Destiny Weapon Mods Guide

Destiny Weapon Mods Guide by Andy411

Note: Weapons have hidden archtypes which determine their base statistic ranges. As each weapon type has many possible archtypes, it would take an absurd amount of time to compile that data for reddit. I’m not saying it is out of the question, though…If this post gets enough interest I may do that on another slow day at work.

What do each of the weapon stats do?

• Visible Stats
  • Rate of Fire – How quickly your weapon fires repeated shots.
  • Impact – Base damage dealt per shot.
  • Range – The distance at which the weapon remains effective.
  • Stability – How hard your weapon kicks when you fire it.
  • Reload – How quickly your weapon can be reloaded.
  • Magazine – The amount of ammunition your weapon can hold.
  • Charge Time – How quickly the weapon fully charges its lethal burst of energy.
  • Blast Radius – Both the size and the potential damage of a blast.
  • Velocity – The speed at which rockets travel once fired.
• Invisible Stats
  • Handling – Combination of the time it takes to enter ADS fully, and to stow or draw a weapon.
  • Optics – The weapon’s zoom factor while in ADS. Each weapon has a base zoom, simply add the zoom of a scope to the base for a total.
    • Shotgun – 1.2x
    • Auto Rifle, Fusion Rifle, Machine Gun – 1.5x
    • Hand Cannon, Pulse Rifle – 1.7x
    • Scout Rifle, Rocket Launcher – 2.0x
    • Sniper Rifle – 4x
  • Recoil – The direction and degree to which a weapon kicks when fired.
  • Inventory – The amount of ammo you can carry around in reserve.

What types of mods are available?

In Order:

• Damage Type – Arc, Solar, Void
• Sights or Barrel – Change the scope or sights and slightly change some of the weapons stats. 3 Options available.
• Primary Ability Mod – Permanent weapon bonus.
• First Upgrade – Damage upgrade.
• Stat Mod – (Rare and Better) Major stat or function changes, can drastically alter the way the weapon performs. 3 Options available.
• Second Ability Mod – (Legendary and Exotic) Another permanent mod like the primary.
• Secondary Upgrade – (Rare and Better) Another Damage Upgrade
• Ascend – (Legendary and Exotic) 3 Additional Damage Upgrades

What does each mod do?

Now we are getting to the meat of this post. Each mod changes the way the weapon works in some way, whether by altering its stats or giving it different abilities. I will go into each possible upgrade below, but first I want to point out some key points to take notice of.

Weapon statistics range from 1-100. If you see a positive number the stat is increased by that amount, and a negative number decreases it. A percent modifier, as expected, increases or decreases it by a set percent. It seems like percent modifiers can raise the statistic over 100 while a numerical stat increase cannot.

Optics and Barrels

Primary Mods

• Cascade: Sets reload speed at 150% of base after melee kills.
• Clown Cartridge: Every reload has a 25% chance of a 20% magazine bonus.
• Cluster Bomb (Rockets Only): Rocket detonation spawns cluster bombs.
• Counterbalance: 9% bonus to recoil control.
• Crowd Control – 15% bonus damage for three seconds after scoring a kill.
• Double Down: Boosts available ammo when spawning.
• Feeding Frenzy: Boosts reload speed to 120% of base after kills.
• Final Round – 33% bonus damage on last shot in magazine.
• Full Auto: Makes weapon full-auto, firing in its usual pattern with standard rate of fire.
  • Pulse rifles fire 3 rounds, pause, repeat.
  • Shotguns fire the entire clip quickly.
  • Scout rifles fire as fast as rate of fire allows.
• Focused Fire (Suros Regime Only?): Reduced shot speed and increased damage when ADS.
• Glass Half Full: Bottom half of magazine deals more damage.
  • Starts at 0% bonus at 50% of clip and scales up to 6% on the last shot of the magazine.
• Grenades and Horseshoes (Rockets only): Rockets detonate when they come within two meters of a target.
• Grenadier: Kills add 10% to grenade energy.
• Hair Trigger: Fires the instant trigger pressure is detected.
• Headseeker – 25% bonus precision damage on third hit of a burst.
• Hip Fire: Increased accuracy when hipfiring.
• Kneepads (Shotgun): Enables long slide while equipped.
  • Note: Does not stack with hunter’s long slide ability.
• Life Support: Restore 50% of magazine and reload 150% faster after near-death (20% of health) kill.
• Luck in the Chamber – 33% bonus damage on one round in the magazine.
• Metal Detector (Uncommon Fusion Rifles Only): Increased chance for ammo drops.
• Mulligan: 5% chance to reload a round into magazine per missed shot.
• Outlaw: Extremely fast reload after precision kill.
  • Grants 150% base reload speed after precision kill.
• Performance Bonus: 25% chance to grant bonus ammo into inventory on a kill.
  • 6 ammo for pulse rifles, 3 for scout rifles, 2 for hand cannons, 5 for fusion rifles, 3 for machine guns, 1 for shotguns and sniper rifles.
  • Not available on legendary machine guns.
• Persistence: Accuracy improves as you fire, up to 20%.
• Private Eye (Scout Rifle): 50% bonus zoom when crouched.
• Rangefinder: +10% bonus to Range, +20% bonus to damage falloff distance.
• Reactive Reload: Reloading after a kill grants 33% bonus damage for three seconds.
• Return to Sender: +25% chance to add a round to your inventory ammo after a kill.
• Secret Round (Pulse Rifle only): Missing a shot in a burst grants a fourth round.
• Shoot to Loot (Scout/Sniper only): Shoot ammo to pick it up.
• Shot Package (Shotgun only): Narrows pellet spread while in ADS
• Spray and Play: +50% faster base reload when magazine is empty.
• Surplus: Doubles amount of ammo gained from each ammo pickup.
• Take a knee: Accuracy improves when firing while crouched.
• Tracking (Rockets only): Lock on tracking while ADS.
• Tripod (Rockets only): Adds extra rocket to magazine.
• Unflinching: Reduces flinch from incoming damage by 33%.
• Vacuum: Doubles ammo pickup radius.
• Who’s Next: 150% faster reloads after a kill.
• Zen Moment: Stability increased with each hit, capping at 66% after five hits.

Stat Mods

• Accelerated Coils (Fusion Rifle Only): +50 Charge Time
• Armor Piercing Rounds: Rounds penetrate targets and walls
• Custom Optics: +.5x zoom.
• Enhanced Battery: Max magazine size, -30 Reload.
• Explosive Rounds: Bullets detonate in 2 meter explosion on impact. Closer targets take more damage.
• Extended Magazine: +30 magazine size (NOT 30 Rounds, 30/100)
• Field Scout: +100 magazine, +80 inventory.
• Fitted Stock: +25 Stability.
• Flared Magwell: +100 Reload, -10 Stability.
• Cuts “bloom” circle by 33%. High range weapons have smaller bloom circles.
• Hammer Forged: +40 range, -10 reload.
• Hand Loaded: Only found on rare weapons, +20 range.
• Heavy Payload: +40 Blast Radius, -10 Velocity
• High Caliber Rounds: Boosts flinch effect of shots
• Javelin: +40 Velocity, -10 Stability.
• Lightweight: +2 Agility when weapon is equipped.
  • Speed gains past 10 agility are increased, so hunters can greatly increase speed using this mod.
• Perfect Balance: +35 Stability, -20 Range.
• Quick Draw: +100 Handling, +10% Ready, +10% Away.
• Send It: +50 Range, -30 Magazine and Inventory
• Single Point Sling: +50% Ready and Away, +10% Movement Speed in or out of ADS.
  • For maxed agility hunters, Lightweight’s +2 agility bonus will outperform the +10% movement buff of SPS.
• Skip Rounds: Increased chance of bullet ricochet
• Snapshot: +30% ADS Speed.
• Speed Reload (Rare weapons only): +50 Reload.

Secondary Mods (Legendary Only)

Note: only Firefly and Third Eye are unique Secondary Mods, the others can be found as primary mods

• Cascade
• Clown Cartridge
• Feeding Frenzy
• Final Round
• Firefly: Precision kills cause a 50 damage solar explosion in a 5-meter radius.
• Full Auto
• Grenadier
• Hip Fire
• Knee Pads
• Life Support
• Luck in the Chamber
• Mulligan
• Outlaw
• Reactive Reload
• Shot Package
• Spray and Pray
• Third Eye: Grants radar while in ADS.
• Vacuum
• Who’s Next

Exotic Mods – I don’t have raw stats for these, so if anyone knows the specific details please let me know and I’ll update.

• Volatile Light: (Hard Light) Rounds over penetrate and ricochet on hard surfaces.
• Monte Carlo Method: (Monte Carlo) Dealing damage with this weapon reduces your melee cooldown. Likely 10%
• SUROS Regime: (Suros Regime…?) Bottom half of magazine deals bonus damage and has chance to return health when dealing damage.
• Holding Aces: (Hawkmoon) Two more bullets in your magazine deal considerable bonus damage.
• Last Word: (Last Word) Bonus damage and stability. Extra precision damage when hip firing.
• Mark of the Devourer: (Thorn) Rounds pierce targets and deal damage over time.
• String of Curses: (Bad Juju) Weapon reloads instantly and increases damage after a kill.
• Red Death: (Red Death) Each kill heals you and speeds up reloads.
• MIDA Multi-Tool: (MIDA Multi-Tool) Weapon boosts move speed and fires on a hair trigger.
• Plan C: (Plan C) Charge and equip times are very short after switching to this weapon.
• Pocket Infinity: (Pocket Infinity) Fires in full auto mode and has a chance to return missed shots.
• Invective: (Invective) Regenerates ammo over time. (6 shells every 30 sec?)
• Ice Breaker: (Ice Breaker) Victims spontaneously combust, dealing AOE damage.
  • No Backpack: Regenerates ammo over time.
• Patience and Time: (Patience and Time) Active camo while ADS.
• Super Good Advice: (Super Good Advice) Almost all shots that miss are returned to magazine.
• Lightning Rounds: (Thunderlord) Weapon fires faster and more accurately the longer the trigger is held.
• Wolfpack Rounds: (Gjallarhorn) Rounds fired split into tracking cluster missiles upon detination.
• Prototype Trueseeker: (Truth) Aggressive heat seeking rounds.