Destiny 2: Top 11 Exotic Weapons

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Destiny 2 features an extensive collection of Exotic weapons, each designed with distinctive mechanics and combat specialties that can dramatically alter your gameplay experience. Navigating this arsenal requires understanding not just raw power but situational effectiveness and synergy with your chosen class and playstyle. Our curated selection focuses on weapons that deliver exceptional performance across multiple activities while providing unique tactical advantages.

While we continue exploring Destiny 2’s evolving meta, several fundamental principles deserve your attention—particularly breaking habits carried over from the original Destiny. Critical practices include immediate Engram decryption to maximize loot opportunities and strategic conservation of Upgrade Points for optimal character progression. For comprehensive foundational knowledge, consult our Complete Guide to establish solid gameplay fundamentals.

Expand your expertise with additional guides covering class specializations, subclass abilities, and advanced combat techniques. Stay current with Guardian developments by regularly visiting our Destiny 2 guides hub for the latest strategies and updates.

While weapons dealing bonus damage against specific enemy types often seem limited in utility, Skyburner’s Oath defies this expectation with exceptional performance. This exotic scout rifle delivers increased damage against all Cabal units, the predominant adversary throughout the campaign and central to the Leviathan raid experience. Its unique capability to fire through Phalanx energy shields provides a tactical advantage few weapons can match in Cabal-heavy engagements.

Beyond its racial damage bonus, Skyburner’s Oath features outstanding stability characteristics and full-automatic firing mode, enhancing its combat effectiveness. Many players underestimate its Crucible potential until experiencing its consistent performance and shield-penetrating capabilities against Guardian opponents. Strategic positioning and anticipating enemy movements maximize its effectiveness in both PvE and competitive environments.

Merciless stands as an indispensable fusion rifle for efficiently eliminating high-health targets and boss enemies, particularly those lacking immunity phase mechanics. The weapon’s unique perk progressively accelerates its charge rate with each non-lethal impact until achieving a final elimination. This damage escalation makes it exceptionally potent for burning down major combatants and raid bosses where sustained damage output is critical.

This weapon proves essential across all Player versus Environment activities while remaining formidable in skilled Player versus Player hands. Understanding its charge timing and optimal engagement distances separates competent users from masters. Pairing Merciless with ability cooldown reduction armor mods can create devastating damage combinations.

The returning MIDA Multi-Tool from Destiny 1 maintains nearly identical potency while adapting to Destiny 2’s revised weapon systems. Although featuring a reduced ammunition capacity compared to its predecessor, it remains a comprehensively balanced rifle with exceptional reload speed and superior handling characteristics. Its radar retention while aiming provides significant tactical awareness advantages in both PvE and competitive scenarios.

When paired with the MIDA Mini-Tool submachine gun, this combination creates a versatile loadout capable of handling diverse combat situations. The paired weapons’ movement speed bonuses stack, creating enhanced mobility that skilled players can leverage for positional advantages. For deeper weapon system mastery, explore our Weapons Unlock guide for advanced acquisition strategies.

Sweet Business operates as a gatling-style auto rifle that suppresses enemies with continuous ballistic pressure. It embodies the Titan combat philosophy through synergistic deployment with class-specific barricades that instantly reload its 45-round magazine repeatedly. This creates sustained firing until exhausting all reserve ammunition or eliminating all targets within engagement range.

Beyond its stationary deployment capabilities, the High-Caliber Rounds enhancement permits accurate hip-firing while maintaining target flinch against opponents. With the elimination of traditional light machine guns from Destiny 2’s heavy weapon category, Sweet Business effectively fills the sustained-fire role. Its primary limitations include absence of elemental damage (being kinetic-only) and mandatory spin-up duration before reaching maximum 360 RPM firing rate, complicating rapid response situations.

Advanced technique: Pre-spin the weapon while approaching engagement zones or when anticipating enemy pushes. This mitigates the spin-up disadvantage and allows immediate maximum damage output when contact occurs. Understanding these timing requirements separates effective from exceptional Sweet Business utilization.

Destiny 2’s iteration of Hard Light represents meaningful advancement over its original version while preserving the rapid-fire demolition capabilities that defined the weapon. The enhanced version introduces dynamic elemental type switching between Arc, Solar, and Void damage profiles, establishing it as the premier selection for efficiently dismantling enemy shields regardless of encounter specifics.

The weapon’s ricochet projectiles gain damage bonuses after bouncing, creating unique angles of attack in confined spaces. Mastering wall-bounce techniques expands your effective engagement zones and circumvents cover-based defensive positioning. This flexibility makes Hard Light exceptionally valuable in Nightfall strikes with rotating shield modifiers.

Submachine guns frequently demonstrate inconsistent performance across different combat scenarios, but Riskrunner exemplifies how these compact automatic weapons can exceed expectations. Its chain lightning effect devastates grouped adversaries while providing damage resistance during Arc conductor activation. The visual spectacle of lightning arcing between enemies creates both functional and aesthetic combat satisfaction.

Strategic activation involves intentionally taking Arc damage to trigger the Superconductor perk, then aggressively engaging clustered targets. This weapon truly shines in enemy-dense activities like Escalation Protocol or certain Gambit rounds where multiple combatants group naturally.

Mastering Destiny 2’s exotic arsenal requires understanding situational strengths and optimal deployment timing. Different activities demand specific weapon selections—raid encounters often benefit from single-target specialists like Merciless, while public events and horde modes favor crowd control experts like Riskrunner. Weapon pairing strategies can dramatically enhance your combat effectiveness, such as combining MIDA Multi-Tool with energy weapons that cover its range limitations.

Common optimization error: Over-relying on a single “favorite” exotic across all content. Instead, maintain a curated selection of 3-4 situationally optimized exotics ready for different challenge types. For class-specific optimization approaches, reference our Class Guide for specialized build recommendations.

Loadout rotation based on anticipated encounters significantly improves mission performance. Before launching activities, analyze enemy types, shield elements present, and engagement distances you’ll likely encounter. This proactive approach ensures you’re equipped with the right tools for each combat scenario rather than relying on universal solutions.

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