Well this is awesome, despite everyone saying that the 17 million guns was just 12 different gusn with varying stats, there actually is an assload of variation.
For example with Repeater pistols there are 5 common variants
Lacerator - +200% Melee damage.
Needler - Increased fire rate & magazine size.
Raptor - Increased damage at the expense of higher recoil.
Repeater - Balanced, closest to default stats.
Swatter - Higher accuracy.
Those are the standard pistols that will come in white, green, blue, and purple rarity. Then they can have additional elemental damage types (Explosive, Corrosive, Fire, and Shock). And also from random weapon parts, like a scope that increases accuracy for example.
Then you have the unique pistols, which usually have very good stats for their level
Lady Finger "Omnia vincit amor" +100% increased critical damage.
The Dove "Sometimes, I forget to reload." - No ammo usage.
Krom's Sidearm "a gift from Papa Krom" - 300% Burst Fire while zoomed & 3x Shock.
Chiquito Amigo Say "Hello" - Fast reload, large magazine.
Knoxx's Gold "Bling!" - Increased resale value.
Athena's Wisdom"War is the final option" - Increased critical hit damage & accuracy.
Now these unique weapons will spawn as one of the common or even legendary repeater types (Ill get to legendary in one second). So you could get a Swatter (Higher accuracy) spawning as Athena's Wisdom, so now you have an even more accurate pistol with a bonus to critical damage, vastly increasing its usefulness.
Then there are the legendary weapons, marked in Orange
Atlas Troll "Pain Heals." - Slow health regeneration while held.
Dahl Hornet "Feel the Sting" - 200% burst fire, corrosive.
Hyperion Invader "12 bullets invade your skull" - Fully automatic while zoomed.
Maliwan Firehawk "Bring the HEAT!" - Incendiary x4, splash damage, extreme proc damage (equivalent to a x6)
S&S Gemini "Double Whammy." - 200% Burst Fire, 2 bullets fired per shot at the cost of 2 ammo.
Tediore Protector "Ammo is no longer an issue." - Ammo Regeneration.
Torgue Violator "Your move, Creep." - 300% Burst Fire x 3 bullets per shot at the cost of 1 ammo.
Vladof Rebel "Never stop shooting!" - Large magazine & increases RoF.
These guns always have special effects, that are much more noticable than the effects obtained from unique weapons. The Legendary weapons are where the guns start to feel incredibly different, as most of them require a strategy to be used effectively (E.g. when you using the Firehawk you can safely switch between targets, since the fire damage will do enough DOT to kill enemies. Whereas with the Invader, you will want to make the most of its effect to load bullets into individual enemies skulls to get a hige critical damage boost)
Theres the pearlescent rank, which is effectively just even better legendary weapons. These guns are the rarest of the rare and have one of a kind special effects (E.g the ability to fire bullets that do 2 types of elemental damage at the same time)
In addition to all this guns also have manufacturers, which have their own effect on a gun.
Atlas - Above average damage and magazine capacity.
Appearance: White, with more black detailing at higher material grades.
Dahl - High recoil reduction, at the cost of accuracy.
Appearance: Various camouflage patterns differing across material grades.
Eridians - Alien weaponry, deals generally high damage with unlimited ammunition but often suffers from slow recharge.
Appearance: Organic, easily told apart from normal weapons.
Hyperion - Very high recoil reduction and accuracy.
Appearance: Red, darker and more metallic at higher material grades.
Jakobs - Never manufactures elemental weapons. Very high damage, but with lower fire rate and recoil reduction.
Appearance: Orange and brown, with wooden gloss finishes at higher material grades.
Maliwan - Only manufactures elemental weapons, which have much higher tech regeneration rates. Also benefits from marginal increases to accuracy and reload speed.
S&S Munitions - Very high magazine capacity. Usually manufactures elemental weapons.
Appearance: Yellow and black, more contrast at higher material grades.
Tediore - Extremely fast reload speed, with a slight compromise on damage and accuracy.
Appearance: Matte gray, lighter gray to beige at higher material grades
Torgue - High damage and slightly higher fire rate, but suffers from much lower accuracy and recoil reduction.
Appearance: Dark gray to black, darker and more metallic at higher material grades.
Vladof - Very high fire rate, good recoil reduction, but suffers from much lower accuracy.
Appearance: Orange and black, more contrast at higher material grades.
With all this combined, those simple stat changes can make guns feel very different to one another, so while 17 million guns may not all feel different, a good couple of thousand do. Which is still very impressive.
