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From a Gearbox forum thread, legendary weapons drop from specific bosses in Borderlands 2. While this might make it easier to farm, it would be very useful to know if I can ever get legendary guns by normal, non-boss means. I have noticed extremely few legendary guns so far (two in >50 hours of gameplay, level 38 currently) so I'm wondering if I need to farm bosses or if they're maybe more common at level 50 or something.

Do legendaries still drop from chests? Do the legendary items still drop from other enemies/bosses, just with reduced chance? I'm assuming/hoping Terramorpheous can drop any legendary?

I know Mike Mamaril might give you Orange items but since I'm on PC he's insanely rare so he's not a useful weapon source.

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8 Answers 8

up vote 12 down vote accepted

Doing some research as I was wondering this myself. . .

This forum post at Gamefaqs suggests that:

  1. (Most?) legendaries can drop anywhere/from anything but
  2. The chances in most places are extremely low and
  3. Certain bosses/mobs have significantly higher chances to spawn certain legendaries. Does this apply to certain chests as well? I don't know.
  4. It seems some legendaries only drop from certain bosses (e.g. conference call). Meant to come back and add this but forgot!

I am doing further research.

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In Borderlands a few bosses had extremely high chances of dropping (usually useless) rare weapons, not legendaries...IIRC. I never farmed bosses other than Crawmerax though so I could be wrong. –  Ben Brocka Sep 26 '12 at 14:39
For one example, the legendary shotgun Conference Call seems to only drop from The Warrior, so certain bosses do seem to spawn certain legendaries. –  Sadly Not Oct 11 '12 at 23:48
"research", right, let's call it that. Let's play hours and hours of Borderlands 2... FOR SCIENCE! –  Shadur Dec 11 '12 at 10:07
@Shadur that's the spirit! –  peacedog Dec 11 '12 at 14:43

First off, you can get orange items from the vendors. It is a rare occasion, yet still does happen. Secondly, you can also get them from hitting the jackpot on the slots (located in many different locations throughout the game). In response to the post above about levels of loot from the slots, the information there is incorrect. If you do join a game that is lower level then yourself, sure you will pay less to play the slots. Although the loot level is dependent upon the level of the main quest mission that the host is on. So a level 50 joins a level 12 game, the loot from slots, as well as the price, will be set at that level. That also goes for any loot dropped from monsters or found in chests.

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  • EVERY major boss can drop a Legendary weapon. There's a relic that will enhance rare loot drops by 5% (I got my first one at level 9, it dropped from Warmong, Nasty Kerblaster)
  • Yes, bosses can be farmed over and over until they drop their legendary.
  • Much like the Pearlescent weapons from Borderlands 1, your odds of getting a legendary just by opening chests, killing enemies is extremely slight. Remember the runs in the Knoxx Armory (sometimes you'd make that run and see 1 legendary). That's about how the Legendary's run in BL2. (I'm at level 19 and have 2, my other one dropped during the boss fight on the side mission "The Good, The Bad, and the Mordecai")
  • I know in BL1, the Siren and another class had a skill that would enhance rare loot drops as well. If the Siren retained her skill (and you have the 5% rare loot drop by killing enemies relic) that would seem to be the #1, best combination in getting the legendaries to drop.
  • The BL2 guide outlines MOST legendary locations but also has "classified" beside a lot of them. I'm guessing a lot of those are from the side missions or you'd get them by killing BL2's "Secret Final Boss".
  • Re: michael. He's usually in the following locations in Sanctuary: *Inside Zed's clinic *On the other side of the radio in Moxxi's *Down in Marcus's shop *Beside the "This Just In" booth (This is where you'll encounter him on your first trip to Sancuary *In/near Scooter's shop *Right at a set of stairs leading up to the main Sanctuary center

Didn't know you could get Legendary's from him, best I got was a Purple on my first meet, then all Blues.

OH! You can also get Legendaries (citation/confirmation needed, this is 2nd hand) from the Slot Machines in Moxxi's at Sanctuary. You must hit 3 Borderlands symbols. This gets expensive REAL fast (it scaled based on level, at level 19, I had to pay $363 a pull, my friend was level 22, he was paying $550+).

I hope this helps, thanks!

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Yeah, at level 43 I'm up to $3500 per pull. Crap gets crazy expensive in BL2, I guess they didn't want to repeat BL1 where money stopped mattering after level 50 –  Ben Brocka Sep 29 '12 at 15:12
@BenBrocka Instead they limited the quality of items from the vendors so that the slots are the only worthwhile use of your money. What's the point of spending money in other shops when the best you'll ever see in them is a green item? –  Fambida Sep 29 '12 at 15:29
True, I very rarely see purple (and never orange) in the item of the day. Not sure I've seen blue as a normal item ever, either –  Ben Brocka Sep 29 '12 at 20:41

I have seen for myself that any enemy with "the invincable" in their name can drop any legendary in the game BUT the chances of them dropping one are VERY low. I farmed Terrramorphis for about 14 hours and only got one legendary weapon. The legendary orange weapon i got is called the Derp Nukem. It usually drops off of a named spiderant called The Black Queen, found in the Dust if i am not mistaken. That said, The chances of her dropping the Nukem are supposed to be about 5% whereas Terramorphis seems closer to 0.01%.

Mike never gave me better than a purple (still, a free purple gun beats a slap in the face), and vendors do RARELY offer a legendary (i have only ever seen one and it was a granade mod in the ammo dump at terramorhous peak), and I have never been lucky enough to get a legendary from a chest anywhere. Not saying it cannot happen, just that I have never seen it or heard any of my friends get one in that way.

If you search youtube you can typically find the legendary items much faster by farming the boss with the best chance to drop the one you are looking for.

Yoteslaya has in my opinion the best videos because he not only shows the enemy dropping the legendary, and where it is found, but he the tests it so you can get a better idea of how it functions and if it is actually worth all that struggle trying to get it.

Here is a link to his page on the Hellfire SMG, you can use this to connect to all his vids and you'll have whatever oranges you like in no time.

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I have gotten 5 orange items, 3 shields one was from a quest from Lilith, one from a chubby spiderant I found behind Ellie's in the dust, and one from the bunker. A grenade I got as an item of the day and a shotgun I got from the slots. The only one I really used at all was the shield from the Lilith quest, but I got it at such a low level I can't use it anymore.

Sidenote if you want cheap slots get in a game with a lower level, the cost is based on the level of the host and the loot is based off the level of the player.

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I've actually bought the legendary commando mod from Zed's item of the day - so they can have good things, just very rare.

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I have personally found 3 legendary items in vendors, specifically a low level Legendary Mechromancer Mod from a Zed vendor in sanctuary, a fastball grenade mod from the Ammo vendor at the beginning of Lynchwood, and the homing fire leech from the Ammo vendor in the Arid Badlands. Each of these were during Playthrough One.

Last night i got my first, and so far only, legendary drop from an enemy other than an items primary boss. The item was Sledges Shotgun, and dropped off of a normal Goliath in the Eridium Blight, killed while i was doing the LotR/Geary easter egg.

Other than those instances, all of my other legendary drops have come from the items primary boss.

In summary, yes, it is definitely possible for legendarys to both show up in vendors, and to drop off normal enemies, though the odds are very low. I do not expect to find many, or really any, more legendary items from sources other than the items primary bosses. But i can confirm that legendary items can drop from any loot source, and that they can show up in vending machines.

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There are also some interesting answers on Orcz.com:

How to get legendary loot

The best way to get orange items is to farm the bosses at the locations listed below. Drop rates for oranges are low, but after you have killed the bosses many times you will get orange loot. The average drop rate for Legendaries are about 5% at maximum (around a 1/20 chance of drop), but many have lower drop rates. For example, the Sledge's Shotgun has a drop rate of 3.5%, and the Infinity pistol (the rarest pistol in the game and quite possibly the rarest gun of all), has a 0.07% (that's less than a 1 in 1000 chance of dropping) drop rate!

The Warrior and the Invincible bosses all have a chance to drop ANY legendary item.

They can also be gained from the Slot Machine (very rare), the Vending Machines (also very rare), and treasure chests (also very rare - this player did 3 full playthroughs including both dlcs and only ever saw 1 legendary in a chest)

More over here: http://orcz.com/Borderlands_2:_Legendary_Drop_Locations

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protected by Community Oct 12 '12 at 0:17


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