What is Splash Damage
Splash damage works as an area of effect damage of guns. Note that not all guns have this, mostly just Torgue, Maliwan, and rocket launchers. It can come in different forms and different damage types, which are listed below. These forms and types interact differently with skills, enemies, and other mechanics of the game, all of which are explained in detail below as well. The guide also contains a list of all guns with splash damage and their damage values, types, forms, and behaviors.
Splash damage can’t score critical hits on most enemies (exceptions are enemies with universal crit spots, such as Crystalisks). Splash that’s added to a projectile is also able to proc its own status effects independently from the projectile itself. Additive gun damage bonuses boost all types of splash damage.
Damage Types
- Grenade – The splash gets boosted by grenade damage
- Gun – The splash gets boosted by Athena’s Tear skill
- Launcher – The splash is not boosted by either grenade damage or Reaper/Be Like Water
Forms of Splash
- Pure – The projectile only deals splash damage
- Directly added – The projectile deals impact damage like any other gun and then procs additional splash damage on contact
- Separately added – The additional splash is not tied to the projectile and mostly behaves like pure splash
Note: Weapons with Launcher splash that aren’t a rocket launcher (for example the Boss Nova) will not get boosted by launcher damage. Launcher damage works like any other weapon specific damage type (for example SMG damage) and only boosts rocket launchers, but always boosts them no matter what splash type they have.
Damage Equation
Grenade and Tear damage are multiplicative to gun damage (including Amp damage). All other multiplicative damage boosts are also multiplicative to everything else.
Splash Damage = Base Splash Damage * (1 + Gun Damage %) * (1 + Grenade/Tear Damage %)
Self-Damage
Pure splash damage and separately added splash will deal self-damage to you, with one exception being the secondary Grenade splash damage of Maliwan launchers.
Swapping Weapons
Swapping weapons while a projectile that has splash directly added to it (like a Torgue pistol) is still traveling will result in the added splash not proccing.
Crack Shot, One Last Thing, and Magnificent Six
Nisha’s Crack Shot boosts the damage of the first shot in your mag. If the weapon deals pure splash damage the splash gets boosted. The reason why added splash doesn’t get boosted is that the splash damage “spawns” once the projectile hits something, not at the moment you shoot the weapon. However, if the weapon deals pure splash and has added splash on top of that the added splash will still get boosted (for example the KerBlaster or a Maliwan launcher). If your weapon was to consume no ammo CS would always boost the splash (as long as your mag stays full). This also explains why secondary projectiles like the Moonscaper’s mines get the bonus if you reload your weapon before it explodes.
Claptrap’s One Last Thing boosts your damage when you’re at your last shot in the magazine. Pure splash is boosted when you shoot your last shot. Added splash however is boosted when you shoot your second to last shot, not when you shoot your last shot because when you shoot your weapon with 2 shots remaining, you’re at your last shot in the magazine at the time the projectile hits the enemy. The impact damage won’t be boosted on the second to last shot, however, only on the last shot. However, weapons with pure splash and added splash on top of that will have their added splash boosted on the last shot and not on the second to last shot.
Nisha’s Magnificent Six boosts the damage of the last 6 non-elemental shots in the mag. Guns that are listed as non-elemental but deal explosive damage (for example the Cannon) will still be boosted. It works similarly to OLT, with the exception that added splash is also boosted on the very last shot. The 7th to last shot’s splash will get boosted and the following 6 shots will have their impact and splash damage boosted.
All of these skills provide regular additive gun damage.
- Integrity
- Wintertide
- Sponsored By
- Coincidental Combustion
- Custom Loads
- Hot Lead
- Short Fused
WORK IN PROGRESS
Gun Kata, Unchained, Smite and Compound Interest
Gun Kata, Unchained, and Smite can be procced by both Gun and Launcher splash damage.
Compound Interest can only be procced by Gun splash damage (and impact damage, of course).
I Never Miss, Warning Shot and Wait for It…
I Never Miss can never proc on splash damage and Warning Shot as well as Wait for It… still proc even if the splash hits the enemy.
Trick Shot and The Unforgiven
Pure splash can never proc Trick Shot or The Unforgiven. Added splash damage on a projectile that works with Trick Shot and The Unforgiven will not be reduced in damage by those skills. Added splash damage that procs on a hit will also always proc on every subsequent hit of a bullet that proceeds The Unforgiven.
Bullet Reflection
When a projectile with added splash damage that procs when it hits something hits an enemy with bullet reflection, the added splash still procs, dealing damage to the enemy and then the projectile bounces off but can proc the added splash again if it hits another enemy or a surface. If it hits the player then directly added splash will still not deal self-damage. Pure splash damage ignores bullet reflection (BL2 has some exceptions to this, like Dukino’s Mom, so TPS might do as well).
Amp Shields & Glitch Effects
If the Amp shield is fully charged when the projectile hits the enemy splash that’s added to a projectile gets the Amp damage depending on how high the splash damage is in regard to the base damage (example below). If the shield is not fully charged only the impact damage will receive the Amp damage. There are exceptions to this like the KerBoom’s child grenade. The reason behind that is because the main projectile already consists of pure splash damage and doesn’t have an projectile that deals impact damage (works just like Crack Shot). Amp damage is split between listed projectile’s splash.
Example: A Torgue pistol has +100% splash, while a Maliwan pistol has +80% splash. The Torgue pistol will get 100% of the damage of the Amp shield added to the splash damage (so basically the pistol gets the Amp damage twice, once for the projectile and once for the splash). The Maliwan pistol however will only receive 80% of the Amp shield’s damage on the splash (so it gets 180% of the Amp damage in total).
Overcharge and Amp glitch effects work the same as Amp shields.
Absorb Shields
Launcher or Gun splash damage that deals self-damage can be absorbed by Absorb shields. Gun splash will always give you ammo of the type of weapon you’re shooting yourself with while Launcher splash will always give you rocket launcher ammo.
The Bulwark never absorbs your own laser’s splash damage since there is no laser with Gun splash, Grenade splash can’t be absorbed and Launcher splash would refill your rocket ammo, so the Bulwark treats it as being a rocket instead of a laser and doesn’t absorb it.
Guns with Splash Damage
If there is a “+x%” next to the weapon it deals its base damage as impact damage plus that amount of damage as its splash. If it says “Pure” next to it the weapon deals all of its base damage as pure splash damage and if the listed base damage is incorrect, there’s a percentage value in brackets next to it. Weapons that have added splash that’s separated from the projectile are marked with S. All other added splash values are directly added to the projectile.
Note:
The splash of secondary projectiles is only listed once (example: The Wombat/Moonscaper spawn multiple mines, but each of them deals 150% damage).
Lasers
- Laser Disker = Pure
- Thunderfire = +85% (fire nova, based on item card value, since the base damage of the shock beam is actually higher than listed, also the splash is not boosted by the continuous damage bonus)
- MINAC’s Atonment = Pure (107.5%) (deals more than listed damage, sometimes the damage doubles, my assumption is that it has very slight penetration and can hit the ground below the enemy, might not be launcher splash because of the interactions it has with certain skills, but it’s not grenade/gun splash and is boosted by gun damage)
- The ZX-1 = ??? (apparently, it has splash damage of +0% or something similar, because it can apply DoTs when slightly missing the target (and its DoT chance seems to be 100%), its element doesn’t matter, it always deals incendiary damage, it can’t crit (but if it was pure splash then it would deal damage when missing the enemy), Amp damage or even just additive gun damage bonuses don’t affect it and it deals around 67.8% more damage than what’s listed on the card, however, Tear and Integrity boost it but probably just because they’re multiplicative gun damage boosts and the damage value is its impact damage, I assume The ZX-1 has some kind of different impact damage)
Assault Rifles
- Torgue Assault Rifle = +90%
- Torgue Barreled Assault Rifle = Pure
- Boss Nova = Pure (penetrates enemies but doesn’t damage them while doing so)
- Hail = +80% and +80% (split projectile)
- KerBoom = Pure and +100% S (child grenade)
Pistols
- Maliwan Pistol = +80%
- Torgue Pistol = +100%
- Blowfly = +80%
- 88 Fragnum = +100%
- Probe = +80%
- Luck Cannon = +300% (chance of additional explosion depending on the distance to the enemy)
- Hard Reboot = +80%
- Logan’s Gun = Pure (75%) (impact splash, deals less than listed damage and also has penetration) and +75% S (extra explosions, the first one happens instantly but it doesn’t proc on penetration) and +150% S (final explosion)
Shotguns
- Torgue Shotgun = +85%
- Party Line = +100% (?) S (fireworks, assumingly deal impact damage because of the way they interact with certain skills)
- Flakker = +100% S
- Jack-o’-Cannon = Pure
- Boomacorn = Pure
- Moonface = +50%
- Wombat = +85% and +150% S (mines, deal more damage than listed)
- Moonscaper = +80% and +150% S (mines, deal more damage than listed)
- Torguemada = +100% and +100% (extra flak projectiles, these have impact damage as well)
- Too Scoops = Pure (150%) (deals more damage than listed and penetrates enemies but doesn’t damage them while doing so) and +18% (?) S (AoE damage of the projectile while it travels and applies 6 times in 3 ticks when it hits the ground, not affected by gun/Amp damage just like The ZX-1)
SMGs
- Hellfire = +50%
Sniper Rifles
- Maliwan Sniper = +50%
- Omni-Cannon = +50%
- Magma = +80%
Rocket Launchers
- Maliwan Launcher = Pure (75%) (impact splash, deals less than base damage) and +25% S (extra nova splash, both together equal the base damage, unlike in BL2 this splash does not hurt you)
- Cryophobia = Pure (75%) and +20% S (extra nova splash, weapon only deals 95% of base damage, does also not hurt you) and +75% and +20% S (additional novas while traveling)
- Kaneda’s Laser = +100% (doesn’t have any main splash, just impact damage like regular guns, it’s the only gun with launcher splash that doesn’t hurt you because the splash is directly added to the projectile and for some reason that impact damage doesn’t receive the bonus from Integrity, only the splash does)
- Mongol = Pure and +60% S (child rockets)
- Thingy = Pure and +100% S (homing projectiles) and +10% S (explosions of homing projectiles)
- Creamer = Pure and +80% S (split rockets)
- All Other Launchers = Pure
Damage Swap Glitch
Some unique instances of splash can be damage swapped, meaning that if you swap your weapon after shooting it the damage of the splash that occurs from the projectile that was shot will be calculated by the base damage of the weapon you swapped to. In TPS the only known weapon with this property is the Flakker.
Splash damage in TPS seems to be a huge mess, even more so than in BL2. Integrity as well as guns like the Too Scoops, Kaneda’s Laser and especially the ZX-1 are still a mystery to me, so things might change in this guide. Feel free to test things for yourself.