BL4 Torgue Legendary Weapons

Legendary Shotguns

Weapon	Type	Special Effect	Drop Source	Drop Chance
Unkempt Harold	Shotgun	7 explosive rounds in horizontal spread	Killavolt (Lectra City)	10%
Flakker	Shotgun	Massive cone explosion, shreds large targets	Graveward (The Vault)	10%
Lob	Shotgun	Slow-moving orb, extreme damage	Graveward (The Vault)	10%
Boring Gun	Shotgun	Sawblades that ricochet and deal DOT	Kritchy (The Lodge)	12%

Legendary Assault Rifles

Weapon	Type	Special Effect	Drop Source	Drop Chance
Laser-Sploder	AR	Fires laser + rockets simultaneously	Blinding Banshee (Desolation's Edge)	10%
Try-Bolt	AR	3 explosive bolts that stick and explode	GenIVIV (Voracious Canopy)	10%
Alchemist	AR	Incendiary, self-damage, extreme DPS	Chupacabratch (Athenas)	10%

Legendary RPGs

Weapon	Type	Special Effect	Drop Source	Drop Chance
Nukem	RPG	Massive radiation explosion, irradiates area	Warden (The Anvil)	10%
Scourge	RPG	Slow rockets, spawns homing missiles	Brood Mother (The Pyre of Stars)	10%
Hive	RPG	Fires hive drone that rains rockets	Princess Tarantella II (Splinterlands)	12%

Why Pick Torgue

You pick Torgue when you want everything on your screen to explode and I mean literally everything, it's that simple, Torgue weapons don't mess around with precision or finesse they just delete things in the loudest way possible and honestly the sticky projectile mechanic is one of the most satisfying things in Borderlands, you unload a whole magazine into a badass enemy's face and hit reload and watch their health bar evaporate, the damage stacking on stickies is multiplicative per projectile so the more you land before detonating the crazier the burst gets and it's not linear scaling, ten stickies don't do ten times damage they do way more than that because each sticky multiplies the total, I've seen damage numbers that don't even fit on the screen with this mechanic

What makes Torgue really special is the splash damage honestly, every single projectile deals splash which means it benefits from splash damage bonuses on artifacts and class mods and anointments, Moze's entire blue tree is basically a love letter to Torgue, but even without Moze Torgue weapons are fantastic for area clear, the Flakker covers an entire room in explosions and the Unkempt Harold has been the most iconic pistol in Borderlands history for a reason it just works on every character at every difficulty level, you don't need a PhD in buildcrafting to make Torgue good you just point and things die and that's why it's probably the most accessible manufacturer in the game imo

Best Vault Hunters for Torgue Guns

Moze is the undisputed queen of Torgue and nobody else comes close honestly it's not even a competition, Short Fuse is the single best skill for Torgue weapons in the entire game because it gives every bullet a 20% chance to trigger a secondary explosion that scales with gun damage and splash bonuses, so with a high fire rate Torgue weapon you're basically doubling your explosions with zero extra effort, and Fire in the Skag Den adds incendiary damage to every splash hit so even kinetic Torgue guns end up dealing fire damage, then Means of Destruction gives you ammo regen on splash which keeps the explosions going forever, it's a feedback loop of destruction and I've cleared entire Slaughter Shaft rounds without stopping to reload or look for ammo

Amara is the second best Torgue user and honestly she can be situationally better than Moze for mobbing, Phasegrasp groups enemies together which makes AOE weapons like the Flakker and Nukem even more devastating, her elemental tree boosts the incidental elemental damage that Moze adds and Sustainment gives her life steal on all that splash damage making her surprisingly tanky with Torgue shotguns, the Spiritual Driver class mod also pairs nicely since it converts move speed into gun damage and Torgue guns already hit so hard that the multiplier is substantial, I've had some absolutely disgusting Amara Torgue runs where everything just melts

But FL4K can make Torgue work with Fade Away crits, and Zane does okay with the splash damage boost from Duct Tape Mod but honestly if you're not Moze or Amara Torgue is still usable but you're leaving a lot of damage on the table tbh, there are better options for those two characters you know what I mean, like FL4K is way better with Jakobs and Zane prefers Vladof or Hyperion or whatever, anyway the point is if you want the full Torgue experience you basically need Moze or Amara ngl

Hidden Mechanics

The sticky detonation damage formula is weird and the game doesn't explain it at all which is honestly classic Borderlands, each sticky projectile increases the detonation damage of ALL stickies on the target not just adds its own damage, so the first sticky does base damage and the second sticky makes both stickies do more and the third makes all three do more and so on, this means that the damage curve is exponential not linear and with ten stickies on a target you're looking at something like 40 to 50 times the base damage of a single projectile when you detonate, that's why the Flakker can one shot bosses if you land enough stickies and I've literally seen Graveward die in one trigger pull with a good Flakker setup

Here's another thing impact mode and sticky mode have different use cases that aren't obvious at first, impact mode is better for mobbing because the damage is instant and you don't have to wait for reload detonation, sticky mode is strictly for big targets that can survive long enough to stack stickies, but there's a trick you can switch between impact and sticky mode mid magazine so you can fire a few impact shots to clear trash then switch to sticky for the badass that's still standing and the mode switch is instant and costs nothing, I use this constantly in the Slaughter Shaft and it makes Torgue way more versatile than people give it credit for

Also the Alchemist AR deals self damage like a lot of it and that's not a bug it's a feature, but that self damage can actually proc self healing effects if you have them and it can trigger kill skills that activate on taking damage, it's a niche interaction but some builds use the Alchemist specifically to trigger Transformer shield absorption or to proc Moze's health gate skills, just be careful you don't blow yourself up because I've done that more times than I want to admit honestly, the self damage is no joke at Mayhem 10

Early vs Late Game

Early game Torgue is pretty much easy mode and I'm not even exaggerating, the Unkempt Harold drops from Killavolt who you fight fairly early in the story and that gun alone can carry you through the entire first playthrough, even basic purple Torgue shotguns with the sticky mechanic are enough to handle every boss, the splash damage is generous enough that you don't need perfect aim which is great when you're still learning enemy patterns, ammo economy is the only downside because Torgue guns eat through shotgun and AR ammo fast, like really fast, I've run out of ammo mid boss fight more times than I can count and that sinking feeling when you open your inventory and see zero shotgun shells is the worst

Late game is where Torgue goes from great to absolutely broken and honestly it's kind of unfair, at Mayhem 10 with optimized gear a Moze Torgue build can clear entire rooms with a single Flakker shot, the scaling on splash damage bonuses at high levels is just ridiculous with Blast Master class mod giving up to 100% bonus splash and artifact rolls with AOE damage and splash radius and anointments with 300% damage after action skill, all of these multiply together and Torgue benefits from every single one, the Nukem at high levels leaves radiation pools that tick for millions and the Lob's slow orb becomes a boss melter that requires basically zero aim, the only real issue late game is the self damage because at high Mayhem levels your own splash can down you instantly if you're not careful, you need to manage distance and positioning a lot more carefully than in the early game and I still blow myself up at least once per session ngl

Pro Tips

First always test your Torgue weapon on a wall before committing to it because the projectile speed varies massively between different Torgue guns and it makes a huge difference in actual combat, slow projectiles like the Lob are amazing for big slow bosses but terrible for fast moving enemies, faster projectiles like the Laser-Sploder's rockets are more versatile but have lower base damage, know what you're farming before you pick your gun basically

Second the Unkempt Harold is best farmed from Killavolt on Lectra City but the drop rate is about 10% so expect to do some runs, the parts matter a lot for this gun and you want the double penetrating prefix if possible because it doubles the projectile count from 7 to 14 and basically doubles your damage, a DPUH (Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold) is the Holy Grail of Torgue pistols and I spent like 4 hours farming one and it was worth every minute honestly

Third sticky stacking is everything for bossing so get in the habit of counting how many stickies you land before reloading, for most bosses 15 to 20 stickies is enough to one phase them if your build is decent, also don't ignore the Scourge RPG because everyone goes for the Nukem but the Scourge spawns homing missiles from the slow main rocket and those missiles deal splash damage that can proc Short Fuse again, it's a chain reaction that scales insanely well with Moze, and lastly if you're dying to your own explosions a lot which happens to literally everyone invest in a splash damage resistance artifact or shield, it doesn't completely fix the problem but it turns one shots into near death experiences which is a huge improvement, you get the idea

Why Pick Torgue

Torgue is the explosion manufacturer and that's really all you need to know honestly, every Torgue projectile deals splash damage and can hit multiple enemies, the sticky projectile mode is what makes Torgue truly special because you stick a bunch of rounds onto a crit spot then reload and all of them detonate at once for massive burst damage, Torgue shotguns in sticky mode can one shot most badass enemies if you land all pellets on a crit spot, the splash damage also means you don't need to aim perfectly because shooting the ground near enemies still deals most of your damage and for explosive focused builds nothing competes with Torgue, like at all

Best Vault Hunters for Torgue Guns

Moze and Torgue is the classic combo and honestly it's basically cheating, Torgue's splash damage procs all of Moze's splash skills like Means of Destruction and Short Fuse and Fire in the Skag Den and the sticky mode detonation counts as splash too, a Torgue shotgun in sticky mode with Moze is absolutely disgusting, FL4K with a Torgue shotgun during Fade Away gets guaranteed crits on every sticky pellet which means the detonation damage is also crit amplified, Amara's Ties That Bind shares the detonation damage to linked enemies, Zane's Playing Dirty adds an extra projectile to every sticky which is effectively double damage on detonation, etc you get the idea everyone can make Torgue work but Moze is still the queen

Hidden Mechanics

Sticky projectiles have a hidden mechanic where the detonation damage increases by 3% per sticky on the target so if you land 30 stickies before reloading the detonation does 90% bonus damage on top of the base sticky damage and the game never explains this multiplier, it's the reason sticky mode Torgue shotguns can hit damage cap, also the gyrojet projectiles have travel time but they actually accelerate over distance so Torgue weapons do MORE damage at long range because the projectiles are moving faster when they hit which is kind of backwards from every other gun in the game, impact mode does consistent damage at any range and sticky mode is better for burst, it's confusing but once you understand it Torgue becomes even better

Early Game vs Late Game

Torgue is solid throughout the entire game and honestly blue Torgue shotguns in sticky mode can carry you through the story no problem, the slow projectile speed takes some getting used to though because fast enemies can dodge your shots if you're not leading them, endgame Torgue legendaries like the Flakker and the Plaguebearer are some of the best weapons in the game for mobbing and bossing respectively, the Roisen's Thorns is a great all rounder that's easy to farm and I've used it in like half my builds at some point tbh

Pro Tips

The sticky detonation is NOT affected by weapon damage falloff so you can tag an enemy at max range then run away and reload and the detonation does full damage which is kind of broken for kiting, impact mode gyrojets deal bonus damage to airborne enemies for some reason probably a bug that never got fixed but hey I'll take it, the Unkempt Harold's projectile split happens after a set distance so there's an optimal range where all split projectiles hit the same target, and don't use Torgue weapons on enemies with splash resistance modifiers in Mayhem mode because the damage gets gutted hard, learned that one the hard way honestly