Destiny 2’s Season of the Hunt has brought a small roster of weapons for Guardians to experiment with. This season might lack the breadth of gear from previous seasons, but that doesn’t mean the new offerings are bad.

Season of the Hunt’s new Exotics and Legendary offerings are mostly great. Friction Fire competes with Antiope-D as the best PvP SMG, Hawkmoon is the new defacto 140 RPM Hand Cannon, and Duality is a great PvE Shotgun. Sadly, this season did bring a few lackluster weapons players should avoid. From optimal perks to general performance, here are all of Season of the Hunt’s weapons ranked from worst to best.

7 Corsair’s Wrath

Corsair’s Wrath is a Linear Fusion Rifle. That should be reason enough to justify its rank. This weapon does admittedly have a good perk pool, capable of obtaining both Killing Wind and Kill Clip, yet it falls behind other Heavy weapons.

This weapon cannot roll Firing Line, meaning it will always deal less damage than Season of Dawn’s Line in the Sand. Linear Fusions, in general, lack the firepower to warrant the Heavy slot. Corsair’s Wrath does nothing to change this. Sadly, this weapon is the only Linear Fusion Rifle that won’t be sunset next season. Farm this weapon only if you love this archetype.

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6 Royal Chase

Based on feel alone, Royal Chase is one of the best Scout Rifles in Destiny 2. This weapon has a clean box sight, delivers little recoil with each shot, and feels great on a controller.

Even with its great overall feel, Royal Chase is still a Scout Rifle. Scouts are notorious for their lackluster damage output in PvE. This gun is also a Precision Frame, the worst weapon archetype for Scout Rifles. Fortunately, it can roll Multikill Clip to assist its damage output, yet the weapon struggles to achieve triple kills as is.

Full Auto Trigger System and Dragonfly is the best roll you can get on this weapon for PvE. For PvP, Royal Chase can’t compete with MIDA Multi-Tool or 120 RPM Hand Cannons. With all of those negatives in mind, Scout Rifle should still farm for a good Royal Chase roll; Bungie might buff this archetype sometime in the future.

5 Blast Battue

Blast Battue is one of the best Legendary Heavy weapons for clearing out rank and file enemies. This is thanks to the Chain Reaction perk, allowing this weapon to generate a large AoE explosion for every enemy it kills.

Killing Wind and Clown Cartridge can also roll on this weapon. For clearing out waves of enemies, Blast Battue is an excellent choice. For boss damage, Blast Battue falls behind Interference VI and Prospector. It is also a poor Heavy weapon for the Crucible. However, if you need a Heavy weapon that clears out weaker foes, Blast Battue is a great choice.

4 Duality

Destiny’s only hybrid Shotgun, Duality fires buckshot when hip-fired while it fires slugs while aiming. Killing enemies while hip-firing grants a damage bonus for aimed precision hits. The damage bonus is quite substantial, allowing this weapon to one-shot most majors if you achieve x5 stacks or more.

That said, Duality falls behind most Legendary Shotguns in PvP. Felwinter’s Lie, Astral Horizon, and even the Seventh Seraph CQC-12 have more range than this gun does. The weapon also lacks the snappiness of a Quickdraw Special weapon. It’s a great PvE weapon in non-pinnacle content, but Duality doesn’t have a place inside of the Crucible. The Chaperone is a better choice for PvP.

3 Friction Fire

Antiope-D finally has competition. Friction Fire is a Precision Frame Submachine Gun with an excellent perk pool. Killing Wind and Rampage is the most versatile roll you can achieve. In PvP, this weapon becomes a monster after it achieves a kill. Friction Fire even excels in PvE when Rampage is at x3 stacks.

Rampage can also be replaced with Wellspring or Vorpal Weapon if desired, albeit these perks don’t offer the same lethality boost that Rampage grants. SMG lovers will want to get this gun.

2 Deafening Whisper

Deafening Whisper is Destiny 2’s second Wave Frame Grenade Launcher. Compared to Martyr’s Retribution, Deafening Whisper is more of a sidegrade than a definite improvement. Lacking perks such as Demolitionist, Deafening Whisper makes up for this with perks like Ambitious Assassin and Wellspring.

For PvE, Deafening Whisper is absurdly good with the right roll. Ambitious Assassin gives this weapon two shots per reload, significantly increasing this weapon’s add-clearing potential. Rampage can also roll on this gun to grant even more damage against tougher foes. Since it deals Void damage, this weapon also procs Nezarec’s Sin’s Abyssal Extractors perk for Warlocks. PvP players can safely skip this gun, however, as it lacks the utility perks found on Orewing’s Maul and Truthteller.

1 Hawkmoon

Don’t let its name fool you; destiny 2’s Hawkmoon is nothing like the original. This gun’s lucky motif was removed from its perk. In its place is the ability to receive random perks. That’s right, Hawkmoon is the only Exotic in Destiny 2 with random rolls.

Even with its perk being reworked in Destiny 2, Hawkmoon is still a force to be reckoned with. This gun has every stat you could ask for: high range, excellent handling, an aim assist stat of 93, and a clean sight. Its in-air accuracy is excellent as well, although not as great as a Legendary with Icarus Grip. PvP players couldn’t ask for a better Hand Cannon.

Its Exotic perk, Paracasual Shot, is better suited for PvE than PvP. It can one-tap Guardians if it reaches x6 stacks, yet this seldom happens in PvP. Reaching x6 stacks is easy to achieve in PvE, however. Stacking Paracasual Round stacks can allow Hawkmoon to one-shot majors with its final round. It also demolishes Champions, removing a third of their health with a x7 Paracasual Shot. If you need to use double Primary for a Nightfall, Hawkmoon is an excellent Primary to bring.

For its random perks, aim for perks that increase its handling. Reaching a handling stat of 100 is easy on this weapon, allowing you to drop Quickdraw for Opening Shot or Rangefinder.

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