Destiny 2: Season of the Witch Best New Weapons and Rolls

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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 racing games, MMOs, and shooters, but I'll play just about anything.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

It’s time, once again, to check out all the new weapons in yet another season of Destiny 2. This season, Season of the Witch, has a Hive theme that seems destined to play out through the rest of the coming months. So, it’s only fitting that we have a lot of Hive-themed weapons to farm! In this article we’ll take a look at the god rolls for a bunch of the new Season 22 weapons, looking at both PVE and PVP. In some cases, we’ll only give a PVE roll, but that’s just because not every weapon is viable at all for PVP, while most are at least usable in some form of PVE. Let’s get right into it with the new Exotic weapons you can check out!

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Exotic Weapons

Exotic weapons are the rarest of the rare in Destiny 2. This season, we’ve got 4 that we can obtain from the start (well, mostly). From the season pass Exotic to the new Exotic Mission Rotator, here are the four new Exotic weapons you can find this season so far.

Ex Diris

How to Get: Tier 1 of paid season pass, or Tier 35 of the free season pass.

Ex Diris is a really, really fun weapon to use. The Nucleosynthetic Magazine allows it to reload itself constantly (in fact, it’s not even possible to reload normally), and the Intrinsic perk allows for some serious DPS. Is it worth the Exotic slot over the more “meta” picks? No, probably not. But it follows the trend of the season pass Exotic being more fun than it is meta, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s a lot more useful than that SMG that just made you float is, at least.

Exotic Intrinsic: Corrupted Nucleosynthesis – This weapon enrages when dealing or taking sustained damage, gaining increased rate of fire while enraged.

Catalyst: Berserk Rush – Weapon enrages faster while amplified. Final blows with this weapon make you amplified.

Curated Perks:

• Hand-Laid Stock
• Loyal Moths
• Nucleosynthetic Magazine
• Volatile Launch

Dead Man’s Tale

How to Get: Presage mission in the Exotic Mission Rotator.

Ever since it came out, Dead Man’s Tale has been a huge fan favorite. From the old west aesthetic to the amazing perks (in addition to being the first Exotic that could even get random perks), there was no reason not to love it. Now that it’s been updated and made craftable, it’s even better than ever! If you love doing high precision damage without needing to bother with aiming-in, Dead Man’s Tale is the perfect weapon.

Exotic Intrinsic: Cranial Spike – Precision hits grant bonus target acquisition and range.

Catalyst: Dark-Forged Trigger – Removes hipfire accuracy penalties and increases rate of fire from hip. Stacks of Cranial Spike increase hip rate of fire further.

PVE God Roll:

• Hand-Laid Stock or Composite Stock
• Outlaw or Rapid Hit
• Accurized Rounds, Ricochet Rounds, or Armor-Piercing Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling

PVP God Roll:

• Hand-Laid Stock
• Outlaw
• Accurized Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling or Hammer-Forged Rifling

Dead Messenger

How to Get: Vox Obscura mission in the Exotic Mission Rotator.

Dead Messenger is a part of the new Exotic Rotator weapons pool, but it’s only available from the Vox Obscura quest. When Dead Messenger first came out, it was largely ignored since it wasn’t powerful enough to hang with the other meta Exotic weapons. However, hopefully this new, craftable version will liven the gun up enough to be worth using.

Exotic Intrinsic: Trinary Vision – One-shot handheld grenade launcher. Projectiles release a fan of three energy waves on contact with the ground.

Catalyst: unknown (we’ll find out when this weapon is available in the second or third week of the season)

PVE God Roll (partially curated):

• Demolitionist
• Composite Stock or Short-Action Stock
• The Fundamentals
• High-Velocity Rounds
• Quick Launch or Confined Launch

Tessellation

How to Get: Preorder the deluxe version of The Final Shape expansion (releases next year)

Tessellation is this year’s preorder bonus for the upcoming expansion. If you preorder the deluxe version of The Final Shape, you’ll get Tessellation as soon as you do so as a bonus. This year’s weapon is a Kinetic fusion rifle with perks centered around consuming and generating grenade energy. Between the Intrinsic perk which grants grenade energy, to the Property: Irreductible perk which allows you to consume grenade energy for a more powerful projectile to shoot, it’s all about being explosive. While we’ve yet to see just how strong Tessellation will be in high-end content, it’s certainly unique enough to warrant some interesting builds and fun gameplay.

Exotic Intrinsic: Property: Undecidable – This weapon adapts its damage type to match your equipped subclass. Final blows grant grenade energy.

Catalyst: unknown (will probably be released after The Final Shape releases, as that’s what they did with Quicksilver Storm last year)

Curated Roll:

• Composite Stock
• Property: Irreductible
• Projection Fuse
• Polygonal Rifling

Seasonal Activity Weapons

As with every season in Destiny 2, the seasonal activities have their own unique weapon pool. You can acquire all of these weapons from either the Savathun’s Spire or Altars of Reflection activities. These 3-player, matchmaking activities are easy to farm, and they’re actually a lot of fun as well. Before we jump into all the god rolls, though, here’s the origin trait for all of these seasonal weapons!

Origin Trait: Head Rush – Standing up after crouching for a short time grants this weapon a brief period of improved handling and reload speed.

Kept Confidence

This hand cannon might have the worst perk pool of any of them. There really aren’t any true god rolls for this weapon, but here is the best you could do if you really want to use it anyway.

PVE God Roll:

• Multikill Clip or Collective Action
• Killing Wind
• Appended Mag or Flared Magwell
• Arrowhead Brake, Corkscrew Rifling, or Chambered Compensator

PVP God Roll:

• Gutshot Straight??
• Killing Wind or Quickdraw
• Accurized Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling or Hammer-Forged Rifling

Locus Locutus

This Stasis sniper rifle is pretty solid, especially if you need one for a specific Stasis build. For PVE it has the Headstone perk which works perfectly with many Stasis fragments, or you could use Firing Line or High Ground for more DPS-focused builds. In PVP, Opening Shot and Keep Away are two of the best perks you can have on a sniper rifle. If you’re in need of a reliable Stasis sniper for PVP, this might just be a good weapon to try out.

PVE God Roll:

• Headstone, Firing Line, or High Ground
• Overflow
• Appended Mag or Tactical Mag
• Arrowhead Brake or Chambered Compensator

PVP God Roll:

• Opening Shot
• Keep Away
• Accurized Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling

The Eremite

The Eremite is a Solar high-impact frame fusion rifle, so it’s bound to be fairly good at least. The slower, heavier nature of this weapon goes well with perks like Reservoir Burst and Controller Burst, and it has some fantastic options for the second perk slot. Envious Assassin is particularly good with Reservoir Burst, as overflowed rounds get the damage boost that perk offers shots at the top of the mag. If you need a Solar fusion rifle and don’t mind the slower movement and fire rate, this is a perfectly fine choice.

PVE God Roll:

• Reservoir Burst or Controlled Burst
• Envious Assassin or Lead From Gold
• Accelerated Coils or Enhanced Battery
• Chambered Compensator or Arrowhead Brake

Brya’s Love

All things considered, this is a pretty standard scout rifle. It has the always-reliable Explosive Payload / Rapid Hit perk combo, which you can always go for if you just want a general use scout rifle. However, the Destabilizing Rounds / Loose Change combo gives Brya’s Love a bit more of an identity. Destabilizing Rounds causes your final blows to spread Volatile around to nearby enemies, then Loose Change gives you a reload speed boost whenever you affect a target with an elemental debuff. Both options are solid, but the Volatile combo is far more exciting.

PVE God Roll:

• Explosive Payload or Destabilizing Rounds
• Rapid Hit or Loose Change
• Accurized Rounds or Tactical Mag
• Chambered Compensator, Arrowhead Brake, or Corkscrew Rifling

PVP God Roll:

• Explosive Payload
• Keep Away
• Accurized Rounds
• Chambered Compensator, Arrowhead Brake, Corkscrew Rifling, or Hammer-Forged Rifling

Eleatic Principle

This weapon would be a lot better if its perks were anything more than decent. There aren’t as many Arc machine guns out there as we’d like, so even though this one isn’t all that impressive, it’s still worth considering. Target Lock is pretty strong in certain situations, and Golden Tricorn is good if you’re going more for add-clear. The problem here, really, is the second perk slot. Zen Moment is the most popular choice on light.gg, which is a problem since this is a machine gun. Eddy Current is probably the best choice overall, but only if you can make use of its reload speed bonuses when amplified. If you can’t do that, you’re probably better off just using a different machine gun.

PVE God Roll:

• Target Lock or Golden Tricorn
• Eddy Current
• Flared Magwell or Alloy Mag
• Arrowhead Brake or Chambered Compensator

Semiotician

The Semiotician is a Strand high-impact frame rocket launcher, and it’s probably the most exciting seasonal weapon so far. Explosive Light and Impulse Amplifier make for a fairly standard PVE god roll, but the newly-buffed Bipod is also promising. Since Bipod now only takes away 25% of your damage instead of 40% like it used to, it’s a lot more promising. It’s probably the best Strand rocket launcher so far, so it’s at least got a spot in Strand-reliant builds.

PVE God Roll:

• Explosive Light or Bipod
• Impulse Amplifier
• Alloy Casing
• Confined Launch or Countermass

World Drops and Other New Weapons

These weapons don’t fit into the other categories because they’re much more widespread. Some of these are from the world drop pool (weapons that can drop from any legendary engrams), while others are tied to the ritual playlists (Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard). We’ll let you know how to get each of them, in addition to the god rolls for both PVE and PVP (or just PVE if they don’t have a viable PVP roll).

Unending Tempest

How to Get: Crucible drops

While it might be in the Crucible loot pool, Unending Tempest holds up pretty well in both PVP and PVE. It has a massive perk pool which allows it to work in almost any situation, so you can work it into any builds you might have. Target Lock remains one of the strongest perks in the game, and we have a lot of other options that combine well with it. And, of course, there are plenty of other options for people who’d rather have something else.

PVE God Roll:

• Target Lock, Adrenaline Junky, or Headstone (for Stasis builds)
• Demolitionist or Subsistence
• Tactical Mag or Flared Magwell
• Corkscrew Rifling or Arrowhead Brake

PVP God Roll:

• Target Lock or Rangefinder
• Perpetual Motion or Dynamic Sway Reduction
• Accurized Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling

Luna Regolith III

How to Get: Vanguard drops

This Vanguard drop sniper rifle is a welcome addition to the pool of perfectly fine PVP weapons. Snapshot Sights and Opening Shot guarantee that any sniper with them will be pretty solid for PVP, and Incandescent is a really fun alternate option in the first perk slot. For the other, Keep Away is always good, but Heal Clip might be fun to try out. In PVE, you have access to both Explosive Payload and Incandescent, which are two of the best perks overall. You also get a new perk called High Ground, which we had to mention since, well, it is in our website name. Luna Regolith doesn’t really stand out all that much, but if you like snipers, it’s certainly worth testing out.

PVE God Roll:

• Explosive Payload, Incandescent, or High Ground
• Triple Tap or Clown Cartridge
• Appended Mag
• Arrowhead Brake

PVP God Roll:

• Incandescent or Opening Shot
• Snapshot Sights, Keep Away, or Heal Clip
• Accurized Rounds
• Arrowhead Brake or Corkscrew Rifling

Heliocentric QSC

How to Get: World drops

While we haven’t been able to get our hands on one yet, this sidearm has tons of promise thanks to its archetype and perks. First, lightweight frame sidearms are often the best, since they offer fast handling and keep you moving fast. Second, this weapon has a really unique perk pool. It can get the new Heal Clip perk, which allows you to give cure to yourself and allies whenever you reload after getting a kill. Of all the running gags in Destiny 2, our favorite is definitely the trend of finding new ways to make a perk that rhymes with Kill Clip. The other perk slot has Incandescent and Kill Clip itself, so it has great options for both PVE and PVP. 

PVE God Roll:

• Incandescent
• Heal Clip or Enlightened Action
• Tactical Mag or Appended Mag
• Arrowhead Brake or Fluted Barrel

PVP God Roll:

• Kill Clip
• Perpetual Motion, Rangefinder, or Heal Clip
• Accurized Rounds
• Hammer-Forged Rifling

Qua Xaphan V

How to Get: Gambit drops

It’s nice to see the Drifter with a decent offering for once. These last few seasons he hasn’t brought much new reason to play Gambit, but the Qua Xaphan V is at least an interesting weapon. It’s one of few machine guns with the Destabilizing Rounds perk, which is great for Void builds, but it is lacking in the first perk slot. Dynamic Sway Reduction is the best overall option, but it’s not all that exciting either. It’s a weapon worth picking up, but it probably isn’t going to replace your other machine guns.

PVE God Roll:

• Destabilizing Rounds or Target Lock
• Dynamic Sway Reduction, Triple Tap, or Field Prep
• Armor-Piercing Rounds or Appended Mag
• Chambered Compensator or Arrowhead Brake

PVP God Roll:

• Target Lock or Dragonfly
• Dynamic Sway Reduction
• Ricochet Rounds
• Hammer-Forged Rifling

Geodetic HSM

How to Get: World drops

For PVE, this sword has massive potential. There are two potential god rolls here that deserve attention. The first is the Whirlwind Blade / Relentless Strikes combo. For years now that’s been one of the strongest sword god rolls, so it’s a very safe pick here. However, if you prefer using swords for add-clearing, the Destabilizing Rounds / Repulsor Brace combo is great. With that combo, you’ll be able to spread Volatile around and keep your overshields up constantly, as long as you have adds to clear.

PVE God Roll:

• Whirlwind Blade or Destabilizing Rounds
• Relentless Strikes or Repulsor Brace
• Balanced Guard
• Hungry Edge

Nightshade

How to Get: Vanguard drops

This Strand pulse rifle has lots of potential in PVP thanks to the combo of Headseeker and Rangefinder, but Kill Clip and Outlaw is a great alternative roll. Really, you can’t go wrong with either of those perk combos on a mid- to long-range pulse rifle. You could also use it in PVE if you really want a good option with Hatchling or Collective Action, but it definitely stands out more in PVP.

PVE God Roll:

• Hatchling or Collective Action
• Outlaw
• Ricochet Rounds or Armor-Piercing Rounds
• Chambered Compensator or Corkscrew Rifling

PVP God Roll:

• Kill Clip or Headseeker
• Outlaw or Rangefinder
• Ricochet Rounds
• Arrowhead Brake or Corkscrew Rifling

Psi Hermetic V

How to Get: World drops

For both PVE and PVP, this is a really fun pick. Headstone assures it’ll have a place in any Stasis build, and Kill Clip and Headseeker in the first perk slot keep it relevant in PVP. Outlaw is easily the best pick for both PVE and PVP in the second slot, so at least that makes farming god rolls easier. This is a really well-rounded weapon, and we especially recommend it for all your Stasis crystal builds.

PVE God Roll:

• Headstone or Golden Tricorn
• Outlaw
• Tactical Mag or Appended Mag
• Chambered Compensator or Corkscrew Rifling

PVP God Roll:

• Kill Clip or Headseeker
• Outlaw
• Accurized Rounds
• Arrowhead Brake or Hammer-Forged Rifling

Join the High Ground

New weapons are really what Destiny 2 is all about. It’s the easiest thing to get excited about each season, because we know that no matter what, there will always be new weapons. Thanks for checking out our roundup of most of the new weapons in Destiny 2 this season, and as always, make sure to keep the high ground!