Borealis

Borealis
Production overview
Rarity class:	Exotic
Weapon type:	Sniper Rifle
Min-max accuracy:	High
Min-max impact:	Very High
Min-max stability:	Medium
Min-max handling:	Medium
Min-max magazine:	5
Specifications
Feed system:	Box Magazine
Ammunition type:	Energy Bullets
Fire mode:	Semi-auto
Rate of fire:	Medium
Damage:	Solar† ; Arc† ; Void†
Effective range:	Medium
Service history
In service:	Guardians
Affiliation:	The Guardian ; Guardians

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Borealis is an Exotic Sniper Rifle in Destiny 2. It was a timed PlayStation exclusive that was unlocked for other players in Forsaken.

Gameplay

Borealis' rounds are charged with Light, and can be switched between Arc, Solar, and Void Energy upon the alternate fire command. As a weapon able to switch between all 3 elements, it may seem to harbor much utility for endgame content where multiple shields may be encountered, and modifiers such as Match Game may apply. However, due to its reliance on Special Ammo, it is outclassed by its sister weapon, Hard Light, which utilizes Primary Ammo and can also swap between all 3 Light elements. Ionic Return does provide a 40% damage boost in PVE after breaking a matching shield with it, until the magazine empties or a manual reload is performed, so it can still be effectively utilized if a player so wishes to use it.

Weapon Traits

The Fundamentals - Holding the reload button changes this weapon's damage between Solar, Arc, and Void.
Corkscrew Rifling - Balanced barrel.
- Slightly increases range and stability.
- Slightly increases handling speed.
Extended Mag - This weapon has a greatly increased magazine size, but reloads much slower.
- Greatly increases magazine size.
- Greatly decreases reload speed.
Ionic Return - Breaking an enemy shield transfers one bullet from reserves. Breaking a combatant shield—or the shield of a Guardian using a Super—with that shield's energy type grants bonus damage for the rest of the magazine.
Hand-Laid Stock - This weapon is optimized for recoil control.
- Increases stability^[1]

Catalyst

The Borealis catalyst is obtained as a random drop from killing enemies in PvE.

To complete the catalyst, the following objectives must be completed:

150 Arc kills with Borealis
150 Solar kills with Borealis
150 Void kills with Borealis

The completed catalyst provides the following bonus to Borealis:

+20 reload speed

Lore

LIGHT IS A SPECTRUM. WHY LIMIT YOURSELF TO A SINGLE HUE?

"Project Borealis's onboard systems contain a pocket energy matrix capable of changing its alignment in a near instant to mimic the spectral frequencies of mapped energy types. The science is groundbreaking, but volatile. We're lucky to have this first, stable model available for active combat use. More will surely come, but for now, the Borealis is the only one of its kind that I trust for real world application."

"Sounds dangerous."

"If the internal matrix misaligns for any reason during its shift between outputs-- damage, wear, a flaw in its production-- the resulting feedback could be [REDACTED]."

"That bad, huh?"

"If your definition of 'bad' includes the [REDACTED] then yes, 'bad' begins to describe it."