It has taken years for Bungie to build the world of Destiny and Destiny 2, and that also extends to how gameplay changed over the years, evolving from a few abilities and perks into a plethora of combat style mods and seasonal mods that change the core experience. Because Champions have become a staple in Destiny 2 endgame PVE content, and because of how disruptive they can be if not stunned with appropriate weapons or burst down to ashes, anti-Champion mods have been playing an extremely important role thus far. With each new season, Destiny 2 gets an artifact with 25 mods that players can choose up to 12 from, and they always include at least six or seven Champion-related mods.
Because of this, and due to the fact that Destiny 2's new Season of the Lost is one with a lot of Unstoppable Champions, Unstoppable mods and weapon categories associated with them are seeing a lot of use. Fusion rifles and linear fusion rifles are the prime examples, as they have long been overlooked for the most part in both PVE and PVP, but now they are being used a lot more thanks to the Unstoppable mod they got, but also thanks to the buffs and changes made to them. On top of that, Season of the Lost also added a brand-new seasonal mod Particle Deconstruction, which is in a way even better than mods the caliber of Breach and Clear and Oppressive Darkness simply because it takes fusion and linear fusion rifles to the next level.
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Destiny 2 Season of the Lost's Unstoppable Mods and Fusion Rifles
Season of the Lost introduced a new race of Champions to Destiny 2, and that enemy race is the Scorn, which has been around since the release of Forsaken nearly three years ago. The Scorn was the last race to be missing Champions among their ranks, and because Season of the Lost is set in Forsaken locations such as the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, it would only make sense that they got the Champion treatment now. With the Scorn now featuring Unstoppable and Overload Champions, this also means that the game's meta is shaped by the incredible number of those Champion types thanks to the presence of many Taken enemies as well.
As such, the three Unstoppable mods for Season of the Lost are all being used to some extent, with sidearms being the least popular selection in high-end PVE content due to their limited range compared to other weapons. Pulse rifles are also getting some love in Season 15, especially as an alternative to fusion rifles for players who prefer to use swords against Overload Champions rather than bows, and that's because the limited amount of energy on armor pieces prevents players from using Overload swords and Unstoppable fusion rifles. Still, fusion rifles and linear fusion rifles are extremely efficient and reliable at stunning Unstoppable Champions, which contributed to their rise to power in Destiny 2's current meta.
How Fusion Rifles Were Changed in Season 15
The second factor that made Destiny's fusion rifles extremely popular this season is the fact that Bungie changed many of their aspects, and this weapon category was overall buffed by quite a lot both in terms of damage and how the guns feel while playing. Damage was increased by a lot across the board, with the archetype that benefitted the most out of it being the high-impact fusion rifles, as their original bonus damage was 0%, so they got a total of 15% damage buff. This category is very good now, despite the fact that the charge time was increased, and the bursts being reduced to five from seven is actually a good thing because it means missing a burst is inherently harder.
Rapid-fire frames were also buffed significantly, now charging faster and having nine bursts instead of seven, which is incredibly useful for spreading damage across different enemies. As such, this made the ritual weapon Null Composure, obtainable from Season of the Splicer onwards, an amazing pick for PVE thanks to its add-clearing potential if combined with Reservoir Burst and the holster mod for fusion rifles introduced this Season. Generally speaking, all fusion rifles are now stronger than before, and this is further solidified by just how strong Particle Deconstruction is in Season of the Lost.
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Fusion Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles, and Particle Deconstruction
The third and final factor that aided fusion rifles to become not only popular but also the best weapons for high DPS in the game right now, is the seasonal mod by the name of Particle Deconstruction. This mod is unlocked in the final row of the seasonal artifact for Season of the Lost, and it costs seven armor energy of any kind, but it can only be placed in the class item for each class. What it does is applying a debuff to any enemy hit by fusion rifles and linear fusion rifles, which stacks up to five times and increases all damage dealt with those weapons against affected combatants.
The reason why this mod is so incredibly strong is that it stacks up to the maximum with any fusion rifle, as they shot at least five bursts, each applying a stack of Particle Deconstruction on the enemy hit. Then, all subsequent fusion rifle shots will deal much more damage to that target, but the debuff also applies to damage dealt by linear fusion rifles, allowing weapons like Sleeper Simulant and One Thousand Voices to dish an incredible amount of damage with very few shots.
Ehorar, a YouTuber and content creator for Destiny 2, broke down the effect of the mod on bosses with a plethora of Exotic fusion and linear fusion rifles, showing how Sleeper Simulant and One Thousand Voices can get up to 150.000 (and more) DPS. This, of course, is not achieved by using Particle Deconstruction alone, but it only adds to an already powerful option. Furthermore, the Weaken debuff applied from things like the Hunters' tether stacks with Particle Deconstruction, whereas it didn't with Breach and Clear or Oppressive Darkness. Overall, Season of the Lost is the perfect time to be a Destiny 2 player who loves charging up their weapons to unleash pure destruction.
Destiny 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
