The Best Pulse Rifles For PvE In Destiny 2

Summary

• Aggressive Pulse Rifles are the best for general PvE content.
• Good Exotic options include Red Death, Outbreak Perfected, and Graviton Lance.
• Nullify, Chattering Bone, and Oversoul Edict are great Legendary Pulse Rifles.

Many Primary weapons exist in the Destiny universe to take down the enemies of Humanity. Ranging from Hand Cannons to Bows, there's a weapon type for everyone. Pulse Rifles are in a fantastic spot in Destiny 2, capable of matching SMGs and Hand Cannons for raw add-slaying power.

Pulse Rifles are burst-fire weapons that combine the precision of a Scout Rifle with the rapid damage output of an Auto Rifle. With a wide selection of perks for each weapon, it's easy to see why they are so sought after in PvE activities. No matter the playstyle, these ten Pulse Rifles are sure to impress in any Destiny 2 PvE activity.

Updated July 21, 2024, by Charles Burgar: Pulse Rifles received some serious love with The Final Shape. Nearly every Pulse Rifle received a major damage buff, and the new Aggressive Burst archetype is dethroning some of the previous meta Primary weapons for PvE content. We've updated this list to include some of this expansion's best Pulse Rifles, including Nullify and Red Death.

10 Insidious

How to obtain: Vow of the Disciple raid; craftable at the Enclave.

Insidious feels like the spiritual successor to the iconic Blast Furnace Pulse Rifle from Black Armory. Both weapons are Aggressive Frame Pulse Rifles, feature clean sights, and have excellent stat packages. Unlike Blast Furnace, however, Insidious is fully craftable and features some of the strongest perk combinations you'll find on a Pulse Rifle.

Unique to Insidious is the combination of Dragonfly and One for All. Precision kills will cause the target to explode, damaging nearby targets. Each enemy hit by Dragonfly counts for One for All, allowing you to trigger this perk from a single kill for a massive 35% damage buff. If you don't care about Dragonfly, you can replace it with Rapid Hitto gain a major boost to reload speed and stability with every precision hit.

And if you tend to use abilities, you can't go wrong with Demolitionist and Adrenaline Junkie. Grenade kills will buff your damage while Insidious kills will refund your grenade, creating a smooth gameplay loop of spamming grenades and landing high-damage bursts on targets. If you're able to raid at all, Insidious is well worth farming for.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Dragonfly, Rapid Hit, Demolitionist
• Column Two: One for All, Adrenaline Junkie

9 Collective Obligation

How to obtain: Vow of the Disciple raid.

Unlike most Exotic weapons, Collective Obligation is arguably a subpar gun on its own. This weapon is a 390 RPM Void Pulse Rifle that doesn't have any perks that the gun itself can trigger. Instead, Collective Obligation's power comes from Void keywords. If you or anyone on your fireteam is using a Void subclass, Collective Obligation transforms into one of Destiny 2's strongest Primary weapons.

Damaging a target affected by a Void debuff will leech that effect onto your gun. When charged, holding the reload input will overcharge Collective Obligation, increasing its damage by 20% and causing all bullets to inflict the debuffs you leeched. This means that every shot from Collective Obligation can inflict Suppression, Volatile, and Weaken simultaneously. The best part is you can leech these debuffs when the overcharge state ends, letting you loop this effect infinitely.

When used properly, Collective Obligation is nothing short of a powerhouse. It melts fodder units, counters Overload and Barrier Champions, effectively disables enemy AI with Suppression, and never has to reload if you have Devour active. Collective Obligation is less of a gun and more of a buildcrafting tool. Focus on building around this gun's strengths, and you'll dominate GM Nightfalls and Master raids with an oppressive number of debuffs.

8 BXR-55 Battler

How to obtain: Xur's Treasure Trove; craftable at the Enclave.

Nearly every good Pulse Rifle in Destiny 2 is either Exotic or tied to some endgame activity. If you're a newer player that's looking for a good Pulse Rifle, you can't beat the BXR-55 Battler. This gun is a not-so-subtle nod to the Halo 2 Battle Rifle, featuring superb hip-fire accuracy and a great origin trait.

For main perks, Demolitionist and Incandescent is a fantastic pairing for virtually all content. Demolitionist will refill your grenade energy with every kill, and Incandescent will cause targets to explode on death, spreading Scorch to nearby foes. If you spread enough Scorch to a target, they will trigger a massive Ignition explosion that will one-shot red bars in virtually all content.

You can further buff this perk through Enhanced perks since it's craftable and from Solar Fragments. And if you're someone that prefers melee builds, don't sleep on Blunt Execution Rounds, as it grants a massive 500% damage buff to your next burst upon landing a melee hit. The BXR has something for everyone.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Demolitionist
• Column Two: Incandescent, Blunt Execution Rounds

7 Corrasion

How to obtain: Episode: Echoes activities.

Corrasion is part of the two-round burst archetype that launched with the Final Shape. These weapons have the highest damage output out of all PvE Pulse Rifles, making them an excellent choice for Legend and Master content. This weapon just so happens to have some great perks as well.

Air Trigger paired with Voltshot is a great combination for everyday play. Get a kill, load a Voltshot round, then fire another burst to deal some serious damage. Air Trigger sounds strange on paper, but the reload buff is just as good as Outlaw. All you need to do is jump, and your gun will reload in roughly half a second.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Air Trigger, Eddy Current (Arc build only)
• Column Two: Voltshot, One for All

6 Oversoul Edict

How to obtain: Crota's End raid.

If you play melee-focused builds, Oversoul Edict is a must-own. This Arc 540 RPM Pulse Rifle comes with the Cursed Thrall origin trait. After you land a melee kill, all Oversoul Edict kills will cause targets to explode like Cursed Thralls for the next few seconds. In essence, this gun gives you Necrochasm's Exotic perk if you can land melee kills.

It's important to mention the origin trait first because it synergizes with nearly every perk on Oversoul Edict. Voltshot not only gives Oversoul Edict Chain Lightning rounds after a reload kill, but Voltshot's Jolt effect can trigger Cursed Thrall explosions, making it the best Legendary Pulse Rifle for add clear. You can even pair this with Demolitionist to restore grenade energy with each kill.

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More aggressive builds might opt to fight in melee range instead. In that case, try Enlightened Actionand Swashbuckler. A swift melee kill will proc Cursed Thrall and x5 Swashbuckler. Land a few hits to max out Enlightened Action, and you have a powerful PvE workhorse.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Demolitionist, Enlightened Action
• Column Two: Voltshot, Swashbuckler

5 Red Death Reformed

How to obtain: Episode: Echoes Season Pass

Red Death has made a triumphant return in Destiny 2, and it's better than ever. This gun effectively has a stronger version of Heal Clip as its Exotic trait, granting a powerful Cure effect upon performing a kill reload. If you fight enemies while your HP is low, you'll also gain a massive 40% damage buff.

The Catalyst makes this weapon even stronger. Kills will grant stacks of Helping Hand. At max stacks, your next kill will create a remnant that grants x2 Restoration, one of the strongest healing buffs in the game. Pair this with Ember of Empyrean, and you become virtually unkillable in most PvE content.

4 Outbreak Perfected

How to obtain: Zero Hour Exotic Mission; craftable at the Enclave.

If you're looking for a reliable Pulse Rifle to use in Master Lost Sectors or even GM Nightfalls, Outbreak Perfected is for you. This 450 RPM Pulse Rifle is one of Destiny 2's most stable Primary weapons with virtually no recoil and solid aim assist stats for its archetype.

The best part about Outbreak is its Exotic perk, causing damaged targets to spawn SIVA nanites. This ramps up Outbreak's damage tremendously, allowing it to deal triple its usual damage when you spawn enough nanites. And just like Malfeasance, multiple Outbreaks share this nanite ramp-up, allowing your fireteam to dish out some fantastic sustained DPS against tougher foes.

Best of all, this weapon is now craftable. Zero Hour returned with the Into the Light update, allowing Outbreak to replace its Outlaw trait with better options like Rapid Hit and Rewind Rounds.

Recommended Trait

• Column One: Rapid Hit, Rewind Rounds

3 Chattering Bone

How to obtain: Last Wish raid; craftable at the Enclave.

Chattering Bone received a perk refresh in Season of the Deep, expanding its perk pool while giving all Chattering Bone rolls the Explosive Pact origin trait. While this origin trait is solid for grenade builds, Chattering Bone doesn't have any grenade perks to take advantage of. That's arguably the only issue this gun has, however, because it easily has the best perk pool out of any Pulse Rifle.

The first perk column features some great picks like Rapid Hit and Keep Away for general consistency, but none of those come remotely close to the sheer power of Kill Clip. This is currently the only Pulse Rifle that can roll with Kill Clip in the first column, giving you the flexibility to pick a utility or AoE perk in the second column. In Chattering Bone's case, you can pair this with Kinetic Tremors to create devastating explosions by landing two bursts on a target.

While the tremors aren't buffed by Kill Clip, the sheer killing potential of this combination cannot be overstated. It destroys red bars and can outright kill majors with minimal effort.

If you don't like Kinetic Tremors and want even more damage, pair Kill Clip with Rampageto achieve a whopping 66% damage buff—comparable to Rampage's effectiveness back in Forsaken. While the Smite of Merain gets close, the Chattering Bone is the hardest-hitting Legendary Pulse Rifle for PvE content.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Kill Clip, Rapid Hit
• Column Two: Kinetic Tremors, Rampage

2 Nullify

How to obtain: Salvation's Edge raid.

Nullify might be one of the strongest Primary weapons in Destiny 2 currently, at least for PvE. It's part of the excellent Aggressive Burst archetype, allowing it to one-burst most enemies in most content. For endgame activities, you have quite a few ways to scale this gun's lethality.

By far the strongest perk combination here is Fireflypaired with Chaos Reshaped. Precision kills will trigger Solar explosions and buff your reload speed, while Chaos Reshaped will buff your weapon damage by a whopping 35% when fully ramped. It even heals you.

If you don't have a good Incandescent weapon, it can fill that niche quite well. Heal Clip with Incandescent is a tried and true perk combination for most Solar builds, and Nullify is no exception. Land a kill to inflict Scorch, reload to gain Cure, and repeat until your enemies explode.

Recommended Traits

• Column One: Firefly, Heal Clip, Rapid Hit
• Column Two: Chaos Reshaped, Incandescent

1 Graviton Lance

How to obtain: Exotic Engrams.; occasionally sold by Xur.

Graviton Lance is a two-round burst Void Pulse Rifle that packs a serious punch. Thanks to a whopping 67% damage buff it received during Season of the Deep, Graviton Lance has easily become one of Destiny 2's strongest Primary weapons. Its damage is comparable to Collective Obligation while Void Leech is active, capable of melting any red bar with just a couple of bursts on Legend difficulty.

That alone makes Graviton Lance a great pick, but what pushes this weapon into meta territory is its Cosmology perk. When a target dies, they violently explode and create tracking projectiles. These projectiles can trigger Cosmology, leading to a chain reaction of devastating explosions. Pair this gun with Volatile Rounds, and you'll wipe out entire squads with a few shots.

You can take this even further with the gun's Catalyst, giving Graviton Lance Vorpal Weapon and Turnabout. Simply put, Graviton Lance is the strongest Pulse Rifle for slaying adds and tougher majors. Outbreak is still the king of single-target DPS, but Graviton Lance takes the crown for add clear. Only Trinity Ghoul and Machine Guns can match the slaying power of this gun.