Destiny 2 Episode 1 Act 2: New Artifact Mods

Destiny 2: New Artifact Mods (Episode 1 Act 2)

Act II of Episode I has officially begun, and with it, Bungie has added an entire row to the seasonal artifact.

This new row of artifact mods is almost 100% based around sniper rifles and solar damage, with Bungie even bringing back a fan-favorite. We will briefly review all of the new mods, and how they can affect your gameplay!

Anti-Barrier Sniper Rifle

In the first column of the new row of artifact mods sits Anti-Barrier Sniper. With how many great Sniper Rifles are in the game now, this is a no-brainer if you enjoy sniping. I have already done some mod testing, and brought a few different Snipers into the weekly Grandmaster Nightfall with this mod equipped – it puts in serious work! One or two shots with a Sniper Rifle will stun a Barrier Champion in Grandmaster content.

Since Anti-Barrier Sniper Rifle stays active whenever you have a Sniper Rifle out, your rifle will always be overcharged in high-end content. If you didn’t know, any weapon overcharge grants that weapon an extra 25% damage!

Authorized Mods: Scavenger

Sitting in the second column of the additional Artifact row is Authorized Mods: Scavenger. Having this equipped will make any Scavenger mods only cost 1 energy to equip on your leg armor! Scavenger mods are going to increase the ammo you receive from picking up Special or Heavy ammo bricks. Anyone who does endgame content understands the utility these mods provide!

I recently began soloing Grandmaster Nightfalls and have been using Scavenger mods a lot. All in all, this was a great addition to the Artifact!

Incendiary Rifle Rounds

This mod will make Solar Sniper Rifles stack Scorch on precision hits. While we don’t know exactly how many Scorch stacks this mod applies, I can tell you it’s quite powerful! I ran the weekly Grandmaster Nightfall with an Adept Solar Sniper Rifle, and I was actually causing quite a few Ignitions on Barrier Champions with this equipped!

I imagine raid boss damage will go up quite a bit with this, given Still Hunt and Whisper of the Worm exist. Watch out Oryx!

Solar Fulmination

Solar Fulmination will cause your Ignitions to do more damage and have a higher damage radius. Any build utilizing Scorch or Ignitions in any way will greatly benefit from this! I’ve been using the Consecration Aspect on Prismatic Titan quite a lot since The Final Shape was released, and this mod cranks it up to 10!

With this mod, you can now stun Unstoppable Champions easier and delete adds much quicker. Run this if you have Gunpowder Gamble on for a great time!

Sniper’s Meditation

Here’s where Bungie really had it out for Oryx. Sniper’s Meditation grants Sniper Rifles a stacking buff that increases damage, stability, and reload speed for a short time. Heavy ammo Sniper Rifle hits also count as more than one hit! Bungie combined a juiced-up Precision Instrument with Rapid Hit and made it an Artifact mod. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited to put this one to the test!