Accuracy is a general indication of the precision of weapons in Borderlands. It is the sum of two values: The weapon's base accuracy, otherwise known as Spread, and the character's style of use with the weapon.

Contents 1 Weapon Card Accuracy and Spread 2 Sway, Recoil and Kick 3 Handling 4 Scope 5 Weapon Proficiency 6 Bottom Line 7 Disclaimer

Weapon Card Accuracy and SpreadEdit

Each weapon has an accuracy indicator in the form of a percentage. This is an indicator of the angle at which the gun fires projectiles; also known as the spread. As a note, this percentage determines the angle at which bullets come out of the gun, where 100% is 0° and any other percentages will fall between that and 11.25°

A good equation that will determine the range of angle bullets will be fired out at is:

angle° = -0.07174(accuracy) + 7.48635

NOTE: This is only a general equation it is not an exact representation of the angle. there are also several outliers. For example, extreme low accuracy guns (0.0% - 10%ish) do not fall on any linear or exponential equations within reason. Sledge's Shotgun has an accuracy of 0.0% and fires at an angle of 11.25°. Furthermore guns with 35.0% are more accurate than guns with 37.7%.

Once the angle is found it must be converted to determine the area that the bullets are firing on. To find this you use the equation: Area = (pi((tan(angle))^2)) x 10000. Multiplying by 10000 turns it into easy to use numbers.

• A gun with 98% accuracy will shoot out bullets at a 0.456° angle and shoot a target area of 1.99 units^2
• A gun with 90% accuracy will shoot out bullets at a 1.030° angle and shoot a target area of 10.15 units^2
• ...
• A gun with 50% accuracy will shoot out bullets at a 3.899° angle and shoot a target area of 145.96 units^2

The consequence of this is that gun accuracy should not be compared as a percentage, but as a distance from 100%.

• A 98% accuracy (1.99 units^2) sniper rifle is twice as accurate as a 95.4% accuracy (3.98 units^2) sniper rifle.
• A 91% accuracy machine gun is substantially more accurate than an 87% accuracy machine gun. (About 41% better accuracy)
• A 26% accuracy shotgun (304.3 units^2) is more accurate than an 11% accuracy shotgun (433.2 units^2)... But not by that much (5.62° to 6.70° or about 30% more accurate).

Sway, Recoil and KickEdit

Sway is the effect of not being able to hold the weapon still while aiming. This effect is more profound if the player is using a gun where his proficiency is low, or the gun has a powerful scope. Crouching has no effect on sway.

Recoil is the effect of a gun becoming less and less precise as it is being fired. This can be noticed as the shot deviation ring growing after every shot. This is discussed in more detail below.

Kick is the side effect of firing a gun, and can be described as if the weapon were "kicking up". The effect is most profound on guns with a higher fire rate, or high recoil, and can be witnessed by not scoping in and emptying the magazine at a wall: The gun will also "climb", leaving a trail of bullet holes up the wall.

HandlingEdit

The players handling of a gun is measured by an "AccuracyPool". The higher the amount, the less precise style of play is being executed. This measure basically represents angle between the target, and the muzzle of the gun.

The AccuracyPool typically starts low at MinAccuracyPool (sometimes 0), and increases as the gun is fired, all the way up to a MaxAccuracyPool. This is seen in the Shot Deviation Ring: The more shots are fired, the bigger the ring. A weapon's recoil is what defines the growth and regeneration rate of the AccuracyPool. When aimed, most weapons suffer from virtually no recoil, and your AccuracyPool is lowered, making aimed weapons more accurate.

Guns with Increased Recoil Reduction will have lower MinAccuracyPool and MaxAccuracyPool. Not only will the gun have less Recoil, but it will start more accurate, and will not deviate too much under sustained fire.

The effects of recoil are most visible when firing from the hip; starting shots will be more accurate, you will fire more shots before reaching MaxAccuracyPool (the weapon in its least accurate state), and accuracy will be recovered faster. When aiming a weapon, most of the Recoil is already compensated, making the effects of RecoilReduction less noticeable.

A stock will not only greatly reduce the Recoil of a gun, but will also improve the AccuracyRegenerationRate. Basically, this means the gun will stabilize much faster after firing than a gun with no stock.

When Aiming a gun, all of these fields are reduced, giving a general result of much better handling.

ScopeEdit

As already mentioned, aiming improves its handling. Furthermore, when looking through the scope of a weapon, the weapon itself becomes more accurate. The spread will be reduced (In a non predictable way). This means shotguns with scopes fire in a tighter pattern, and rifles with higher zooms will be more accurate. The effect can be quite noticeable, with spread reduction up to 80%.

Note: A scope's multiplier is actually relative to the effect of a 1x scope. A 1x Sniper Rifle will still crush a 4.9x rocket launcher in terms of zoom.

Note: Although some weapons may spawn without an actual scope, the game considers the iron sight left in its place a scope as well. Thus, using the iron sight also increases accuracy.

Weapon ProficiencyEdit

Weapon proficiencies are said to increase "Accuracy". This actually refers to the character's "handling accuracy", and not the weapon's actual spread.

Bottom Line Edit

1. The overall perceived accuracy is the sum of the chosen character's accuracy (AccuracyPool), and the weapon's accuracy (the spread).
2. A weapon's accuracy (or spread) is really counted as a percentage from 100%. A 98% accuracy gun is twice as accurate as a 95.4% accuracy gun.
3. Recoil reduction has a direct effect on the Vault Hunter's accuracy (AccuracyPool):
   1. When using a weapon un-aimed (firing "from the hip"), recoil reduction makes a weapon's spread smaller through continued firing.
   2. Looking down a weapon's sights will reduce recoil of all but the highest recoil guns. Proficient players almost always fire weapons while using the sights of the gun. Un-aimed fire primarily affects gaining a Second Wind.
4. Scoped weapons (including shotguns), are not only more stable when aimed, but also get an accuracy boost (reduced spread/tighter pattern for shotguns).

Disclaimer Edit

The above numbers, percentages and degrees are all original research with no code to back them up. They are however, a good indication of reality (relative to Borderlands), and should be a rule of thumb to follow.