Destiny 2 Best PVP Weapons right now

As you start getting serious with Destiny 2, one of your first questions always is: What are the best weapons in the game?

And that’s not an easy question to answer, as it depends on whether you’re interested in PVP or PVE, casual or endgame content, etc.

In this guide, we cover both Exotic and Legendary weapons (including crafted weapons and PVP god rolls), the current PVP meta, and provide quick guides on how to obtain the top PVP exotics. For the sake of clarity, we’ll split our selection of weapons into three categories: Primary ammo weapons, Special ammo weapons, and Heavy weapons.

A big thank you to Pattycakes for helping me put together this list. Pattycakes is one of my favorite Destiny 2 content creators focused on PVP and someone you should definitely check out.

Destiny 2 Best PVP Primary weapons

List updated as of The Witch Queen’s release (S16).  

In this section, we cover the best Primary PVP weapons. And by Primary, we mean either Kinetic or Energy weapons that use Primary ammo. Just remember Primary weapons use “normal” ammo, aka, white ammo boxes:

Destiny 2 Best PVP Special weapons

In this section, we cover the best Special PVP weapons. And by Special, we mean either kinetic or Energy weapons that use Special ammo. If you sometimes get confused between Energy and Special weapons, just remember, Special weapons use “Special” ammo, aka, green ammo boxes:

Don’t miss our: Destiny 2 guides covering all the major weapon sources:

Destiny 2 Best PVP Heavy weapons

In this section, we cover the best Heavy PVP weapons, also known as Power weapons. Unlike Primary and Special weapons that can be in either the Kinetic or Energy slots, Heavy weapons can only be in the Heavy slot. In other words, we’re talking about the weapons that use “heavy” ammo, aka, purple ammo boxes:

Destiny 2 PVP Meta

Every sandbox change comes with a new meta. And while we love to criticize Bungie for not changing the meta often enough, the last few seasons have significantly altered the hierarchy of weapon types for PVP.

PS: If you’re looking for the complete rundown of the state of the current Meta for PVP and PVE, check out our Destiny 2 Meta guide.

We just covered the absolute best PVP weapons right now, but it’s equally important to understand how the different weapon types compare to each other.

What is Meta? Meta refers to the most used weapons for a particular activity. Generally, these weapons are the most used because they are the most powerful/efficient.

These are the different Tier levels used for these Tier lists:

• S Tier – Best: Highest ranking weapon types.
• A Tier – Strong: Very strong weapon types, 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 S Tier and moves down until it reaches the bottom Tier. Also, remember that the PVE meta is completely different than the PVP meta!

About TTK: Measured in seconds, TTK, or time-to-kill, is critical in PVP, because the lowest the TTK (generally less than a second), the faster you can kill your opponent. You can read all about it in our TTK guide.

PVP Primary weapons meta

PVP Special weapons meta

For the sake of clarity, the categories below do not include Exotics that use an abnormal type of ammo, such as  Eriana’s Vow or Arbalest.

If you’re particularly interested in these unique exotics, check out our Exotic Tier list including every exotic weapon currently in the game.

PVP Heavy weapons meta

The Meta can change in a heartbeat, but you can rest assured, though, this overview is up to date with the current Season of the Splicer and will be updated as soon as a new meta arrives.

Destiny 2 Best PVP loadouts

Up until now, we have split our top PVP guns into Primaries, Special and Heavy weapons. This makes sense when comparing weapons against each other.

But once you start building towards the ultimate loadout, a weapon’s slot becomes crucial. That’s because you can only carry one Kinetic, one Energy, and one Heavy weapon at a time. For example, if you’re committed to using an Igneous Hammer as your primary weapon, then your Special weapon will have to be Kinetic.

In this section, we’ll share some of the most popular PVP loadouts right now. This is how our Top PVP weapons look like, filtered by slot and not by ammo type:

Destiny 2 Best PVP Kinetic weapons:

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Destiny 2 Best PVP Energy weapons:

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PVP Loadout examples

If we mix and match the top kinetic and energy weapons, these are some of the most “Meta” and popular PVP loadouts currently in the Crucible:

-	Kinetic	--	Special	---	Heavy	Meta
	The Messenger		Snorri FR5		Gjallarhorn	PVP
	The Chaperone		The Palindrome		Palmyra-B	PVP
	Riiswalker		Shayura's Wrath		Gjallarhorn	PVP

The Last Word

We did our best to include both Legendary weapons and Exotics, as well as the top tier, most difficult to obtain weapons, and easier to get, yet still great alternatives.

Did we miss your current favorite PVP weapon? Do you have a particularly good PVP loadout you would like to share? Let us know in the comments section below!

For the record, this list is based on my experience playing the PC version of the game.