Destiny 2 Weapon Mods Explained
Bungie Explains How Destiny 2 'Seasons' Will Work. Which is currently a kinetic weapon but may return in season 2 as an energy weapon with different perks. Gun mods, private matches,. In Destiny 2, infusion works by sacrificing a weapon of higher value than the one you want to keep, moving its base Power (minus mods; see below) to the weapon you’re improving. For example, if.
How to Get Mod Components & What They’re Used For in Destiny 2
Once you’ve got powerful gear in Destiny 2, that’s not the end of your grind. You can equip different mods to your gear that can grant them added buffs and abilities. While you’ll get weapon or armor mods in Destiny 2 from time to time, you can also craft them. However, in order to do this, you’ll need Mod Components.
This post contains spoilers regarding the end of Destiny 2. If you’d rather enjoy the experience spoiler-free, we advise turning back now. This is your warning!
Mod Components can be gotten by simply dismantling old legendary mods you may have already acquired. To do this, head to your inventory, select the mod you no longer want and hold down the Square (X on Xbox One) button to dismantle it. You’ll get Mod Components by simply doing this. It’s worth noting that dismantling anything less than a legendary mod won’t give you Mod Components.
Once you’ve actually got the components, you’ll want to head to the Tower and seek out Banshee-44. You’ll have the option to either create an armor mod or a weapon mod. Hand over the components and 1000 Glimmer and you’ll be given a fresh, random mod.
For more on Destiny 2, be sure to check out our wiki.
Preface: Everyone keeps asking for raw numbers, and I spent way too long putting this together. Compiled from the Destiny Guide, personal experience, and this subreddit I have just about all the information I think is available on weapon mods.
Note: Weapons have hidden archtypes which determine their base statistic ranges. As each weapon type has many possible archtypes, it would take an absurd amount of time to compile that data for reddit. I'm not saying it is out of the question, though...If this post gets enough interest I may do that on another slow day at work.
Visible Stats
Rate of Fire - How quickly your weapon fires repeated shots.
Impact - Base damage dealt per shot.
Range - The distance at which the weapon remains effective.
Stability - How hard your weapon kicks when you fire it.
Reload - How quickly your weapon can be reloaded.
Magazine - The amount of ammunition your weapon can hold.
Charge Time - How quickly the weapon fully charges its lethal burst of energy.
Blast Radius - Both the size and the potential damage of a blast.
Velocity - The speed at which rockets travel once fired.
Invisible Stats
Handling - Combination of the time it takes to enter ADS fully, and to stow or draw a weapon.
Optics - The weapon’s zoom factor while in ADS. Each weapon has a base zoom, simply add the zoom of a scope to the base for a total.
Shotgun - 1.2x
Auto Rifle, Fusion Rifle, Machine Gun - 1.5x
Hand Cannon, Pulse Rifle - 1.7x
Scout Rifle, Rocket Launcher - 2.0x
Sniper Rifle - 4x
Recoil - The direction and degree to which a weapon kicks when fired.
Inventory - The amount of ammo you can carry around in reserve.
Damage Type - Arc, Solar, Void
Sights or Barrel - Change the scope or sights and slightly change some of the weapons stats. 3 Options available.
Primary Ability Mod - Permanent weapon bonus.
First Upgrade - Damage upgrade.
Stat Mod - (Rare and Better) Major stat or function changes, can drastically alter the way the weapon performs. 3 Options available.
Second Ability Mod - (Legendary and Exotic) Another permanent mod like the primary.
Secondary Upgrade - (Rare and Better) Another Damage Upgrade
Ascend - (Legendary and Exotic) 3 Additional Damage Upgrades
Now we are getting to the meat of this post. Each mod changes the way the weapon works in some way, whether by altering its stats or giving it different abilities. I will go into each possible upgrade below, but first I want to point out some key points to take notice of.

Weapon statistics range from 1-100. If you see a positive number the stat is increased by that amount, and a negative number decreases it. A percent modifier, as expected, increases or decreases it by a set percent. It seems like percent modifiers can raise the statistic over 100 while a numerical stat increase cannot.
| Iron Sights | Optics | Range | Stability | Reload | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FastDraw IS | - | - | 4 | 10 | 10 |
| SteadyHand IS | - | - | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Quickdraw IS | - | - | - | 15 | 15 |
| Sureshot IS | - | - | 2 | 12 | 12 |
| TrueSight IS | - | - | 5 | 8 | 8 |
| Long Range | Optics | Range | Stability | Reload | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus Lens FLS2 | 0.4x | 8 | 2 | - | - |
| Ranged Lens RLR5 | 0.8x | 15 | -2 | -3 | 10 |
| Ranged Lens RLS3 | 0.6x | 8 | 3 | -2 | -7 |
| Focus Lens FLA5 | 0.6x | 10 | - | - | - |
| Focus Lens FLAS10 | 0.8x | 10 | 10 | -5 | -12 |
| Red Dots | Optics | Range | Stability | Reload | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Dot-OES | 0.2x | 2 | 12 | - | - |
| Red Dot-ORES | 0.3x | 6 | 9 | - | - |
| Red Dot-OAS | 0.2x | - | 14 | - | - |
| Red Dot-ORS1 | 0.4x | 8 | 6 | - | - |
| Red Dot-ORES | 0.3x | 6 | 9 | 4 | 4 |
Destiny 2 Weapon Mods Explained 1
| Sniper Scopes | Optics | Range | Stability | Reload | Handling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EagleEye SLR20 | 5x | 20 | 5 | -8 | -8 |
| SightSys SLS20 | 4x | 15 | 8 | - | - |
| TacSys SLS15 | 2x | -10 | 15 | 5 | 5 |
| Ambush SLH25 | 0.5x | -15 | 20 | 10 | 12 |
| LongView SLR20 | 3x | 15 | -10 | - | 5 |
| ShortGaze SLH10 | 0.5x | 5 | - | 5 | 5 |
| Hawkeye SLR15 | 2x | 10 | 5 | -8 | -8 |
| LongView SLR10 | 1x | 8 | -5 | 5 | 5 |
| ShortGaze SLH15 | 3x | - | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| Barrel Stats | Damage | Range | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smooth Ballistics | - | -5 | 10 |
| Soft Ballistics | -5% | - | 10 |
| Accurized Ballistics | 5% | 10 | -10 |
| Field Choke | 5% | 12 | -15 |
| CQB Ballistics | - | -10 | 15 |
| Linear Compensator | 5% | 5 | -10 |
| Smart Drift Control | - | -15 | 20 |
| Aggressive Ballistics | 10% | -5 | -5 |
Cascade: Sets reload speed at 150% of base after melee kills.
Clown Cartridge: Every reload has a 25% chance of a 20% magazine bonus.
Cluster Bomb (Rockets Only): Rocket detonation spawns cluster bombs.
Counterbalance: 9% bonus to recoil control.
Crowd Control - 15% bonus damage for three seconds after scoring a kill.
Double Down: Boosts available ammo when spawning.
Feeding Frenzy: Boosts reload speed to 120% of base after kills.
Final Round - 33% bonus damage on last shot in magazine.
Full Auto: Makes weapon full-auto, firing in its usual pattern with standard rate of fire.
Pulse rifles fire 3 rounds, pause, repeat.
Shotguns fire the entire clip quickly.
Scout rifles fire as fast as rate of fire allows.
Focused Fire (Suros Regime Only?): Reduced shot speed and increased damage when ADS.
Glass Half Full: Bottom half of magazine deals more damage.
Starts at 0% bonus at 50% of clip and scales up to 6% on the last shot of the magazine.
Grenades and Horseshoes (Rockets only): Rockets detonate when they come within two meters of a target.
Grenadier: Kills add 10% to grenade energy.
Hair Trigger: Fires the instant trigger pressure is detected.
Headseeker - 25% bonus precision damage on third hit of a burst.
Hip Fire: Increased accuracy when hipfiring.
Kneepads (Shotgun): Enables long slide while equipped.
Note: Does not stack with hunter’s long slide ability.
Life Support: Restore 50% of magazine and reload 150% faster after near-death (20% of health) kill.
Luck in the Chamber - 33% bonus damage on one round in the magazine.
Metal Detector (Uncommon Fusion Rifles Only): Increased chance for ammo drops.
Mulligan: 5% chance to reload a round into magazine per missed shot.
Outlaw: Extremely fast reload after precision kill.
Grants 150% base reload speed after precision kill.
Performance Bonus: 25% chance to grant bonus ammo into inventory on a kill.
6 ammo for pulse rifles, 3 for scout rifles, 2 for hand cannons, 5 for fusion rifles, 3 for machine guns, 1 for shotguns and sniper rifles.
Not available on legendary machine guns.
Persistence: Accuracy improves as you fire, up to 20%.
Private Eye (Scout Rifle): 50% bonus zoom when crouched.
Rangefinder: +10% bonus to Range, +20% bonus to damage falloff distance.
Reactive Reload: Reloading after a kill grants 33% bonus damage for three seconds.
Return to Sender: +25% chance to add a round to your inventory ammo after a kill.
Secret Round (Pulse Rifle only): Missing a shot in a burst grants a fourth round.
Shoot to Loot (Scout/Sniper only): Shoot ammo to pick it up.
Shot Package (Shotgun only): Narrows pellet spread while in ADS
Spray and Play: +50% faster base reload when magazine is empty.
Surplus: Doubles amount of ammo gained from each ammo pickup.
Take a knee: Accuracy improves when firing while crouched.
Tracking (Rockets only): Lock on tracking while ADS.
Tripod (Rockets only): Adds extra rocket to magazine.
Unflinching: Reduces flinch from incoming damage by 33%.
Vacuum: Doubles ammo pickup radius.
Who’s Next: 150% faster reloads after a kill.
Zen Moment: Stability increased with each hit, capping at 66% after five hits.
Accelerated Coils (Fusion Rifle Only): +50 Charge Time
Armor Piercing Rounds: Rounds penetrate targets and walls
Custom Optics: +.5x zoom.
Enhanced Battery: Max magazine size, -30 Reload.
Explosive Rounds: Bullets detonate in 2 meter explosion on impact. Closer targets take more damage.
Extended Magazine: +30 magazine size (NOT 30 Rounds, 30/100)
Field Scout: +100 magazine, +80 inventory.
Fitted Stock: +25 Stability.
Flared Magwell: +100 Reload, -10 Stability.
Cuts “bloom” circle by 33%. High range weapons have smaller bloom circles.
Hammer Forged: +40 range, -10 reload.
Hand Loaded: Only found on rare weapons, +20 range.
Heavy Payload: +40 Blast Radius, -10 Velocity
High Caliber Rounds: Boosts flinch effect of shots
Javelin: +40 Velocity, -10 Stability.
Lightweight: +2 Agility when weapon is equipped.
Speed gains past 10 agility are increased, so hunters can greatly increase speed using this mod.
Perfect Balance: +35 Stability, -20 Range.
Quick Draw: +100 Handling, +10% Ready, +10% Away.
Send It: +50 Range, -30 Magazine and Inventory
Single Point Sling: +50% Ready and Away, +10% Movement Speed in or out of ADS.
For maxed agility hunters, Lightweight’s +2 agility bonus will outperform the +10% movement buff of SPS.
Skip Rounds: Increased chance of bullet ricochet
Snapshot: +30% ADS Speed.
Speed Reload (Rare weapons only): +50 Reload.
Note: only Firefly and Third Eye are unique Secondary Mods, the others can be found as primary mods
Cascade
Clown Cartridge
Feeding Frenzy
Final Round
Firefly: Precision kills cause a 50 damage solar explosion in a 5-meter radius.
Full Auto
Grenadier
Hip Fire
Knee Pads
Life Support
Luck in the Chamber
Mulligan
Outlaw
Reactive Reload
Shot Package
Spray and Pray
Third Eye: Grants radar while in ADS.
Vacuum
Who’s Next
Destiny 2 Weapon Mods Forsaken
Destiny 2 Weapon Mods Explained
Volatile Light: (Hard Light) Rounds over penetrate and ricochet on hard surfaces.
Monte Carlo Method: (Monte Carlo) Dealing damage with this weapon reduces your melee cooldown. Likely 10%
SUROS Regime: (Suros Regime…?) Bottom half of magazine deals bonus damage and has chance to return health when dealing damage.
Holding Aces: (Hawkmoon) Two more bullets in your magazine deal considerable bonus damage.
Last Word: (Last Word) Bonus damage and stability. Extra precision damage when hip firing.
Mark of the Devourer: (Thorn) Rounds pierce targets and deal damage over time.
String of Curses: (Bad Juju) Weapon reloads instantly and increases damage after a kill.
Red Death: (Red Death) Each kill heals you and speeds up reloads.
MIDA Multi-Tool: (MIDA Multi-Tool) Weapon boosts move speed and fires on a hair trigger.
Plan C: (Plan C) Charge and equip times are very short after switching to this weapon.
Pocket Infinity: (Pocket Infinity) Fires in full auto mode and has a chance to return missed shots.
Invective: (Invective) Regenerates ammo over time. (6 shells every 30 sec?)
Ice Breaker: (Ice Breaker) Victims spontaneously combust, dealing AOE damage.
No Backpack: Regenerates ammo over time.
Patience and Time: (Patience and Time) Active camo while ADS.
Super Good Advice: (Super Good Advice) Almost all shots that miss are returned to magazine.
Lightning Rounds: (Thunderlord) Weapon fires faster and more accurately the longer the trigger is held.
Wolfpack Rounds: (Gjallarhorn) Rounds fired split into tracking cluster missiles upon detination.
Prototype Trueseeker: (Truth) Aggressive heat seeking rounds.