
All-round Equipment Guide – part 2 – Weapons
Hello Guardians, as some of us are getting back after a long break, I’ve decided to make a compact, condensed guide about equipment so all of us can learn something new and later just for a quick recap. Second part – WEAPONS!
BASICS
1. What every stat is about?
Basic but most important information to know. Aim assistance, recoil direction and zoom are hidden stats and can’t be checked in game.
Impact | Damage per bullet, comparable to the weapon/archetype |
Range | Affects 2 in-game mechanics: – damage drop with distance, – bullet magnetism (it’s easier to hit precision hit with high range stat). |
Stability | Controls recoil – higher stat, less bounce. |
Reload speed | Higher reload speed, faster you reload – simple. |
Handling | Affects 3 in-game mechanics: – weapon draw speed, – aiming speed, – control over your targeting reticle (higher handling lets you “unflinch” faster when you take damage when aiming. |
Accuracy (Bows only) | affects the accuracy of each shot. |
Blast Radius (Explosive weapons only) | Affects the size of the explosion. Has a different effect for both Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers |
Velocity (Explosive weapons only) | Affects the speed of the launched projectile and how fast it moves. |
Rate of Fire/Charge Time/Draw Time | How fast your weapon fires/time it takes to charge a shot/how long it takes to knock an arrow. |
Magazine | How many shots are in your magazine. |
Aim Assistance | “Stickiness” of a weapon, on PC not as important as on consoles. |
Recoil Direction | This stat controls the behavior of recoil. The higher your recoil direction stat, the closer to the vertical pattern. |
Zoom | Bonus range added to you when aiming. |
Inventory size | Maximum ammo in reserve |
2. Weapon Types.
You can divide weapons by different criteria:
- Weapon class
- Kinetic – no element affinity (100% dmg)
- Energy – element affinity (90% dmg to health, 200% dmg to matching element shield, Mythic+ 50% dmg to other types of shields)
- Power – element affinity (90% dmg to health, 200% dmg to matching element shield, Mythic+ 50% dmg to other types of shields)
- Kinetic – no element affinity (100% dmg)
- Ammunition Type
- Primary
- Auto-Rifles
- Combat Bows
- Hand Cannons
- Pulse Rifles
- Scout Rifles
- Sidearms
- Submachine Guns
- Special
- Fusion Rifles
- Shotguns
- Sniper Rifles
- Trace Rifles
- Heavy
- Linear Fusion Rifles
- Granade Launchers
- Machine Guns
- Rocket Launchers
- Swords
- Primary
3. Weapon Upgrades
There are 3 ways to upgrade your weapon. Infusion, Upgrade, and Mods we will talk about the latter in the next point.
- Infusion – process that changes your weapon power level to the power level of another weapon that is going to be destroyed in the process. Cost special materials called Upgrade Module – you can get them from Banshee-44 and what is more, you can only have 25 in your inventory!

- Upgrade – process that upgrades tier of your weapon. There are 10 tiers, where 10th is masterwork. Every upgrade gives you slight stat upgrade, where masterwork upgrade gives you one big stat bonus and make your muli-kills drop orbs of light! It’s one of most useful end-game mechanic.


https://d2.destinygamewiki.com/wiki/Masterwork
4. Mods
Legendary Weapons have 1 mod slot. Below the list of mods in pattern: “name (where/from whom you may acquire it) [what it does]”. You can equip them, next to
- Backup Mag (Banshee-44) [Increases magazine]
- Boss Spec (Banshee-44) [Increases damage against bosses and vehicles] (7.5% increase)
- Counterbalance Stock (Banshee-44) [Reduces recoil deviation for the weapon] (Adds +15 to Recoil Direction)
- Dragonfly Spec (Ada-1) [Increases the radius and damage of Dragonfly]
- Freehand Grip (Banshee-44) [Increases accuracy and ready speed while firing from the hip]
- Icarus Grip (Banshee-44) [Improves accuracy while airborne]
- Major Spec (Banshee-44) [Deals extra damage against powerful enemies] (7.5% increase)
- Minor Spec (Banshee-44) [Deals extra damage against rank-and-file enemies] (7.5% increase)
- Quick Access Sling (Ada-1) [Swap weapons much faster for a short duration after emptying the magazine]
- Radar Booster (Ada-1) [Slightly increases the range at which radar detects enemies]
- Radar Tuner (Banshee-44) [Radar immediately returns when you stop aiming down sights]
- Rampage Spec (Ada-1) [Increases duration of Rampage]
- Sprint Grip (Ada-1) [Temporarily increases the weapon’s ready speed and aim down sights speed after sprinting]
- Surrounded Spec (Ada-1) [Increases the damage granted by Surrounded. Bonus damage lingers for a brief time when no longer surrounded by three or more enemies]
- Taken Spec (Last Wish Raid Chests) [Increased damage against Taken enemies] (10% increase)
- Targeting Adjuster (Banshee-44) [This weapon gains better target acquisition]
PERKS
1. Weapon Perks.
If the above variations are not enough for you, then we have one thing more to discuss – perks. Here is where the infamous GODROLLS happens (mostly normal or sh***y rolls though).
Perks can change the stats of the weapon, its behavior, or even completely change its mechanic (mostly on exotics, but this part we will leave for the last part of our equipment guide). The most important part is that the same weapon can have different perks – it’s randomized!
You can find perks on your weapon screen.

More detailed information can be read when you put your mouse on a specified perk. Remember that so-called GODROLLS are considered to be the best possible combination on a weapon (often different for PvE, and different for PvP), but it’s not necessarily true for you, as maybe you prefer less ammo and more precision. Perks should match your playstyle. Understand them, and get most from your weapons!
2. Types of perks
Each legendary weapon has 4-5 perk slots. (5th is used on every exotic weapon and some raid weapons).
- Intrinsic – base perks, usually determined by the archetype of the weapon,
- Sights and Barrels – Consisting of Sights, Scopes, Barrels, Launcher Barrels, and Blades. Legendary Weapon will have a choice of 2 or 3 of these, depending on the manufacturer of the gun,
- Magazines and Batteries – Magazines, Batteries, and Guards. Again, either two or three offers, all to do with the ammo or magazine type of the gun (or blocking in the case of Swords),
- Traits – special perks giving some unique feeling to the weapon,
- Stocks and Grips – Used by all Exotic Weapons, these perks modify Handling, Reload Speed and/or Stability to make up for the lack of a standard Intrinsic (Exotics have special trait there).
List of all perks (with great in-depth guide), kept up to date by Reddit user Soleceon available here.

Dear Guardians, with basic info about means to defend yourself, we are left with the last part – exotics. Will do my best to post it soon.
Ryu
1 COMMENT
[…] exotic to masterwork level. Masterwork exotics may have additional bonuses to those presented in the previous article. List of all catalysts (up to season 13) […]