If you’re looking for the most powerful Season of the Risen weapons, you've come to the right place.
Although seasonal weapons are always an exciting addition, Season of the Risen isn’t like its predecessors. Ever since the season landed alongside Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, it saw itself getting drowned out by its older, bigger sibling.
That being the case, now that the hype had died down you will undoubtedly start interacting with the seasonal content more. That’s why you’ll be pleased to find out that there are seasonal weapons worth your time, with some genuinely unique rolls.
Each of these craftable weapons is heavily Cabal-themed in its look, so it will appeal to fans of the aesthetic. They have a unique design compared to the rest of the arsenal, so that in itself might be cause for you to pick some up.
However, which ones are more style over substance? Which do you want to get ahold of and craft for yourself, since all of the guns on this list are part of the new weapon crafting system too?
For all your Season Of The Risen weapons needs, here’s what you need to know.
Destiny 2 Season of the Risen weapons
Introducing the Land Tank Origin Trait
Origin Traits are new to Destiny 2. These are a third trait for guns that give them an identity beyond their appearance. Origin Traits are shared across weapon foundries but also activities and seasonal weapons.
All of the Season of the Risen weapons come with the Land Tank perk built-in.
The perk is one of the better Origin Traits in the game. Its effect is simple – you become harder to kill. The game explains that “final blows with this weapon grant increased Resilience and additional damage resistance from combatants."
This makes the weapon family great for PvE content, and you'll see that reflected across most of the guns. However, the bottom line is: getting killed fewer times by killing more enemies is a great add-on to your weapon.
Season of the Risen weapons: Explosive Personality Grenade Launcher
Wave frame grenade launchers have always been awesome, and sorely underrated in PvE content. In terms of weapon archetypes, there are few quite as great at handling multiple smaller enemies at once. If you are looking to clear spaces, these will do the trick.
While the Exotic Dead Messenger from this season is excellent, if you want to free your exotic slot, this is a great choice. It also brings the spirit of cult-favorite solar wave frame Martyr’s Retribution back from its grave.
In terms of what roll you want, Autoloading or Feeding Frenzy with Frenzy or Golden Tricorn will do wonders.
Season of the Risen weapons: Recurrent Impact Machine Gun
Look, machine guns are in a bad place right now. It’s sad but true. Damage is such an important part of a power weapon, and the ability to do it quickly fits into Destiny’s core design. Machine guns are just too slow. They are alright for clearing smaller enemies, but so are a ton of primary and special weapons.
That being the case, Recurrent Impact has something unique going for it. It’s the only Stasis machine gun in the game and it can roll with Headstone. Headstone is great for dealing with smaller enemies and synergizes exceptionally well with Stasis builds. Because of that, it could find some niche usability. Subsistence with Headstone will be the perk combination you are looking for here.
You could also stockpile a Field Prep and Firing Line roll on the off chance machine guns are ever buffed to be viable for boss damage. That’s speculative future-proofing for something that might not happen, though.
Season of the Risen weapons: Under Your Skin Bow
There are a lot of good bows in Destiny. Great Arc, Solar, Void, and Kinetic bows are not too difficult to come by. The Imperial Needle from last year’s Season of the Chosen filled the Void bow slot, and Le Monarque is a monster in there, too.
Under Your Skin is interesting because it comes with a specific perk combination that could make it one of the strongest in the game. That combination is Archer’s Tempo and Successful Warm-Up. Together, these two make this the fastest firing bow... possibly ever.
If you remember the bow Hush, this is its spiritual successor, and it might even be better. This is really worth trying to get, as it can become a bit of a monster if you spin it up to speed. It may be the best weapon of the bunch, great for harder content like the Legendary campaign.
Season of the Risen weapons: Sweet Sorrow Auto Rifle
Auto rifles that fire 720 rounds a minute are super fun. That’s true of Sweet Sorrow, too. But this gun is overshadowed by another fan-favorite, Chroma Rush from Season of the Splicer.
Sweet Sorrow offers the 720 archetype in the energy slot though, which opens up kinetic special weapons. On top of that, it has some benefits over Chroma Rush. First, it can be crafted, and therefore there are enhanced perks on the table.
The roll you probably want to look for is something like Triple Tap and Focused Fury. However, you could also go with Demolitionist in the last column, to get both the damage buff from grenade kills and auto-reload it’s already considerable magazine to shoot for a long time.
There is also the One For All and Stats For All combination which would synergize well, meaning that when you hit three different enemies, the auto rifle would get a massive boost in performance across the board.
Season of the Risen weapons: Thoughtless Sniper Rifle
Snipers currently aren’t very strong in PvE but it’s clear that Thoughtless is made with it in mind regardless. That said, it’s not hard to envision Bungie giving snipers a push in boss damage in the future, so it might be worth getting your hands on one of these.
There is one roll that is unique to Througless that you may want to look for. Overflow is great for snipers and for this one, it puts a staggering 10 shots into your clip. Pair this with Focused Fury and you will have a great time.
Focused Fury procs on the base size of the clip, so will initiate after three precision hits. If you hit your shots, as long as your magazine is overloaded, you get seven damage-boosted shots.
You could also go with Firing Line, which would be simpler, though less unique. Keep this if Bungie ever buffs snipers to be viable for boss damage.
Season of the Risen weapons: Piece of Mind Pulse Rifle
Piece of Mind is a strange one. It feels good, and in PvP, rapid-fire pulses are viable. They had been calling out for a Kinetic option, too. That said, there’s no one roll here that is inspiring huge confidence.
In PvP, the best you can probably do is Compulsive Reloader and Moving Target or Vorpal Weapon. However, these combinations, while decent, are hardly lights-out winners.
It has a little more viability in PvE. Things like Overflow or Perpetual Motion can go with Adrenaline Junkie, to make something pretty decent. Pulse rifles with 540 rounds per minute aren’t usually the first go-to in PvE, but this one could be an exception if you like the feel of it.
Piece of Mind feels good and makes a decent pulse rifle option. That said, its perk pool is a little weird, which holds it back from being as great as it could be.
