Fusion Rifles in Destiny 2 are powerful weapons that, after a short charge-up, can dish out a lot of damage and take out enemies with ease.
We will cover only the best regular Fusion Rifles as well as Linear Fusion Rifles today
Recommended Read: How to Get Mementos in Destiny 2
The Best Fusion Rifle in Destiny 2 is Eremite. The Best Linear Fusion Rifle is Doomed Petitioner.
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Best Fusion Rifle in Destiny 2
Fusion Rifles have always been a staple in Destiny 2, both for PvE and PvP activities. Currently, Fusion Rifles make up some of the best DPS options and have slowly been seeing more use with the nerf of Shotguns in PvP.
We’ll be focusing on the Fusion Rifles that can do the most damage to Major enemies, Champions, and Bosses.
Eremite
The number one choice for DPS in terms of Fusion rifles.
Eremite has a lot going for it that pushes it to be the best. It is a High-Impact Frame Fusion Rifle, giving it a boost to damage and accuracy.
It is a Solar weapon, which makes it a great choice to combo with some of the best Solar DPS Heavy weapons to double up on your Solar Surge Mods for increased damage.
To top it off, Eremite has one of the best Perk combinations among fusion Rifles in the game.
Envious Assassin is a must-have Perk that will overflow this weapons magazine from reserves for every kill you get while Eremite is stowed.
You will quickly cap out your magazine size while taking out Minor enemies with your Primary weapon in preparation for the DPS phase of a Boss.
For your second Perk, you will want a damage-increasing Perk. Luckily, Eremite can roll with either Controlled Burst or Reseviour Burst, each of which will increase damage in one way or another.
As you can see, Eremite has a lot going for it and should be the top pick for most players when entering any Dungeon, Raid, or Grandmaster Nightfall.
It will make quick work of Majors and Champions and will shred into Boss health bars like no other Fusion Rifle.
Eremite can be obtained from any Season of the Witch activity or Witch Engrams.
It is craftable and there are plenty of additional methods for getting red-boarder variants from the Ritual Table to quickly unlock the crafting pattern.
Scatter Signal
A new Fusion Rifle that has quickly found its way to the top.
Scatter Signal is a Strand Fusion Rifle that was added to Destiny with the release of Season of the Wish, along with some other very powerful weapons.
It comes with some incredible Perks that take advantage of its unique element and Frame.
It is a Rapid-Fire Frame, giving it deeper ammo reserves and faster reload speed when the magazine is empty, making it the perfect candidate for a DPS weapon.
Being a Kinetic weapon will give Scatter Signal a slight boost to damage when firing at unshielded targets, which is great for killing Champions and Bosses.
For DPS Perks, you are looking at Controlled Burst for reduced charge time and increased damage. A must-have for just about every Fusion Rifle during DPS phases.
Your second Perk should be the newly added Slice Perk, which is unique to Strand weapons. Slice allows your weapon to sever enemies after casting an ability, decreasing their outgoing damage for a short duration.
This can help you and your teammates survive the DPS phase more reliably, especially in situations where you can’t stand inside a Well of Radiance.
It can also make taking down Champions much easier for the rest of your team as they won’t be able to melt your health anymore.
Slice is a great general-use Perk outside of damage phases. If you want to go for as much damage as possible with Scatter Signal, swap out Slice for Surplus or Enlightened Action for greater ammo reserves and reload speed.
While this weapon might not be the absolute best for Boss damage, the flexibility Slice provides, and the ease of use that comes with Rapid-Fire Frames can’t be beaten.
In terms of PvP viability, Rapid-Fire Frames are among the best.
Perpetual Motion can give you an overall boost to Handling and weapon responsiveness, while Kickstart will give you a slight increase in damage and a 20% decrease in Charge Time after sliding.
For aggressive players who enjoy using Fusion Rifles, this is a great pick.
You get Scatter Signal from any Season of the Wish activity or Engram. It is craftable, and you should definitely try to unlock its crafting pattern this Season for an easy god roll for both PvE and PvP.
Riptide
Nerfs couldn’t keep this weapon from being one of the best Fusion Rifles for Grandmaster Nightfalls and Solo Legend Lost Sectors.
Riptide is another Rapid-Fire Frame Fusion Rifle, this time with the Stasis element. It comes with a very important Perk, Chill Clip.
Chill Clip causes direct hits with the top half of your magazine to apply slow to enemies hit. With three pulls of the trigger, you can freeze just about any enemy in Destiny 2, including Champions.
This makes Chill Clip one of the best Perks for end-game PvE content where Champions are involved. Riptide just so happens to be one of the best weapons for abusing Chill Clip.
While your secondary Perk choice doesn’t matter as much as having Chill Clip, Auto-Loading Holster is a very good pick that will always keep your Riptide at full ammo capacity so your magazine never gets too low to activate Chill Clip.
Riptide is one of those weapons that every Destiny 2 player should have ready in their Vaults. Luckily, it is easily obtained from Shaxx in the form of Crucible Engrams.
While it isn’t craftable, you can focus on a Riptide using your Crucible Engrams until you get a roll that you like. Preferably one with Chill Clip, of course.
Vex Mythoclast
The weapon that is technically a Fusion Rifle, though we all know it isn’t.
Vex Mythoclast is an Exotic Fusion Rifle that many of the original Destiny fans are familiar with. It was a beast in Destiny 1 and continues to be a great weapon in Destiny 2.
It comes with the Intrinsic Perk Timeless Mythoclast, allowing the weapon to fire fully automatic at 360 RPM, similar to an Auto Rifle. The Temporal Unlimiter Perk builds stacks of Overcharge with every kill.
Holding down your reload button with a full stack of Overcharge will enter the alternative firing mode, transforming Vex Mythoclast into a Linear Fusion Rifle that shoots slow-firing, powerful laser rounds.
These Linear Fusion Rifle rounds can kill a Guardian with a single shot to the head in PvP game modes and deal a considerable amount of damage to PvE enemies.
You will have to collect a few kills with the Auto Rifle mode first, which should be easy considering this weapon has very good base stats, aside from the mediocre Range.
The Catalyst for Vex Mythoclast grants it the Calculated Balance Perk. This Perk gives Vex Mythoclast damage, accuracy, and Stability shortly after getting a kill with the Auto Rifle mode and is a must-have for PvP potency.
Vex Mythoclast drops randomly from the Vault of Glass Raid after you kill the final Boss. You can check out our guide on How to Get Vex Mythoclast for more info.
Best Linear Fusion Rifle
Linear Fusion Rifles have recently become one of the best options in terms of Boss damage and Champion killing in Destiny 2.
While they require the enemy to have a sizable crit spot to be effective, there is no weapon that beats them at their own game.
We will be focusing on raw damage output for these Linear Fusion Rifles. One weapon has risen to the top with the release of the Season of the Wish.
Doomed Petitioner
The weapon that has recently become the single best Linear Fusion Rifle in the game.
Doomed Petitioner was added to Destiny 2 with the release of Season of the Wish as a Seasonal reward.
It is an Aggressive Frame Void weapon that fires a three-round burst and comes with some of the best Perks in terms of damage that you could ask for on an LFR.
In the first column, you have the choice of either Reconstruction or Envious Assassin, both of which will overflow your magazine from reserves in preparation for the DPS phase of a Boss.
In the second column, you have Precision Instrument to boost your precision damage while sustaining shots on a target.
This is a fantastic Perk for DPS and pairs perfectly with Linear Fusion Rifles when taking on Bosses that have a large crit spot.
Using Precision Instrument with either of your magazine-enhancing Perks will ensure that you maintain your damage buff and do not run out of ammo so easily.
You can also roll Surrounded in the second column for an alternative damage buff, though this Perk is much harder to maintain in actual DPS circumstances. It is better to go for Precision Instrument if possible.
Luckily, since Doomed Petitioner is a Seasonal weapon, you can unlock the crafting pattern for it and try out all of the different Perk combinations you wish.
It drops from any Season of the Wish activity and can be rewarded for Wish Engrams as well.
Cataclysmic
The weapon that was only recently dethroned as the single best Linear Fusion Rifle.
Cataclysmic has a lot going for it that no other Linear Fusion Rifle does, making it a beast of a weapon in terms of raw damage output.
It rolls with two very good Perks that players have been wanting on Linear Fusion Rifles for a while now.
Fourth Time’s the Charm is what you will use to keep ammo returning to your magazine from reserves during the DPS phase, delaying your reload as much as possible, while Bait and Switch enhances your damage by a staggering 35% for seven seconds by simply firing all three of your weapons at the Boss.
The only thing keeping Cataclysmic from remaining the best Linear Fusion Rifle is the fact that it doesn’t roll with Reconstruction or Envious Assassin as a better alternative to Fourth Time’s the Charm.
If you happen to have the god roll Cataclysmic already, there is no need to Dismantle it, as it will still shred through enemy health bars even without the perfect Perk combination.
Cataclysmic drops from the Vow of the Disciple Raid. It is a craftable weapon after unlocking its crafting pattern, and there is even an Adept variant available for increased base stats.
Arbalest
The king of shield breaking.
Arbalest is an Exotic Linear Fusion Rifle in the Kinetic slot that was uniquely designed for a single purpose. That purpose is to destroy any enemy that hides behind a shield.
Arbalest comes with the Intrinsic Perk Compounding Force, which causes the weapon to fire a slug round that deals a massive amount of damage to enemy shields and Pierces Barrier Champion shields.
It also comes with the Perk Disruption Break, which makes enemies more vulnerable to Kinetic damage for a short time after breaking their shield with Arbalest.
Both of these Perks combine to create a weapon that is the perfect solution for any shielded combatant, regardless of what type of elemental shield they wield.
Players will take Arbalest into just about any end-game PvE activity and see good results with it due to just how versatile of a weapon it is.
One of the many strengths of Arbalest is just how much damage it does to enemy shields. In most cases, you will disintegrate a Major enemy’s shield with a single shot.
The amount of damage Arbalest does to Boss shields is very, very substantial and can save your team a lot of ammo with only a few shots.
This is especially potent against Bosses that have a steep pre-damage shield, such as the Bosss in the Ghosts of the Deep dungeon.
All in all, Arbalest is an amazing weapon in PvE activities that you should definitely pick up if you haven’t already.
Inside of PvP, Arbalest is still a great pick as it can one-shot Guardians and even some Super abilities with a headshot.
Arbalest is a random world drop Exotic, meaning you will have a chance of getting one whenever you decrypt an Exotic Engram. Xur also has a chance to sell Arbalest every weekend when he visits.
Taipan-4FR
The Linear Fusion that could.
Taipan-4FR is not necessarily the best Linear Fusion Rifle in Destiny 2. It has some decent Perks and stats but nothing that truly stands out when compared to the rest of the entries.
What Taipan-4FR does have going for it is availability. It is one of the easiest Linear Fusion Rifles to obtain that is actually worth using for damage.
This gives newer players a great entry point into end-game DPS options that they don’t have to be maximum Power Level to obtain. The Perks that Taipan-4FR will still pack a punch.
The two things you need on a Linear Fusion Rifle for DPS purposes and an ammo regeneration Perk and a damage-enhancing Perk. Luckily, Taipan-4FR has both.
For your first Perk, you can choose between either Triple Tap or Clown Cartridge, both of which will increase your magazine size in some way. You have three decent options for your damage-boosting Perk.
Firing Line is the best option as you will almost exclusively be doing DPS to a Boss while standing next to your Fireteam, giving you a 20% increase in damage.
Focused Fury can also give you a 20% damage increase, though the activation requirements are much stricter.
Finally, Frenzy can give you a 15% increase in damage and is very easy to activate. If you plan on running any solo content, then Frenzy is a better choice than Firing Line or Focused Fury.
If you find a Taipan-4FR with any of these Perk combinations, it is a keeper. Another thing that makes this weapon so good is that it is craftable.
New players will see plenty of Taipan-4FR variants as they level and progress in Destiny 2. By the time they need it, they should have enough red-boarder variants to unlock the crafting pattern and create a god-roll.
Taipan-4FR is a world drop weapon that can be rewarded for completing just about any activity inside of Destiny 2. Banshee-44 and Xur also have a chance of selling Taipan-4FR.
These are the best regular and Linear Fusion Rifles currently available in Destiny 2.
How many of these weapons do you already have unlocked? Are there any Fusion Rifles that you are still trying to unlock? Let me know in the comments!
