Destiny 2's best exotic weapon is getting nerfed

Anarchy exotic heavy grenade launcher.
Anarchy does it's damage by sticking enemies with electrified mines that fry them over time. (Image credit: Bungie)

There's a lot going on in the latest edition of This Week at Bungie, including a look at upcoming weapon tweaks and tuning, some more sandbox stuff related to specific perks, info on the Master Vault of Glass raid, and some vague chat about ideas for the game's future. The big hit, though, lands squarely on Destiny 2's best PvE gun: Anarchy.

Anarchy was powerful to the point of being "borderline busted," Tim wrote in his recent analysis of seasonal artifact resets, and that's without the extra kick it's enjoying this season thanks to the Grenade Launcher artifact mods currently in play. The funny thing about Anarchy is that it was initially written off as a bit of a gimmick. The weapon fires electrified grenades which attach to the target, creating a deadly arc field between wherever you place your shots.

Understandably, most players initially just used it for zone controlling, flash frying waves of enemies as they charged towards you. (The shots could also be attached to teammates and vehicles for additional meme potential.) However, as we got more comfortable with the weapon, it became apparent it was also a DPS king. 

Not because Anarchy does insane damage on its own—it's merely decent on that front—but due to its potential to be combo'd with other weapons. The optimal way to use Anarchy is to stick two 'nades to a high health target and, while those are ticking away doing damage, swap to a special weapon like a sniper rifle or a grenade launcher and go to town.

So, Anarchy is good for dealing with both swarms of mobs and bosses. But that's not all. Because it deals its damage over time, it's also incredibly safe and easy to use in high-end content. You simply squat behind cover, peek out to pop a couple of Anarchy shots onto the target, then scurry back while they do their work. Redditor Spynn has a good guide to the weapon, but the point is pretty much that Anarchy has, over time, chased almost all other exotics out of the power weapon slot. 

So it's little surprise that it's glory days are coming to an end. "Anarchy has done too much too well for too many years (without even counting the boost it's gotten this Season, which is due to the sweet Grenade Launcher artifact mods)," Bungie wrote. "So we're making changes that make it great at a couple roles rather than being the jack of all Grenade Launchers."

The initial reaction to the looming nerf on Reddit seems quite mild, suggesting that players foresaw this eventuality and a toning-down was probably overdue. There actually seems to be a sense of relief among some redditors that Anarchy won't be all but mandatory for harder PvE content anymore. "Honestly thank god. I was so tired of using anarchy for every high end activity or raid LFG," Snowie-your-man wrote.

Several others implied the change wouldn't impact them much at all, because they'd simply switch to Witherhoard, another grenade launcher that was just a wee bit overpowered when it arrived in 2020. And of course, there are memes.

(Image credit: thirsisthirsty (Reddit))

As for what exotic will replace Anarchy, keep an eye on Sleeper Simulant, which is belatedly going to benefit from the buff that other Linear Fusion rifles received. Rocket launchers like Deathbringer and Two-Tailed Fox are also already pretty potent, so you can expect them to see even more play.

A date for the nerf hasn't been set but Bungie said it's planned for "the near future." The full update, which does include a gamut of changes coming next week, is yours to enjoy at bungie.net.

TOPICS
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Read more
The Queenbreaker exotic linear fusion rifle
There's an easy way to upgrade Destiny 2's latest god-killing DPS monster
A Guardian with a grenade launcher and a very fancy hat.
Destiny 2's new episode hits next week, sending players back into the giant, haunted spaceship where the first game had its finest moments
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
helldivers 2 killzone crossover
Defending a kinda wimpy Killzone crossover gun, Helldivers 2's Johan Pilestedt says the game's past balance woes were due to weapons being 'seen as game objects' and that 'balance doesn't matter'
A trio of Guardians adorned with Baron gear in Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 players have found the true endgame: Composing spooky remixes on a giant gothic space organ
The Barrow-Dyad exotic SMG.
How to unlock the Barrow-Dyad exotic in Destiny 2
Latest in FPS
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
rainbow six siege sledge
After holding out for 10 years, Rainbow Six Siege is finally going free-to-play (kind of)
rainbow six siege x dual front mode
Rainbow Six Siege is getting its first permanent mode in 10 years, and it throws every Siege rule out the window
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
spectre divide
Spectre Divide and its studio are shutting down after just six months: 'The industry is in a tough spot right now'
Masked Counter-Terrorist in helmet in forefront with sunglasses and beret-wearing CT in background touching headset
There's hope yet for Classic Offensive after its Steam rejection: The team behind the Counter-Strike 1.6 revival mod is in touch with Valve about its 'concerns'
Latest in News
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage
Microsoft's Task Manager in Windows 11
After years of complaints about Windows Task Manager displaying CPU utilization incorrectly, a fix is finally on its way
Sony RGB LED panel tech
Sony's fixing the wrong panel problems while showing off its new 'RGB LED' backlight tech with outrageous colours and brightness
Super Mario World
Super Nintendo consoles appear to be running ever-so-slightly faster as they age and speedrunning detectives are hot on the case
A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor surrounded by DDR5 memory sticks from Corsair, Kingston, and Lexar
Fresh leak suggests Intel's on-again-off-again Arrow Lake CPU refresh is back on the menu (boys)