Destiny 2 Exotic Weapons Tier List (2026)

Monument of Triumph is Destiny 2's final live-service content update, live since 9 June 2026. There is no next season to obsolete this list. Rankings below are for the forever sandbox on the 20 September 2026 pass.

Maintenance hotfixes through 9.7.0.4 (28 July) and weekly resets since have been activity rotation only. Pantheon, raids and dungeons rotate. No sandbox or Exotic weapon balance hotfix has landed. MoT / 9.7.0 remains the forever sandbox.

3 global systems reshuffled the Exotic deck. Every Exotic has a catalyst. 9.7.0 added 25 new catalysts and gave real perks to 9 old stat-only ones. Champion stuns are intrinsic to weapon frames. No artifact shuffle. Exotics that sat on the bench in GMs for lacking champ utility are legal again. Primary pressure is up. Bungie's own MoT overview says broad Primary-ammo tuning targeted underperformance in harder activities. This page relies on the named Exotic changes below rather than an uncorroborated community damage percentage.

Load-bearing buff numbers come from Update 9.7.0. Item identity (slot and element) comes from the live sandbox. Forever-meta curation comes from PRO completion data plus an independent 2026 board that rates many more guns S and parks Whirling Ovation, Lament and Anarchy in A. That board is treated as inflated. Disagreements are named. The letters on this page are not a mirror of it.

PvE weight: Grandmaster Nightfalls, featured Master raids, Pantheon. PvP weight: Trials of Osiris plus Competitive. Full buyable catalog sits on the Destiny 2 hub.

If you stepped away after The Final Shape, the catch-up is short. The Edge of Fate in July 2025 added Gear Tiers 1 to 5 for legendaries and opened The Desert Perpetual, home of Whirling Ovation. Ash and Iron in September 2025 put the Whirling Ovation catalyst on Epic Desert Perpetual. Renegades in December 2025 shipped Equilibrium (Heirloom), Praxic Blade, and the PvP crop headlined by Graviton Spike. Owners of Edge of Fate or Renegades can claim New Land Beyond plus catalyst at Special Deliveries. Monument of Triumph on 9 June 2026 froze that deck. Exotic weapons still have no random perk columns. Acquisition plus catalyst is the whole upgrade path, unlike Tier 5 legendaries.

Acquisition paths, ranked from deterministic to pure RNG:

Kiosk buys (guaranteed). The Lament, Anarchy, Truth, Tractor Cannon, and most legacy Exotics sit in the Exotic Archive. Pay the materials. Walk away.

Quest Exotics (guaranteed, slower). Microcosm and Khvostov from Final Shape questlines. Retired classics like The Whisper and Zero Hour live in Pinnacle Ops. Divinity still needs a coordinated 6-player Garden of Salvation puzzle.

Raid and dungeon RNG. Whirling Ovation from Koregos in The Desert Perpetual. Heirloom from Sere in Equilibrium. Vex Mythoclast from Atheon. Conditional Finality from Nezarec. Icebreaker from Vesper's Host. Weekly lockouts constrain attempts. Triumphs can raise the odds. Bungie does not publish a universal base drop percentage for these weapons.

3 characters times weekly lockouts times low RNG odds can mean months of resets. Our PROs run featured raids and dungeon farms on your schedule until the Exotic drops. Several chase items at once? Bundles are cheaper than piecemeal. The current exotic glaive chase is the VS Velocity Baton god roll. The auto path that is not a kiosk buy is how to get Khvostov 7G-0X.

These guns still show up in GM clears, Pantheon gauntlets, and raid DPS comps after the 9.7.0 rebalance. The ranking table that used to live here now lives on the PvE board. The facts stay here.

Whirling Ovation is a Strand Power rocket with a delayed Solar payload. 9.7.0 raised Anticipation gain about 11%. An independent board parks it A. S here is for raid DPS loops. Source: Koregos in The Desert Perpetual.

The Lament is a Solar sword. 9.7.0 reverted about 70% of the old nerf. Top single-target sword DPS with self-heal. Exotic Archive kiosk.

Anarchy is an Arc grenade launcher. Trap lifetime 15s (was 10s), trap damage +30%, detonation damage doubled. Fire, swap, keep melting. Exotic Archive kiosk.

Vex Mythoclast is a Solar fusion rifle. Linear-fusion precision kills trigger ignitions. Full-auto mode carries a Rewind Rounds-style loop. Vault of Glass, Atheon.

Truth is a Void rocket. Empty the mag cleanly and the next mag fires faster with stronger tracking and clusters. An independent board still letters it C. S here follows the 9.7.0 mag-hit refund. Exotic Archive kiosk.

Gjallarhorn is a Solar rocket. Team Wolfpack windows still define raid DPS. Grasp of Avarice dungeon.

Divinity is an Arc trace rifle. Penance +20% damage, activates in 3s, cage in 10 shots. The tighter aim window is a soft nerf for bad aim. The numbers are still a buff. Garden of Salvation puzzle quest.

Heirloom is a Solar exotic crossbow. Charge rate, impact, champ and boss numbers went up in 9.7.0. Catalyst gains Incandescent. An independent board letters it C. S here follows that tuning plus dungeon chase value. Equilibrium dungeon, Sere.

Microcosm is a Kinetic heavy trace. Boss-melting beam that also shreds champions with zero setup. The Final Shape quest. PvE A on this board because the S row already holds 8 heavies.

Choir is a Void special auto. Room-clear plus sustained pressure. 9.7.0 cut ammo per brick from 45 to 35 base, 90 to 70 upgraded. That is why it sits A. The S row already holds the raid heavies.

Tractor Cannon is a Void shotgun. Team-wide weaken utility that never left the raid checklist. PvE A support.

Still Hunt is a Solar sniper. Golden Gun meter boss-melter. No MoT nerf. PvE A because heavy S already covers the DPS job.

The Crucible meta froze with 9.7.0. The ranking table that used to live here now lives on the PvP board.

Ace of Spades is a Kinetic hand cannon. Memento Mori still ends duels. Trials S.

Hawkmoon is a Kinetic hand cannon. Paracausal Charge deletes Guardians. Trials S.

Cloudstrike is an Arc sniper. Precision kills spawn lightning storms. Special-ammo map control. Trials S.

Khvostov 7G-0X is a Kinetic auto. Every 7th shot ricochets harder. Forgiving dueling primary. Trials S.

Graviton Spike is an Arc / Stasis hand cannon. Dual fire modes. Charge the other mode, then 2-tap. Renegades-era king. An independent PvP S board inspected 11 July 2026 left it off. It stays S here with that caveat.

Conditional Finality is a Stasis / Solar shotgun. Freeze barrel, then ignite barrel. An independent PvP board letters it A. It remains the most feared close-range Exotic in Trials. S.

Le Monarque is a Void bow. Poison spread plus MoT bow damage buffs. Trials S.

Lodestar is an Arc trace rifle. Burst primary trace with high aim assist and a jolting Starlight Beam. Strong, and below the PvP S cut. A.

Winning consistently with them is the other half. That is what a Trials of Osiris carry is for. On the legendary side, the 120 hand-cannon lane still runs through Igneous Hammer. The god roll guide covers the perks.

Workhorses that clear content without defining every loadout:

Outbreak Perfected. SIVA nanite stacking plus the exotic-primary buff. Best never-swap pulse. 9.7.0 trimmed max nanite multiplier 4.5x to 4x. PvE A.

Graviton Lance. Cosmology chain pops. An independent board rates it S for add-clear. A here is for endgame DPS versus utility.

Barrow-Dyad. Enormous Strand add-clear uptime. Popularity fixture outside pure DPS comps. PvE A.

Trinity Ghoul. Chain-lightning bow. MoT bow damage buffs plus Lightning Rod ammo progress. PvE B.

Jade Rabbit. 15-round mag, Firefly, Shoot to Loot, Micro Missile catalyst. PvE B. PvP C.

Crimson. To the Pain catalyst. Bonus damage while wounded on a heal-on-kill frame. PvE B. PvP A.

Thorn. Poison pressure in Crucible. PvE primary buffs finally help it. PvE B. PvP A.

Sunshot. Everyday Solar primary. Explosions for days in GMs and farms. PvE A.

Heir Apparent. Spin-up Arc shield zone control. Returns via the MoT reward track. PvE B. PvP C.

Praxic Blade. Prismatic-era special. An independent board letters it S. A here unless your build is built around the blade fantasy.

The Queenbreaker. Arc linear. An independent board letters it S+. A/S border. Excellent for champ plus boss lanes when heavy ammo is sparse. PvE B on this board.

Every Exotic got a catalyst in 9.7.0. A catalyst cannot invent an identity. These work in the right lobby:

Merciless. Solar fusion with Heal Clip catalyst. Niche, occasionally great. PvE C.

Hard Light. Element-switching utility for shields and coverage. PvE C. PvP B.

Skyburner's Oath. Solar Cabal-slayer. Incandescent plus Burning Ambition catalyst. Cabal are not the whole game. PvE C. PvP C.

Sturm and Drang. Fun combo. Demanding both slots keeps it B or C.

MIDA Multi-Tool. Museum piece with an improved radar catalyst. An independent board still likes it for PvP speed. PvP B. PvE C.