As is tradition, Bungie's latest mid-season update has brought a slew of new changes to Destiny 2's sandbox. Though this particular patch has been met with some less-than-enthusiastic feedback by many players, one Witch Queen-era Exotic appears to be a silver lining among the stormy clouds. Destiny 2 players will want to strike while the iron is hot and get their hands on this weapon as soon as they can.
Destiny 2's mid-season patch on April 18 saw a number of bug fixes, changes to Crucible matchmaking, and some especially hefty PvE buffs for primary weapons. Players using their favorite auto rifles, pulse rifles, hand cannons, sidearms, and scout rifles will notice a sizable increase in their damage against minor and elite enemy types. This comes as a welcome change to many players who felt forced into an oppressive SMG meta, giving them some much-needed flexibility in their loadouts and providing the sandbox with a breath of fresh air. Some Guardians have also noticed a handful of slept-on Exotic weapons take advantage of this boon as well.
Destiny 2's Revision Zero Pulse Rifle Didn't Stick the Landing
Closing out The Witch Queen's year of content was the jam-packed Season of the Seraph which gave Guardians plenty to play through as they prepared for the launch of Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion. Alongside the new Heist Battlegrounds to its gorgeous cinematic finale, Season 19 shared with players a new Exotic Quest aboard the Orbital Seraph Station.
Successfully completing this mission high above Earth's atmosphere rewarded players with Destiny 2's Revision Zero, a Kinetic pulse rifle with a unique perk called Hunter's Trace that allows it to swap scopes into a pseudo-sniper rifle. While it was a fun and interesting new take on what an Exotic weapon could be, Revision Zero didn't stand out as a major player in Witch Queen's meta. However, the buffs in the latest update bring Revision Zero into the limelight for the first time.
Destiny 2's Mid-Season Patch Makes Revision Zero One of the Best Endgame Guns
Both Revision Zero's four-round Hakke Light Burst Fire and two-round Hakke Heavy Burst Fire benefit from the update's flat 20% damage increase to pulse rifles against red and orange health bar enemies. What may come as a surprise to some players is that the gun's Hunter's Trace mode also gains the 20% buff despite effectively functioning as a sniper rifle. Beyond the flat weapon buff, the mid-season patch also brought with it some new adjustments to the Exotic specifically.
The biggest change comes to Revision Zero's Hakke Heavy Burst Fire with the devs feeling that previously players had no incentive to choose the Heavy Burst over the Light Burst, opting for the latter to more quickly charge the Hunter's Trace rounds. Like many of Destiny 2's alt-fire weapons, one mode would always soar in popularity over the other. To remedy this, Bungie boosted damage from the Heavy Burst rounds by a whopping 75% in PvE, giving players a choice between dealing more damage in the weapon's primary mode or charging the bonus shots more quickly.
Additionally, the Hunter's Trace mode itself received a damage buff of 25% in PvE, packing a bit more punch behind those powerful shots. This damage boost, as well as the buff to the Heavy Burst rounds, stack multiplicatively with the flat 20% increase to pulse rifles, making the weapon all the juicier. Combined with Revision Zero's intrinsic Anti-Barrier perk, those powerful Hunter's Trace rounds bring back memories of the fan-favorite Anti-Barrier sniper mod.
Players who were able to grind out Operation: Seraph Shield last season and acquire Revision Zero and its catalysts will have a lot of fun tearing through enemies in Raids and Nightfalls. Unfortunately for those that were unable to get their hands on it before Lightfall, Revision Zero won't be obtainable again until Destiny 2's Exotic Mission Rotator is introduced in Season 22. By then, it's anyone's guess whether the Exotic will continue to rise in popularity or fade back into obscurity, and Guardians should take full advantage of Revision Zero's time in the sun while they can.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.