Destiny 2's Into the Light update has brought a new set of weapons to grind. The Brave Arsenal weapon set features 12 (mostly) classic guns, now reissued with new perks, a new origin trait, and a brand new look. In total it might be the best collection of weapons Bungie has released this year—multiple bangers, each featuring some of the best perks in the game right now. Normally double damage perks are the domain of raid loot, but here we've got some cracked combinations being handed out for free.
You can earn all of these weapons from the Onslaught horde mode, or in the Hall of Champions by spending Tokens of Bravery or completing weekly challenges. If there's a particular gun you're chasing, remember to attune to it for an extra 50% chance for that specific weapon to drop.
Whenever you earn a Brave Arsenal weapon, it has the chance to drop as a special edition—or what the community has started referring to as a 'shiny'. These rare versions have a special ornament that give them a different look to the base version. They also come with two perk options in both the third and fourth column—making it slightly easier to find the roll you want.
You can earn a curated special edition weapon by completing each weapon's quest at Arcite—which you'll need to do anyway in order to attune to that weapon. Unfortunately these fixed are pretty mid—rarely featuring the best perks. Instead, the best shinies come as random drops, and there isn't any guaranteed way to earn more—they're incredibly rare, and entirely RNG dependent. They're also limited edition—you won't be able to earn shiny versions when Destiny 2: The Final Shape releases on June 4. Luckily the regular versions are sticking around, and—other than the ornament and extra perk options—are otherwise identical to their shiny counterparts.
Every Brave Arsenal weapon comes with the origin trait Indomitability. Each kill with any of these guns gives you 5% grenade ability energy if you're running a Light subclass, or 5% melee energy if you're running a Dark subclass. Given some of this year's nerfs to ability uptime, an easy extra source of recharge is pretty beneficial—making these guns even more desirable.
Of all the Brave Arsenal weapons, Hung Jury has been reissued the most. So in terms of what to go for, you should lean into what makes this version unique. Its perk refresh puts Kinetic Tremors in the third column, opening up some rare combinations. For me, the best option is going to be pairing it with a damage perk like One for All. The shockwaves from Kinetic Tremors can help proc One for All's damage bonus, but—even better—if you have One for All up when you activate Kinetic Tremors' shockwaves, they'll inherit the 35% damage bonus.
There are a handful of other interesting perk combinations, too. Rewind Rounds and Precision Instrument will do well in any season where scout rifles are required to stun champions—letting you do solid sustained damage while also keeping it locked down. Explosive Payload and Firefly remain good, always-active AoE options too.
There was a point in Destiny 2's history when Falling Guillotine was the legendary sword of choice. It was so good that Bungie nerfed the ammo economy of vortex frame swords entirely—leading to their current state of disuse. The Brave Arsenal reissue doesn't fix the problems with vortex swords, but it does let you roll damage perks in both the third and fourth column, which helps mitigate the downsides through pure damage output. If you're prepared to do some setup to activate both perks, the pairing Frenzy and Surrounded is a huge damage increase. If you're lazy, pairing Vorpal Weapon and Bait & Switch trades out some damage for an easier to proc combination. Falling Guillotine can also get Eager Edge in the fourth column—it's a great traversal tool, and will be well worth using when this set's perks become enhanceable when The Final Shape releases.
As a raid weapon, Succession stood out from other sniper rifles thanks to the perks Reconstruction and Recombination. The former causes the weapon to slowly reload itself over time, even when stowed—and will overflow the magazine up to double its normal capacity. The latter perk builds damage stacks as you get kills with elemental weapons. Each stack gives 10% damage to your next shot when you switch to Succession, and at the full 10 stacks, that means you're doing double the damage.
That combo is still well worth chasing, but if you've already got a crafted Succession from the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the new Brave Arsenal version could still be worth chasing because it has access to the Discord perk. With this, final blows from another weapon give you seven seconds in which any kill with the sniper will refund your ammo directly into the magazine. As CoolGuy explains in his recent video, it pairs well with perks like Redirection, letting you build up stacks by killing and refunding ammo against red-bar enemies, before switching to a yellow bar for some big damage.
Once the best gun in the game, this new version of The Recluse has been somewhat powercrept—in part by replacement void SMG Funnelweb. It doesn't help that The Recluse's signature perk, Master of Arms, has been nerfed down to a 15% damage buff. It's very easy to activate—proccing off a kill with any weapon—but now it does the same damage as Frenzy, which also offers a reload and handling buff. Given that, new perk Desperate Measures is probably the better option. Its description is overly complicated, but the basic gist is if you can get two kills with a grenade or your powered melee, you'll get a 30% damage buff that can be refreshed on weapon kills.
The Recluse is best used as part of a void build—a Gyrfalcon's Hauberk Hunter, or Briarbinds or Contraverse Hold Warlock. The access to Vortex grenades means Desperate Measures will be easy to proc at full stacks, but also means you might want to consider Repulsor Brace in the third column for Overshield generation. You might also be tempted to run Destabilizing Rounds in the fourth column as a natural pairing, but personally I don't rate it—you're better off running the Echo of Instability fragment to handle Volatile. Finally, for barrels, avoid Arrowhead Brake. It's usually an S-tier perk, but The Recluse has a default 100 recoil direction, so here you're better off with Fluted Barrel or a range increase option.
This thing is an absolute beast in PvP—its stats are a clear outlier among high-impact pulse rifles, beating out even Trials of Osiris's own The Messenger. Get Zen Moment and Headseeker (or even Kill Clip or Desperado in the fourth column), and a barrel like Arrowhead Brake or Chambered Compensator to knock it into a more vertical recoil pattern, and you're laughing. In PvE, pulse rifles aren't exactly lighting up the sandbox, but there are still a couple of options worth a look if you're building into void. As with The Recluse, you can go for Repulsor Brace in the third column and Desperate Measures in the fourth—building into the strengths of void to get a decent damage buff and constant Overshield. There's also a fun combination in something like Rewind Rounds and Desperado—letting the former refresh your magazine to mitigate how quickly the latter perk chews through ammo.
Currently one of the best DPS weapons in the game, you've got a few options depending on how you want to chunk down that boss. In the third column, you're looking at either Envious Assassin or Cascade Point. Envious Assassin requires some set-up—readying the weapon after getting kills with other weapons will overflow your magazine, but you need to do this a couple of times to reach the full 200% extra capacity. Cascade Point, meanwhile, is all about shooting a lot of grenades very quickly. A kill or multiple precision shots with another weapon will give you 2.5 seconds of absurdly quick fire-rate—great for deleting champions, or for bosses with very small damage windows. In the fourth column, Bait & Switch and Explosive Light are your best options for big damage—the former pairing slightly better with Envious Assassin; the latter a natural fit for Cascade Point. While Spike Grenades remain the best damage option in the second column, Augmented Drum is worth considering for the extra mag size, or even Alloy Casing for the extra reload speed.
The Mountaintop is back to reclaim its throne. In a sandbox where elemental primaries are usually the right play, a quality kinetic special is very attractive. The Mountaintop's unique micro-missile frame not only fires grenades out in a straight line, but causes its explosions to do less damage to yourself. That makes it a great pick for both long distance and close quarters, giving it a much greater effective range than either a shotgun or sniper. There are a lot of good perks available, but The Mountaintop's natural role is doing big damage against majors, champs and bosses. Because of that, for me the best combination is Auto-Loading Holster and Recombination. Switch to it whenever something with a lot of health turns up, and it will always be loaded and doing extra damage based on the number of kills you racked up before you pulled it out. If Recombination is too much faff, though, Vorpal is a guaranteed 15% extra damage against higher-tier enemies like minibosses and champions.
Finally, a note on magazines. Spike Grenades is the obvious pick, but The Mountaintop has an odd quirk where it does more damage the less blast radius it has. That makes Hard Launch the best barrel by some distance. And if you're running Hard Launch, you actually get slightly more damage out of Implosion Rounds over Spike Grenades. It's not a huge difference though—almost certainly not worth the effort to grind if you're already sat on a solid Spike Grenades roll.
Even though kinetic primaries aren't as meta in the current sandbox, there are some nice perk options here that make Midnight Coup worth trying. Firefly is a great option for the third column, as it offers both an AoE explosion and a hefty bump to the reload speed stat. Couple it with either One for All for extra damage. Alternatively, if you want a reliable workhorse that fills the same role as Vault of Glass's Fatebringer, go with Explosive Payload and Frenzy for plenty of bonus damage and reload. Finally, for something a bit quirkier, you can have the shockwaves from Kinetic Tremors grant you nearby ammo and Orbs of Power by pairing it with Shoot to Loot in the third column.
The Vow of the Disciple raid version of this wave-frame grenade launcher has long been the best add-clear secondary in the game thanks to the perk combination of Ambitious Assassin and Chain Reaction. This new Brave Arsenal version has the same combo and for now it remains an absolute monster—although Chain Reaction is getting nerfed in The Final Shape. Outside of its classic roll, a couple of perks are also worth a look. Unrelenting in the third column restores health for killing three enemies—something you'll be doing pretty much every time you fire it. It's potentially useful here because this new version doesn't have the original's Soul Drinker origin trait to restore health. Demolitionist is also a good option that will pair nicely with the Brave Arsenal set's Indomitability origin trait—restoring a good amount of grenade energy with each kill.
I wasn't sure if there'd be a place for my once beloved Hammerhead. Deep Stone Crypt's Commemoration is also an adaptive frame void machine gun, and has the benefit of being craftable. Bungie's solution to this, it seems, is to load up this returning favourite with some absolutely cracked perks. There's barely a bad option in either column, but there are a couple of absolute standout combinations. Personally, I'm chasing Rewind Rounds and Onslaught—making use of the former's magazine refill to benefit from the rate-of-fire increase of the latter. Onslaught is also a reload perk, so you've got everything you need for a great LMG. Another great option is to go all-in on damage, with Rampage and Killing Tally. In most other situations, Rampage is a pretty weak perk—long power crept by other damage options. In the third column, though, it pairs perfectly with a more potent damage perk like Killing Tally, both scaling up as you continue to slay out.
Check back on Tuesday, April 30, when we'll add the god rolls for the two remaining Brave Arsenal weapons: Blast Furnace and Luna's Howl.
