Best Destiny 2 Bows: PVE and PVP Tier List ranking

Deemed too weak for neither PVP nor PVE challenging content, Combat Bows in Destiny 2 were rarely seen in the wild, with the exception of bow aficionados who couldn’t care less about “the meta“.

But things are changing. Since Season of Arrivals, released last Summer, bows are making a comeback. Mostly due to a 10% damage buff in PVE, but also because of how insanely good the newest Exotics bows are.

So which ones are the best? Which ones should you be grinding?

This guide will cover every bow in Destiny 2, including both Exotic and Legendary bows and also the best rolls for Legendaries.

A big thank you to clanmates Skyknight and Roxiie for their immense help with this guide. With thousands of combined kills on bows, they are both true bow aficionados able to use them for solo flawless challenges.

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Destiny 2 Bows Tier list for PVE and PVP

These are the different Tier levels used for our list:

• S Tier – Best: Highest ranking weapons in our Tier List.
• A Tier – Strong: Very strong weapons, but not on the same level as S Tier Choices.
• B Tier – Average: Decent choices that can be lethal in the hands of a skilled player.
• C Tier – Weak: The middle of the pack, somewhat mediocre.
• D Tier – Worst: Lagging behind the competition, these don’t have much to offer.

The list starts with the S Tier and moves down from there. It also covers both PVE and PVP, with the “Excels in” column clearly identifying where each weapon shines.

About DPS: You’ll see us talk a lot about DPS, damage per second, throughout this guide. DPS is important for PVE, because the higher the DPS, the more damage you can deal to a Boss or Major.

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Best Destiny 2 PVP Bows

When it comes to PVP, bows are a niche choice. They are certainly not “meta”, and many other weapon types can get the job done with more ease. But bows still have a place, as long as you lean into their strengths and adapt your playstyle accordingly.

With the right playstyle (i.e. combine a bow with an easy to swap weapon for cleanup kills), several bows can be viable, but if you’re looking for the absolute best PVP bows, look no further than these:

 

Le Monarque

Weapon Type:	Combat Bow	Slot:	Energy
Ammo:	Primary	Source:	Exotic Quest

Why it excels in PVP: Playing against a skilled Le Monarque user can be a nightmare. The weapon does damage over time, prevents health regeneration, and allows you to keep track of your opponent thanks to the on-screen damage numbers from the tick damage.

A “perfect draw” headshot can leave an opposing guardian with a sliver of health (1hp), leading to easy clean-up kills with something like a Quickdraw hand cannon. This can lead to near-instant TTKs (time to kill) if you can land your crits. Also, Le Monarque can one-shot opponents with a damage buff such as inertia override, empowering rift, a bubble, charged with light, etc.

Last but not least, it counts as a Lightweight Frame bow, giving you a boost to mobility and movement speed. Le Monarque is not easy to master, it can compete against the best PVP weapons in the game.

 

Point of the Stag

Weapon Type:	Combat Bow	Slot:	Energy
Ammo:	Primary	Source:	Iron Banner Ritual Quest

Why it excels in PVP: With a fast draw-time, Archer’s Tempo, and Vorpal Weapon, Point of the Stag is consistent and reliable. It has a welcomed Accuracy Masterwork (which is one of two masterworks you’d want on a bow) and it has better handling than most other Precision bows.

Vorpal Weapon is the perk that sets this bow apart as it allows you to take down supers surprisingly easily. It’s also worth noting that for PVE, Vorpal works on bosses and majors (something that the perk’s description doesn’t make clear).

Good PVP alternatives

Name	Archetype	Element	Rank	Excels	Source	Requirements	Weapon	Tier	Excels in	Drops from ❘ Requires
Ticuu's Divination	Exotic	Solar	S › Best	PVE	Exotic Kiosk	Deluxe Edition	Ticuu's Divination	Best ❘ S	PVE	Deluxe Edition

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Best Destiny 2 PVE Bows

In PVE, bows are much more common and viable. Bows can be particularly good in difficult content where you’d want to be as far from your enemies as possible. But more importantly, the following Exotic is not only viable, it can also be excellent for PVE:

 

Trinity Ghoul

Weapon Type:	Combat Bow	Slot:	Energy
Ammo:	Primary	Source:	Exotic Engram

Why it excels in PVE: With the release of its catalyst, Trinity Ghoul became one of the best exotics in the game, perhaps even the best primary PVE weapon all-around. This is Trinity Ghoul’s main exotic perks:

• Lightning Rod: Precision kills grant the next shot chain-lightning capabilities.

This is its Catalyst perk:

• Forked Lightning: Lightning Rod now triggers from any Arc damage final blow.

That Catalyst perk right there makes all the difference. With the catalyst, activating Lighting Rod becomes extremely easy. So easy, you can practically keep it activated until every single red bar enemy is disposed of.

With this improved Lighting Rod perk, Trinity Ghoul became a monster at killing ads, and the more the lighting damage chains between enemies, the harder it hits. Without a doubt, Trinity Ghoul’s Catalyst is one of the strongest catalysts in the game.

Good PVE alternatives

Name

Archetype

Element

Rank

Excels

Source

Requirements

Weapon

Tier

Excels in

Drops from ❘ Requires

PVE Recommended Rolls

Bows and PVE content: A Dummies Guide

If you’re truly interested in mastering combat bows in Destiny 2, there are a few key principles you need to understand. These all come from the excellent A Dummies Guide to Bows on Reddit user Mwray:

The most important stat

The most important stat for Bows is their Draw Time:

• For Precision Bows, Reload is the next most impactful stat.
• For Lightweight Bows, Accuracy is the second most impactful, followed by Reload.

Unlike Charge Time, which negatively affects a weapon’s Impact, Draw Time does NOT affect the Impact stat. Because of this, faster Draw Time = better DPS.

Example God Rolls for Precision Bows

String	Shaft	Trait 1	Trait 2	Masterwork
Elastic String	Fiberglass / Straight Fletching	Archer’s Tempo	Rampage / Dragonfly / Explosive Head	Draw Time

Precision Bows have higher impact and much higher accuracy compared to Lightweight Bows and are able to achieve 576 Draw Time with Elastic String and a Draw Time MasterWork.

Archers Tempo also reduces Draw Time to 460ms when active, regardless of your Draw Time stat, and is the same for both Lightweight and Precision Bows. So both Bows can effectively achieve the same Draw Time, but Precisions do more damage and have better Aim assist.

Unlike other weapons, Bows rely heavily on Strings and/or Masterwork to reduce Draw Time. To give it some perspective, imagine an Iron Grip or Extended Magazine Steady Hand vs. a Steady Hand and with Outlaw proc’d. Most people are running around with the equivalent of Extended Magazine on their Bow.

Endgame content

Bows (Precision bows in particular) excel in endgame content such as Nightfall: The Ordeals, Legend Lost Sectors, and Dungeons, as they can 1-2 hit kill red bars without damage perks active, compared to other primaries that can take entire magazines for a single kill.

Finally, for content with an elemental singe active, such as Legend Lost Sectors, Lightweights can be used to great effect with perks like Explosive Head and Rampage.

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How to get a bow in Destiny 2: Your first bow

Getting your first bow in Destiny 2 used to be a pain. You had to either cross your fingers that a bow would randomly drop one day or complete a specific quest that is part of the Forsaken paid expansion.

Right now, you can get your very first bow in just a few clicks. All you need to do is:

• Head over to your Collections tab
• Go to Weapons
• Go to Combat Bows
• Acquire the Holless-IV, the only rare bow (blue icon) available

That will get you up and running while you find a better bow, such as one of the top-tier Exotic bows covered in the next section.

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Destiny 2 Bows: Are they Meta?

Before we dive into the top bows for PVE and PVP, we need to first understand how bows, in general, compare with other primary weapon types.

The current Primary weapons Meta for PVE

So how good are bows in PVE? This table summarizes how the several primary weapon types rank against each other in PVE:

The current Primary weapons Meta for PVP

What about PVP? This table summarizes how they rank against each other in PVP:

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How to get every Exotic Bow in Destiny 2

We cover every exotic quest in Destiny 2 in this guide, but these are the detailed steps on how to acquire the four exotic bows in Destiny 2 mentioned before. Note that every bow involves very different steps of varying difficulty:

How to get Trinity Ghoul?

As covered in my weapon + catalyst review, Trinity Ghoul can be found as a random exotic engram. This is bad news if you don’t already have it as you won’t be able to actively work to get it.

In a nutshell, there are only a few ways you can get exotic engrams in Destiny 2:

• From the Season pass (the Free track offers while the Paid track offers )
• From Xur: Either as his random exotic engram or as his weekly Exotic weapon for sale
• As a random World drop

There isn’t much more that can be said about grinding Exotic engrams, only that they have a higher chance to drop from end-game activities. If finding this exotic is your priority, Nightfall: The Ordeals are for you. And the higher the difficulty (Master level and above), the higher the chance to get one.

How to get Le Monarque and Leviathan’s Breath?

Acquiring Le Monarque used to be a pain. But with the release of Beyond Light in November 2020, Le Monarque became available via the new Exotics kiosk in the tower, called the Monument to Lost Lights. The Monument to Lost Lights includes weapons that used to be part of Exotic quests that are no longer in the game.

Nowadays, weapons such as Le Monarque and Leviathan’s Breath can be instantly acquired at the Exotics kiosk, provided you have the necessary materials. We cover all the weapons and materials from the Monument to Lost Lights here.

How to get Ticuu’s Divination?

Ticuu’s Divination is actually the easiest Destiny 2 Exotic Bow to get right now, provided Season 13 hasn’t ended by the time you read this… Indeed, this exotic bow is part of Season of the Chosen’s Season Pass and can be acquired immediately for paid users and at rank 35 for free-to-play users.

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Ranking criteria

For the record, as much as I try to keep this list as objective as possible, it’s still based on my personal experience playing the PC version of the game.

Also, even with hundreds of hours of playtime, I’m far from being neither an expert nor an amazing PVE/PVP player. That’s the whole point of this site. I’m just a blueberry who loves this game and wants to share everything I’ve learned so far!

Finally, if you’re wondering what criteria was used to build this Tier list, these are the main factors I took into account:

• Feel: The feel of a weapon is always important, but it makes even more of a difference with bows.
• Lethality: The higher the effective DPS and usability, the higher the ranking.
• Consistency: Some weapons may not have the highest DPS numbers, but they are so consistent, they more than make up for their lower DPS numbers.
• Ease of use: Similar to the point above, some weapons are very effective because they are easy to use and don’t require too much skill or setup. This is also rewarded with higher rankings.
• PVE/PVP Performance: High lethality in either PVE or PVP is equally valuable. However, a weapon that is good at both PVE and PVP should rank higher than one that is slightly better on only PVE or PVP.
• Fun factor: Not the most important factor, but it also helps if the weapon is damn fun to shoot with!

If you strongly disagree with some of the rankings here, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.