As you play more and more Destiny 2, perfecting your loadout becomes more important. At first, it’s all about chasing the best weapons in the game, no matter their slot, class, or element. But soon enough, we all find ourselves chasing specific weapon types for specific slots. Today, we cover Energy weapons.
In this guide, we will cover the best Energy weapon in Destiny 2, explain what makes them special compared to Kinetic weapons, and share with you a chart with every Energy option still available.
List updated as of Season of the Haunted’s release (S17).
What are Energy weapons in Destiny 2?
Just as Kinetic weapons can only sit on the Kinetic slot, Energy weapons can only sit on the Energy slot. But unlike Kinetic weapons, Energy weapons can do elemental damage: Either Solar, Arc, or Void damage. Kinetic weapons may be able to deal more damage to unshielded enemies, but Special weapons can simply tear through enemy shields, as long as you are using a matching element.
Kinetic and Energy weapons do have one thing in common: They both include Primary and Special ammo weapons. Not to be confused with Energy weapons, Special weapons are those that use Special ammo (green bricks). The more expensive Heavy ammo is reserved for Power weapons.
Pro tip: You can easily tell whether a weapon is Kinetic or Special simply by looking at its icon orientation. Kinetic weapons point to the left. Special weapons point to the right.
Energy VS Kinetic weapons: Elemental burns
A little-known fact (and something that even veterans tend to forget) is that Kinetic weapons do more damage to unshielded enemies than Special weapons in PVE, 10% more damage to be precise. On the flip side, Energy weapons do roughly 3 times more damage to shielded enemies until their shields are destroyed. If you find yourself playing endgame content, you’ll see that shielded enemies are nearly impossible to kill unless you have a weapon with a matching element.
Now that we’ve covered all the basics, it’s time we move on to what you’re probably here for: What are the best Energy weapons in Destiny 2?
Best Energy weapons in Destiny 2: Tier list
The list below includes the top-tier Energy weapons in the game, for both PvE and PvP. By only including S Tier weapons, you can rest assured these are the most lethal guns out there:
As a reminder, these are the different Tier levels used for our rankings:
- S Tier – Best: Highest ranking weapon types.
- A Tier – Strong: Very strong weapon types, but not on the same level as S Tier Choices.
- B Tier – Average: Decent choices that can be lethal in the hands of a skilled player.
- C Tier – Weak: The middle of the pack, somewhat mediocre.
- D Tier – Worst: Lagging behind the competition, these don’t have much to offer.
Note that this list is the result of the many different Tier lists we’ve done so far.
Energy weapons list: The complete list
In case you’re looking for something much more specific (i.e. an Energy precision Fusion rifle) that you couldn’t find above, this list includes every Energy weapon still viable in Destiny 2:
Your turn
By now you know everything there is to know about Energy weapons in Destiny 2: What makes them special, how to recognize them, and which ones are the best.
This will hopefully help you get one step closer to the perfect loadout, combining top-tier armor and a kinetic, energy, and heavy weapon. Which one is your favorite?