Fusion Rifle

Overview

Fusion rifles are a form of high-power directed energy weapon. They must be charged before they fire, then release a focused stream of Arc, Solar or Void energy. The bolts travel rather than hit instantly, so players can pre-charge and sweep across several targets. A single shot can deal heavy damage to one target or pierce through several weaker targets in a line. They are medium-range weapons, between Shotguns and long-range weapons, with significant recoil. In the original Destiny they are secondary weapons.

Archetypes

Fusion rifles fall into four archetypes, distinguished mainly by charge time:

• Rapid-Fire: the fastest to charge, with lower impact.
• Adaptive/Aggressive: a middle option, slightly slower to charge and more stable.
• Precision: slower to charge, with boosted effective range.
• High-Impact: the slowest to charge, with the most damage per bolt.

Charge time is tied to impact. Reducing it, for example with accelerated coils, generally lowers impact and range. Values published after the Renegades archetype changes list charge times of 533, 667, 800 and 967 for Rapid-Fire, Adaptive/Aggressive, Precision and High-Impact frames respectively.