Today in Destiny 2, Bows are seen as more of a fun weapon, rather than a competitive one. There are a lot of bad Bows and very few good ones.
Below, we will cover all of the best Bows that are worth using in Destiny 2.
Recommended Read: How to Change Appearance in Destiny 2
The Best Bow in Destiny 2 is Le Monarque for PvE and PvP. The Wish Ender is a close second.
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Best Bow in Destiny 2
Bows have always been in an awkward spot in Destiny 2, with many Bows falling short due to poor add-clearing capabilities in PvE and slow time-to-kill in PvP.
The best Bows are the ones that can break through either or both of these barriers.
Le Monarque
Across both PvE and PvP, Le Monarque has been one of the best bows that you can use. It is an Exotic Void Bow that you can obtain from the Exotic Archive in the Tower.
One of the weaknesses of using a Bow in PvE is how slow add clear can be.
Le Monarque’s Intrinsic Perk Poison Arrows will deal damage over time to targets and spread the poison to nearby enemies on precision hits, letting you deal with many enemies with a single arrow.
This Perk also stuns the target, giving you an easy out when dealing with Overload champions.
In PvP, this Le Monarque is a great Bow for team shooting.
A single arrow will not only leave an enemy one-shot for the rest of your team, but the poison will keep them low longer, giving you and your allies a large window of time to push up and finish the kill.
Since the poison spreads on precision hits, it will deter your enemies from grouping up too close. If they do, you are looking at a massive amount of damage to the entire team.
The Catalyst triggers health regeneration when rapidly defeating enemies. While helpful in PvE, it isn’t anything worth going out of your way to get.
Wish-Ender
This is one of the more unique Bows on the list, even for an Exotic.
The Intrinsic Perk Queen’s Wrath lets you see enemies through walls while fully drawn and aiming down sights. This is a great Perk for pre-firing in PvP and lining up your shots before peaking in PvE.
This Perk also causes the arrow to pierce through targets. The pierced shot deals massive damage to shields, making it very strong against Barrier Champions.
In PvE, this Bow does a good amount of damage, making it an okay choice for your Primary weapon. It is exceptionally good at taking out Major enemies or enemies with shields.
In PvP, this weapon is useable though not the best. While the wall-hacks sound tempting, there is a drop-off distance to them.
The time-to-kill is fairly slow with this weapon, so you will need to rely on your team to clean up any enemies you hit.
To unlock the Wish-Ender Bow, be sure to follow our guide on How to Get the Wish Ender.
Trinity Ghoul
Add clear was never a concern for this Exotic Arc Bow.
Trinity Ghoul’s Intrinsic Perk Split Electron fires a spread of arrows on a single trigger pull, making this a great weapon to quickly take down multiple enemies in front of you.
Aiming down sights and fully pulling back the arrow both tighten the spread of the arrows immensely, practically making it shoot one larger arrow again.
Landing a precision final blow will activate Lightning Rod, causing your next shot to chain lightning between enemies.
The goal here is to land a single precision kill to activate Lightning Rod, then continue chaining precision kills while each shot chains Arc damage to every enemy nearby. This is a great weapon for both ranged and close-quarters add clear.
This Bow falls short on the PvP side. It can be an OK weapon in 6v6 if you can get the Lighting Rod to proc. In 3v3, you are better off running literally any other Bow on the list.
The Catalyst allows your Lightning Rod Perk to activate after getting an Arc damage kill from any source. This pairs well with Lightning Grenade or Skip Grenade builds.
This Exotic Bow is a random world drop, so be sure to pick up Xur’s Exotic Engram every week and hope for the best.
Leviathan’s Breath
While Leviathan’s Breath is a Power weapon, it is still a Bow.
This Bow comes with the Perk Big-Game Hunter, loading massive heavy arrows with every draw that, while slow to fire, deal a ton of damage and stun the target. Yes, this makes Leviathan’s Breath a good choice for dealing with Unstoppable Champions.
The damage this Bow can output is fairly decent. Good for clearing out Major enemies and OK for Boss damage.
The Catalyst gives this Bow Archer’s Tempo, decreasing the draw time after every precision hit.
With Archer’s Tempo, this Bow becomes a very good DPS option for Boss damage, outperforming many other weapons for its burst capability. Definitely worth unlocking.
Verglas Curve
The final Exotic Bow we will cover today, Verglas Curve is a good choice for Stasis synergy.
The Intrinsic Perk Hail Barrage grants Stasis arrows on final blows. These Stasis arrows will freeze targets on direct hits, slow Guardians, and create Stasis Crystals when impacting the environment.
You can hip-fire to send out a volley of all your built-up Stasis arrows, creating massive Stasis Crystals when they land on the ground.
The ability to create Stasis Crystals easily makes this weapon a good contender for Stasis builds. You can use the Crystals for cover or destroy them for additional damage, making this a great choice for PvE.
You’ll have a difficult time making this weapon effective in PvP. It is fine in 6v6 and unusable in 3v3.
The Catalyst will give you faster draw time after freezing or slowing enemies. Nice to have but not necessary.
While many of the Bows on our list are Exotic, there are a few Legendary Bows that are still worth consideration.
Point of the Stag
The first Legendary Bow on our list, and with good reason.
This is one of the few Legendary Bows that is decent in both PvE and PvP, depending on the roll.
Archer’s Tempo and Vorpal Weapon make this an OK backup Primary weapon for DPS, though not the best for general add clear.
This Bow really stands out in PvP. Any weapon that has the potential to one-shot enemies in PvP can be very, very good.
This Bow can roll with Swashbuckler, increasing its damage with every kill, up to five times. Getting a melee kill will grant you full stacks of Swashbuckler, allowing this bow to one-shot any Guardian at any Resilience.
Getting the melee kill isn’t easy, especially in 3v3. It is more suited for Quickplay matches, though this Bow does feel nice to use even when you aren’t one-shotting people.
You will have to Focus Engrams from Iron Banner to get your own Point of the Stag.
Strident Whistle
Many players were very excited to finally see a Solar Bow that they didn’t have to farm a Raid to get when Strident Whistle was released.
Being Solar, this Bow has access to Incandescent, which already makes it a great choice for Solar subclass Scorch builds.
When paired with Archer’s Tempo, this becomes a great way to deal with many enemies. A rare thing for a Legendary Bow.
You have access to a good PvP roll with Adrenaline Junkie boosting our damage into one-shot range after a single grenade kill.
This Bow is rewarded from Strikes and rank-up packages from Commander Zavala.
Lunulata-4B
This Bow is the little brother of Verglas Curve.
Lunulata-4b was the first Legendary Stasis Bow introduced to Destiny 2, giving it a spot on the list.
It came with the new Perk Headstone which creates Stasis Crystals on precision final blows. It has some below-average stats, so you will want Rangefinder to make up for that.
For Stasis builds, this Bow can be a fun addition. Outside that, it doesn’t have a lot going for it.
Check back with Banshee-44 every week to see if he has one available.
Honorable Mentions
There are not a lot of good-feeling Bows for PvP right now. Some of the best PvP Bows were added in earlier Seasons and would have deserved a spot on the list if they weren’t so hard to obtain now.
Racontouer and Under Your Skin are both fantastic Bows for PvP, each having the Perk combination of Archer’s Tempo and Successful Warm-Up, which makes them very responsive and able to actually compete in 3v3s.
They are both craftable. If you happen to have their patterns unlocked, they are a great choice for a crafted Bow. If you didn’t play during their respective Seasons, it will be tough to get them now.
You’ll have to wait for either Xur or Banshee-44 to sell them now.
Those are the Best Bows in Destiny 2.
Is there a specific Bow that you have been enjoying lately? Let me know in the comments!
