Destiny 2: CALUS Mini-Tool God Rolls and Best Perks

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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 Benjamin Barr

Of all the SMGs in Destiny 2, the CALUS Mini-Tool is easily one of the best picks. It’s a Solar Energy weapon that fires 900 rounds per minute, with the unique MIDA Synergy archetype. In addition to its great base stats, it also has one of the best perk pools of any SMG! In today’s article, we’ll take a look at how to get the CALUS Mini-Tool, as well as the god rolls for both PVE and PVP.

Let’s get started!

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How to Get CALUS Mini-Tool

CALUS Mini-Tool was reissued during Season of the Haunted (S17). However, since those seasonal activities have been removed from the game, it’s no longer farmable. If you want to get the CALUS Mini-Tool, you’ll have to wait until Xur is selling it.

If you want to craft a CALUS Mini-Tool, you’ll have to use the Deepsight Harmonizers from the season pass. Each one you use gives 1/5 pattern progress, so you’ll need to save them up if you’re starting from scratch. It’s certainly an annoyingly restrictive system in terms of how many Harmonizers you get access to, but it’s completely worth it for this weapon. Honestly, if you can only have one crafted weapon, this is a good one to go with.

CALUS Mini-Tool | Best PVE Roll and Perks

CALUS Mini-Tool is one of the most popular and best SMGs in Destiny 2. While we might not be listing a ton of perk options for each category, that’s mostly because there are some pretty definitive choices here. Let’s get started with the barrels!

Barrels

• Corkscrew Rifling (+5 Stability, +5 Handling, +5 Range)
• Smallbore (+7 Stability, +7 Range)

For barrels, there are two great choices. Corkscrew Rifling is always great, since it gives a nice mix of everything you want. Stability is incredibly important on this SMG, and while range isn’t the most important thing, it’s always helpful. Smallbore is also a pretty good option, giving more stability and range, but no handling bonus. It’s up to personal preference, but Corkscrew is our pick.

Magazines

• Flared Magwell (+15 Reload Speed, +5 Stability)
• Tactical Mag (+1 Mag Size, +5 Stability, +10 Reload Speed)

The +15 reload speed from Flared Magwell is really just too good to pass up, especially with a bit of stability thrown in with it. It doesn’t get much better than that for this type of weapon. Tactical Mag also has a claim to best mag type, if you’re willing to give up 5 reload speed for an extra round in the magazine. In PVE, that isn’t the worst deal you could get.

Perk 1

• Unrelenting
• Threat Detector

Picking a perk for the first slot is a tough choice. Unrelenting is great, since it allows you to regenerate health, which is fantastic across all kinds of activities. All you have to do is rapidly defeat enemies (the more powerful the enemy, the less you need to kill for the health regeneration). In everything from Gambit to Grandmaster Strikes, health regeneration is always a sought after ability.

Threat Detector is equally as strong as Unrelenting, but is more situational. Whenever you’re within 15 meters of at least one enemy, you get bonuses to stability, reload speed, and handling! Light.gg has this bonus at +15 stability, +18 reload speed, and +25 handling when near a single enemy. When near two or more, the bonus is increased to +40 stability, +60 reload speed, and +100 handling. That’s a pretty insane amount of bonuses, so don’t forget about Threat Detector as an option.

Perk 2

• Incandescent

Since the whole point of SMGs is to quickly take out weaker enemies, nothing is better on one that Incandescent. When using Incandescent, every time you defeat an enemy, you create a fiery scorch explosion around them. You don’t even have to get the kill yourself, all you have to do is get the defeat. For any Solar build, Incandescent is the way to go.

CALUS Mini-Tool | Best PVP Roll and Perks

CALUS Mini-Tool isn’t the best weapon for PVP in Destiny 2, but it’s far from the worst. Since it’s such a lightweight weapon, you can get a lot of value out of it if you’re fast enough. Here are some ideas for a good CALUS Mini-Tool PVP god roll!

Barrels

• Smallbore (+7 Stability, +7 Range)
• Hammer-Forged Rifling (+10 Range)
• Corkscrew Rifling (+5 Stability, +5 Handling, +5 Range)

For SMGs in PVP, range is usually the best stat to go for. Obviously stability and handling are also both still important, but range is best so you can reliably get more kills. Smallbore is fantastic here, since it gives +7 to stability and range, giving a nice balance that always benefits you in PVP. Hammer-Forged Rifling gives +10 range, which is the most you can get on any barrel. The only downside is not getting any other bonuses, but it’s often worth it anyway.

Corkscrew Rifling is recommended on almost every gun, since it gives +5 to stability, handling, and range. If you can’t make up your mind between Smallbore and Hammer-Forged Rifling, Corkscrew Rifling offers a nice balance that might work out better, depending on how you play.

Magazines

• Accurized Rounds (+10 Range)

Since range is key in Destiny 2 PVP, it doesn’t get much better than this. Accurized Rounds gives a straight +10 range bonus, which is better than what any other magazine offers for CALUS Mini-Tool. That amount of range will definitely help you pick up more easy kills in the Crucible, which is the whole point anyway. Something like a reload speed boost or stability boost would certainly be good here, but +10 range is just perfect.

Perk 1

• Moving Target

Moving Target increases your movement speed while aiming down sights and also grants 10 bonus aim assist. CALUS Mini-Tool is a lightweight weapon, so getting even more bonuses when aiming down sights is a great combo. Moving Target is regularly featured in PVP articles, since Guardians are notoriously hard to target. If you want a good shot at keeping your sights on your enemy, Moving Target is the way to go.

Perk 2

• Incandescent
• Tap the Trigger

Just like in PVE, Incandescent is also the best perk for PVP. Spreading scorch stacks is always good, and it’s almost unfair how easy it is to do (even in PVP). Incandescent is strong in Solar builds, of course, but even with other subclasses it still works well.

Tap the Trigger is another solid option if you don’t want to use Incandescent. It gives a hefty amount of stat bonuses as soon as you fire the weapon. One trigger pull will grant you 0.6 seconds of +40 stability, -50 recoil, -10% accuracy cone size. It isn’t quite as powerful as Incandescent, but it’s arguably more consistent.

Where to Use CALUS Mini-Tool

You can realistically use the CALUS Mini-Tool in any kind of activity in Destiny 2. It’s definitely better in PVE, but it can be put to use in PVP as well. Here are some good places to use CALUS Mini-Tool!

Nightfall Strikes

CALUS Mini-Tool is a genuinely incredible weapon for any level of Nightfall strikes in Destiny 2. The combo of Incandescent and Unrelenting is great for clearing adds and staying alive thanks to the abundance of adds in most strikes. If you want to get the most out of CALUS Mini-Tool, there’s no better place than a Nightfall Strike.

6v6 PVP

Since 6v6 game modes tend to be less intense than 3v3, you can get away with using more fringe weapons. CALUS Mini-Tool is not a meta weapon in PVP, but there are several reasons you might want to use it. One is obviously its strength in Solar builds, but in general, Incandescent is so good that it alone might make you wanna use it. It might not be good enough for Trials or Competitive, but for general 6v6 or Iron Banner, it’s great!

Root of Nightmares

Since 90% of Root of Nightmares is just add-clear, there’s no better weapon. Every encounter in Root is full of adds to kill, and you can easily take them all out with CALUS Mini-Tool. Even if you’re one of the runners, you can still get a lot of use out of the Mini-Tool. It’s strong in pretty much every raid, but Root of Nightmares gives it the best chance to shine.

Join the High Ground

That’s it for our guide to the CALUS Mini-Tool in Destiny 2 — thanks for reading! This is an incredible weapon, so we hope you get the roll you’re looking for. Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more content like this!

Happy gaming!