, and the damage output at mid-range is consistent in a way that shotguns and snipers can't match, literally, they're just the comfy weapon and sometimes that's what you want and stuff like that.

The Plasma Coil is the best SMG and it's not a debate, highest DPS of any SMG with shock and radiation elements covering two health types and the charge mechanic boosts damage even further, tbh, the only downside is that it drops from the Guardian Takedown which is the hardest content in the game so farming a good one is pain but once you have it you've basically beaten the game and everything else feels like easy mode. The Flipper is my personal favorite though because nine projectiles per shot all with splash damage means it procs Moze's splash skills nine times per trigger pull and with Amara's lifesteal each projectile heals you so you become immortal while holding the trigger and it's the most relaxing way to play M10 content ngl imo The Reflux is the mobbing king with corrosive damage against armored trash and chain lightning on crit to clear groups and it fires fast enough to proc the chains constantly, in the Slaughter Shaft on M10 the Reflux clears waves faster than any other weapon I've tested and that includes the Plasma Coil. For bossing the Sand Hawk on single target is the sneaky best pick because each projectile splits into more projectiles so at close range against a big boss hitbox every pellet hits and the damage stacks up faster than the Plasma Coil if you can land all the splits, it's harder to use but the ceiling is higher. And the Night Hawkin is the best leveling SMG in the game with auto-switching between cryo and incendiary meaning you always have the right element for flesh or armor without swapping weapons and I used this for most of my second playthrough and it never fell off.

Amara with the Flipper or Plasma Coil is the smoothest gameplay in BL4 and her Sustainment skill gives 4% lifesteal on elemental damage while the Flipper fires nine projectiles per shot at a high fire rate and each projectile heals you so you literally cannot die while shooting, add in her Fist of the Elements tree for bonus elemental damage and the damage numbers climb into the millions without any setup. Moze with the Flipper is a different kind of broken because her Fire in the Skag Den skill gives bonus incendiary damage on splash and the Flipper's projectiles all deal splash so that's nine instances of bonus fire damage per shot, then Short Fuse adds secondary explosions, then Means of Destruction gives ammo regen on splash, literally, basically, and you end up with infinite ammo infinite explosions and damage numbers that crash the game on console which is honestly a feature not a bug. Zane works best with the Plasma Coil because his Violent Momentum skill gives bonus damage based on move speed and the Plasma Coil has a charge mechanic that forces brief pauses in firing which syncs perfectly with Zane's run-and-gun playstyle, and the Seein' Dead class mod activates kill skills on hit while an SMG with high fire rate like the Plasma Coil triggers this constantly so you're always buffed. FL4K with the Sand Hawk is the least common SMG build but it's actually incredible because Fade Away guarantees crits and the Sand Hawk's split projectiles all crit at once so against a stationary boss one Fade Away burst with the Sand Hawk out-damages most heavy weapon setups and most people don't even know this build exists and stuff like that.

Spraying at long range is the classic SMG mistake and I still catch myself doing it sometimes, Maliwan SMGs have projectile travel time, Dahl SMGs have damage falloff, Hyperion SMGs have recoil patterns that spread at range, kinda, and SMGs are mid-range weapons so trying to snipe with them is just wasting ammo and making yourself look silly. Second mistake is ignoring the charge mechanic on Maliwan SMGs because tapping the trigger fires uncharged shots that do significantly less damage, you need to charge each burst for the Plasma Coil and some other Maliwan guns, imo, it feels awkward at first but the damage difference is like 3x so practice the charge rhythm until it's muscle memory tbh. Third thing people farm one Plasma Coil element and stop but a shock Plasma Coil destroys shields and does neutral damage to flesh while a radiation one does bonus to shields and neutral to everything else, having multiple elements means you can counter whatever you're fighting and it's worth the extra farming imo. And the biggest mistake I see is forgetting that SMGs burn ammo fast because the Plasma Coil chews through SMG ammo and without any ammo regen or capacity bonuses you'll run dry in extended fights, invest in ammo capacity from Guardian Rank or play a build with ammo regen, Moze's Forge FL4K's Leave No Trace or just carrying multiple SMG types to spread out the ammo usage and all that.

The Plasma Coil charge can be animation canceled by starting the charge then meleeing or swapping weapons before it fires and the next charge is faster, it's a small optimization but over a five-minute boss fight it adds up to a lot of extra damage and I use this constantly now. For the Flipper the split pattern forms a V shape and at different ranges different numbers of pellets hit, the sweet spot is about mid-range where four of the nine pellets converge on a single point so learn this range in the firing range and your single-target damage doubles, it takes practice but once you feel the distance it becomes second nature. The Reflux chain lightning has a hidden property where it prioritizes enemies that are affected by your action skill so if Amara uses Ties That Bind the chains will specifically target the linked enemies maximizing the shared damage, tbh, it's not random like it appears and knowing this changes how you use the weapon. The Sand Hawk projectiles have travel time so against fast enemies lead your shots and against stationary bosses hug their hitbox so all the split projectiles land, it's the difference between the Sand Hawk being an A-tier weapon and an S-tier one. And here's the weirdest SMG tech, the Night Hawkin's element switch is based on the in-game clock not real time so you can force the element by changing the time of day through the fast travel menu, literally, some speedrunners use this to lock the Night Hawkin to incendiary for specific boss fights and it's cheesy but it works and I do it all the time ngl.

Why SMGs Matter in BL4

SMGs might not seem flashy compared to some other weapon types tbh but they fill a crucial role in any balanced loadout and the key is understanding when to use them because SMGs aren't for every situation but in the right scenario they outperform everything else and I've learned this after way too many hours of stubbornly using ARs honestly imo Too many players stick to one weapon type the whole game and wonder why certain enemies feel like bullet sponges and honestly matching your weapon to the encounter is like half the difficulty of BL4 and the game never explicitly tells you this you just have to figure it out by dying a lot.

Top Picks

The Plasma Coil is the best SMG in the game and it's not particularly close because shock and radiation dual element gives massive damage and the projectiles are fast enough to snipe with and honestly once you have a good one every other SMG feels like a downgrade. The Flipper charges up to fire a spread of projectiles that ricochet and it melts bosses with large crit spots and it's the most forgiving SMG to use because missing a few projectiles doesn't tank your DPS. The Cutsman's linked projectile wire damages everything between the two projectiles which makes it a unique tool for crowd control and hitting enemies behind cover and it's one of those guns that completely changes how you approach certain encounters tbh The Needle Gun XXL fires homing needles that stack damage over time and it's amazing for enemies with weird movement patterns and I've used it to cheese so many annoying boss fights basically and all that.

Build Synergies

The right build makes SMGs go from good to absolutely broken and the difference between a random SMG build and an optimized one is like playing a different game. For Moze look for splash damage synergies and ammo regen because she can fire SMGs forever without reloading if built right and it's the most brainless fun you can have. FL4K wants crit damage and fire rate to maximize the DPS window during Fade Away and when the stars align it's beautiful but whiffing a Fade Away burst is genuinely painful. Zane benefits from fire rate and accuracy buffs that stack with kill skills and his Seein' Dead class mod makes SMGs proc kill skills constantly honestly Amara's elemental infusion can add an extra damage layer to any SMG and her Sustainment lifesteal with high-fire-rate SMGs makes her basically immortal literally The key is matching the SMG's natural strengths with your Vault Hunter's skill tree rather than forcing a square peg into a round hole and I've wasted so many hours learning which combinations actually work you get the idea.

Common Mistakes

The biggest mistake I see with SMGs is using the wrong element for the encounter and BL4's Mayhem mode punishes bad element matching way harder than the base game, tbh, shock for shields incendiary for flesh corrosive for armor and it sounds basic but people still try to brute force with the wrong element and waste ammo and I've been that person more times than I'd like to admit. Second mistake is ignoring the manufacturer gimmick because a Vladof SMG plays completely different from a Jakobs one and if you're not using the gimmick you're leaving damage on the table and the game never explains any of this. Third is bad positioning because SMGs have optimal range windows and standing at the wrong distance cuts your effective DPS by more than any anoint can make up for, literally, you need to find the sweet spot and stay there.

Advanced Tips

Learn the recoil pattern of your main SMG because every legendary has a unique recoil signature and mastering it means the difference between 60% and 95% crit accuracy and this is the single biggest DPS upgrade you can get without new gear literally Pre-fire before peeking cover with fast-fire-rate SMGs so the first few shots will be on target by the time you expose yourself and it's one of those things that's obvious in hindsight but nobody thinks of on their own. Keep a backup SMG with a different element in your second or third weapon slot because swapping is faster than reloading in most cases and this has literally saved my life in the Slaughter Shaft more times than I can count. And for the love of loot test your SMG on the Sanctuary dummy before taking it into real content because tooltip DPS lies all the time and actual performance on a stationary target is the only thing that matters, basically don't trust the numbers trust what you see.