Best weapons to get before Destiny 2: Lightfall drops

Lightfall is coming, be prepared

Destiny 2: Lightfall is released on February 28, 2023, and with that in mind, there will be some weapons that leave the rotation at the end of Season 19. If the weapon comes from the Helm, note that Bungie mentioned that seasonal content will remain in the game but will then move to the content vault when the new expansion drops. This means that these weapons will cost many valuable resources such as glimmer, legendary shards, and in some cases, ascendant shards. The weapons in the Helm can also be focused as a red border weapon once a day instead of once a week in the lead-up to Lightfall.

Many of the weapons in this article are craftable, meaning that after collecting enough patterns then creating your bespoke version even after the weapon is no longer in rotation will be possible.

Explosive Personality

Venturing to the War Table in the Helm, Guardians will find Explosive Personality, which first appeared in Season of the Risen. This is a craftable wave frame grenade launcher, which is especially useful for dealing burst damage to big, beefy enemies as well as clearing hordes of smaller foes. The waves travel underneath enemies to cause maximum damage and can be crafted with the perk Auto-Loading Holster, which means that whilst it is stowed, it will automatically reload while players fire off other weapons for maximum damage output before switching back to Explosive Personality.

Piece of Mind

Another from Season of the Risen is Piece of Mind. This quick-firing, easy-to-use pulse rifle is invaluable in PvP, especially when using the perk Elemental Capacitor which grants the weapon increased statistics based on the Guardian’s subclass. For Solar it grants 50 reload speed, for Arc it’ll give an additional 50 handling, for Void it gives 20 stability, and Stasis guardians can get 20 recoil direction as well as a five percent reduction in aim down sights movement speed penalties. It’s unclear as yet how the arrival of Strand will be used with this perk, but Piece of Mind is well worth crafting before that happens regardless.

Calus Mini-Tool

This Season of the Haunted Solar submachine gun is a fantastic choice for PvE activities. There are plenty of perks that work for this gun, but Incandescent works particularly well with any Solar build as it applies stacks of scorched to enemies just by being used normally. Scorch is a burn buff applied to enemies that ticks over time. Combining this with ignition will cause huge waves of explosions and mass death, but without something to trigger the stacks of scorch, it could be difficult to trigger. Enter the Calus Mini-Tool with Incandescent, and a Solar Guardian’s prayers are answered. Head to the Season of the Haunted area in the Helm to begin focusing engrams to get yours before Lightfall arrives.

Bump in the Night

This Season of the Haunted rocket launcher is craftable from the Helm also, and features a plethora of perks that will work very well with the new Champion reworks that are coming to Destiny 2 with Lightfall. It’s an aggressive frame rocket launcher, which means that off the bat it already hits harder than others of its weapon archetype. Along with that, it can be crafted with the Chill Clip perk which means that it can slow targets with one hit and freeze with two. When targets are frozen and shattered it automatically causes more damage, and slowing enemies when becoming overcrowded is always useful. Overload champions will be stunned by being slowed and Unstoppable champions will be stunned by being frozen, which the Chill Clip perk can achieve.

Ikelos SMG

This submachine gun became craftable in Season of the Seraph, which is the final season before Lightfall. This is the third version of this weapon that’s been in Destiny 2, but it’s back and better than ever. Rangefinder makes the distance at which the Ikelos SMG is effective, and also increases the choice of other perks that Guardians can add to their crafted version. Volt Shot also allows Guardians to chain Arc lightning across the room just by being used normally. Craft the Ikelos SMG at the Exo Frame in the Helm before February 28.

Forbearance

This grenade launcher isn’t craftable at the Helm and won’t be leaving the game at the end of Season 19. Guardians will need to head to the Vow of the Disciple raid to gain enough patterns to craft Forbearance. This wave-frame grenade launcher is another valuable addition to clearing hordes of enemies quickly, and whilst Explosive Personality does a similar job, that is Solar where Forbearance is Arc. It can also be crafted with different perks and is the only wave frame grenade launcher in the game to be able to roll with Chain Reaction which creates an elemental explosion for each final blow.

With the launch of Lightfall, Guardians will also be able to wield a completely new Darkness subclass in the form of Strand. Whilst the finer details of how this new subclass will interact with weapons haven’t yet been revealed, players have been treated to a full breakdown of Strand‘s abilities, fragments, and aspects ahead of the release.