Bungie is bringing a host of fan-favorite guns back to Destiny 2 with its upcoming Into the Light free content release, updating some of the most fun and most lethal weapons to ever appear in the game with new perks and capabilities.
The developer dropped a load of new details about Into the Light during its second of three livestreams running down information about the release, which focused on the guns you’ll earn and how you’ll earn them, as well as Into the Light’s new social space. The 12 reworked weapons make up what Bungie calls the Brave Arsenal, and they span the life of Destiny 2 and include several weapons that previously were only available from raids–some of the game’s toughest challenges.
Notably, most or all of the guns in the Brave Arsenal were deprecated in Bungie’s sunsetting update back in 2021, which capped the power level of a bunch of weapons, effectively making them useless in most content. It was a move that was pretty universally reviled by the player community, and a lot of those guns have been re-released in new forms since then.
Here’s everything the Brave Arsenal includes:
- Midnight Coup, a hand cannon originally only available in the Leviathan raid from vanilla Destiny 2.
- The Mountaintop, a breech-loading grenade launcher players could earn in the early years of Destiny 2 by completing a lengthy, tough series of challenges in Destiny 2’s PvP mode.
- The Recluse, a submachine gun that also required completing a long PvP quest to earn.
- Luna’s Howl, a top-tier competitive hand cannon that also asked you to complete a tough PvP quest to get.
- Edge Transit, a powerful grenade launcher from the Forsaken expansion.
- Blast Furnace, a well-loved, super-accurate pulse rifle from the Black Armory season.
- Hammerhead, another Black Armory weapon, this one a powerful and hyper-accurate machine gun.
- Succession, a sniper rifle you previously could only get from the Deep Stone Crypt raid.
- Falling Guillotine, often considered the best sword in the game, released with the Season of Arrivals and still available in world drops today.
- Forbearance, a wave-frame breech-loading grenade launcher from the Vow of the Disciple raid.
- Elsie’s Rifle, an updated version of the Stranger’s Rifle pulse rifle that everyone earned at the end of the original Destiny campaign.
- Hung Jury, a powerful scout rifle that exists as a Nightfall reward and has seen a couple of previous re-releases.
All the Brave Arsenal guns come with new perks that should offer new options for how to use them with current loadouts, but Bungie said during the livestream they endeavored to maintain their original feel, as well. A few things have been tweaked, though. For example, The Mountaintop dominated the PvP meta when it was available thanks to its accuracy and ability to take down Guardians with one direct hit. Bungie isn’t interested in returning to the days when The Mountaintop was a requirement for the Crucible, so it downgraded the launcher’s power. However, it also decreased the amount of damage The Mountaintop’s explosions do to the person who fired it, while increasing the amount an explosion will throw you into the air, making it even more effective than it used to be for players to use the launcher to blast to rocket-jump over opponents.
Bungie highlighted a few other interesting tweaks as well, like the fact that Falling Guillotine can roll with the Eager Edge perk. That’s the sword perk that gives you a huge forward lunge when you use it, which players use to cross huge distances or instantly zap over to an enemy. Coupled with Falling Guillotine’s already outsized damage, Eager Edge should make it extremely fun to use.
All the guns also have a new origin perk called Indomitable, which is meant to increase build synergy. Final blows you earn with these guns while you have a Light subclass equipped earn you grenade energy, while kills landed with a Dark subclass equipped provide melee energy. There’s also a new perk these guns can roll with, and although Bungie didn’t share its final name, they did explain what it does: Kills with a weapon using it gain bonus damage, while grenade or melee kills give a larger bonus that can stack.
Most interesting, though, is the fact the arsenal is exactly the “greatest hits collection” Bungie described it as during the livestream. It’s something of a look back through Destiny history, while also giving players who weren’t present throughout that history, or who were more casual, chances to grab some of the best guns in the game. Just about all of these guns towered over the Destiny 2 scene at one point or another; there were periods when you couldn’t drop into a Crucible match without being dismantled by The Mountaintop and The Recluse wielded together, and many a curse was leveled at Luna’s Howl and the people who could knock players out with two headshots in what felt like an instant.
There’s not a weapon in the Brave Arsenal that isn’t excellent and beloved in its own right, and Bungie says they all maintain their original (or close to original) perks and roll options. What’s more, a lot of these guns are either no longer available or require owning certain expansions in order to gain access to them and the activities from which they’re earned. The Brave Arsenal versions drop that requirement, so you can sample these weapons without a financial investment or a time machine.
The Brave Arsenal includes a lot of favorites, and as a player who’s been around since the beginning, it’s great to see a bunch of my favorite weapons returning to the game. It does, however, bring up some bad memories of Destiny 2’s infamous “gunsetting” move. While at the time it sounded plausible that Bungie needed to thin out its arsenal some, having all these guns back in the game feels like a reminder that they didn’t need to go anywhere in the first place. The nostalgia hit is nice, but gunsetting was maybe one of Bungie’s worst moves for the health of the game, and the fact all these guns are back again serves to underline that fact.
Still, everything Bungie said about the Brave Arsenal is exciting to hear, and the guns legitimately sound like the best of both worlds–everything players remember about how cool they were, with a bunch of key updates that will make them even more fun to use in light of Destiny 2’s changes since each was available.
You’ll be able to earn the Brave Arsenal guns as part of the free Into the Light content drop, which releases on April 9.