This Overpowered Weapon Is Totally Wrecking Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 is full of the wacky weapons and over the top battles the series is known for. However, there is a specific weapon present in the looter shooter that is causing problems for some gamers.

As reported by Kotaku, players are having issues with a new rocket launcher called the Yellowcake. This launcher can be found during the ongoing "Revenge of the Cartels" event and, like the one billion other guns in the game, it has some very interesting features. The rockets it launches have radioactive properties, meaning it does extra radiation damage to anything within the area of the rocket's explosion. Not only that, but the rockets split into multiple projectiles, making for a generous amount of splash damage when fired into a crowd of enemies.

According to Kotaku's Ian Walker, this weapon is essentially making the whole game a cakewalk (pun entirely intended). The Yellowcake is capable of taking out just about any enemy in a shot or two. Super-powered "Anointed" enemies take a few hits, but pretty much every other boss and baddie in the game can be felled from a single hit from the Yellowcake launcher. Making matter more dire, certain firepower-focused Vault Hunter character builds can make the weapon even more deadly.

Borderlands gamers on Reddit seem to be absolutely loving the Yellowcake launcher. One gamer says its the only weapon they use because of the specific character build they have for Vault Hunter Moze. Another Redditor shared video of the launcher taking down the boss charter Captain Traunt in just one shot. Almost as soon as the rocket reaches its target, Traunt spins out of control and explodes into a shower of loot, just like the Eridians intended.

However, other users seem frustrated by Yellowcake for more than a few reasons. Some have complained that the drops are too random and that they're having a difficult time getting the weapon for themselves. One gamer reported that they had gone through the mission where the launcher is dropped on six separate occasions and had yet to gain the Yellowcake.

One user said the Yellowcake just represents Borderlands 3's many balance issues. They wrote, "It frustrates me how some guns are so bonkers strong you can use them [without any particular perks] and be fine. While others are practicly worthless. I really hope they take another pass at balancing, including nerfing some of the extreme outliers."

It should be mentioned that there is at least a little bit of strategy required to fully take advantage of the Yellowcake's one-shot capabilities, at least when it comes to a variant of the gun. A variant of the Yellowcake that can drop fires 2 projectiles instead of one, and this is the one that naturally does the most damage. According to one Reddit user, the trick to killing a boss with one shot is to position the projectile so that both rockets that peel off from it explode on either side of the boss. As this person explains,"The yellowcake explodes twice. You want it to explode in front of the enemy and then again at the back of the enemy."

Still, that's a little too much power for a single weapon to have. It's highly likely that the overpowered weapon will be addressed in a future patch for Borderlands 3. It's highly likely that Gearbox will choose to depower it, rather than completely remove it. 

This wouldn't be the first time that a Borderlands 3 weapon was deemed too powerful to continue unchecked. Shortly after the game's release, Gearbox had to release a patch for a grenade called the Porcelain Pipe Bomb. This grenade was earned during a run of the mill side quest, so its power level took many players by surprise. Due to a glitch in the grenade's programming, it would detonate multiple times, raining instant hot death on even some of the game's most powerful bosses. Needless to say, Gearbox realized that giving players a weapon that could one-shot any enemy was something of a mistake.

Still, the game has had plenty of balance issue since launch. Last month, Gearbox announced its intention to rebalance endgame content, particularly the difficulty level in some of the campaign's later side missions. Some players found themselves a little bit overpowered later in the game, even without the presence of a magical rocket launcher.

We've seen plenty of overpowered weapons in video games, and this one is definitely up there as one of the craziest. As much fun as it is to see a major baddie go down with one hit, the Yellowcake probably needs to be patched sooner rather than later. It's the kind of broken weapon that has the potential to break the game for fans along with it.