Season of Defiance in Destiny 2 is the first year into Lightfall, the newest expansion. With players struggling to defend Earth and the Solar System from the Witness, Mara Sov has returned as a key character this season with several Awoken-themed weapons and armor. Once again, all of this season's weapons are craftable and can be unlocked by completing the battleground activities as well as by focusing on the seasonal vendor located at the H.E.L.M.'s War Table.

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There are a few cool archetypes and damage types included in the seasonal weapons, not to mention some new perks to discover. This season's seasonal perk is called Noble Deeds, which is a buff that charges up several stacks from players reviving, buffing, and healing their teammates. When the weapon is charged with Noble Deeds, players earn increased reload speed and handling, while Swords gain a boost to their charge rate. Defeating enemies will remove stacks from Noble Deeds. While this isn't the strongest Origin Perk in Destiny 2, Season of Defiance still has quite a few promising weapons.

Updated on May 25, 2024, by Jake Fillery: The Final Shape arrives on June 4, and with that, a new set of content will be available to players. Yet, with a new expansion, that usually means a new set of seasons, which could mean players are going to say goodbye to Seasons 20-23, which means their content, activities, and weapons, could well be exclusive to those who already own them. As such, Destiny 2 players are going to want to look for Season of Defiance's best weapons and ensure that they have the god rolls necessary to take on the Witness and prevent the death of the Traveler, and the Light itself.

How To Get Season Of Defiance Weapons

Players will need to own Lightfall and access Season 20 through the H.E.L.M, where heading North to the War Table in the Wing of the Defiant will see them interact with the War Table itself, where they can pick up Legacy: Ascendant Scepter, the seasonal heirloom that will allow them to collect Defiant Keys and Defiant Engrams from Season of the Defiance through completing Strikes, Crucible, Gambit, or other activities.

Players can either decode Defiant Engrams at the War Table for a random reward, or use the Defiant Engram Decoding tab to get the exact weapon they want as they attempt to get lucky with the god roll. Alternatively, five red borders of the same weapon will allow players to craft their own god roll at the Enclave.

6 Caretaker

Solar | Sword

• God Roll: Tireless Blade + Incandescent

Found at the bottom of the ranking simply because of its archetype is the Caretaker, a Solar sword. Despite its incredible design identical to the Hero of Ages sword, the Caretaker remains one of the least desirable picks out of the Season of Defiance weapons due to being, well, a sword.

That said, interestingly, it does come with Incandescent as a perk, which could be fun to play around with for players going for a Solar build with tons of scorch. Is it the best weapon to have in the heavy slot, however? Far from it, even if the artifact for Season 20 included swords as anti-champion weapons against Overload champions.

5 Royal Executioner

Solar | Fusion Rifle

• God Roll: Envious Assassin + Reservoir Burst

Another archetype that remains somewhat unused in PVE in particular is the fusion rifle weapon type. Because of this, the Royal Executioner Solar fusion rifle ranks second last on this list, though it does receive a special mention for also having Incandescent as one of its perk options.

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In PVP, this might be a decent pick for any fusion rifle enjoyers, as it comes with some up close and personal perks like Swashbuckler, Pugilist, Grave Robber, and Threat Detector. However, even then, it definitely won't be a meta option.

4 Raconteur

Kinetic | Combat Bow

• God Roll: Archer's Tempo + Explosive Head

Bows are not entirely terrible and can come in handy in PVE. In fact, given that the artifact features bows as anti-champion weapons against Overloads, the seasonal bow might be a good pick-up for newer players. Raconteur is a Stasis bow as well, which sets it slightly apart from some other options. For PVE, Archer's Tempo and Wellspring are good choices to go for in the first perk slot.

In the second slot, Explosive Head, Headstone, or even Successful Warm-Up can all be great choices depending on the player's playstyle and priorities. Overall, not a bad pick-up for those still in need of a Stasis bow for their PVE weapon collection.

3 Perpetualis

Strand | Auto Rifle

• God Roll: Envious Assassin + Hatchling

Perpetualis is one of the more interesting seasonal weapons because it's a primary Strand weapon, which means it will likely mesh quite well with a variety of Strand builds. Sure, it's an auto rifle, but this isn't a terrible choice in PVE, especially considering it's one of the anti-champion weapons this season.

Perpetualis comes with a whole host of cool perks: Golden Tricorn and Demolitionist in the second column are no-brainers for many Destiny 2 veterans, but the interesting one is Hatchlings, a new Strand perk that spawns Threadlings at the defeated target's location when a non-precision weapon is used. The first perk column is significantly weaker with its options, with Zen Moment and Killing Wind being okay, and Envious Assassin being a niche but interesting option.

2 Prodigal Return

Arc | Grenade Launcher

• God Roll: Envious Assassin + Voltshot

Grenade launchers are the talk of Destiny 2 following Lightfall's balance changes, which is why this Arc grenade launcher Prodigal Return is looking quite promising. It comes with the Voltshot perk option, but beyond that, it can also roll with Demolitionist or Adrenaline Junkie in the same column.

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In the first column, the new Envious Assassin perk is basically a modified Clown Cartridge, where rapid kills with other weapons will fill this weapon's magazine from reserves, with a chance to overfill as well. Field Prep and Lead From Gold are also decent choices for PVE purposes.

1 Regnant

Void | Heavy Grenade Launcher

• God Roll: Auto-Loading Holster + Explosive Light

This Void heavy grenade launcher might have been the talk of the Tower in the start of the season thanks to a bug that allowed them to repeatedly claim it from their Collections for Enhancement Cores, but even with that bug fixed, Regnant impresses with its explosive capabilities that can see staggering damage numbers in some raid boss encounters.

Loads of good options are available for the Regnant, which some already consider superior to the Wendigo from last season. In the first column, Envious Assassin or Auto-Loading Holster are absolutely fantastic choices for a heavy weapon to avoid that sluggish reload animation. For the second column, Cascade Point and Explosive Light are both the strongest options available for pure boss DPS, and for ad-clear Destabilizing Rounds is the best choice and pairs nicely with Void 3.0 builds thanks to its Volatile effect.

Destiny 2

Platform(s)

PS5 , PS4 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One , PC , Stadia

Released

August 28, 2017

Developer(s)

Bungie

Genre(s)

FPS