Destiny 2 Kinetic Weapons Guide: The Complete List

Playing Destiny 2 is all about chasing the strongest weapon. That becomes obvious the second you start playing. However, true power comes from a great loadout, not a single weapon. For that reason, you will soon find yourself chasing the best weapons per slot: Kinetic, Energy, and Heavy.

In this guide, we cover the best Kinetic weapons in Destiny 2, explain what makes them special, and provide you with a comprehensive list, including every Kinetic weapon in the game.

Updated as of Season of Defiance (S20).

What are Kinetic weapons in Destiny 2?

These days, a Kinetic weapon can mean two things:

1. A weapon that sits in the Kinetic slot
2. A weapon that sits in the Kinetic slot and doesn’t have an element associated to it

As we cover Strand and Stasis weapons elsewhere, this guide focuses on actual Kinetic weapons, not those in the Kinetic-slot.

Unlike Energy and Heavy weapons, Kinetic weapons cannot deal elemental damage. This means they aren’t ideal when dealing with shielded enemies. On the other hand, Kinetic weapons do 10% more damage to unshielded enemies than Energy weapons in PvE.

Pro tip: You can easily tell whether a weapon sits in the Kinetic or Energy slot simply by looking at its icon orientation. Kinetic weapons point to the left. Energy weapons point to the right.

Best Kinetic weapons in Destiny 2: Tier list

The list below includes what we consider the top-tier Kinetic weapons in the game for PvE and PvP.

As a reminder, these are the different Tier levels used for our rankings:

• 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.

Kinetic weapons list: The complete list

In case you’re looking for something much more specific (i.e., a Kinetic aggressive shotgun) that you couldn’t find above, this list includes every viable Kinetic weapon in Destiny 2: