Destiny 2 – Best Fusion Rifles For Season Of The Chosen

Fusion Rifles are getting a buff in Season of The Chosen given that Fusion Rifles aren’t currently being used very much compared to shotguns. Today I am going to have a look at the incoming buff, as well as some of the best Fusion rifles for Season of the Chosen.

Bungie updated us last week on the news of the buff.

Fusion Rifle usage is very low, and they feel like an unreliable choice in Crucible compared to Shotguns.
Increased Fusion Rifle damage falloff start distance based on Range stat. (6% with 0 Range, 16% with 100 Range)
Reduced camera movement from firing a Fusion Rifle by 9.5%.

Baring those buffs in mind, let’s check out some of the best Fusion Rifles in the game right now. I’m going to go through a mix of Exotics and Legendary, plus how to get them. It’s also worth baring in mind we’re likely to get some Fusion Rifles in the loot pool next season given the buff.

Hollow Words

Hollow Words is a legendary fusion rifle that deals arc damage and sits in the energy slot. It was introduced in Season 11 and is going to be with us until season 15.

The curated roll comes with Unrelenting where rapidly defeating targets triggers health regeneration where Guardians and Powerful Combatants count for more than one kill. It also comes with Feeding Frenzy where each rapid kill progressively increases the reload speed for a short time. For PVE focused rolls you’ll want to have a look at something like Surrounded and Feeding Frenzy or Lead from Gold. For PVP then Killing Wind plus Vorpal Weapon would be good.

To get this one it’s a random drop from activities and currently in the world loot pool.

Telesto

Telesto is an Exotic Energy Fusion Rifle

Unplanned Reprieve – Fusion projectiles attach and detonate with a delayed Void blast.
Harbinger’s Pulse – Multikills with this weapon immediately reload your equipped Kinetic and Energy weapons from reserves.

To get this one you can pick it up from Xur when he sells it, or from random exotic engrams.

Coriolis Force

Coriolis Force is a Legendary Energy Fusion Rifle. It’s an Aggressive Frame meaning it’s High damage, moderate charge time. Fires a horizontal volley. The curated roll comes with Rangefinder for that increase in range and Killing Wind where final blows increase mobility, range and handling for a short duration. For PVP Under Pressure and Eye of the Storm would be good, for PVE Feeding Frenzy and Thresh would be a good roll.

To get this weapon you have to run through the selectable Empire Hunt from Variks. To unlock these you’ll have to complete the post-campaign missions and then you’ll see 3 Empire Hunts selectable at Variks. The Technocrat Empire Hunt gives you a targetted way to farm Coriolis Force. You can also get the weapon by killing high-value targets around Europa, as they have the chance to drop a weapon or armour when you kill them. Look out for the wind and the snow picking up when on Europa, and keep an eye on the bottom left-hand side of the screen for the high-value target notification. Kill the roaming world boss and some nice loot will drop for you, and maybe it’ll be Coriolis Force. If you want to remove randomness from the process then the Empire Hunt and Killing the Technocrat is going to be your best bet for sure.

Merciless

Merciless is an Exotic Energy Fusion Rifle.

Conserve Momentum – Non-lethal hits with projectiles make this weapon charge faster until its wielder gets a kill.
Impetus – Reloading immediately after a kill increases weapon damage for a short time.

It’s fast with a 900 charge time and gets faster with kills. Bungie also updated us on a fix for Merciless which included “Fixed an issue that was preventing Merciless from increasing its charge rate on non-lethal hits”. Basically, Conserve Momentum has been broken for some time. Given this is being fixed then I’d look out for Merciless next season.

To get this one you can pick it up from Xur when he sells it, or from random exotic engrams.

Glacioclasm

Glacioclasm is a Legendary Energy Fusion Rifle that delivers void damage. It’s a High-Impact Frame meaning it’s Slow-firing and has high-damage. This weapon is more accurate when stationary and aiming down sights. The curated roll comes with High Impact Reserves and Ambitious Assassin plus Enhanced Battery and Chambered Compensator. For PVP Killing Wind and Unrelenting would be good, whereas Ambitious Assassin and Demolitionist would be good for PVE.

You can’t get Glasioclasm in the game at the moment, it was a reward from the recent Dawning Event. It will likely come back in the Dawning 2021.

Bastion

Bastion is an Exotic Kinetic Fusion Rifle. It’s good fun and unique and it’s a very good choice in PVP. It’s got Hammer-Forged Rifling, Liquid Coils, and Composite Stock as the standard perks.

Saint’s Fists – Charge to fire 3 spreads of Kinetic slugs
Breakthrough – A portion of this weapon’s damage bypasses elemental shields

Saint’s Fists allows the weapon to shoot 3 slugs of multiple bullets, which are pretty strong and can stop supers in their tracks in PVP. However, this doesn’t do precision damage. In PVE it’s good, but there are other exotic kinetic weapons that probably would be a better choice. In PVP it’s very strong, but it’s got a decent delay on it so you’re going to have to use good timing.

From this list I definitely think Bastion, Merciless and Coriolis Force are worth getting. Telesto is kind of a meme weapon at this point, it’s OK but it’s caused so many bugs for Bungie in the past it’s just funny. I think the bug fix for Merciless is going to see this one rise up the charts, and Bastion is already a great choice in PVP, and it’ll be interesting as to the effect of the buff for Bastion. I would fully expect some new fusion rifles to be added to the game next season as we are getting 25 new and reprised weapons. Maybe Erentil? I’m not so sure on that one as it’s a fairly recent weapon. But we could see some new Cabal themed Fusion Rifles coming to Destiny 2 with the Cabal focus next season.

Let me know down in the comments what you think of fusions, and if you’re likely to pick them up next season.

That’s it for this guide for the best fusion rifles for Season of the Chosen. For more Destiny 2 Beyond Light content check out the full guide and subscribe on YouTube to This Week In Video Games today.