Destiny 2's yearly expansions focus heavily on adding depth to its various systems. Armor got a massive expansion in Shadowkeep, and Stasis demonstrates a fundamental redesign in subclass customization as seen in Beyond Light.

Related: Destiny 2: Top Legendary Weapons, Ranked

While none of these expansions added Weapons 2.0, they have certainly changed the perk meta. Weapon crafting, nerfs, and new additions can make it a royal pain to learn which ones are worth your time. Luckily, there are still plenty of options for making an optimal killing machine, ranging from damage buffs to granting ability energy. Here are the ten best perks you can find in Destiny 2.

Updated September 12th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Season of the Plunder has added some new perks into the weapon perk pool, one of which being Voltshot. This Arc-themed variant of Kill Clip is a powerhouse on any weapon it can roll on, turning your weapon into a Legendary version of Trinity Ghoul. We've updated this list to include the Voltshot perk, explaining why this type of add-clearing perk is worth chasing for PvE.

10 Rapid Hit

Destiny 2 Gunslinger Golden Gun Deadshot Menu Art

Rapid Hit: Rapid precision hits temporarily increase stability and reload speed.

Precision hits grant an escalating stability and reload speed bonus to your weapon for a few seconds, significantly increasing the weapon's ease of use. In PvE, the extra reload speed is comparable to Outlaw and is far easier to activate in Master and GM content. In PvP, the extra stability makes you far more resistant to flinch thanks to Season 17's changes to how stability works. You'll be able to out duel just about every Guardian if you have enough stacks of this perk.

Related: Destiny 2: How To Increase Your Crucible Valor And Glory Ranks

9 Subsistence

Destiny 2 Titan Firing Sweet Business

Subsistence: Defeating targets partially reloads the magazine from reserves.

Each kill from your weapon will reload about 17% of your magazine instantly, taking that ammo from your reserves. This perk is incredibly powerful on Primaries, as Bungie removed Primary ammo altogether in Season of the Lost. It might not be too useful in PvP, but for PvE, Subsistence is an elite perk for any add-clear Primaries like SMGs or Hand Cannons.

Interestingly, this perk has also started to appear on Special and Heavy weapons. It can currently roll on Corrective Measure, a Heavy Machine Gun from the Vault of Glass raid. Keep an eye out for this perk on future Special and Heavy weapons, as it allows you to bypass reloading your guns entirely.

8 Incandescent

Destiny 2 Solar 3.0 Featured

Incandescent​​​​​​: Defeating a target spreads scorch to those nearby. More powerful combatants and opposing Guardians cause scorch in a larger radius.

Incandescent is one of the best add-clearing perks in Destiny 2 and has some great build synergy with Solar subclasses. Whenever you kill someone, they'll explode and deal a small amount of damage to nearby enemies. Anyone tagged by the explosion is inflicted by 30 stacks of Scorch, a damage-over-time effect that can cause the target to explode if they hit 100 stacks.

Kill four enemies close to one another, and all nearby targets will violently explode, dealing massive damage. You can use Fragments like Ember of Ashes to ramp up this perk even more, allowing you to create chain explosions with just a few kills. It's absurdly strong in PvE and has some great utility in PvP.

7 Frenzy

Destiny 2 Proving Grounds Strike VIP Cabal

Frenzy: Being in combat for an extended period of time increases damage, handling, and reload speed for the weapon until you are out of combat.

Destiny 2 considers you to be in combat if you've dealt or received damage in the last five seconds. If you're in combat for 12 seconds, Frenzy will activate on your weapon, whether you have it actively equipped or not. So long as you keep dealing and receiving damage, you'll gain the following buffs to your weapon:

  • 15% more damage.
  • +50 handling.
  • +50 reload speed.

This turns just about every weapon into an add-slaying machine that has lightning-fast reloads. Primary weapons benefit greatly from the extra reload speed. Special and Heavy weapons become far easier to use with the handling buff, and all weapons can benefit from a constant 15% damage buff. Frenzy isn't the strongest damage buff in Destiny 2, but it's certainly one of the easiest perks to trigger and maintain in PvE. For PvP, you're better off with Kill Clip or another damage perk.

6 Voltshot

Destiny 2 Tarnished Mettle

Voltshot: Reloading this weapon after defeating a target overcharges this weapon for a short period of time, causing it to jolt on its next hit.

Voltshot is a perk exclusive to Arc weapons that causes them to inflict Jolt on your first shot of a fresh magazine upon killing an enemy. It's effectively an Arc-themed version of Kill Clip, yet that comparison doesn't do Voltshot justice.

This perk turns your weapon into Trinity Ghoul. One shot will cause the target to chain lightning to nearby targets, dealing an immense amount of damage in all content. For non-GM content, red bars disintegrate while majors take some serious damage. It's the king of add-clearing perks, although its damage against majors isn't quite as strong as its Solar cousin, Incandescent.

5 Headstone

Destiny 2 Stasis Subclass Supers

Headstone: Precision final blows spawn a Stasis crystal at the victim's location.

Headstone is a Stasis version of Dragonfly, turning an enemy's corpse into a Stasis crystal if you land a precision kill. That alone sounds underwhelming, but this perk has some fantastic synergies with Stasis Aspects and Fragments.

Spawning a crystal allows you to use it as cover or destroy it, dealing shatter damage to all nearby targets. You can increase this damage with Whisper of Fissures, dealing more damage than a typical Dragonfly explosion. If you want more utility from this perk, use Whisper of Chains to gain DR while near the crystal. You can even use Headstone alongside Whisper of Shards to get grenade energy whenever you break this crystal. It's S-tier for Stasis builds in all content, PvE and PvP.

4 Overflow

Hand Cannon Destiny 2 -via Bunge

Overflow: Picking up Special or Heavy ammo reloads this weapon to beyond normal capacity.

Whenever you grab a Special or Heavy brick, any weapons with Overflow will automatically reload with double their normal capacity. This allows SMGs to have up to 80 bullets, Rockets Launchers to have two rockets, and other Primaries to have an absurd magazine size.

Since Special bricks are plentiful in PvP, this perk is useful in both environments. Having a weapon with twice the magazine size is amazing in most situations. Primaries can clear adds or fight multiple Guardians easier, Specials can output more damage before reloading, and Heavies like Rocket Launchers gain an immense amount of burst DPS. Keep an eye out for this perk on any guns you obtain.

Related: Destiny 2: A Complete Guide To The Vault Of Glass Raid

3 Rangefinder

Destiny 2 The Palindrome

Rangefinder: Aiming this weapon increases its effective range and zoom magnification. Increased projectile velocity while aiming Rocket Launchers, Grenade Launchers, and Bows.

If you mostly play PvE content or use projectile weapons, Rangefinder is mediocre at best. For PvP players, it's a different story. Rangefinder greatly increases the effective range of your weapon by enhancing its zoom stat. This does make your ADS FOV more narrow than normal, but the tradeoff is an immense amount of range that only Iron Reach can compete with.

In Destiny 2's Crucible, range is everything. Your effective range dictates which engagements you can take, which weapons counter your loadout, and how effective your aim assist is at further distances. Rangefinder lets you break the typical limits of certain weapon archetypes like 140 Hand Cannons or 540 Pulses, allowing you to duel and succeed in gunfights against weapons that'd normally have the upper hand. If you ever find a hitscan weapon that can roll with Rangefinder, take it for a spin. You might be surprised how consistent it is.

2 Kill Clip

Destiny 2 Ace of Spades Exotic

Kill Clip: Reloading after a kill grants increased damage.

Reloading after you kill someone will grant a 33% damage boost for five seconds. While boring by today's perk standards, Kill Clip manages to enhance any gun it rolls on with faster time to kill values in PvP and better add-clearing potential in PvE. It's best used on Primaries to enhance their ability to kill tougher fodder enemies in PvE or Guardians inside the Crucible. Considering most other damage perks are tougher to activate or numerically weaker, Kill Clip stands as one of Destiny 2's strongest damage perks.

1 Explosive Payload

Destiny 2 Fatebringer Hand Cannon

Explosive Payload: Projectiles create an area-of-effect detonation on impact.

On the surface, Explosive Payload looks like a lackluster perk. In practice, it's a great PvE perk and arguably overpowered inside the Crucible. Explosive Payload does three things:

  • Splits your damage between your bullet and an explosive detonation.
    • The explosive damage doesn't suffer from damage falloff.
  • Grants a 15% damage boost in PvE.
    • Headshots only gain 10% bonus damage.
    • Doesn't impact PvP damage output.
  • Bullets inflict substantially more flinch on your opponent.

Excluding Timed Payload, no other perk in Destiny 2 provides this many benefits passively. The extra damage makes it an excellent PvE perk for Primaries like Hand Cannons, making body shots much less punishing and one-taps more frequent.

In PvP, this perk becomes extremely powerful, capable of flinching Guardians much more while extending your gun's effective dueling range. You're going to have a hard time finding a better PvP perk than this one.

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