Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Rat King (Kinetic Sidearm)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Rat Pack – If nearby fireteam members have this gun equipped, it becomes stronger.
• Smallbore – Increased range and stability.
• Tactical Mag – Increases stability, reload speed, and magazine size.
• Vermin – Reloading immediately after a kill grants a brief period of invisibility.
• Smooth Grip – Increased stability and handling speed.

The Rat King doesn’t seem like a weapon that would be really good. For starters, it’s a sidearm, which in Destiny 2 requires really close range to have any serious effect. Yet, the Rat King is a really special exotic and one of the best. Sure it’s pretty tough to nab, especially that final Nightfall part, but once you and your friends have it, you’ll see why it’s such a big deal.

When standing in close proximity with other allies wielding the gun, it will glow and do noticeably increased damage. On top of that, reloading right after a kill renders you invisible (lasts around four seconds). In Crucible this has created quite a few fun opportunities. Plus, it’s just a really beautiful gun.

If you find yourself running with the same players often in Destiny 2, this is definitely one weapon that you really want. 

Merciless (Solar Fusion Rifle)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Conserve Momentum – Non-lethal hits with projectiles make this weapon charge faster until its wielder gets a kill.
• Chambered Compensator – Increases stability and improves recoil. Slightly decreases handling speed.
• Extended Mag – Larger magazine, slower reload.
• Impetus – Reloading immediately after a kill increases damage.
• Fitted Stock – More stability but lowers handling speed.

The Merciless exotic fusion rifle may not be the greatest Power Weapon for all scenarios, but it’s damn good at taking out majors and burning down bosses. This is due to its Conserve Momentum perk. If you don’t kill an enemy with a shot, the weapon charges faster, letting you “mercilessly” assault anything in front of you until it’s either dead or you run out of ammunition. When you add that to Impetus, increased damage after reloading once you get a kill, you’ll find yourself tearing through groups of powerful aliens and Crucible opponents with ease. 

Sunshot (Solar Hand Cannon)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Sunburn – Fires explosive rounds that highlight hit targets.
• Chambered Compensator – Increased stability and improved recoil. Decreased handling speed.
• Accurized Rounds – Has increased range.
• Sun Blast – Killed targets explode.
• Textured Grip – Increased handling speed, slightly decreased stability.

Players who absolutely loved the Fatebringer (a hand cannon that dropped from the original Destiny’s first raid) have gravitated towards the Sunshot, and for good reason. It, too, fires explosive rounds, but they also highlight enemies that you hit making it easier to follow through with the kill, especially in Crucible.

The really fun perk is Sun Blast. Normally, weapons require headshots to get the explosion ability, yet Sunshot simply requires any kill. Without any precise aim, you can set off explosions on your enemies left and right. This makes the Sunshot one of those weapons that’s great in both PvE and Crucible. 

Borealis (Sniper Rifle)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

There’s really only one perk that matters on this currently PS4-exclusive exotic sniper rifle. It has all three elemental burns. Now you may be saying to yourself, well so does the Hard Light. And I get that. But here’s the kicker. For the Hardlight, you have to stop what you’re doing and going through the menu to switch. Then you’ll have to do that when you want to do it again. Not with the Borealis. You can switch the burn on the fly simply by holding down Square.

See an enemy with an Arc Shield, switch over and watch them explode. Oh, an enemy appeared right after with a Void shield? You know the drill, instantly switch and bring the pain. It’s not necessarily the best weapon for Crucible, though, but in PvE, it reigns supreme. 

Graviton Lance (Void Pulse Rifle)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Black Hole – Third shot of burst rips a hole through space-time, doing increased damage and recoil with no damage fall-off.
• Hammer-Forged Rifling – Increased Range.
• Accurized Rounds – Increases Range
• Cosmology – Kills cause enemies to detonate.
• Fitted Stock – Increases stability, decreases handling speed.

The Graviton Lance feels like a typical energy pulse rifle at first, but it’s actually quite useful in both PvE and PvP. This is thanks to a combination of perks that provide plenty of range and solid stability. This allows you to use the weapon’s intrinsic perk from pretty much anywhere on the map, sniping enemies with extra damage from long range.

The explosions caused by Cosmology do leave a bit to be desired, though. They aren’t as large as what you’d get from the Sunshot, but they do help in PvE with adds, or if you happen to be playing a Crucible team that likes to stand really close together. Still, not a bad weapon to have equipped by any means. 

Coldheart

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks: 

• Cold Fusion – Shoots a steady cold fusion-powered laser.
• Extended Barrel – Increased range, slower handling speed.
• Enhanced Battery – Larger magazine.
• Longest Winter – Does exponentially more damage the longer laser is on a single target.
• Hand-Laid Stock – Increased stability.

The Coldheart is currently only available to those players who pre-ordered Destiny 2 (though it will be made available for everyone in December). Honestly, with it being a freebie, many expected it to not be very powerful. However, it turns out that the Longest Winter perk makes for a powerful, boss-burning tool, especially if you have more than one guardian in your fireteam wielding this weapon.

Of course, this is built for PvE. I’ve watched some players try to be slick with it in Crucible only to get decimated. You may be able to get away with it if you’re moving as a unit, though. But, its main appeal is tearing through PvE content, such as heroic public events or strikes. 

Fighting Lion (Void Grenade Launcher)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Delayed Gratification – Grenades bounce off of hard surfaces, Hold trigger to fire, release to detonate.
• Countermass – Increased stability and handling speed.
• Implosion Rounds – Increased projectile speed and stability, decreased blast radius.
• Thin the Herd – Direct hits do more damage to shielded enemies. Rapid kills against grenade-damaged enemies refill magazine.
• Short-Action Stock – increased handling speed.

The Fighting Lion has a few things going for it. The first is that it actually sits in your Energy slot, meaning you can still pick another “heavy” weapon to take into the fray. Whether that’s a Sniper, Fusion, or heck another grenade launcher, your options are more open. The second is that getting kills with this weapon quickly, which isn’t that difficult to do, reloads the gun. So you can get a solid string of kills as long as you keep killing and picking up ammo.

Finally, this weapon does increased damage to shielded enemies on direct hits no matter what color their shield is in. This makes taking on tougher challenges in Destiny 2, such as the Nightfall, much easier to handle as you don’t need to constantly switch your weapon to deal with different enemy types. 

Vigilance Wing (Kinetic Pulse Rifle)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• Harsh Truths – Fires 5-round bursts. Gain increased movement speed and health regeneration when a nearby ally is killed.
• Corkscrew Rifling – Increased range, stability, and handling speed.
• Alloy Magazine – Faster reloads when empty.
• Composite Stock – Increased handling speed and stability.

Destiny 2 players that were big on Crucible in the first game may have thought of a particular mode and character once they set eyes on this exotic pulse rifle. Trials of Osiris was a competitive challenge that helped the best PvP players stand out from the rest. Its name, and the design of gear you can obtain from it, were inspired by Egyptian mythology. So there’s no surprise that the Vigilance Wing, which looks like it was ripped straight from Osiris’ hands, is an amazing PvP weapon.

Harsh Truths is what really makes this a force to be reckoned with, especially if you’re playing with a team that you’re used to playing with. The weapon fires in powerful 5-round bursts, which normally take out opponents in three bursts (provided they aren’t using any extra armor). But the fact that, if by chance, an ally is taken out nearby, you get some much-needed health and speed. This really helps turn the tide in sticky encounters. 

The Wardcliff Coil (Arc Rocket Launcher)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks: 

• Mad Scientist – This weapon fires a volley of rockets.
• Volatile Launch- This weapon is optimized for an especially explosive payload. Increased blast radius, but slower handling and projectile speed.
• Extended Mag – Larger mag but slower reload.
• Mechanized Autoloader – Reloads automatically when you pick up power ammo.
• Composite Stock –  Increases stability and handling speed.

This isn’t the first time that Destiny 2 players have seen this exotic rocket launcher. It originally showed up in the database of the first game as the Dubious Volley and players waited to see if it would drop as some sort of quest. Since then, it has undergone a name change but it looks just as weirdly epic as one would expect. And it performs quite well, though in very specific circumstances.

Pulling the trigger on this Destiny 2 exotic causes it to fire multiple rockets as if it were some sort of machine gun. You can move as it fires, spreading out the damage it causes. This is an absolutely perfect weapon for clearing out a room, taking on groups, or taking advantage of tight spaces, as it leaves very little room to escape its volley.

It does have a couple of shortcomings, though. The first is that there is no tracking. The second is that the lack of tracking makes using this at long-range, or mid-range on very fast enemies, inadvisable. A second Gjallarhorn this is not, but it’s still great for added control and just for freaking out opponents (seriously, nobody expects to have a ton of rockets flying in their direction at once). 

MIDA Multi-Tool (Kinetic Scout Rifle)

Top 10 Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2

Weapon Perks:

• MIDA Multi-Tool – Boosts movement speed.
• Corkscrew Rifling –  Increased range, stability, and handling speed.
• High-Caliber Rounds – Increased range, shots knock back targets.
• MIDA Radar – Radar stays active while aiming down sights.
• Hand-Laid Stock – Increased stability.
• Bonus – If you have the legendary submachine gun MIDA Mini-Tool equipped, this exotic gains bonus speed benefits. 

Yup, it’s back, and just as deadly as lovers of this Scout Rifle remember. The biggest boons, of course, are the radar and speed buffs. Having your radar active while aiming down sights is invaluable, especially in the Crucible where opponents are always trying to outflank you. That boost in movement speed, though, makes it possible to escape tight situations, or run amok during any mission or match.

You can even pair it with the MIDA Mini-Tool (a legendary submachine gun) to get even more speed. With the focus on mobility and precision, you’ll be picking off headshots rapidly like some type of mad sniper. PvP players beware.