Weaponry

Double Anarchy

pic The Double Anarchy (DA) is an submachine gun that fires two bullets per trigger pull, and each bullet is further split into two, resulting in four bullets being shot. Due to the specific gun parts needed to create a DA, they will always have low accuracy. Despite this, the destructive nature of DA becomes extremely apparent when fighting against enemies in close range. Read more about Double Anarchies on the Borderlands Wiki website.

In Battle

• get up close and demolish

Sledge's Shotgun

pic Sledge's Shotgun is a unique shotgun obtained from the man himself, Sledge. It has high damage, 0 accuracy, 10,000% burst count, extremely high knockback, and extremely slow reload speed. In both segmented and single segment runs, Sledge's Shotgun is very useful for knocking back enemies and as a last resort weapon. Exclusive to PC games, however, it is a viable primary weapon to use throughout the entire game due to drop reloading. Read more about Sledge's Shotgun on the Borderlands Wiki website.

In Battle

• get up close and demolish
• If a troubling enemy (i.e. badasses) is particulary troublesome and is not necessary to kill, use Sledge's Shotgun to blast them away.
• Be wary of drop reloading when low on health &/ in dangerous situations--a dropped weapon cannot be picked up when downed, and due to the nature of using Sledge's Shotgun as a primary weapon, this can and will happen very often if caution is not taken.

Accuracy

Accuracy in Borderlands essentially affects the spread of a weapon - the lower the accuracy, the farther away the bullet(s) will fly from the reticule, and the higher the accuracy, the closer/tighter. Looking down the sights/scope will provide an accuracy bonus; how much of a bonus depends on the type of scope. Read more about Sledge's Shotgun on the Borderlands Wiki website.

Drop Reloading

Drop Reloading is a technique that is exclusive to the PC version of Borderlands.

Mechanics

Once a weapon is dropped with the "throw weapon" command, it is considered to be a fresh, new weapon, like one from a white/red chest. As with all new weapons, they come fully loaded (considering sufficient ammo is on hand), and a weapon that has been "thrown" is no exception. So, dropping and picking up a weapon in quick succession essentially acts as an alternative, often quicker, reloading technique. VID

Burst Count Weapons Glitch

When drop reloading with burst count weapons, you can perform a glitch where the weapon will fire more rounds than what the chamber/magazine can hold. The mechanics of this glitch is not known at the moment--from what is understandable, "depending on the weapon's reload speed, there is some sort of countdown timer where you'll either instantly reload all or some of your ammo, and a time window where you must drop-reload and shoot within. In the case of Sledge's shotgun, if you drop-reload at around 0.88 seconds after you squeeze the trigger (when Lilith pulls that tab looking thing a bit) and shoot again before your character loads the ammo in (1.90 seconds in this case, when she plugs in the two shells), you'll shoot four times instead of twice. If you drop-reload a little later than 0.88 seconds, it'll only instantly reload one shell. Or something. Pretty much there's a timer in which the instant reload will reload no ammo or full ammo in either ascending or descending order (I think.). Then there's also a time window where this all takes place in, and I'm pretty sure the end of the time window is when the gun is actually loaded again."

Switching the Input

See Config File Tweaks for how to switch the drop button from "underscore" to "Q" or whatever your personal preference is.

Phasejumping

Phasejumping is a technique unique to Lilith. A phasejump is an accelerated jump that is affected by the speed of Phasejump. Phasejumping right before Phasewalk ends essentially extends the Phasewalk duration because the momentum of Phasewalk is translated into the jump.

Shoutouts to Incalex for this video demonstration.

How To

1. Activate Phasewalk
2. Move forward while holding the sprint button
3. Before Phasewalk ends, press the inputs to end Phasewalk and jump on the same frame

Timing

Single Segment

For the purposes of timing a single segment with resets speedrun, timing starts directly after the loading screen after a character is chosen and character control is gained. Timing will end once the quest for murdering the Destroyer is completed and character control is lost. The in-game timer is relatively useless in timing a single segment run with resets because of savewarping abuse in order to luck manipulate certain equipment which is not counted in the in-game time.

Loading Screens

Although some loading screen times are counted in the in-game timer (e.g. loading screens while transitioning between areas), all time from loading screens will be subtracted from the final time. This includes the following loading screens: 1) when loading the game; 2) after save warping; and 3) when transitiong to another area. Loading screen duration is dependant on the user's computer specs, providing a disadvantage to those with lower-end machines. Otherwise, timing continues throughout the entire run--during inventory management, vendor screens, main menu screens, etc.

Segmented

A segmented speedrun time is based on the in-game timer after the quest for murdering the Destroyer is completed and the game is saved. If the player lets the ending credits roll, the in-game timer will continue to flow and will be counted in the final time.

Config File Tweaks

Please refer to the Borderlands PC Tweaks thread on the official Gearbox Software forums for steps on where to find your config files and how to tweak it up. Contact a higher-up of SDA if you have questions on tweaks not in the following list.

Recommended (and "SDA Legal") Tweaks

• Disable the Startup Movies
  • Cuts down on the time it takes to open Borderlands up.

• Disable Intro Sequence
  • When attempting the first segment of a Borderlands run, this tweak will save your life. Although, if you like the opening song (which is really dope) and don't mind messing with your sanity, it's up to you!

• Disable Mouse Smoothing
  • Personal preference.

• Enable Drop Weapon Key
  • This is what makes a single-segment run of Borderlands consistenly possible. What input to use as your drop weapon key is a personal preference, but I (jayTOH) recommend using "Q" if using a standard QWERTY keyboard setup. Easy to drop and pick up if you use "E" as your use input.

• Make Crouch Momentary
  • Again, a personal preference. Toggle crouch is a blasphemy =o