Borderlands 3 - How to get The Cure shotgun and what the pink spider icons mean

The latest Guns, Love and Tentacles Borderlands 3 DLC is live and there's a shiny new shotgun to get your hands on.

Wainwright has a new Jakobs shotgun for you called The Cure. This shotgun seems to be tied to the new spider icons that have been appearing onscreen and comes with the flavour text "Vaccinations save lives. Sorry, no joke here! Just facts." There are also wee pink and purple spider icons popping up during gameplay that seem to be liked to the Takedown Shakedown event that's coming to Borderlands 3 soon, though they may also be related to The Cure.

It might well be this is a not-so-subtle coronavirus joke which seems on par for Borderlands 3 humour. You'll get The Cure quite early on in the Guns, Love and Tentacles DLC, so let's take a look at what you'll be doing.

Borderlands 3: What do the pink spider icons mean?

The jury is still out on what the icons mean, but there's a rumour that the pink and purple spider icons indicate you have a virus of sorts. Some players have reported their stats and perks have been disabled when the spider icon is active, while others have said it has allowed them to level up much faster.

Whether it's a buff, virus or both, we'll update you on any progress, so check back soon.

Borderlands 3: Guns, Love and Tentacles DLC - How to get The Cure shotgun

The Cure comes with a perk where critical hits will ricochet another bullet towards the nearest enemy, which is nice. It has decent accuracy and handling and inflicts a tonne of damage, making you very deadly at close range.

To get The Cure, you'll need to start The Case of Wainwright Jakobs quest. As you play through, Wainwright will get a ring stuck on his finger and at this point, he'll hand you his beloved weapon, The Cure. You can then continue with the quest to remove the ring where you'll find a slew of new weapons and items.

Now that you've found The Cure, check out what other Legendary weapons are available in the new DLC. The level cap has been increased to 57 and you’ll be able to earn four additional skill points and equip two capstone abilities at once.

There are a lot of great legendary shotguns in Borderlands 3, like the Conference Call Legendary Shotgun. There are also a lot of easter eggs to find, like the Rick and Morty gun, the Destiny Dinklebot Easter Egg and Loot-O-Gram, Lord of the Rings Easter Egg and Balrog fire-whip gun and the One Punch Man gun.

For more on Borderlands 3 here’s how to get free Golden Keys with Shift Codes, farm Eridium, and a look at some of the best character builds we’ve seen so far.