The best weapon in Borderlands 4 isn't a legendary—it's some random purple shotgun that wipes out bosses in one shot

Borderlands 4 Quincunx Stellium: An upper-body shot of Vex holding a glowing orb in her left hand as she looks out in the distance.
(Image credit: Gearbox)

Every time a new Borderlands game comes out, we all frantically farm bosses in search of cool legendary guns and gear, and that's not changed in Borderlands 4. In fact, it's more convenient than ever thanks to Moxxi's Big Encore machines—devices that let you retry bosses as many times as you want.

Already, we've found the reprised iconic Doom-inspired Hellwalker shotgun, the pleasantly-named Rainbow Vomit that covers all your elemental needs, and the Slippy, a fish grenade.

Of all the 150-odd legendaries discovered so far, though, one has taken the cake as the most ridiculous: the Kickballer. When paired with a Jakobs licensed part and enhancement, you can get this shotgun to infinitely bounce projectiles around the room, nuking everything on the screen. More often than not, that also includes you, which can get pretty awkward as there's usually nothing left standing for you to kill to revive yourself.

But what if I told you that there was another way? Some other shotgun that does brain-breaking damage that won't kill you in the process, and is somehow a random-ass purple item? Well, there is, it's the Quincunx Stellium, a Maliwan shotgun. As showcased by content creator Moxsy, you're looking for one with the energy disc alt-fire that bounces around, and a Jakobs licensed part.

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When paired with a throwing knife that has the penetrator augment part, causing all hits on the target to become critical hits for five seconds, you can make the Quincunx Stellium's energy disc repeatedly bounce at the target's feet. Since this combination doesn't cause the shots to bounce around the entire room in the same way as the Kickballer does, you're getting similar levels of damage without the added bonus of self-inflicted Fight For Your Life.

As Moxsy demonstrates, this purple shotgun is actually capable of effectively one-shotting bosses even without other gear equipped—just the shotgun and a crit knife.

The only downside of the Quincunx Stellium is that it's a purple item. While it's technically a lower rarity than a legendary, it actually makes it more annoying to find since there's nowhere you can go to target farm this item. You're best off crossing your fingers for it to drop while you're actively farming for any legendary gear you want, whether that be Splashzone, a drill site, a vault boss, and so on.

Borderlands 4 Shift codesBorderlands 4 Black Market locationBorderlands 4 vault key fragment locationsBorderlands 4 charactersBorderlands 4 Harlowe buildsBorderlands 4 Rafa buildsBorderlands 4 Vex buildsBorderlands 4 Amon builds

Borderlands 4 Shift codes: The new key connection.
Borderlands 4 Black Market location: New legendaries, no grind.
Borderlands 4 vault key fragment locations: Crack open Kairos.
Borderlands 4 characters: Meet your new Vault Hunters and find out who's strongest.
Borderlands 4 Harlowe builds: The amped-up Gravitar.
Borderlands 4 Rafa builds: The speed-demon Exo-Soldier.
Borderlands 4 Vex builds: The spooky Siren.
Borderlands 4 Amon builds: The fierce Forgeknight.

Rory Norris
Guides Writer

Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.

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