There are a lot of Auto Rifles in Destiny 2. Deciding which one is worth your time can be challenging.
Today, we have a list of the best Auto Rifles that Destiny 2 has to offer. We will go over what makes each of these Auto Rifles special and how you can unlock them.
Recommended Read: What Does KWTD Mean in Destiny 2?
The Best Auto Rifle in Destiny 2 is Ammit AR2. Positive Outlook and Quicksilver Storm are both very good Auto Rifles as well.
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Best Auto Rifle in Destiny 2
There are definitely some weapons that are just better than others.
The best Auto Rifle in Destiny 2, however, will depend on what activity you are running and what you need to complete your build.
In our list, we have some of the most flexible Auto Rifles with some of the best stats that will give you a good baseline regardless of what activity you are running.
Be sure to read through the strengths of each weapon to get a feel for which one would slot into your build the best.
Ammit AR2
This 450 RPM Auto Rifle is one of the easiest god-roll weapons you can obtain in the game.
It is given to you for free as part of the weapon crafting tutorial and comes with some incredible Perks that make it one of the best.
The Perk combination of Dynamic Sway Reduction and Tap the Trigger gives this weapon virtually no recoil, allowing you to easily laser opponents at close, mid, and long-rage.
While it doesn’t have any damage-enhancing Perks, the consistency that these Perks provide makes this one of the best Auto Rifles in PvP.
Outside of PvP, this weapon still performs great in PvE. You have options such as Incandescent for Scorch builds and Triple Tap for ammo conservation.
Overall, this weapon is a must-have for any Destiny 2 player. It is available to free-to-play players and doesn’t take much to unlock.
Horror Story
This weapon surprised everyone when it was re-released with the Festival of the Lost. It is another 450 RPM Auto Rifle, one of the best Frames at the moment, and comes with Perks that rival even Ammit AR2.
In PvP, you’ve got Dynamic Sway Reduction and Target Lock to give you that much-needed boost to stability while increasing damage.
While Target Lock doesn’t drastically affect your time to kill, it does make it more forgiving. If you have a hard time activating Target Lock, you can always swap it for Frenzy.
In PvE, this weapon has some great rolls, such as Demolitionist and Frenzy or Enlightened Action and Headstone. Vorpal Weapon is always available if you need more damage against Champions.
This weapon is only obtainable during the Festival of the Lost. If you missed it, there are still plenty of great Auti Rifles on the list that you can use instead.
Quicksilver Storm
This Exotic Auto Rifle has become a staple for many PvE players and is beloved by many PvP players.
Perks aside, this weapon has some great base stats that make it feel good to use, with near-max Stability and a very high Aim Assist stat. With the Perks, this gun becomes truly amazing.
The Intrinsic Perk Rocket Tracers creates homing missiles while damaging enemies that fire towards your target to deal additional damage.
After landing multiple homing missiles, you will activate the Grenade Chaser Perk, storing up to three Grenade Charges.
Using your alternative fire mode by holding down the reload button, you can swap to Grenade Launcher mode and begin firing any stored Grenade Charges. Each Grenade Charge will deal a massive amount of damage.
The ability to go from ad clearing with this weapon to damaging Bosses and Champion enemies with your GRenade Charges makes this weapon an all-in-one Exotic Primary that can carry you through some of the toughest content Destiny 2 has to offer.
In PvP, this weapon isn’t the best, but it can hang with most Auto Rifles and will not disappoint.
Quicksilver Storm can be obtained from Rahool in the Tower after purchasing the Lightfall Expansion.
Find out more about how to unlock Quicksilver Storm and its Catalyst in our guide, How to Get Quicksilver Storm.
Rufus’s Fury
This 720 RPM Strand Auto Rifle has some of the best Range in the game, along with many great Perks that capitalize on its great stat line.
This gun is perfect for PvE, with many amazing Perk combinations.
You have got Reconstruction and Target Lock, Demolitionist and Hatchling, or any combination of these Perks, along with Paracausal Affinity for another damage-boosting source.
Reconstruction is one of the best PvE Perks you can get, as you will never have to reload this weapon.
When you do swap to it, you will also have a magazine size that is twice as large as usual. This is great for Raids, Dungeons, and Legend Lost Sectors, where you don’t always have time to be reloading your weapons.
While not the best choice for PvP, you can always go with Perpetual Motion and Tap the Trigger or Target Lock to give this weapon some great stat boosts.
You’ll find this weapon in the Root of Nightmares Raid. It is craftable, and an Adept variant is available for even better base stats.
Positive Outlook
The Vanguard 450 RPM Void Auto Rifle is surprisingly good.
Positive Outlook is a great weapon in both PvE and PvP, with a diverse Perk pool that you can curate to whatever type of build you want.
In PvE, this can be the perfect Void Primary for your Void 3.0 builds. Zen Moment and Destabalizing Rounds are a great choice. You also have Repulsor Brace for more survivability.
In PvP, this weapon can reach an insane time to kill of 0.53 seconds when Kill Clip is activated.
Pair this with either Zen Moment, Tap the Trigger, or Dynamic Sway Reduction for Stability, Accuracy, or recoil reduction and you will have a great Auto Rifle that will carry you through 6v6 and even 4v4 game modes.
Positive Outlook is obtained from Vanguard rank-up packages, Engrams, and Strike completions. This weapon is not craftable, so you may need to grind it out to get the roll you want.
Firefright
This 450 RPM Auto Rifle is a great pick up if you are lucky enough to get one.
While this weapon doesn’t have a diverse Perk pool like many others, it has a couple of Perks that can make it very, very good.
In PvE, Fragile Focus or Fourth Time’s the Charm with Focused Fury or Adagio can be very good for bonus Range, damage, and ammo reserves.
In PvP, Fragile Focus will give this weapon a great Range stat while you have your shield up, while Adagio will give this weapon increased damage at the cost of a slower RPM.
This is a fine trade-off and will result in a very hard-hitting weapon at any range.
This weapon is craftable. However, it is very difficult to obtain.
You have a rare chance of getting one to drop for every completion of the Presage mission. You will need Deepsight Harmonizers in order to get all five weapon pattern progress.
Necrochasm
The Destiny 1 favorite is back and is actually a pretty good weapon in Destiny 2.
Many were excited to see this Exotic Auto Rifle return to Destiny 2 and it hasn’t disappointed.
It comes with the Intrinsic Perk Cursebringer, causing precision final blows to trigger a Cursed Thrall explosion. Landing final blows with a Cursed Thrall explosion will refill the weapon’s magazine.
Reloading after a precision final blow or a Cursed Thrall final blow will trigger the Desperation Perk, increasing your fire rate from 720 to 900 and improving both aim assist and Stability.
In PvE, the Cursebringer Perk is amazing for ad clearing, and getting the RPM ramp up from Desperation will make mowing down enemies much, much easier.
In PvP, this weapon can keep up with some of the fastest-killing Submachine Guns in the game with its 0.6 second time to kill when Desperation is activated. The increase in Stability will make this weapon shoot like a laser.
Necrocasm’s Catalyst grants it the Outlaw Perk, greatly reducing your reload speed after precision final blows. This ties in perfectly with the rest of the weapon’s Perks. Definitely a Catalyst worth getting.
Necrochasm is only available through completing the Crota’s End Raid.
SUROS Regime
Suros Regime is a very unique Exotic Auto Rifle that offers multiple ways to play the game.
The Suros Legacy Intrinsic Perk causes the bottom half of every magazine to deal bonus damage and have a chance of healing you on every kill.
The second collum has two unique Perks for you to choose from. The first is Spinning Up. This Perk will cause your rate of fire to gradually increase the longer you fire your weapon.
The second is the Dual Speed Receiver. This Perk increases weapon damage and decreases weapon fire rate when aiming down sights.
In PvE, this weapon can shred through hordes of enemies using Spinning Up, though there are definitely better options in terms of Auto Rifles in PvE.
In PvP, this weapon can be a monster to deal with. Once you reach the maximum RPM using Spinning Up, you will have a time to kill of 0.53 seconds, giving your opponents no chance to shoot back.
The Dual Speed REceiver mode is a great option for mid-range and long-range maps, giving you a boost to damage and a slower RPM that will make it much easier to land shots from afar.
The Catalyst gives you an increased chance of healing yourself on kills. Nice to have, but not necessary for this weapon.
Overall, this is a great Exotic to bring into the Crucible and is a very fun weapon to use in general. Be sure to check with Xur every week to see if he is selling the SUROS Regime.
Monte Carlo
For players who love using their Melee ability, this is the weapon to use.
The Intrinsic Perk Monte Carlo Method causes any damage deal with this weapon to reduce your Melee ability cooldown. Final blows have a chance to fully restore your Melee ability energy.
The Markov Chain Perk grants Monte Carlo increased damage with every kill. Melee kills will also grant stacks of Markov Chain as well as ammo.
The Catalyst for Monte Carlo allows you to use the bayonet on Monte Carlo as your Melee ability once you reach 5 stacks of Markov Chain.
This bayonet deals a massive amount of damage in both PvE and PvP. Kills with the bayonet will grant you Melee ability energy. This Catalyst drops randomly from any playlist activity, including Strikes, Gambit matches, and Crucible matches,.
In PvE, Monte Carlo pairs perfectly with any type of Melee build, letting Warlocks chain Celestial Fires, Titans continuously Shoulder Charge, and Hunters regain their Throwing Knives whenever they miss a headshot.
The boost in damage you get from Melee ability kills will also make this weapon shred enemies.
In PvP, Monte Carlo gives players a chance to have even more fun with their Melee abilities as they won’t have to constantly be waiting for them to come up again before enjoying their Melee builds.
The damage boost on Melee kills is very relevant and gives this weapon a decent time to kill. Having a chance at getting your entire Melee ability charge back from a single kill is also a very exciting gamble.
This weapon can be obtained through a quest line given to you by Ikora Ray in the Tower. Complete Timeline missions to finish the quest and unlock Monte Carlo.
These are the best Auto Rifles in Destiny 2.
What do you think of this list? Are there any other auto Rifles you think deserve a spot on this list? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
