Weapon

As a first-person shooter, Destiny features numerous weapons for Guardians to use in combat.

Overview

Each weapon type contains exotic variants, which are given a unique name and which have additional abilities and/or effects. Such notable "exotics" include the Fate of All Fools, Thunderlord, Closing Time, Red Death, and Gjallarhorn, along with Thorn, Pocket Infinity, and Super Good Advice. ^[1]^[2] Scopes and various sights have also been seen. ^[3] Each Guardian will have 3 weapon slots to be able to carry a Primary, Special, and Heavy Weapon on their person, with the potential to store and access up to 12 additional weapons of each type. The primary slot is for the weapon used most frequently, such as auto rifles, scout rifles, pulse rifles, and hand cannons. The secondary slot is for specialty weapons that are highly situational such as shotguns, fusion rifles, and sniper rifles. The third slot is for heavy weapons such as rocket launchers and heavy machine guns.^[4]^[5]^[1] Ammo for the weapons will be color coded by slot type; white for primary, green for special, and purple for heavy. ^[6] Purple is the rarest ammo to find, encouraging Guardians to use heavy weapons sparingly.^[7]

Many of the weapons in Destiny carry "implied fiction," bearing details of its creator, where it came from and the sort of person who'd wield it.^[8]

Rarity of the weapon as well as armor is color coordinated into five tiers: Basic (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue) Legendary (purple), and Exotic (gold).^[9]

Certain weapons are infused with different energies - thermal damage, arc damage, and void damage.^[10]

It should be noted that while Guardians are able to switch their weapon selection at any time through the menu, this comes at the penalty of losing both special weapon ammo and/or heavy weapon ammo for the switched guns. This encourages Guardians to plan their weapon selection in advance before entering a firefight.^[11]

Weapons will be able to be "re-forged" by Lord Saladin in an upcoming Iron Banner event. This re-rolls their stats, but resets progression.^[12]

Special Legendary Weapons

All the Factions, the Vanguard and the Crucible have special versions of a standard weapon type, modified by their own. The special weapon is a Legendary one, named by the gunsmith who made it. It does high damage, and can be bought using Crucible or Vanguard points. For example, the Crucible type of the Shingen Auto-Rifle version is the Grim Citizen III

Weapon upgrades

Weapons in Destiny are capable of being upgraded by Guardians. Each weapon has an upgrade path that allows certain capabilities and improvements to be applied to the weapon, at the cost of a certain amount of Glimmer along with a pre-determined number of weapon kits and the application of one or more talent points.^[1] Additionally, while certain weapons will have a more or less "linear" upgrade tree, some weapon trees will diverge into different "branches", allowing for certain weapons to have more specialized applications as well as making it impossible to obtain all upgrades for that particular weapon.^[13]

Primary weapons

Auto rifles

Pulse rifles

Scout rifles

Hand cannons

Special weapons

Shotguns

Sniper rifles

Fusion rifles

Heavy weapons

Machine guns

Rocket launchers

Miscellaneous

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Melee weapons and grenades fall under Guardian abilities, rather than collectible weapons.

Hunter's knife (Throwing knife (Gunslinger), Blink Strike (Bladedancer))
Warlock Melee (Scorch (Sunsinger), Energy Drain (Voidwalker))
Titan Melee (Storm Fist (Striker), Disintegrate (Defender))

† - Shown in the Destiny Drawing Board, and thereby subject to being changed or removed in the final game.

Enemy weapons

Fallen

Shock Pistol ^[21]
Shock Dagger
Shock Blades
Shock Rifle
Shrapnel Launcher
Wire Rifle

Hive

Arc Rifle ^[21]
Hive Shredder ^[7]
Hive Boomer
Knight's Sword

Vex

Slap Rifle
Torch Hammer
Line Rifle

Cabal

Slug Rifle
Projection Rifle
Heavy Slug Thrower

Trivia

A "Cudgel of Xanthor" has been referred to as an example of an incredibly powerful weapon within Destiny, but does not appear in the actual game.^[22]^[23] It appears as a weapon in the novel The Cudgel of Xanthor by Jeff Green.