Gemstone

LV62 Emerald Fox melee — A Gemstone Dahl submachine gun

Gemstone is a special modifier for weapons introduced in the Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2. This modifier applies to purple rarity weapons with a special material and prefix. Both the prefix and skin correspond to a specific type of mineral, gem, or stone, thus giving rise to the "gemstone" designation.

Variations[]

Unlike weapons of different rarities, Gemstone weapons have no part, element, or accessory limitations other than the material. However, there is no available Gemstone material for rocket launchers, thus excluding Gemstone weapons from that type.

Gemstone modifier applies only to weapons of purple rarity. The only exception are Hyperion E-tech Spikers and Darts, which may be produced in Gemstone variation due to a separate bug.

There are eight prefix and corresponding material variations for Gemstone weapons, one for each brand. Regardless of parts, accessories, or elemental type, any weapon using Gemstone material will also use the brand-specific Gemstone prefix.

Bandit - Quartz
Dahl - Emerald
Hyperion - Diamond
Jakobs - Citrine
Maliwan - Aquamarine
Tediore - Cubic Zerconia
Torgue - Rock
Vladof - Garnet

Characteristics[]

In addition to the obvious visual and name changes, Gemstone weapons have combat-relevant differences when compared to purple rarity weapons of the same level.

The only well-understood difference that Gemstone weapons possess is an extra bonus to critical hit damage.^[1] This bonus is relatively small, ranging from 6.5% to 7.5% depending on brand and weapon type, and stacks with any existing critical hit bonuses.^[2] The specific bonuses are:

Jakobs Assault Rifles: +6.5%
Jakobs Shotguns: +6.5%
Pistols, all brands: +7.5% multiplicative^(note)
All other weapons: +7.5%

Another established quality of Gemstone weapons is their ability to reflect bullets. While holding any Gemstone weapon, there is a small chance that any bullet which strikes a Vault Hunter will reflect back towards the enemy.^[3] This ability is not listed on the weapon card nor indicated in any other way, making it extremely difficult to definitively determine what the percentage chance of bullet reflection is.

Gemstone weapons also display a variety of additional effects which are less understood, as they are harder to verify or even observe. Displayed effects include bonuses to recoil reduction and accuracy, though indications are that these bonuses are actually to less obvious mechanics such as accuracy recovery, or may only be triggered by certain events or player actions.^[4]^[5]

Not all weapons will show these modified stats on the weapon card. Generally, the bonuses granted by the Gemstone material will only be displayed for weapons which already modify that particular statistic, such as weapons with a critical hit accessory or most Jakobs brand weapons. Regardless of what is shown on the card, all Gemstone weapons have increased critical hit damage.

Acquisition[]

Gemstone weapons can only be obtained from Butt Stallion or from a Iron-GOD. Once she returns to Flamerock Refuge, after the completion of A Game of Games, players will be given the opportunity to feed her 5 Eridium. Once fed, Butt Stallion produces a random weapon of anywhere from white to legendary rarity, with higher rarities being less common. If the weapon is of purple rarity, it has a high, but not guaranteed, chance to be a Gemstone weapon. Gemstone weapons produced by Butt Stallion are evenly distributed amongst all available brands, but have a significantly higher chance to appear as pistols than any other weapon type.

Since there is no limit to the number of times Butt Stallion can be fed Eridium, the availability of Gemstone weapons is theoretically infinite. However, the chance of a Gemstone weapon appearing is low, near or possibly below 15%, making the practical supply of Gemstone weapons limited.

Notes[]

Gemstone weapons are the only weapons in Borderlands 2 which inherit special statistics or other bonuses from the weapon's material.
For pistols, the critical hit bonus is not added to the current total critical hit bonuses. Instead, the bonus is multiplicative, effectively multiplying the total damage dealt on critical hit by 1.075. This makes all skills, Badass Rank bonuses, or other critical hit modifiers 7.5% more effective when using Gemstone pistols. This bonus stacks additively with other multiplicative bonuses, such as the +8% bonus granted by Hyperion pistol barrels; all multiplicative bonuses will be added together before being applied to the final critical hit damage.^[6]
Originally, a bug in the Gemstone loot tables prevented Gemstone Maliwan sniper rifles from being produced. Whenever a Gemstone Maliwan sniper rifle should have been generated, a Gemstone Maliwan SMG would be produced instead. This SMG would have the same name, prefix, and statistics as a standard Gemstone Maliwan SMG, but would use the sniper rifle material rather than the correct SMG material, which aligns poorly to the SMG shape. As of the October 29th 2015 patch, Gemstone Maliwan Sniper Rifles can now be produced.
Hyperion pistols with Dart or Spiker barrel that automatically receive E-tech rarity when spawn, can get Gemstone material and prefix due to a bug. This same bug also makes it possible to obtain a non-elemental Hyperion Dart or Spiker with a Gemstone skin.
Very rarely, upon feeding Butt Stallion, she may rear up on her hind legs as if about to spawn a Gemstone weapon, but will defecate a common weapon instead.

Trivia[]

Citrine is actually a subset of Quartz, specifically any quartz which is pale yellow to brown in color.
Emerald and Aquamarine are both subsets of the same mineral, Beryl, differentiated from each other only by color.
The generally accepted spelling of Tediore's chosen gemstone is Cubic Zirconia (with an "I") rather than "Cubic Zerconia". Cubic zirconia is visually indistinguishable from diamond without close inspection unless by color; cubic zirconia occurs in generally less intense colors than colored diamond.