Destiny 2 – Best DPS in Season of Arrivals! Chaperone VS Whisper VS Xenophage

Bungie buffed slug shotguns in Season of Arrivals with a 30% buff to PVE damage. But just how viable are they? Do they stack up against some of the heavy-hitters and old favourites like Whisper of the Worm and Xenophage? The following is some analysis into the damage numbers looking at the best DPS weapon in Season of Arrivals with Chaperone vs Whisper vs Xenophage.

Yesterday I put out a video talking about how to get Chaperone and yes, it’s an old shotty that’s been out since Forsaken. However, now the slug shotgun archetype has been buffed, I thought I’d run some testing to see how much the DPS values have been impacted and if The Chaperone could be considered a viable choice for endgame content in Destiny 2. I went down to see our old friend the Ogre on Titan to test this out.

First up, I tried Xenophage. This itself had a buff in the not too distant past, and since it’s been a staple of raids, grandmaster nightfalls and other endgame PVE content like this. Taking shots at the Ogre led to damage of around 15,322 at a time, which isn’t too bad. If you haven’t got Xenophage then check out my guide for that here.

Next up, I tried out Whisper of the Worm. This is another classic DPS weapon and has risen back to the top since the nerf to Izanaghi’s Burden. Trying this one out against the Ogre gave me damage numbers of 20,915. If you haven’t got Whisper of the Worm, then again, check out my guide for that here.

Finally, I tried out Chaperone. This led to getting damage numbers of 24,549. Without any damage buffs or mods, then Chaperone takes it for pure DPS against bosses in this sandbox. The only downside with this one is you have to get in close, so for some raid bosses, that’s not going to be possible. But if you can get in close then this could be considered as very viable in the endgame for pure DPS.

Next up, I had a look at Charged with Light. The Charged with Light system is something that has been introduced to the game relatively recently and it allows various buffs and stacks in exchange for super energy. There’s a couple of ways you can get charged with light through different mods and they include

Empowered Finish – Become charged with lightly finishing a combatant, consuming one-tenth of your super energy.

Taking Charge – Become Charged with Light by picking up Orbs (so make sure you’re using masterworked weapons to generate orbs).

Charge Harvester – WHile you are not Charged with light, any kill or assist has a small cumulative chance to cause you to become charged with light (however, you do incur a stat penalty on class ability recharge)

Once you have become charged with light, there’s some other mods you can use to buff damage including:

High-energy fire – While Charged with Light gain a bonus to weapon damage. Each defeated combatant consumes one stack of Charged with Light.

Supercharged – You can have 2 additional stacks of Charged with Light up to a maximum of 5.

Now, lets have a look at the damage numbers when using Charged with Light. Using Xenophage while charged with light gives us 18,386 (compared to 15,322 before), using Whisper gives us 25,098 (compared to 20,915 before) and finally Chaperone gives us 29,459 (compared to 24,549 before). Clearly then there’s a benefit to using Charged with Light, so if you can use these mods to get that ability and get more damage when going against bosses.

Lets check out the damage comparison chart for base damage vs charged with light for all 3 weapons.

The Chaperone isn’t done there though, as it also has a perk called Roadborn, which states ‘precision kills briefly grant bonus handling, range and precision damage with this weapon’.

Back in the lab, we can proc this perk with a precision kill, so we do that and then attack the Ogre once again with the Chaperone and we’re getting damage numbers of 30,098 (compared to the base damage of 24,549 and 29,459 with Charged with Light). We can also stack Roadborn and Charged with Light on top on one another for damage multipliers. So we need to get Charged with Light, then get a precision kill to proc Roadborn and test out the shotgun in the Ogres face which leads to damage of 36,177.

Let’s have a look at the damage multiplier chart for The Chaperone including base damage, charged with light, roadborn and then a combination of roadborn and charged with light.

We can see here that Charged with Light on its own increases damage by 20%. Roadborn increases damage by roughly 23% (with some rounding) and then together there’s an increase of 47% in total with both roadborn and charged with light. So if you’re going to go into battle with a boss, then bear in mind The Chaperone, Charged with Light and the perk roadborn for that massive 47% increase on the base damage.

If you haven’t yet checked out The Chaperone and you’re sitting on the fence on this one, then do get it and give it a try. It’s a simple exotic quest, that hardly takes any time at all – you’ll be done in an hour or two. Another good option is going to be Blasphemer, however, it’s not going to have the Roadborn perk on it, so Chaperone is definitely the way to go. This has been such an underused weapon in the past, but now these damage numbers are out there I imagine it’s going to be picked up a lot more and used in PVE content.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of the Chaperone and its damage potential. Have you been using it in endgame content, and if not – what’s your go-to option for big damage? Also, if you have any improvements to suggest, let us all know down there in the comments.

That’s it for this guide on Chaperone’s Damage potential. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out the Shadowkeep Guide or check out the YouTube Channel.