Everything you need to know about Fusion Rifles (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, April 03, 2015, 18:22 (3521 days ago)

Fusion Rifles are awesome. You should try them. I'll look at them in PvE and in PvP.

The general idea behind the fusion rifle as a weapon is to provide the impact of a shotgun from a distance, at the expense of firing speed. It's basically for dealing a bunch of damage to enemies at midrange in one big burst. In PvP, this is really great since you can one shot enemies from a distance. In PvE, it's a little less useful, but there are definitely times where you'd want to have one.

On firing, the fusion rifle sends out 7 shots, which spread out the farther they are. The only Fusion Rifle that can headshot is the Mythoclast. Period. Yes you do more damage in PvE to the heads of non majors, but you do with ANY weapon, since the head has a lower defense value. The head always takes 2x damage, regardless of weapon. So no, Fusion Rifles cannot get critical hits, making them great for enemies without critical spots, like Minotaurs since you will always be doing full damage.

In general, fusion rifles follow the same archetypes as other weapons, however there is a much more finely delineated set of possibilities. Hand cannons for example, have exactly three possible impact values. Fusion Rifles have around 17 or so. The trend is generally:

1. High Impact, High Range, High Charge time
2. Low Impact, Low range, Low Charge time

In general, as charge time goes down, so will range and impact.

So what stats are important, and which Fusion rifles are the best?

Charge Rate - This is simply how fast the gun can charge before firing. Even though it is not listed, charge time is directly related to impact. If you reduce the charge time, with something like accelerated coils, you will lose impact, even though the game doesn't tell you this.

Impact - Self Explanatory

Range - Range effects both the spread of the projectiles and the distance drop off. So a higher range will keep the shots together longer.

Stability - Unless it is very low, I don't find stability to be as important as something like an auto rifle or a pulse rifle. Fusion Rifles generally kick upwards, and you can compensate by aiming low on the body.

PvP recommendations:

Range is king. Range is your single most important stat. The whole idea is to kill someone from a distance, and especially with the proliferation of high range shotguns such as found verdict, felwinter's lie, and secret handshake, you absolutely need to use the strength of the fusion rifle to your advantage.

Hammer Forged or Send it are some of the best upgrades for a fusion rifle. Those can take pretty much any fusion rifle and make it a beast.

As far as charge rate goes, you need to be careful. With something like accelerated coils, it's very possible to make your fusion rifle charge so fast, that the resulting impact is too low to kill on one shot. Normally, 4 or 5 of the shots need to land to kill in one hit. If your fusion rifle already has a low charge time, making it even lower can result in a situation where your need 6, or possibly even ALL the shots to hit. In practice, this makes one shot kills much harder. You will run into this problem if you take a low impact fusion rifle, and add accelerated coils. I tried accelerate coils on my calming (very fast charge) and couldn't kill anyone despite direct hits.

As for charge rate, it's sort of up to you personally. Most of the time, I prefer a higher charge rate and the higher impact that goes with it. On smaller maps, I might switch to something lower. Again, range is king, so you want something that will let you kill from a distance, and that means a higher impact so that fewer of the shots have to hit, and higher range.

Get into the habit of pre charging your fusion rifle before you see the enemy. If you know they are around a corner, begin charging, then go around the corner slicing the pie until you can see and kill them.

Your most important upgrades are all mutually exclusive unfortunately: accelerated coils, perfect balance, and send it. Send it is generally best, unless you have an absurdly high amount range to begin with. Basically, get send it if you can except on super high charge time rifles; then get accelerated coils.

Hammer Forged vs Send it - Hammer forged adds range in exchange for reload speed, and send it add range in exchange for max ammo. You can no longer get hammer forged on Fusion Rifles, so they only appear on pre dark below gear.

Notable Fusion Rifles

Feral Spark FR6 (rare) - This has the highest impact and range in the game on the base stats, but has low stability.

Trolley Problem (Crucible Quartermaster) - Very high range and impact on the base stats. Vendor version has accelerated coils.

Plug One.1 (Vanguard Quartermaster) - Probably the best fusion rifle for crucible in my opinion, when upgraded with send it. Decent impact and high stability absolutely kill with extra range.

Purifier VII (New Monarchy) - Same stats as Plug One.1, but with slightly lower reload speed. Either of these with send it are probably your best all around, and are beastly.

Plan C (Exotic) - A really good one as well, and you can get even more range than send it on Plug One.1 / Purifier if you don't mind sacrificing stability.

Amethyst Reign-99 (Rare) - Similar to Purifier / Plug One.1 but just trading decreased charge time for stability.

That Beautiful Glow (Rare) - A really great lower impact high charging fusion rifle. A beast with send it.

Perun's Fire (Iron Banner) - Slightly more range and reload speed than beautiful glow, at the expense of Stability. Good because you can reroll to get send it / hammer forged.

The Calming (Future War Cult) - Second fastest charging legendary fusion rifle in the game, but much better than Light of the Abyss because it can get send it! Probably the best possible quick charging fusion rifle for PvP.

Silvered Eos FR4 and Helios FR5 (Rare) - Faster charging than Calming, but less range. Decent with hammer forged.

Pocket Infinity (Exotic) - Kind of in a class of its own.

PvE Recommendations

I'd prioritize impact and range. Charge time matters a lot less. I really only find myself using fusion rifles in the following scenarios:

1. Taking Down the Shields of Wizard if I can't or don't want to use a rocket.
2. Taking out Minotaurs.

Your Milage may vary.

Great fusion rifles for PvE are Trolly Problem, Praetorian Foil, Plug One.1 and Purifier. The lower impact fusion rifles are less effective.