Destiny 2: Shadowkeep saw the overhaul of the armor system. Known by most as Armor 2.0, this system brought back intellect, discipline, and strength from the first Destiny while allowing mods to be slotted into gear as players see fit.
With hundreds of mods to choose from that grow in number each season, creating builds has never been more viable. Even for players not interested in build crafting, there are plenty of game-changing mods that everyone should use. Ranging from generating Warmind Cells to taking significantly less damage, here are the best armor mods players can use in Destiny 2. This list does not include Artifact mods.
Updated September 24th, 2021 by Charles Burgar: Destiny 2's selection of armor mods has continued to expand each season. Season of the Lost has added Stasis as an elemental affinity for armor, complete with new mod types that have completely shaken up the armor mod meta for PvE and PvP. We've updated this tier list to include Season 15's Kickstart armor mods, and we've expanded a few entries to better explain why they're so powerful in PvE, PvP, or both.
13 Ammo Finders
Ammo Finder Mods (Universal, 1-3 Energy): Increases your chance of finding ammo while you have the specified weapon family equipped. Primary weapons, especially Exotic Primaries, help you find ammo more quickly.
On their own, Ammo Finders might seem underwhelming. PvP players won't get any use from these mods, and PvE players might find that Special Finisher does the same thing. In practice, these mods prove invaluable for most PvE builds.
While an Ammo Finder mod is equipped, all enemies you kill will spawn an ammo brick after a set number of kills—typically 13 to 17 for Specials and 15 to 20 for Heavies. Using a Primary weapon reduces this requirement by a few kills, and Exotic Primaries reduce this even further to around 6-8 kills. Each brick grants a small amount of ammunition, although there is no limit to the number of bricks you can generate this way. If you want to play a double Special build or main a Heavy weapon, Ammo Finders are a must.
12 Elemental Charge
Elemental Charge (Universal, 2 Energy): Become Charged with Light by picking up an elemental well. If the elemental well's elemental type matches your subclass element, you gain 2 stacks of Charged with Light.
In essence, Elemental Wells now grant Charged with Light stacks. If the Well matches your subclass energy type, you'll gain two stacks of Charged with Light. This sounds lackluster on paper until you realize how easy it is to spawn Elemental Wells.
Most Elemental Well mods are tied to using your abilities. This is fantastic for allowing ability-centric builds to access buffs like Protective Light or Firepower. You can also spawn Elemental Wells from your weapons. Even Stasis Shards can count as Elemental Wells with the right mod. If your entire fireteam is spawning Elemental Wells, prepare to have maximum Charged with Light stacks at all times.
11 Global Reach
Global Reach (Universal, 3 Energy): Warmind Cells you create affect and damage targets at a greater distance.
Three energy points are all it takes to use Global Reach, arguably one of the strongest mods in Destiny 2.
This mod causes Warmind Cells to deal increased damage and cover a wider radius when detonated. Adding this onto any build will allow Seventh Seraph weapons and the Year 3 IKELOS guns to spawn Warmind Cells as well. Global Reach was used to great effect during the world's first race in the Deep Stone Crypt raid, allowing teams to wipe out waves of enemies using just this mod. Anyone that plans on completing tough PvE content should seriously consider making a Warmind Cell build with this mod. Weapons that pair well with this include the IKELOS SMG, Seventh Seraph Officer Revolver, and the Seventh Seraph CQC-12.
10 Powerful Friends And Radiant Light
Powerful Friends (Arc, 4 Energy): When you become Charged with Light, nearby allies also become Charged with Light, if they are not already. If a second Arc mod is installed, gain +20 Mobility.
Radiant Light (Arc, 3 Energy): Casting your Super causes nearby allies to become Charged with Light. If a second Arc mod is installed, gain +20 Strength.
We're going to cheat and include two different mods in this section since they effectively do the same thing. Powerful Friends and Radiant Light help your allies become Charged with Light when you do something. In this case, it's when you either become Charged with Light yourself or cast a Super. When you pair these mods with High-Energy Fire, you can have a rather powerful way of gaining a 20% damage boost in PvP.
What makes this duo worth mentioning is their secondary bonuses. When you use two Arc Combat Style mods, a secondary bonus will activate on both mods. In this case, you'll gain +20 Mobility from Powerful Friends and +20 Strength from Radiant Light. Gaining four tiers of stats for essentially nothing is S-tier for PvP and a solid option in PvE if you don't have a specific build in mind.
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8 Special Finisher
Special Finisher (Universal, 2 Energy): Finishers generate Special ammo for the whole fireteam. Requires one-third of your Super energy.
Since finishers can only be executed in PvE, this mod does nothing in PvP. However, this mod's effect is so great that it makes Special Finisher a must for pinnacle PvE content.
Finishing a target will spawn a Special ammo brick for you and your allies, consuming a third of your Super energy. If you don't have at least a third of your Super energy, you can't finish targets. The brick that spawns isn't an Ammo Finder brick; it's a standard Special brick that grants a massive chunk of Special ammo. If at least one member of your fireteam is using this mod, your team will never run out of Special ammo in Nightfalls or raids. Being able to bypass the otherwise RNG-heavy ammo economy makes Special Finisher one of Destiny 2's best PvE perks. It also allows you to play a double Special build if you so choose.
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6 Taking Charge
Taking Charge (Universal, 3 Energy): Become Charged with Light by picking up Orbs of Power.
Taking Charge is one of the best means of obtaining the Charged With Light buff in Destiny 2.
For three universal energy in any Year 3 piece of armor, Taking Charge will grant one stack of the Charged With Light buff upon grabbing an Orb of Power. Masterwork Orbs and Super Orbs grant the same. This mod works in both PvE and PvP, making it one of the strongest build-enabling mods in the game. Want to use High-Energy Fire in PvP? Rock a Masterworked gun and this mod. Making a Super-oriented build? Run Taking Charge and Energy Converter to get even more Super energy out of your Orbs of Power. Taking Charge is a must on every Charged with Light build.
5 Ammo Scavengers
Ammo Scavenger Mods (Universal, 4-5 Energy): The specified weapon family gets bonus reserves when you pick up ammo. Copies of the same mod don't stack.
Scavenger mods go onto a player's leg armor. Obtaining ammo bricks for the corresponding ammo type will generate additional ammo while these mods are equipped, both in PvE and PvP.
PvE players that use Ammo Finders will get a lot of mileage out of these mods, effectively doubling or tripling the amount of ammo you receive from spawned bricks. In PvP, these mods are mandatory. A single mod lets you obtain two rounds per Special ammo brick. Since most Special weapons can kill Guardians in one shot, this allows you to snowball your ammo reserves until you have over a dozen rounds to play with.
4 Kickstart Mods
Kickstart Mods (Stasis, 1-4 Energy): When you fully expend the energy of a listed ability, you gain 15-30% ability energy.
Introduced in Season of the Lost, Kickstart mods drastically reduce your ability cooldowns. Each Kickstart mod affects one type of ability—grenade, melee, or class ability—and grants 15% energy when your energy is fully expended. If you use two of the same mod, this energy refund becomes 30%.
Shockingly, this works in PvP. You can use two Grenade Kickstart mods on your arms to instantly recover 30% grenade energy whenever you use your grenade ability. When paired with a high Discipline stat, you can throw significantly more grenades than normal. This mod gets especially dangerous when paired with a Shatterdive Hunter build, allowing Revenants to throw a Glacier Grenade every 15 seconds—even lower if they use FR0ST-EE5. If you don't care about using Combat Style mods in PvP, these mods should be on your armor at all times. And for PvE, the additional ability uptime provided by Kickstart mods is just too good to pass up.
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2 Damage Resistance Mods
Damage Resistance Mods (Universal or specific affinity, 1 Energy): Reduces incoming damage from the specified damage type by 25%. Stacking two mods increases the damage reduction to 40%.
Chest armor can slot in unique damage resistance mods that cover certain element types, area-of-effect damage, as well as damage taken from certain distances.
Every damage resistance mod grants a 25% damage reduction buff against that type of damage. Since most of Destiny 2's deadliest attacks are classified as area damage, the Concussive Dampener mod is arguably the best. Stacking two grants around a 40% damage resistance buff, allowing players to take an absurd amount of punishment. Anyone that plans to play Master or Grandmaster Nightfalls will want to equip these mods to remove the risk of being one-shot by certain opponents.
1 Protective Light
Protective Light (Void, 2 Energy): While Charged with Light, you gain significant damage resistance against combatants when your shields are destroyed. This effect consumes all stacks of Charged with Light. The more stacks consumed, the longer the damage resistance lasts.
Introduced in Season of Dawn, Protective Light is a game-changing mod for aggressive players or Guardians that wish to complete the hardest content flawlessly.
Two Void energy in any armor piece is all it takes to use this mod. When the player's shields break from enemy damage, they obtain a whopping 50% damage resistance buff for a variable duration based on the number of Charged with Light stacks consumed. As long as the player can keep up their Charged With Light stacks and regenerate their health and shields quickly, players can effectively have this buff always active and be nigh impervious to damage. It doesn't work in PvP, but for PvE, this mod is so good that it's downright mandatory.