One of the best things about Borderlands games, as well as the spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, is the Legendary items you can find. These items are gold in color and tend to have unique effects that are exclusive to that particular one. This page will concentrate on the Legendary Assault Rifle, the Manual Transmission.

View Full-size

The Manual Transmission legendary assault rifle

Where to Find the Manual Transmission¶

You will be able to find the Manual Transmission as a drop from the Vorcanar boss. This enemy initially only spawns at the end of The Slayer of Vorcanar side quest, which is available on Mount Craw after completing the Goblins Tired of Forced Oppression side quest. Once you finish the previously mentioned side quest, you can revisit the boss arena where you fought Vorcanar to continually redo the battle.

Manual Transmission’s Stats and Effects¶

At first glance, the Manual Transmission doesn’t seem too special, as it is an assault rifle that has one clip for all of your ammo. However, as you hold down the fire button, you will eventually be forced to reload. Taking a look at the ammo count in the bottom right corner, you will notice that it will turn red for a few seconds while firing. If you switch firing modes when it’s red (or gears, as the weapon calls it), then your fire rate will be improved. You can keep doing this over and over to get a really insane firing rate.

• Switching modes at full heat will upshift the weapon.

How to Use the Manual Transmission¶

First and foremost, you will want a lot of ammo before using this gun for its intended purpose, as it can eat through that ammo pretty quickly. While the weapon can do a lot of damage due to its insane fire rate, once you reach the high Chaos Levels, it seems to fall off a lot, in terms of damage. That’s because the base damage of the weapon is pretty low, at least compared to some other assault rifles. Also, it can be a bit challenging to use its mechanic during a heated battle, as you need to keep an eye on the ammo count in the bottom right to know when to switch gears.

The gun can be quite useful, though, at lower Chaos Levels or if you happen to get one during the course of the main story. One way you might utilize its mechanic is to do some gear switches outside a fight before entering it. If you do it like this, then you will have the insane fire rate already and not be forced to take an eye off of enemies to make sure you hit the gear switch, although you will need to do that to keep the fire rate active.