History of Vorpal Weapon

Overview

Vorpal Weapon is a weapon trait introduced with Season of Dawn in December 2019. Bungie announced the perk as part of the new Legendary weapons introduced that season. It increases damage against bosses, vehicles and Guardians with their Super active.

Mechanics

Bungie’s Update 3.4.0 lists the PvE damage bonuses by ammo type: +20% for Primary weapons, +15% for Special ammo and +10% for Heavy ammo. Bungie said the change did not affect damage against players with Super active. Destiny Game Wiki lists +50% Primary and +20% Special against Guardians with their Super active; it does not give a Heavy value. Major and Ultra enemies count as bosses, while Shriekers count as vehicles according to Destiny Game Wiki. On Rocket Launchers, the perk bonus is lost if the weapon is stowed before the rocket impacts.

Use

The perk is useful on boss-damage weapons such as Slug Shotguns and Sniper Rifles. Values above reflect the cited patch and reference pages; check later sandbox updates for any subsequent changes.

Sources

• Bungie: This Week At Bungie – 12/12/2019 — Bungie announced Vorpal Weapon with new Legendary weapons for Season of Dawn.
• Bungie: Destiny 2 Update 3.4.0 — ammo-type damage changes and no change to damage against Super-active players.
• Vorpal Weapon — Destiny 2 Wiki — perk effects, target classifications, and stow behavior.