5 Best Legendary Hand Cannons in Destiny 2

Top 5 Legendary Hand Cannons in Destiny 2

It was recently teased that Hand Cannons will be receiving a massive buff.

The buff will consist of a 20% damage buff to minors, a 75% damage buff to majors, and a base reload speed buff.

All of these will most likely put Hand Cannons back in the limelight.

This article is going to list the top Hand Cannons that are currently acquirable, discuss what makes them good, and list the perks that are recommended.

5 – Round Robin

Why? – There are a lot of factors that put this Hand Cannon on the list. It is Strand, letting it synergize with many new builds, it has a solid perk pool for both PvE and PvP, and it just feels good to use.

Recommended Perks – In most PvE content, Subsistence and Golden Tricorn are a real good pairing as this will let you continuously one-tap minors. In higher level content, Kill Clip is a good 4th column alternative where reloading will be more common due to targets having higher health, and Hatchling is a solid choice for Threadling based builds.

Keep Away is a 3rd column alternative for higher level content as you will be getting fewer kills and get more use of the reload bonus of Keep Away over the ammo refund of Subsistence.

In PvP Keep Away is a fantastic perk due to its stat boosts and accuracy improvements and can be paired with Kill Clip to set up a two-tap after a kill or Opening Shot for improving its baseline consistency. Otherwise look for Range, Stability, and Handling for stat boosts. The first two are good for dueling and Handling is nice to have to make the weapon feel more responsive.

How to Get – From the From Zero quest on Neomuna, and as a random Neomuna drop. This weapon is craftable.

4 – Zaouli’s Bane

Why? – This Hand Cannon is in the coveted 140 rpm archetype, has access to a subclass verb perk in Incandescent, and has a very strong origin perk Runneth Over which overloads the magazine when near allies. These aspects make it a high end Hand Cannon for PvE, but it also sneakily boasts a good stat package making it a respectable option for PvP.

Recommended Perks – The best rolls for this weapon are pretty straightforward. For PvE Incandescent is the best option for the 4th column. Firefly is there, but it is really just a weaker version of Incandescent and doesn’t synergize with the third column perk of Explosive Payload.

Explosive Payload splits the damage into body shot and precision damage, which runs the risk of Firefly activating far less because the kill counts as a body shot. This perk works well with Incandescent because a precision kill is not needed, and Explosive Payload will give a slight damage boost intrinsically.

For PvP the third column can go with Explosive Payload or Opening Shot per preference, the former helps with damage falloff and the later helps with landing that first headshot consistently. The fourth column is best served with Eye of the Storm as it is such a strong neutral game perk for dueling.

How to Get – King’s Fall raid. This weapon is craftable, can be purchased after defeating Oryx once it is unlocked, and can drop after defeating Golgoroth, the Daughters of Oryx, or Oryx.

3 – Posterity

Why? – Just as Zaouli’s Bane is coveted for having Incandescent, Posterity has access to Voltshot. On top of this there are great potential perks to pair with Voltshot and an Origin Trait that passively regenerates ability energy.

Recommended Perks – The previous description spoiled the third column, but it should be no surprise that Voltshot is the recommendation here. Rapid Hit is also a great option. There is Reconstruction in this column, but it isn’t as good as Rapid Hit and Voltshot when it comes to a primary weapon. There are quite a few options in the 4th column, the first being Frenzy.

This gives a 15% damage boost and a massive reload speed boost which pairs so well with Voltshot as it is activated after a reload. The other options are Rampage for a slightly higher damage boost with kills and Redirection which helps the weapon deal up to 100% bonus damage to majors. If using Frenzy, feel free to use Extended Mag for the extra shots in the magazine. Extended Mag drops the reload speed stat by 20, but if Frenzy is active the reload speed stat is automatically boosted to 100, nullifying the stat drop.

How to Get – This weapon is acquired from the Deep Stone Crypt raid. It is acquirable from the 3rd encounter of the raid, in Takis’ first phase. This weapon is craftable.

2 – Nation of Beasts

Why? – This weapon is good in both PvE and PvP. It is the only Hand Cannon on this list with access to Keep Away, a top tier perk due to its stat bonuses in range, accuracy, and reload speed which makes it good in both sides of the game. There are great alternatives to Keep Away and the weapon has access to Voltshot, immensely boosting its value.

Recommended Perks – For PvE Keep Away in the third column is a great choice for the reload speed buff it gives. Perpetual Motion is a great alternative in this column as it gives nice stat boosts, but not the same amount to reload speed as Keep Away. Dragonfly is also an option to make the weapon more explosion heavy, and is a fun pairing with the recommended fourth column perk Voltshot.

The fourth column also has some great options with Collective Action being a great option for a 20% damage boost for builds that can create a lot of elemental pickups. The fourth column also has access to Kill Clip, Explosive Payload, and Golden Tricorn which are all good damage boosting perks in their own right.

On the PvP side there are some good options in the third column. Opening Shot is great for the initial headshot in a fight and the stat bonuses it gives almost makes it hard to miss. Perpetual Motion and Keep Away are great alternatives for the stat bonuses they give. You can’t go wrong with any of those three when it comes to the third column.

The fourth column doesn’t have as many strong options, but it does have Explosive Payload which is great for extending the weapon’s falloff range. Kill Clip is an alternative option for chaining kills, but it doesn’t quicken the time to kill and only makes the weapon more forgiving which makes Explosive Payload the better option.

How to Get – Last Wish Raid. This weapon can drop from any encounter and is craftable.

1 – Fatebringer

Why? – Funny how the de facto top weapon upon Destiny’s initial release in 2014 has a good chance of coming around as a top option once again nearly a decade later. This weapon is great for PvE and PvP due to a few great options and its good all around stat package which is headlined by an 84 base Aim Assistance stat. For comparison Nation of Beasts has a 71 Aim Assistance stat.

Recommended Perks – On the PvE side there are a few options, but they are good ones. Rewind Rounds are great for continuous uptime of the weapon from the auto-reload in the third column. Explosive Payload is a solid alternative for the damage bonus it provides in PvE.

Rewind Rounds are preferred as the fourth column has Frenzy which increases the reload speed stat to 100, and allows you to use Extended Mag with no penalty to reload speed. With Extended Mag there are more shots in the magazine, giving Rewind Rounds greater value.

The same situation of having only a few perks, but them being great is there for PvP too. Explosive Payload is the best neutral game option in the third column. Killing Wind is a solid alternative for stats after a kill, but a kill is required why Explosive Payload is active at all times. The fourth column has two great options in Eye of the Storm and Opening Shot.

The slight edge goes to Eye of the Storm as it helps immensely with the accuracy cone of the weapon. Opening Shot helps with a big boost to range and aim assistance as well as the accuracy cone to a much smaller degree than Eye of the Storm. The aim assistance of the weapon is already at 84 and the range can get to 76-81, so both of these stats won’t get the full bonus from Opening Shot as they’ll be capped to 100. You really cannot go wrong with either of these two perks though, and the fact that the knock to one of the perks is that it can’t get the whole stat bonus as the stats are already so high just speaks to how good this gun is.

How to Get – Vault of Glass raid. This weapon drops from the Templar and Gatekeeper encounters of the raid.

Outro

The Hand Cannon buff’s release has yet to be given an official date, but it will most likely be in by next season. Start collecting these Hand Cannons now as many of these are farmable and/or craftable. This list was very difficult to come up with as there will be a lot of great options in this weapon class once the buffs are in.