Destiny 2 – The Best Weapons from the Black Armory Forges

Whether you’ve been around since Season of the Forge or you’re new to the Black Armory there are some weapons in there that stand up today to still be some of the best weapons in the game. Getting these weapons is straight forward too, simply pick up a short quest, complete them and do a Forge run for random rolled Black Armory weapon. The following is a guide to the best weapons from the Black Armory Forges.

In the recent Guardian Games, I stepped back into the Forges for the first time in a while and found some weapons across a range of archetypes that will be useful in PVP and PVE. In this guide, I’ll have a look at the top weapons you should have a look at as well as the specific PVE and PVP rolls to look out for.

The Black Armoury Forges were introduced during Season 5 in the Forsaken expansion, but since have been made free to all players after the Shadowkeep drop. The forges have changed a bit with the individual forges replaced with a Forge playlist, this can be found on the EDZ and the forge changes each day. They’re pretty much all the same in terms of mechanics – beat a couple of waves of enemies while throwing orbs at the Forge – you’ll need 20 per round. In the end, there’s a boss and you’ll need to complete all 3 rounds to ignite the Forge.

To be able to access the Forge weapons you’ll need to do a quest to open things up. This teaches you the main loop for the black armoury frames. You only need to do this step if you haven’t interacted with the black armoury before if you have – skip ahead to this timestamp in the video.

First of all, have a chat with Spider on the Tangled Shore. After you’ve done this he’ll direct you to Ada-1 in the Annex in the Tower, who’s hanging out in her our little zone under the stairs. She’ll ask you to go out into the wild and find a black armoury crate for a weapon core. When you pick up frames they are normally labelled on the quest on where you can find them. They are big black crates, with little bots buzzing around them. You’ll want to shoot the bots to remove the force field, so you can open the crate and get the weapon core.

Once you have that you’ll need 25 Compound Ether from Fallen, so simply kill fallen to pick them up. Once you’ll do that you’ll need multi-kills against Hive with a power weapon, so head to an activity like Altars of Sorrow or Titan will do – somewhere there’s loads of Hive. Finally, get 25 Powerful enemy kills. Something like Escalation Protocol is good for this as you’ll find plenty of powerful enemies. Collect the Radiant seeds they drop and once you have 25 head back to Ada-1 and hand over the frame and the seeds and she’ll give you a radiant frame. Finish up the opening quest in the Forge.

That’s your basic loop for Forging weapons. Once you do this opening quest you’ll have access to the Forge playlist, which is found on the EDZ. The forges rotate each day and there’s 4 in total – Volundr, Gofannon, Izanami and Bergusia. You can either farm frames, or you can also get drops from the end of forges – however, the drop rate is quite low, so to be certain of a drop it’s probably best to farm the frames. You may get lucky though… so keep an eye out for the loot drops at the end of the forge runs.

Hoosegow XE5837 (Rocket Launcher)

This is an adaptive frame rocket launcher that sits in the power weapon slot. It’s got an impressive blast radius of 75 and good velocity of 58. This is a 20 rpm launcher with 1 in the magazine. The curated roll comes with Snapshot sights, Black Power or Alloy Casing. For PVE you want something along the lines of Ambitious Assassin, Field Prep, Implosion Rounds and either Quick Launch or Hard Launch. For PVP Volatile Launch, Black Powder, Auto-Loading Holster and Cluster Bombs could be a nice roll to go with.

Baligant XU7743 (Shotgun)

This is an aggressive frame kinetic shotgun that’s 55 rpm with 5 in the magazine. It’s got nice impact stats at 80. The curated roll comes with Air Assault, Steady Rounds or Flared Magwell, Full Choke or Rifled Barrel. For PVE you’ll want something like Barrel Shroud or Corkscrew Rifling, Threat Detector or Full Auto Trigger, Outlaw or Auto-loading Holster.

Dead Man Walking XX7463 (Sidearm)

This is a Suros Rapid Fire frame sidearm that sits in the energy slot. It’s 450 rpm, 15 in the magazine and has good stability with 60 and handling at 54. This also has amazing recoil hidden stats at 98. The curated roll comes with Under Pressure, Extended Mag and Armour Piercing Rounds. For PVE you’ll want something like Rampage or Graverobber, Outlaw, Tactical Mag or Extended Mag. For PVP you’ll want Rangefinder, Moving Target and Accurized Rounds.

Kindled Orchid (Hand Cannon)

This is a legendary, energy hand cannon in the 140rpm type with 10 in the magazine. It’s got great impact stats of 84, not bad stability of 56 and hidden recoil stats of 99. The curated roll comes with rampage for the increase in damage after kills and Kill Clip, where reloading after a kill increases damage. It also comes with Drop Mag for the increase in reload speed and Corkscrew Rifling for the increase in range, stability and handling. For PVE you’ll want something like Disruption Break, Shield Disorient and Appended mag. In PVP go for Explosive Payload, Rangefinder or Quickdraw.

Stryker’s Sure-hand (Sword)

This is an adaptive frame sword which sits in the power weapon slot. It’s got a heavy uppercut attack and heavy attacks are stronger with full energy. The charge time on this one is 20 and the ammo capacity is 60. It’s got the good impact of 60 and not bad swing speed of 46. The curated roll comes with a tempered edge for the increase in damage and ammo, balanced sword for the balanced defences, assassins blade where sword kills boost movement speed and damage and finally, surrounded where this weapon gains bonus damage when three or more enemies are in close proximity. For PVE you’ll want Whirlwind Blade, Relentless Strikes, Balanced Guard and Hungry Edge. For PVP Honed Edge, Burst Guard, Assassin’s Blade and En Garde.

Blast Furnace (Pulse Rifle)

This is an aggressive burst pulse rifle with 450 rpm and 39 in the magazine. Regarding the stats, it has a great range of 81 and pretty good stability of 68. The curated roll comes with Headseeker where body shots increase precision damage for a short time, Outlaw where precision kills decrease reload time and Tactical Mag for the increase in reload speed and a slight increase in magazine size. Mine has Outlaw and Ambitious Assasin. For PVE High Impact Reserves, Quickdraw and Drop Mag whereas PVP Headseeker, Zen Moment and Accurized Rounds.

Hammerhead (Machine Gun)

Hammerhead is a Legendary Machine Gun found in the heavy slot. It’s an adaptive frame, so it’s got a well-rounded grip, it’s reliable and sturdy. It’s a 450 rounds per minute machine gun with 60 in the magazine. This can roll with perks like Surrounded, High Impact Reserves and quickdraw – plus a few others. The curated roll comes with feeding frenzy for that increase in reload speed after kills and rampage for the increase in damage after kills, so those two work really well with each other.

Galliard 42 XN7568 (Auto Rifle)

This is my top weapon that comes from the forges right now. Since the nerf to Hard Light this one is rapidly rising up the charts to be one of the best autos in the game right now. This is an adaptive frame auto that has great stability and handling. This is in the 600 rpm type of auto, which got a nice buff in Season of the Worthy. The curated roll comes with rampage, ricochet rounds or steady rounds.

There are my top picks for the Black Armoury weapons. You can do some specific farming and quests take somewhere between 20-30 mins, so it’s a pretty good loop if you want to form specific weapons. Blast Furnace, Hammerhead and Galliard 42 are definitely ones to look out for.

Big thanks to Die from the This Week In Video Game community, he’s always showing me god rolls from the Black Armory and definitely inspired this guide – thank you bud!

Let me know down in the comments what you think of the Black Armory Weapons. Which weapons do you have in your sights and which ones haven’t you got yet and want to go for?

That’s it for this guide on the best weapons from the Black Armory Forges. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out the Shadowkeep Guide or check out the YouTube Channel.