Destiny Exotic Weapon Perks Guide

Destiny Exotic Weapon Perks Guide by javierabegazo

Hey Guardians, I wrote down my favorite perks to run with on every exotic weapon. Guide is divided into Primary, Secondary and Heavy Weapons and is alphabetical.

~Primary Exotic Weapons~

Bad Juju

• Smart Drift Control
• Armor Piercing

To get the most out of Bad Juju, you need to constantly be killing enemies so you get your Magazine Refill. Armor Piercing allows you to constantly whittle down multiple targets in front of you pretty much guaranteeing that you will be constantly scoring the kill. Smart Drift Control can off set a lot of that recoil gained by choosing Armor Piercing while allowing you to constantly be nailing headshots.

Hard Light

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Fitted Stock

Aggressive Ballistics is necessary to get greater Impact for more punch per bullet and to take advantage Glass Half Full, you would do well to avoid Field Scout, Quick Draw is mostly worthless so that leaves you with Fitted Stock.

Hawkmoon

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Hammer Forged

Aggressive Ballistics is the only solid barrel choice here as it increases stability and gives more impact. To keep Hawkmoon’s status as a long range hand cannon, stick with Hammer Forged, you can always Sprint Reload Cancel to cut down on reload time.

MIDA Multi-Tool

• CQB Ballistics
• Field Scout

MIDA’s already got great stability, and you don’t want to lose any impact, so CQB Ballistics is the sweet spot. Throw on Field Scout for a greater reserve satchel of Ammo, as Quick Draw and Lightweight are more circumstantial perks that would cater to specific play styles or situations, like quick strafing in Crucible.

Monte Carlo

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Field Scout

Aggressive ballistics is key for keeping highest DPS per bullet so you can get Monte Carlo Method to proc. Field Scout is the logical perk here, for more reserve satchel ammo, and the engagement distance for Auto Rifles is close to mid range so I don’t think the extended range is worth the trade off for less ammo. The only exception is if you had the More Auto Rifle Ammo perk on an armor piece, then go for Send It to not get penalized on damage at range.

Necrochasm

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Flared Magwell

Let’s be honest here, the Necrochasm is piece of junk; worst in it’s class. That being said, Aggressive Ballistics is 100% necessary for near double the impact, and due to the insane fire rate of Necrochasm and pitiful magazine size, Flared Magwell is key as you will spend more time reloading than you ever will firing or killing anything. TL:DR, let this gather dust till Bungie gives it a much needed rebalance.

No Land Beyond

• CQB Ballistics
• Lightweight

It doesn’t need to be pointed out that this weapon was custom designed for a specific play style in the PVP sphere, but I will say it anyhow. CQB Ballistics will cut down your recoil. Flared Magwell does not affect loading individual round reloads* so run Lightweight to stay as a mobile platform.

Red Death

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Single Point Sling

I go with Aggressive ballistics for better Stability and impact, and Single Point Sling so that you can out strafe incoming fire and land those critical head shots.

SUROS Regime

• Linear Compensator
• High Caliber Rounds

Go with Linear Compensator for the boon to impact, and High Caliber Rounds to keep your enemies constantly staggered. Try to keep your engagements close to mid to mitigate range nerf on Auto Rifles.

The Last Word

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Perfect Balance

TLW is the perfect dueling gun. Aggressive Ballistics will make each of your 8 bullets that much more potent and Perfect Balance so you’re not wasting any shots on areas that aren’t critical damage spots.

Thorn

• Aggressive Ballistics
• Send It

No surprise here, Aggressive Ballistics gives you greater stability and impact, always helpful to hand cannons and to give you more adaptability on engagement distances, learn the recoil pattern and go with Send It to really hurt those enemies at range, they’ll bleed out by the time you get close.

Universal Remote

• Soft Ballistics
• Hammer Forged

The special thing about UR is it’s ability to do massive shotgun damage at a safer range. Play to it’s strengths by choosing Soft Ballistics and Hammer Forged. All other perks will dilute it’s signature mark.

Vex Mythoclast

• Smart Drift Control
• Extended Mag

With the Vex, you’ll want to overwhelm your enemies with a constant barrage. The Vex being the only fusion rifle that can take advantage of critical spots as well as not facing a damage penalty when engaging Majors or Ultra’s (Yellow Bar Enemies), you’ll want Smart Drift to keep all your shots on critical damage areas as well as Extended Mag because you’ll burn through ammo quick with it’s high fire rate.

~Secondary Exotic Weapons~

Ice Breaker

• Linear Compensator
• Snapshot

IB is your guerrilla sniper rifle, you can switch to it quick and snap off several critical shots in quick succession due to a lower recoil from Linear Compensator and Snapshot to save a few precious milliseconds on scoping in on your target.

Invective

• Field Choke
• Send It

The Invective post-shotgun buff is one of the highest DPS weapons, You jump in, smash them and jump away to reload. You don’t want to sacrifice any damage to range penalty and there’s no need to waste a perk on stability as you will almost always kill anything with the four rounds you have.

Patience & Time

• CQB Ballistics
• Field Scout

P&T’s great asset is it’s fantastic fire rate coupled with it’s great stability. Field Scout is going to bring your mag size to 6, with high stability to snap off those crit shots, then cloak, reload, rinse repeat till dead. Once you get used to recoil, you could run Aggressive Ballistics if you want that boost to impact.

Plan C

• Smart Drift Control
• Accelerated Coils

With Fusion Rifles, a lower charge time is always welcome so Accelerated Coils is best and to offset the recoil so you can make sure to land all of your bolts, Smart Drift Control is there.

Pocket Infinity

• Soft Ballistics
• Extended Mag

You’ll want to have Soft Ballistics to get decent accuracy at range and Extended mag is there to make it so by the time you’re done holding the trigger, whatever was in front of you is vaporized.

The Fourth Horseman

• Field Choke
• Speed Reload

You don’t want anything that’s going to chop your range lower, so Field Choke is great and then you’ll want to be able to reload quick to get any follow up salvos for any surviving adds.

~Heavy Exotic Weapons~

Dragon’s Breath

• Linear Compensator
• Javelin

The biggest draw back for Dragon’s Breath is by the time you’ve fired your rocket, your target has likely moved, so choose both of these perks to make the rocket velocity suck less.

Gjallarhorn

• Soft Launch
• Speed Reload

The fabled Gjallarhorn is incredible for rapidly bleeding strike bosses so having greater velocity and a fast reload will help you snap off both rockets and get ready for a 2nd salvo.

Super Good Advice

• Smooth Ballistics
• Flared Magwell

Smooth Ballistics will help your stability without killing your range, and Flared Magwell’s incredible boost to reload speed is a must.

Thunderlord

• Linear Compensator
• Field Scout

Thunderlord is going to kick like a mule anyways, so run Field Scout to carry twice the ammunition and just use it like a Scout Rifle. Linear Compensator will help cut down that recoil as well.

Truth

• Hard Launch
• Javelin

The strength of Truth as a rocket launcher is it’s incredible velocity and amazing and generous tracking + proximity detonation. Choose these two perks to make it that much faster.