Destiny 2’s Armor 2.0 system brought a whole new avenue for players to customize their characters. One of the largest additions that came with Shadowkeep was the introduction of the Seasonal Artifact, a new item that grants powerful armor and weapon mods with Exotic-tier effects.

Some of these mods have shaped the meta builds for certain seasons, such as Oppressive Darkness and Tyrant’s Surge. Even the less impactful mods are a major boon that allows for new builds in all game types. Season of the Lost has brought some meta-defining mods of its own that you should consider using. Here are the ten best Artifact mods introduced in Destiny 2’s Season of the Lost.

Updated September 4th, 2021, by Charles Burgar: Season of the Lost brought a new Artifact to Destiny 2. The Wayfinder’s Compass has some devastating new mods and some old favorites. If you love build-crafting, this is arguably the best Artifact mod we’ve ever received in Destiny 2. This Artifact has single-handedly made Fusion Rifles desirable in endgame PvE, given Stasis classes near-infinite ability usage, and so much more. We’ve updated this article to cover the best mods you can find in Season 15’s Artifact.

10 Anti-Champion Mods

Anti-Champion Mods (Arms, 1 Energy): Weapons fire a shield-piercing/explosive payload/disrupting rounds that counter Champions.

Simply put, anti-Champion mods are mandatory for Destiny 2’s endgame PvE content. Most raids and Ordeal Nightfalls require these mods to make them beatable.

Discarding Champions entirely, these mods are still worth using on weapons. Anti-Barrier mods can pierce Hydra and Phalanx shields while also piercing a Hobgoblin’s immune phase while regenerating. Unstoppable Rounds force targets to stagger regardless of their health threshold, and Overload Rounds prevent enemies from using abilities while afflicted by the ailment. They serve no function in Crucible but are game-changing in PvE.

9 Well Of Potency

Well of Potency (Elemental Well, 5 Energy): Picking up a matching elemental well grants you Super energy.

Matching elemental wells grant around 2.5% Super energy when picked up. That sounds pitiful on paper, but there’s one thing that makes this mod an S-tier pick: Elemental Shards. This armor mod counts Stasis Shards—the melee shards that drop while certain Stasis Aspects are equipped—to count as elemental wells.

Considering just how many Stasis Shards you can make, you can very easily get 25% of your Super back from one short skirmish as a Stasis subclass. If you’re a Revenant, you can pair Well of Potency with Thermoclastic Blooming for an absurd amount of Super energy with each Withering Blade. On its own, Well of Potency is incredibly underwhelming for a fifth-column mod. But when paired with the right build, this mod has the potential of giving you Supers in less than a minute.

8 Unstoppable Fusion Rifles

Unstoppable Fusion Rifles (Arms, 6 Energy): Aiming down FUsion Rifle and Linear Fusion RIfle sights loads a high-impact burst that stuns unshielded combatants. Strong against Unstoppable Champions.

We mentioned Champion mods in a previous entry, but Unstoppable Fusion Rifle deserves a special mention. Since these weapons have a powerful debuff mod in the form of Particle Deconstruction, Fusions and LFRs have become a main-stay in Season 15’s meta. This mod ensures they’ll remain relevant in endgame PvE content. A single shot from a Fusion or LFR will stun an Unstoppable, so this mod is incredibly consistent.

Some notable weapons to use with this mod are:

7 Passive Guard

Passive Guard (Class Item, 6 Energy): Receive less damage from combatants that are close to you while you are wielding a sword.

Passive Guard reduces incoming damage by 50% while you meet two conditions:

It’s hard to quantify the latter, but if you’re in melee distance, this mod will 100% be working. Passive Guard allows you to use Swords in Master and GM Nightfalls. This pairs well with Overload Sword, giving aggressive players a means of shutting down Champions and other tough mobs quickly. If you love Swords, this mod should always be on your class item.

6 Thermoclastic Strike

Thermoclastic Strike (Class Item, 3 Energy): Solar and Stasis melees disrupt combatants. Strong against Overload Champions. Refresh your melee ability whenever you or a member of your fireteam stuns an Overload Champion.

Thermoclastic Strike does two things:

The melee recharge effect works with any subclass, not just Solar and Stasis. Your Overload options this season are Bows and Swords, two options that are less than ideal for most GM Nightfalls. With this mod, you can easily counter Overloads while leaving your arm slots free for other mods. Some of the mods this season are exceptionally strong for Solar and Stasis builds, so consider slapping this mod on your builds if you plan to make a Solar or Stasis-oriented build.

5 Withering Heat

Withering Heat (Class Item, 6 Energy): Causing damage with a Solar ability weakens Champions for a short duration.

Withering Heat causes Champions to take 30% increased damage when they’re hit with a Solar ability. The debuff lasts for about 5 seconds and does not stack with additional debuffs.

This mod is fantastic for Dawnblades, Gunslingers, and Sunbreakers. Bottom Tree Gunslinger is especially noteworthy here, as your Super in that spec is the precision variant of Golden Gun—one of the highest-damage Supers in Destiny 2. Debuffing a target before unleashing a high-damage Super on them is nothing short of S-tier for difficult content. It’s only a fourth-column mod too. But since this mod only works on Champions, we can’t rate this mod any higher on our list.

4 Thermoclastic Blooming

Thermoclastic Blooming (Arms, 2 Energy): Defeating a combatant with a Solar or Stasis melee creates an Orb of Power.

Don’t let this fifth-column mod deceive you. Thermoclastic Blooming is much stronger than it sounds. This mod gives an Orb of Power upon a Solar or Stasis melee kill. Thermoclastic Blooming doesn’t have an internal cooldown, meaning your melee can spawn more Orbs than a Super if it kills enough enemies.

Granted, these Orbs are on par with Masterwork Orbs, but these Orbs spawn for you and your team. If you want to help your team spam Supers, Thermoclastic Blooming is a fantastic option.

3 Resonance Siphon

Resonance Siphon (Class Item, 2 Energy): Gain Stasis ability energy whenever you or a member of your fireteam stuns a Champion.

Simply put, if you’re using a Stasis subclass, Resonance Siphon should always be equipped. For two energy, you can regain 60% of your ability energy whenever an Overload Champion is stunned.

With how common Overloads are this season, this effectively means you have infinite abilities when Champions are present. You can even freeze an Overload to reset its stunned status, allowing you to trigger Resonance Siphon as often as you’d like. Shadebinders and Revenants should have this mod equipped at all times.

2 Focusing Lens

Focusing Lens (Class Item, 3 Energy): Your Light abilities do bonus damage to combatants affected by Stasis.

One of Season of the Chosen’s best Artifact mods is back. Focusing Lens increases the damage of your Light abilities by 25% against targets that are slowed or frozen. Focusing Lens stacks with other buffs and debuffs, meaning you can pair this mod with the 40% debuff Particle Deconstruction provides.

If that isn’t enough to convince you that Focusing Lens is good, all damage dealt while in a Well of Radiance counts as Light ability damage. This mod effectively makes Well of Radiance give all of your weapons an additional, multiplicative 25% damage increase. Coordinated teams that have at least one Stasis user need to have this mod equipped. It’s easily one of the strongest mods in Destiny history.

1 Particle Deconstruction

Particle Deconstruction (Class Item, 7 Energy): Dealing damage to a combatant with a Fusion Rifle or Linear Fusion Rifle grants bonus damage with a Fusion Rifle or Linear Fusion Rifle against the combatants for a short duration. This effect stacks up to 5 times.

Mods that have paragraph-long descriptions are almost always really good. Particle Deconstruction follows this trend nicely. In essence, Particle Deconstruction provides a 40% debuff for Fusion Rifle and LFR users. You’ll need to hit the target 5 times before the debuff reaches its full effect.

But once that debuff is fully applied, nothing will survive. Fusions and LFRs can compete with the infamous double slug Shotguns and Anarchy combo used in most raids. Better yet, this mod stacks with Shadowshot tether. Apply this mod’s debuff before you tether, and you’ll end up with an 80% damage increase against whatever enemy you’re facing. Pair that with Weapons of Light to have one of the strongest DPS combos in Destiny history. If you raid or run GM Nightfalls at all, this mod should always be equipped.