The Chaperone

The Chaperone
Production overview
Manufacturer:	Tex Mechanica
Style:	The Last City
Rarity class:	Exotic
Weapon type:	Shotgun
Required level:	40
Specifications
Ammunition type:	Single Slug
Damage:	Solar (Destiny), Kinetic (Destiny 2)

"My mother had a shotgun we called the Chaperone. Kept us alive out there, before we got to the City."

— Amanda Holliday

The Chaperone is an Exotic Shotgun available in The Taken King.^[1] It is obtained through the quest Jolly Holliday. It returns to the second game in Forsaken via the randomly obtained quest Holliday Family History.

The weapon is based on the original Chaperone, used by Amanda Holliday's mother Nora and buried with her. Holliday had Tex Mechanica create an updated version of the shotgun in honor of her mother.

Grimoire

"My mother had a shotgun we called the Chaperone. Kept us alive out there before we got to the City." —Amanda Holliday

Amanda Holliday was born on the road, when the City was nothing more than a whispered prayer. Their only protection was the weapons they could scavenge, build or modify. Weapons like her mother's shotgun, with its black and gold filigree far too fine for the world around it. They called it the Chaperone.

That Chaperone lies in a shallow grave with its last owner, but Amanda recalls every detail of its design. And, via a partnership with the gunsmiths of Tex Mechanica, she's brought the Chaperone back to life. Though the new weapon is much more powerful than the cantankerous relic the Hollidays used on the road, it bears the appearance, and the name, of the Chaperone that saw the one surviving Holliday safely to the Last City.

Lore (Destiny 2)

"My mother had a shotgun we called the Chaperone. Kept us alive out there before we got to the City." —Amanda Holliday

"The Last Safe City doesn't exist."

That's what her parents said when Nora Jericho was young. Almost as often as they said, "I'll die before I leave this land."

Nora believed them. She never had a reason not to.

She never forgot the moment she learned her mother could be wrong. It was her tenth birthday.

The same day the four-arms finally breached the bunker that had stood for hundreds of years. The same day a knight in scratched and dented armor fought them off—but not before cruel electric blades sheared through the metal orb hovering at his shoulder.

Nora helped him recover the jagged shreds of a shell. Confused but unquestioning, she helped him bury the pieces.

In thanks, he told her of the Last Safe City. Gave her a map and a shotgun, told her, "good luck," and then walked off into the desert alone.

Nora's mother didn't have room in her life for the upending of worlds. She stayed, along with half the bunker folk, in the desert.

Nora left the next day.

Destiny 1

The Chaperone fires a large singular slug round instead of shelled shots and provides an Agility boost when equipped. Precision kills will grant a brief increase to the weapon's Handling, Range, Rate of Fire, and Stability; interestingly the precision kills can be done with any weapon for this to activate, it does not have to be done with The Chaperone itself. It is considered a somewhat unpopular weapon in part due to the sheer difficulty of its quest in comparison to its underwhelming situational role, and the fact that the weapon shapes itself to be a precision-oriented shotgun, which is not ideal for most players caught in the heat of a stressful battle where the pellet spread of a regular shotgun can eliminate surrounding enemy units quickly without the need for picky aiming. That aside, it is hard to compare this weapon to other shotguns fairly because it performs very differently; it is of a strange niche. Unlike virtually all other shotguns, it is very accurate, and body hits to enemy units won't kill them outright. In this way, it tends to find better luck in PVP matches where it strikes a fun, unusual balance between a shotgun and a sniper rifle.

Note: The trait "The Survivor" refers to the trait "The Roadborn" as "Born on the Road"; this may be a developer oversight.

Weapon perks

Column 0

The Chaperone: This weapon fires a single precision slug. Grants Agility boost.

Column 1

Linear Compensator
- More predictable recoil.
- Slight boosts to range and impact. More recoil.
Accurized Ballistics
- More range and impact.
- Increased recoil.
Field Choke
- More range and impact.
- Increased recoil.

Column 2

The Roadborn: Precision kills briefly grant bonus handling, range and precision damage with this weapon.

Column 3

Single Point Sling
- Switch weapons faster. Move quicker while aiming.
Snapshot
- Aiming this weapon is incredibly fast.
Field Scout
- Increases carried ammo capacity.

Column 4

The Survivor: Three rapid precision kills while Born on the Road is active will return two rounds to the chamber.

Destiny 2

The weapon returns in Forsaken but now inflicts Kinetic damage instead of Solar damage, and is mounted in the player Guardian's Kinetic slot instead of Energy, though it still requires Special ammunition. It boasts one of, if not the longest range of any shotgun in the game. This combined with its returning precision shot-oriented niche from the first game has led it to become quite a monstrous force in PVP matches, which may remind some people of similarities to Universal Remote. It still tends to suffer in PVE environments though, as against basic units such as Dregs it is quite overkill, while against a Major or Ultra, its slow speed and handling hinders its reliability, and the change to Kinetic damage from Solar damage means it is ineffective against enemy units with shields unless said shield is destroyed first. And of course, the simplicity of a normal shotgun for most players is high damage for close-range encounters where aiming isn't a top priority, something The Chaperone has trouble performing. One should take care if switching back to a regular shotgun after prolonged use of The Chaperone, as a player may find themselves trying to shoot at a range that just won't work while re-adjusting to the regular shotgun.

The trait "The Survivor" has been removed from the game, so The Chaperone no longer refunds ammunition on chained precision kills.

Something of note is that the trait "The Roadborn" still increases the weapon's rate of fire for the same duration from the first game; for reasons unknown this is not listed.^[2]

Weapon perks

Intrinsic trait - Precision Slug: Fires a single-slug precision round.
Hammer-Forged rifling: Durable ranged barrel.
- Increases range
Accurized Rounds: This weapon can fire longer distances.
- Increases range
The Roadborn: Precision kills briefly grant bonus handling, range, and precision damage with this weapon.
Hand-Laid Stock: This weapon is optimised for recoil control.
- Increases stability

Weapon mods

Guardian Angel - Equip this Weapon Ornament to change the appearance of The Chaperone.

Panama Ravine - Equip this Weapon Ornament to change the appearance of The Chaperone.

Ain't My First Rodeo - Equip this Weapon Ornament to change the appearance of The Chaperone.

Trivia

The Chaperone is the only lever-action shotgun in the game. The reload animation hearkens back to the way Arnold Schwarzenegger uses a similar shotgun in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The Chaperone is also the only slug-firing shotgun in Destiny. All other shotguns fire buckshot, save for the Lord of Wolves, which fires some kind of incendiary shot (possibly a variant of Dragon's Breath shells). Slug-firing shotguns would become regular weapons with the release of Destiny 2.
The Tex Mechanica logo can be seen on the back of the weapon.
The Chaperone can be seen wielded by the Titan in the Taken King: Evil's Most Wanted live action trailer.