My distaste for probably 90% of the changes and content of Destiny 2’s new expansion, The Edge of Fate, is well-documented at this point, but I have been having fun in one department, one department I really never stop having fun with in Destiny: shooting things.
While I already wrote up a list of things I have deemed positive about Edge of Fate, that was before two things happened. 1) I got the rocket pulse rifle and 2) I got the shotgun hand cannon.
Bungie has been doing extremely well in this area the last year or two in terms of inventing and releasing new weapon archetypes. While not my favorite, healing auto rifles can prove exceedingly useful in fireteams. But Rocket Pistols? Instant favorite and every new one is a must-have. Edge of Fate’s Rocket Pulse Rifle? One of the strongest debut legendaries I’ve ever seen and a joy just to fire. Arms Week’s Spread Shot Hand Cannon? Stupid fun in both PvP and PvE.
Do I like running Starcrossed 50 times for the Rocket Pulse? Not especially. Do I like anything about Arms Week’s format? I do not. But these weapons are fantastic, and I’m having a ball with them so far. There is also one more new archetype that has been released that I am not featuring here because…I haven’t used it yet. That would be the heavy crossbow from that shoots giant bolts that are physical objects in a way we never see with normal arrows. There’s just one of those and it’s only in the raid, but from everything I’ve heard, this is another big win for Bungie.
It’s not all 100% hits. I don’t like the double fire hand cannons or shotguns, for instance, as that’s not different enough to be cool and it feels worse than normal versions, in my opinion. But the rest of the time the weapons team is doing great work. And it’s not just the new archetypes, there are a number of weapons in this expansion, some of which finally use fully new models for the first time in years, that I’m loving from new auto rifles to SMGs to fast-firing fusion rifles. Plus, we have our overpowered exotic scout rifle (still very strong after recent nerfs).
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So, how do you get the fun new ones?
Phoneutria Fera (Spread Shot Hand Cannon) – Need to get currency from completing activities during this short-live Arms Week (ends Tuesday morning) to buy engrams to focus into various Tiers of the weapon (based on Guardian Rank).
Mint Retrograde (Rocket Pulse Rifle) – This only drops in the Pinnacle Ops playlist. It will be purely random unless you get the Pulse as a featured item on a given day. This did not happen for a full two weeks after launch, so that will be rare.
Opaque Hourglass (Combat Bow) – This is from the Desert Perpetual raid, and drops in the Hydra encounter, and the final boss Harpy encounter.
So, happy farming. Some you have to do quickly, some you may have to wait on.
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