Scout Rifles were one of the best weapon archetypes in the original Destiny. In Destiny 2, it's a different story. A myriad of sandbox changes and design choices have reduced these weapons to instant dismantle fodder in the eyes of many.
While the weapon category is certainly lacking, there are still shining weapons in this often overlooked class. The right Scout can take on most PvE content from a safe distance, making these weapons more desirable for Master Nightfalls or other pinnacle activities. Here are the best Scout Rifles you can use in Destiny 2's PvE sandbox.
Updated September 5th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Season of the Plunder gave Scout Rifles some serious love in PvE. Besides adding Anti-Barrier Scout Rifle and Sundering Glare to the seasonal Artifact, Season 18 added three new Scout Rifles that are nothing short of S-tier. From Tarnished Mettle to Touch of Malice, we've updated this list with three new entries that will dominate casual PvE content and excel in Master Nightfalls and beyond.
10/10 Tears Of Contrition
How to obtain: Season of the Haunted activities, or crafted at The Enclave.
Tears of Contrition is one of the few craftable Scout Rifles in Destiny 2, and this weapon sure lives up to the bar set by other weapons. While this weapon is a 180 RPM Scout Rifle, its stat package and perk pool are nothing short of fantastic.
This weapon has a default recoil direction of 70 and above-average stats, allowing you to use Arrowhead Brake to give this weapon perfectly vertical recoil. As for perks, Triple Tap and Explosive Payload is a great combination for all PvE content, even endgame activities. If you're willing to get a little more experimental, you can get Triple Tap and Fourth Time's the Charm to fire over a hundred rounds before needing to reload. It's easy to use, looks incredible, and is fully craftable. If you don't have a good Night Watch or Vouchsafe, consider crafting a Tears of Contrition.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Triple Tap
- Column Two: Explosive Payload, Fourth Time's the Charm, Vorpal Weapon
9/10 Transfiguration
How to obtain: Last Wish raid.
For a Legendary Raid weapon, Transfiguration gives most Bows and some Sniper Rifles a run for their money. This is the only Scout Rifle in Destiny 2 that can roll with both Rampage and Kill Clip.
When both perks are active, this weapon can take down most majors in two headshots. Once you get used to its slow fire rate, the damage potential this weapon gets with multiple headshots would make most Hand Cannons jealous. It also allows this weapon to two-tap in PvP, something no other Scout Rifle can pull off. As great as this roll is, there's virtually no other perk combination that makes Transfiguration worth running over the likes of Dead Man's Tale or Night Watch for pinnacle PvE content.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Rampage
- Column Two: Kill Clip
8/10 Tarnished Mettle
How to obtain: Season of the Plunder activities.
Night Watch has been a go-to Scout Rifle for years now, but it's been replaced with some powerful alternatives in recent seasons. None of them fill its niche quite as well as Tarnished Mettle, a 200 RPM Arc Scout Rifle that has some absurdly good perk combinations.
The classic Rapid Hit and Explosive Payload roll that made Night Watch popular is present here, yet Tarnished Mettle has much more to offer. Voltshot is the best perk on this gun, acting as a sort of 'Jolt Clip' that causes your next shot upon reloading to inflict Jolt—an Arc 3.0 debuff that causes the enemy to chain lightning to nearby targets upon taking sustained damage. You can pair Voltshot with Demolitionist for incredible grenade uptime and add clear that'd make Trinity Ghoul proud.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Rapid Hit, Demolitionist
- Column Two: Voltshot, Explosive Payload
7/10 Vouchsafe
How to obtain: Dreaming City content.
Vouchsafe is an Energy variant of the Night Watch Scout Rifle. Available from Dreaming City activities, Vouchsafe is a Lightweight Scout Rifle that deals Void damage. This immediately makes it a little better than Night Watch since it can break shields, resides in a different slot, and it can take advantage of Volatile Rounds in a Void-centric build.
The perks on Vouchsafe make this weapon truly shine. Rapid Hit and Explosive Payload work together to create one of the best anti-Champion Scouts in the game. If you're looking for a stronger workhorse weapon, you can replace Explosive Payload with Multikill Clip to dish out some absurd damage. Finally, if you just want to output as much damage to Champions as possible, this gun can get Vorpal Weapon. If you love Night Watch, you'll love this gun.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Rapid Hit, Fourth Time's the Charm
- Column Two: Explosive Payload, Multikill Clip, Vorpal Weapon
6/10 Eternal Blazon
How to obtain: Vanguard Playlist and Zavala.
Eternal Blazon feels like a Destiny 1 Scout Rifle, capable of taking down targets with minimal effort from long ranges. It can roll with various scopes, has a fantastic stat package that makes headshots a breeze to land, and this gun's perk pool is a sight to behold.
Rapid Hit and Kill Clip is a solid roll for this gun. Rapid Hit's stability buff makes this gun a treat to use in crowded engagements, and the bonus damage Kill Clip provides allows Eternal Blazon to reliably one-tap most rank and file enemies. You can also obtain a roll with Overflow and One for All. One for All is particularly useful for pinnacle content when you can't always kill a target outright. With the right roll, Eternal Blazon proves to be one of Destiny 2's best Scout Rifles.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Rapid Hit, Overflow, Full Auto Trigger System
- Column Two: Kill Clip, One for All, Thresh
5/10 Vision Of Confluence
How to obtain: Vault of Glass raid (Conflux, Oracle, and Templar encounters).
Vision of Confluence is part of the Precision Frame archetype, the worst type of Scout Rifle in Destiny 2. You'd think that would make this Scout Rifle a terrible option. Its perk pool proves otherwise.
Wellspring can roll in the first column, the only weapon in Destiny 2 that can do so. The second column can roll with some incredible perks. Firefly allows this weapon to clear waves of enemies with ease, Frenzy makes Vision of Confluence consistent in endgame PvE content, Kill Clip makes this weapon capable of killing red bars with ease, and Thresh compliments Wellspring extremely well. Even Disruption Break makes this weapon an S-tier weapon for countering Barrier Champions whenever Scout Rifles have Anti-Barrier Rounds in the seasonal Artifact.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Wellspring, Rewind Rounds
- Column Two: Firefly, Disruption Break, Kill Clip, Frenzy, Thresh
4/10 Touch Of Malice
How to obtain: King's Fall raid.
Fans of the original will instantly recognize the Touch of Malice, an iconic Exotic Scout Rifle that siphons the user's life force to empower its rounds. It returns in Destiny 2 with the same core mechanic, but as with all reprised Exotics, it has an additional mechanic: Charged with Blight.
Landing precision hits with the Touch of Malice will grant stacks of Charged with Blight. Land ten headshots, and this weapon will launch a Taken Blight that debuffs the target, causing them to take 50% more damage from all Weapons of Sorrow—Touch of Malice included. That stacks with Touch of Malice's main perk, causing this weapon to drain HP instead of ammo on the last round of its magazine, dealing double damage to combatants.
The net result is a rapid-fire Scout Rifle that can annihilate fodder enemies, quickly eliminate majors, and it can even pump out respectable sustained DPS against raid bosses. That should make Touch of Malice the best PvE Scout Rifle, right? We can't recommend it over higher entries on this list for one reason: it drains your HP. The Destiny 2 sandbox has far more methods of regenerating your HP in combat, but that still doesn't make this weapon safe to use in Master or GM content. One wrong mistake might cost your life, but intelligent use of this weapon can yield some fantastic DPS numbers.
3/10 Staccato-46
How to obtain: Legendary world Engrams
Staccato-46 is a Solar 180 RPM Scout Rifle that is a dream to use. It can roll with Triple Tap and Focused Fury for general PvE content, allowing it to chunk red bars and majors with little issue. If you need a way to counter Champions, consider replacing Focused Fury with Explosive Payload.
Arguably the most interesting perk on Staccato-46 is Incandescent, scorching nearby targets whenever you land a final blow. The scorch has great synergy with Solar 3.0 and deals respectable damage, making it much easier to kill groups of enemies with this gun. It's also a great alternative to Skyburner's Oath if you're looking to go all-in on Scorch stacks but don't want to forgo your Exotic slot. Keep your eyes out for a good roll.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Triple Tap, Shoot to Loot
- Column Two: Focused Fury, Explosive Payload, Incandescent
Why Not Skyburner's Oath?
This weapon just narrowly missed out list. It's much stronger after the rework it got, allowing it to inflict scorch with ease. It has fantastic synergy with Titan Sunspot builds and can even ignite with enough shots, but the weapon still takes up your Exotic slot. Is Skyburner's Oath strong enough to warrant an Exotic slot when compared to Arbalest or Gjallarhorn? For most builds, it isn't. But if you're making a Sunspot Titan build and want to cover your screen in flame, it's a great pick. We placed Staccato in this spot since it can fill a similar niche but doesn't take up your Exotic slot.
2/10 Dead Man's Tale
How to obtain: Sold by Xur.
Tex Mechanica has yet to make a bad gun in Destiny 2 thus far. Dead Man's Tale combines the lethality of a 120 RPM Hand Cannon with the range of a Scout Rifle. In other words, this gun is incredible for taking down targets from any range.
Precision hits grant this weapon a damage boost, stacking up to a 40% increase after five precision hits that also increases your fire rate to 180 RPM in hip-fire—although your hip-fire damage output is going to be reduced slightly. No rank and file enemy can survive a few shots of this weapon, and majors struggle to survive when Dead Man's Tale begins to unload on them. If you combine this weapon with a damage buff like Radiant, you can even take Dead Man's Tale to Grandmaster Nightfalls. For a Scout Rifle, that's a serious accomplishment.
Recommended Trait:
- Column One: Vorpal Weapon, Outlaw/Fourth Times the Charm, Killing Wind
1/10 Doom Of Chelchis
How to obtain: King's Fall raid.
Doom of Chelchis has the best perk pool out of any Legendary Primary in Destiny 2, including sunset weapons. This weapon can roll with double damage perks, an exceedingly rare combination that is only possible on three weapons currently—Transfiguration, Techeun Force, and Fatebringer. Oh, and this weapon is craftable, unlike those other weapons we just listed.
Firefly and Dragonfly turn your enemies into miniature grenades when you land a headshot, releasing two explosions simultaneously that will instantly kill just about every fodder enemy nearby. If you're looking for consistency, try out Explosive Payload with either One for All or Dragonfly. And if you want to kill Champions quickly, try out Vorpal Weapon with Frenzy. This weapon has the most stacked perk pool we've seen in Destiny 2, and its base stats make Doom of Chelchis a dream to shoot. If you're looking for a good Scout Rifle in Destiny 2, you won't find a better weapon. And if you just want a good Primary for PvE, Doom of Chelchis will not disappoint.
Recommended Traits:
- Column One: Explosive Payload, Firefly, Vorpal Weapon, Adaptive Munitions
- Column Two: Frenzy, Dragonfly, One for All, Focused Fury
