Destiny 2: Best Exotic Auto Rifle, Ranked (PvE & PvP)

Image: Bungie, Inc. via HGG / Jeffrey Hsu

Human Made

Penned by Brett Moss

I've been playing video games pretty much nonstop ever since I got my first 360. I love arena shooters, MMOs, and MOBAs, but I'll pretty much try any kind of game.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Auto Rifles come in many varieties in Destiny 2, and it seems like every new Auto Rifle has something which makes it stand out from the rest – especially the Exotic ones. It’s safe to say Bungie has plenty of ideas for unique Auto Rifles, but how good are they?

In this article we’ll rank all 9 Exotic Auto Rifles in Destiny 2 from worst to best in both PvE and PvP, with a bit of information detailing each ranking.

Let’s get right to it!

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All Exotic Auto Rifles Ranked for PvE

Auto Rifles have always been popular in PvE, so it’s surprising how few Exotic Auto Rifles we have. But, luckily, the Exotic Auto Rifles we do have tend to be some of the more interesting Exotics out there.

Here’s every Exotic Auto Rifle ranked from worst to best for PvE in Destiny 2!

9. SUROS Regime

SUROS Regime is fairly easy to rank, as it has no place in PvE whatsoever. It’s been around for a really long time now in Destiny 2, so it suffers heavily from power creep.

What it does have to offer can be found mostly on legendary weapons these days, so there just aren’t any reasons to justify using it outside of PvP. It might be fun for easy content, but we wouldn’t recommend it anywhere else in PvE.

8. Cerberus+1

Cerberus+1 is one of the funniest weapons in Destiny 2. It’s an “auto rifle” that fires like an auto shotgun, has terrible range, and has a weird catalyst. But all that being said, having an Auto Rifle with such a unique bullet spread and range falloff is interesting, if nothing else.

It’s also a surprisingly effective weapon at close range, but it doesn’t do enough to warrant an Exotic slot. It’s just not consistent enough to be worth the downsides it comes with. Though we still fully respect everyone running around with it anyway.

7. Hard Light

In PvE, Hard Light isn’t quite as strong as it could be. Despite having the ability to switch energy types, Hard Light doesn’t do enough to justify taking up the Exotic slot. Sure, the bonus damage on ricochet shots is cool, but it just isn’t all that relevant in PvE.

Hard Light is a lot more exciting in PvP where the small bonuses and more unique aspects get a chance to shine more, whereas it just feels like a waste of an Exotic weapon slot in PvE.

6. Tommy’s Matchbook

Tommy’s Matchbook is great for Solar builds that have a way to heal. The Exotic perk, Ignition Trigger, causes this weapon to overheat from sustained fire. When overheated, it does more damage and applies Scorch stacks, but also deals damage to the user.

So you take some damage to increase your own and apply Scorch stacks on hits, which is pretty viable since it’s so easy to heal these days.

Tommy’s Matchbook is one of the more unique weapons on this list, and while it isn’t meta right now, maybe it deserves more attention than it gets. Plus, it’s literally just a Tommy Gun, so bonus points for that.

5. Sweet Business

If you want to just aim down sights, pull the trigger, and never stop, this is the weapon for you. Sweet Business is effectively a mini-gun that benefits from long periods of sustained fire. All you need is Actium War Rig to passively reload your Auto Rifles and you’ll be good to go.

It’s a pretty effective strategy for clearing out adds, chipping away at yellow bar enemies, or even doing boss DPS in certain scenarios.

4. Centrifuse

In PvE, Centrifuse is a pretty solid Auto Rifle to base an Arc build around. It blinds enemies, has great range, and never has to be reloaded manually thanks to the Regenerative Motion perk. Centrifuse is a really great Ionic Trace generator as well, so it synergizes with the Fallen Sunstar Exotic helmet.

When there’s a Champion mod for Auto Rifles (which there often is), you can get a lot of value out of Centrifuse in everything from Grandmaster Strikes to Lost Sectors. Plus, it’s fun to use, which is always nice.

3. Necrochasm

Necrochasm is the newest Exotic Auto Rifle, as it’s the Exotic weapon from the newly-reprised Crota’s End raid. The most noticeable perk from Necrochasm is Cursebringer, which triggers Cursed Thrall explosions whenever you get a precision final blow. This puts Necrochasm towards the top of add-clearing Exotics, allowing it to fit into a variety of strong builds.

It also has the Desperation perk, which bumps it up to 900 RPM (just like in Destiny 1) whenever you reload after a precision kill or Cursed Thrall explosion kill. Necrochasm also synergizes with Necrotic Grips, so it has special interactions there for Warlocks.

2. Monte Carlo

It feels like we’ve been begging to use the bayonet on the Monte Carlo for years now, and our wish has finally been granted. Now that Monte Carlo has a catalyst which allows you to switch to the bayonet for melee attacks (which do insane chunks of damage), it has more value as a close-range, melee-focused weapon.

For those types of builds (looking at you, Sunbracers Warlocks and Hammer Titans), Monte Carlo is a fantastic weapon to go with. It’ll keep your melee fully charged with ease, and it feels great to use as well.

1. Quicksilver Storm

It’s really hard to say anything negative about Quicksilver Storm, so we won’t even attempt to. This is easily the best Exotic Auto Rifle in Destiny 2 for PvE right now, and we doubt it’ll be beaten anytime soon.

While its base damage is impressive by itself, the Rocket Trackers + Grenade Chaser perk combination turns this into one of the most dangerous Auto Rifles in the game. With Rocket Trackers, all you have to do is land multiple shots of any kind on a target to turn your next shot into a small homing rocket.

Then, once you land several of those rockets, you’ll gain the ability to turn the whole weapon into a grenade launcher with limited rounds. These grenades do a ton of damage and can even break Champion shields if there’s an applicable one for Auto Rifles at the time.

It’s an incredible weapon which can be used in any PvE content, so we highly recommend it.

All Exotic Auto Rifles Ranked for PvP

A good PvP Auto Rifle is always nice to have, and we have several of them here – from the more unique and situational Auto Rifles to the simple and efficient ones.

Here’s every Exotic Auto Rifle ranked for PvP in Destiny 2, ranked from worst to best.

9. Tommy’s Matchbook

Tommy’s Matchbook is a really fun weapon to use, but it doesn’t work well at all in PvP. Its perks incentivize holding down the trigger for extended periods of time, which is only worth doing if the pros heavily outweigh the cons.

In this case, you get extra damage and scorching rounds in exchange for having to make yourself incredibly obvious. The bright side here is that you can keep firing in hip fire mode to reduce the damage the perk does to you, but still, it’s just an annoying perk to keep active in PvP.

Plus, it’s easy to get yourself killed while focusing on the perk and making yourself so obvious.

8. Quicksilver Storm

While Quicksilver Storm is amazing in PvE, it’s only okay in PvP. Since both its major perks are hard to utilize in PvP, it’s basically just a standard weapon with good stats. If that’s what you’re looking for, then Quicksilver Storm is certainly worth checking out.

But at that point, is it really worth the Exotic slot? Maybe, but it really depends on how much you like it. As it is, we’d say it’s fairly below average in PvP.

7. Monte Carlo

Just like Quicksilver Storm, Monte Carlo’s abilities are largely lost in PvP. Recharging your melee abilities via damage or kills is incredibly powerful, but you won’t be able to get nearly as much out of it as in PvE.

The same goes for the Makarov’s Chain perk, which grants stacking damage bonuses after kills. It’s a strong perk that you can make use of in PvP, but it’s less consistent than we’d like. Monte Carlo is not a bad PvP weapon, but when compared to your other Exotic options, it’s not the first we’d go for.

6. Sweet Business

Sweet Business is a really fun weapon to use, but whether it’s “good” or not is up for debate. While it’s hard to justify a weapon that really needs to be fired constantly in PvP, it ends up being a bit better than expected.

It isn’t good at all in free-for-all or non-objective modes, but if you can just set up in a good spot and fire rounds constantly, you’ll be able to provide a ton of suppressing fire. Plus, if any enemies dare come near you once you’re at maximum RPM, you’ll be able to shred them up like they’re paper.

It’s very situational and more gimmicky than it is efficient, but it’s still fun. At least it works sometimes, so it could be worse.

5. SUROS Regime

While SUROS Regime is nowhere near as strong as it once was due to both power creep and meta shifts, it’s still pretty solid in PvP. The SUROS Legacy perk gives bonus damage to rounds in the bottom half of the magazine and also gives a chance to heal some health after kills, which is solid.

There’s also the Spinning Up perk, which increases rate of fire as you hold down the trigger. It has decent perks and feels good to use, but it doesn’t compare well to many other Auto Rifles even at the legendary level.

4. Cerberus+1

While not the strongest weapon out there, the unique nature of Cerberus+1 as a super close-range Auto Rifle gives it a few purposes. At close range, it’s one of the strongest Auto Rifles you could be using. It can quickly chunk through opponents with its shotgun-like rounds, so in certain maps it can really be great.

For example, on the Anomaly (a map known for shotguns and being the worst Trials map), Cerberus+1 is great for clearing out those small rooms where the massive spread can actually help you take out everyone in the room.

3. Necrochasm

While still very new to Destiny 2, Necrochasm is already a solid choice for PvP thanks to its generally strong stats and useful abilities. As expected of a raid weapon, it’s pretty strong.

The Cursed Thrall explosions are great for taking out groups of enemies capturing points, and the Desperation perk ensures that once you get a kill you’ll be able to get more. There’s also a bit of a throwback to the Destiny 1 version of Necrochasm in that perk.

It increases the rate of fire to 900 RPM (the RPM of the Destiny 1 version) in addition to granting bonuses to stability and aim assist. As a result, it turns Necrochasm into a whirlwind of precise damage.

2. Hard Light

The major selling point of Hard Light for PvP is the Volatile Light perk. It reduces damage falloff (increasing your effective range), allows your rounds to overpenetrate targets, and gives you improved ricochet rounds.

With these rounds, instead of just bouncing once and doing damage, they get bonus damage after bouncing. In PVP, it’s a 35% bonus. This is incredibly helpful for clearing out objectives or other areas where you know enemies are present.

You can just crouch around a corner and spray rounds into the capture point or other objective to cause chaos and pick up some free kills. It even works in more standard fights just as well. Put simply, Hard Light is a fantastic Auto Rifle for PvP.

1. Centrifuse

Centrifuse is perfect for Arc PvP builds where you prioritize being amplified and/or running around a lot. Centrifuse has the exotic perk Overcharge Capacitor, which fills up a meter as you run, slide, or fire your weapon. When the meter is filled (or mostly filled) you get range and reload speed bonuses, as well as the ability to create blinding explosions on kills.

This helps with securing multi-kills, so it’ll always be solid for objective-based game modes or 6v6 modes. It’s much easier to get multi-kills in more populated game modes or modes where you can predict where people are. For those types, Centrifuse is even better than normal.

Centrifuse also gets the Regenerative Motion perk, which reloads the weapon while you run. Since most builds using Centrifuse will probably involve a lot of movement abilities anyway, this is great for making sure you never have to throw away Overcharge stacks or miss out on any fights due to low ammo.

It’s hard to go wrong with the Centrifuse as your Exotic Auto Rifle of choice for PvP in Destiny 2.

Join the High Ground!

And that concludes our Exotic Auto Rifle tier list for Destiny 2! Let us know what you think in the comments below, especially if you would rank an Auto Rifle differently for PvP or PvE.

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Happy gaming!