Destiny 2 – Must-have weapons and perks for Season 11

Season of the Worthy is winding down and we’re all eagerly awaiting a trailer for the next chapter. We do have some clues from Bungie as to which weapons are going to be viable next season, due to the team tweaking the sandbox and buffing some underused weapon types and perks. The following is a guide to must-have weapons and perks for Season 11 in Destiny 2.

Bungie updated us all during their weekly update last week and went over a few things that are going to be changing in terms of the sandbox in Season 11. First of all, I’m going to have a look at the weapons, then dig a little deeper into the perks and how to find out if you have any of these weapons sitting in your vault without having to look through one by one.

Before we go into the weapon types and perks in a little more detail, I wanted to share an easy way to check your vault. If you’re been playing the game for some time, then you no doubt will have collected a bunch of weapons and have them sitting there in your vault. For newer players, I’ll go over how to get some of these weapons.

Search for Destiny Item Manager and navigate your way to https://app.destinyitemmanager.com. Link your profile to the web app via Steam, PlayStation or Xbox and that will load up all your items in the vault and will give you an easy way to manage, and crucially, search your vault for specific items.

First of all we’ve got Slug Shotguns.

“Slug Shotguns are underused in PvE, because they require crits to maximize damage, and didn’t reward that precision with higher damage per second. Slug Shotgun PvE Damage + 30%.”

A quick search of ‘slug’ and you can see here I have a number of weapons that have been sitting there in the Vault. This includes Chaperone (Exotic Shotgun), Blasphemer, Good Bone Structure and Gunnora’s Axe. If you don’t have these weapons you can pick up the Chaperone quest by getting Holliday Family History and completing the relatively short quest steps for this. For Blasphemer, you can pick this one up by doing the Altars of Sorrow on the moon and getting the weapon drop at the end (there are 3 weapons from Altars of Sorrow and the weapons rotate on reset over 3 days – one day you get the shotgun, next the sniper, next the rocket launcher so if today isn’t the day then check back). Good Bone Structure drops from Dreaming City activities (I got mine from a Tier III Blind Well) and finally, Gunnora’s Axe comes from Iron Banner.

As we’re going to be getting a 30% PVE damage buff, then these shotguns are going to be super useful going into next season for PVE activities.

Next up we’ve got high-impact Pulse Rifles.

“High-Impact Pulse Rifles are underused in Crucible. While they have a very fast optimal TTK, that TTK was very hard to achieve, so we decided to soften that a little. High-Impact Pulse Rifle damage per bullet from 21 to 22. This changes it from 6 crits to 5 crits/1 body to kill a Guardian in PvP at most Resilience values.”

A quick check through my vault reveals the Eystein-D, and I have Rangefinder and Kill Clip on this so it could be a useful roll next season. Everyone’s talking about Redrix Broadsword, so if you happen to have that then this could make it viable again in PVP.

Next up we’ve got Bows (in challenging content).

“In analytics, we see Bows are underused in challenging content, and locally we’ve observed that it feels terrible when a Bow leaves a red bar enemy at low health. Bow PvE damage VS minors + 10%.”

You may have some bows stored away in your vault – Leviathan’s Breath, Trinity Ghoul and Point of the Stag come to mind. Leviathan’s Breath in particular here as it’s a heavy bow and a 10% buff to damage could be really nice.

That’s some of the weapon types that are going to be improved next season. Chaperone and Blasphemer are good ones to get and won’t offer you too much trouble in terms of getting them.

Next up let’s have a look at the perks. Again, have a look through your vault with Destiny Item Manager, as you can simply search for the perk in the search bar and the weapons with those perks will be highlighted.

First up we’ve got Dynamic Sway Reduction

• Adds 10 Stability over time in addition to accuracy (this is way more powerful than it sounds).
• Reduced reticle movement from Stability should now tell players this is working.

Dynamic Sway Reduction – When holding down the trigger this weapon’s sway reduction system boosts accuracy over time.

This is going to be a nice little boost and Bungie pointed out that this is going to be way more powerful than it sounds. This would be nice on Autorifles like Gnawing Hunger and Galliard 42. Gnawing Hunger is going to be in the loot pool next season, according to Bungie’s extensive list of world drop weapons (you can check out the full list in last weeks update which I’ll link down below). I’m lucky, I’ve got a Galliard which I managed to get from a completion of a Black Armoury Forge while I was going for Blast Furnace. I also have a few SMGs with this perk on. It’s totally random as to whether your weapons will have this perk, but I’d recommend farming Galliard through frames to see if you can get one. I’m looking forward to seeing how powerful this is going to be next season with Bungie’s teaser.

Next up we’ve got Hipfire Grip

• Now helps you hit shots closer to ADS ranges, still doesn’t affect damage dropoff or magnetism.
• 1.2x aim assist falloff.
• +15 aim assist.
• +1.7 degrees precision hip fire angle threshold.
• By default, when hip-firing a weapon, the centre of your reticle must be over a target in order to get a crit, otherwise aim assist will give you a body shot. This change gives you a little leniency, so if the centre of your reticle is not directly over a target you will still get the crit if you’re within this angle.
• Has no effect on Sniper Rifles.

Hipfire Grip is normally associated with Last Word, which is super powerful, especially if you’re on console or someone who uses controller on PC. This is going to add another +15 to aim assist and it’s going to help hit shots closer to ADS range – meaning fire grip is going to be a fun perk to test come the new season. If you don’t have Last Word, then I’d recommend getting it as soon as you can, and you can check out a guide for it here, otherwise, check your vault and see what you have.

I have a Spare Rations (which you can farm from the Reckoning Tier II) and Better Devils (which you can get from Lord Shaxx by turning in Crucible tokens and end of crucible match rewards). I also have a Seraph Carbine from Season of the Worthy, plus Escape Velocity which was an SMG in Season of the Worthy too. I’d recommend having a look through your vault and if you don’t have one then check out the perks on the weapons that drop for you between now and the end of the season.

As well as these weapons and perks that are going to get a buff, we’re also going to see new perks:

“Next season, we’ll have new perks rolling exclusively on the Season of [REDACTED] weapons. Additionally, Iron Banner will be receiving two new perks on two reprised weapons. In future Seasons, these perks will begin to roll on other weapons. While we don’t want to spoil the fun of discovering and testing new perks, we will leave you with the names of upcoming Iron Banner perks: Iron Grip and Iron Gaze. We are excited to see the community break these perks down when the new season begins.”

We don’t know what these perks are going to be like just yet, but let me know down in the comments what you think and what you think they’ll do.

From the above, I’d recommend going out and getting one or two slug shotguns as they’re going to be useful in the new PVE activities we get next season, plus regular PVE. Raid weapons are going to be exempt from sunsetting, so taking them into raids could be a viable option. It may be time to dust of your Redrix if it’s been sitting there in your vault for some time, or if you haven’t got it yet then start grinding now, as it’s rather a time consuming one (I haven’t got it yet). Try and go for an auto with DYnamic Sway Reduction if possible as I think they’re going to be a good option building on an existing buff to autos in season 10.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of the weapon and perk tweaks. Let me know if you find any surprises in your vault, and give Destiny Item Manager a go and see if it helps you search through all your items.

That’s it for this guide for must-have weapons and perks for Season 11 in Destiny 2. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out the Shadowkeep Guide or check out the YouTube Channel.