Just as with Season of the Haunted, Bungie kept its cards close to the chest when it came to Destiny 2's Season of Plunder until it felt ready to show it. That was during Bungie's August showcase, where fans got new details that went live soon thereafter. In Season of Plunder, players form their own space pirate crew of sorts with allied Eliksni in order to board the Ketch ships of the recently revived Eramis, the main villain of the Beyond Light campaign from two years ago. Destiny 2's current Season was shipped alongside the highly anticipated Arc 3.0 update, which concluded the set of reworks for Light subclasses that Bungie began with The Witch Queen.
Accompanying the Arc rework in Season of Plunder are multiple new weapons of the same element, with many of them replacing outdated alternatives or guns that are now difficult to come by. An example is the Tarnished Mettle scout rifle that drops from all Season of Plunder activities, which is particularly good to see due to the lack of Arc scout rifles in Destiny 2, at least from those currently available. Even though the various weapons from Season of Plunder are fantastic choices for all activities, players might be sleeping on one of the new perks introduced this Season, which is on par with, if not better than, Season of the Haunted's Incandescent.
Why Destiny 2's Voltshot is The Best Elemental Perk To Date
Incandescent was such a popular weapon perk in Season of the Haunted because it paired perfectly with Solar 3.0 subclasses and provided great benefits to Scorch and Ignite builds when it came to clearing adds. While Destiny 2 has many good add-clearing perks, having one that naturally fits with the rework of Light subclasses was a great addition, particularly so because Season 16 featured Volatile Rounds as a seasonal mod rather than a full-fledged weapon trait. And yet, Incandescent's efficacy plummets when it's not used with Solar 3.0 subclasses because applying Scorch stacks to targets standing near a defeated enemy has little impact on the gameplay loop without additional synergy.
In Season of Plunder, on the other hand, Bungie introduced a new weapon perk called Voltshot, which has enough potential to be used regardless of Arc 3.0 subclasses to great effect. Among the various keywords for Arc 3.0, Bungie added one that is called Jolt, which applies a debuff on the enemy that makes them charged with Arc energy. Hitting a Jolted enemy after the debuff is applied will release chain lightning to nearby enemies, making for a very efficient add-clearing perk that is self-sufficient and doesn't depend on additional effects from Destiny 2's newly updated subclasses.
This means that players can effectively use Jolted to defeat groups of enemies regardless of their subclass, making it better than the Volatile debuff from Void 3.0 and Incandescent from Solar weapons. Of course, using weapons with Voltshot is very beneficial with the current iteration for Arc subclasses, and that's because Jolted is a keyword that can be combined with many Aspects and Fragments to enhance the overall playstyle. An example comes from the Electrostatic Mind Aspect for Arc Warlocks, which generates an Ionic Trace whenever players defeat a Jolted target, feeding into the loop of ability spam and mass destruction.
Voltshot's main drawback is that is currently only available on three weapons, one of which is the Season of Plunder linear fusion rifle, an archetype that is hardly ever used for anything other than boss damage in PvE. However, the other two weapons that roll it are a scout rifle and, most notably, the new Brigand's Law sidearm, which fires full auto and can rapidly melt red-bar enemies. Overall, Voltshot is Destiny 2's new hot perk that many players still have yet to pick up on, but that should change.
Destiny 2 is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.