Linear Fusion Rifle

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

— Banshee-44

An example of a linear fusion rifle.

Linear Fusion Rifles are a class of Heavy Weapons featured in the Destiny series.

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 fires 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 traveled (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 1

Rare

• King Cobra-4fr

Legendary

• Man o' War - Acquired by completing the Io World Quest.
• Tarantula - World drop, reissued in Season of the Chosen.
• Crooked Fang-4fr - World drop. (Curse of Osiris)
• Dead-Ender - Acquired from Dead Orbit rank-up packages. (Curse of Osiris)

Exotic

• Sleeper Simulant - (Warmind), now available to purchase at the Monument To Lost Lights.

Destiny 2 Year 2

Exotic

• The Queenbreaker - Acquired from bounties given by The Spider. (Forsaken), later added to the world drop.
• Arbalest - Acquired from Exotic Engrams (Season of the Drifter), acquired by completing a quest from Shaw Han once Lightfall is purchased.

Destiny 2 Year 3

Legendary

• Komodo-4FR - Acquired from the Crucible. (Season of Dawn)
• Line in the Sand - Chance reward from the Sundial. (Season of Dawn)

Destiny 2 Year 4

Legendary

• Corsair's Wrath - Chance reward from Wrathborn Hunts.
• Threaded Needle - Chance reward from Battlegrounds.
• Reed's Regret - Acquired from Trials of Osiris; an Adept version can be obtained by going Flawless.

Exotic

• Lorentz Driver - Season of the Lost season pass, available to purchase from the Monument to Lost Lights.

Destiny 2 Year 5

Legendary

• Cataclysmic - Chance reward from the Vow of the Disciple raid; an Adept version of this weapon can be obtained by completing encounter challenges on Master difficulty.
• Fire and Forget - Chance reward from Heist Battlegrounds (Season of the Seraph)
• Sailspy Pitchglass - Chance reward from Ketchcrash or Expedition.
• Stormchaser - Chance reward from the Duality dungeon (Season of the Haunted)
• Taipan-4fr - Acquired after completing a quest from the Relic Conduit.

Destiny 2 Year 6

Legendary

• Briar's Contempt - Chance reward from the Root of Nightmares raid; an Adept version of this weapon can be obtained by completing encounter challenges on Master difficulty.
• Laser Painter - Acquired from Gambit.

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)