Linear Fusion Rifle

"One charge, one bolt, lotta destruction. Most of 'em have pretty good kick, too. Don't break your face."

— Banshee-44

An example of a linear fusion rifle.

Linear Fusion Rifles are a class of heavy weapons introduced in Destiny 2.

Overview

Linear Fusion Rifles are a high-powered branch of Fusion Rifles that fire long range precision beams, rather than a mid-range non-precision burst, making them more similar to Sniper Rifles. Kills made by linear fusion rifles may even count as progress for certain quest steps or missions that require defeating enemies with fusion rifles. Only Precision Frames existed with the game's release, that fire a single bolt, until Season of the Haunted which saw the release of the first Aggressive Frame, firing in three bolt bursts.

The concept of a sniper-fusion rifle hybrid may interest some players because of the skills involved to make them viable; the fusion rifle-half means there is a charge rate and bullet travel time, two mechanics snipers don't have to deal with. Fusions have an effective range; the farther the wielder is from his/her target, the less damage the projectiles will be able to inflict and the harder it will be to hit said target if it is moving about. In contrast, sniper rounds travel the distance instantaneously and will always deliver the same damage amount regardless of distance travelled (assuming no lag). They do not share the same precision damage multiplier, so linear fusions will always fall short in raw precision damage to snipers. On the other hand, linear fusions tend to have better utility with faster handling, reload times, and rates-of-fire. They are reasonably accurate when hip-firing (though nowhere near that of regular fusions), and they don't suffer from severe aim flinching while under fire. Hip-fire accuracy is something that is non-existent for sniper rifles.

Destiny 2 Year One

Rare

• King Cobra-4fr

Legendary

• Man o' War
• Tarantula
• Crooked Fang-4fr - (Curse of Osiris)
• Dead-Ender - (Curse of Osiris)

Exotic

• Sleeper Simulant - (Warmind)

Destiny 2 Year Two

Exotic

• The Queenbreaker - Acquired from bounties given by The Spider. (Forsaken)
• Arbalest - Acquired from Exotic Engrams. (Joker's Wild)

Destiny 2 Year Three

Legendary

• Komodo-4FR - (Season of Dawn)
• Line in the Sand - (Season of Dawn)

Destiny 2 Year Four

Legendary

• Corsair's Wrath
• Threaded Needle
• Tarantula - Reissued
• Reed's Regret
• Reed's Regret (Adept)

Exotic

• Lorentz Driver

Destiny 2 Year Five

Legendary

• Cataclysmic
• Cataclysmic (Adept)
• Fire and Forget
• Sailspy Pitchglass
• Stormchaser
• Taipan-4fr

Trivia

• The entire classification is an expansion of the Sleeper Simulant introduced in The Taken King, a unique fusion rifle that was classified as a Heavy weapon and also fired a single, long range shot.
  • This is semi-confirmed by the return of Sleeper Simulant in the Warmind DLC, which has been re-classified as a Linear fusion rifle in Destiny 2.
  • Another similarity is to that of the Queenbreakers' Bow, an exotic fusion rifle introduced in House of Wolves that was the first weapon to be commonly described as a "fusion-sniper hybrid". It also fired a single bolt across long distances, albeit with a scope instead of the reticle that accompanies linear fusion rifles.
• The Arbalest and The Lorentz Driver are currently the only linear fusion rifles that are not equipped in the Heavy slot. The Arbalest is in the Kinetic slot and the Lorentz Driver is in the Energy slot. Both consume special ammo.
• The operation of a Linear fusion rifle mimics that of the Spartan Laser, a heavy weapon found in Bungie's Halo series.

List of appearances

Browse more images on this article's gallery page.

• Destiny 2 (First appearance)