Greetings, Guardian! If you‘ve managed to get your hands on the new Strand Pulse Rifle in Destiny 2‘s latest expansion, you may have noticed this gun feels different than anything you‘ve wielded before. That‘s because the Strand Pulse Rifle offers unprecedented versatility, lethality, and sheer fun factor thanks to its unique perks and the new Strand damage type.
In this comprehensive, 2000+ word guide, I‘ll explain everything that makes the Strand Pulse Rifle so powerful in both PVP and PVE gameplay, along with the perfect "god roll" combinations of perks and stats you should hunt for. Once you truly master this weapon, you‘ll shred through enemies and opposing players with strands of glowing purple death!
A New Element Entangles the Battlefield
Before diving into the weapon itself, it‘s important to understand how the new Strand damage type fundamentally changes combat engagements:
What is Strand Damage?
Unlike traditional kinetic, energy, or power weapons, Strand weapons utilize an entirely new damage type that entangles and restricts enemies rather than merely damaging them. According to Bungie:
"Weapons with the Strand damage type fire projectiles that entangle targets, restricting movement and enabling crowd control tactics."
In practical terms, this means hits from Strand weapons splash enemies with glowing purple threads that significantly slow movement speed and limit evasive capabilities. Targets caught by these strands often writhe helplessly as you unload rounds, grenades, or melee attacks to finish them off.
Strand Weapons vs. Other Elements
Compared to all existing damage types, only Stasis comes close in terms of battlefield control and debilitating effects. But Stasis requires freezing targets first before shattering, while Strand weaves snares instantly. This enables more reactive playstyles rather than requiring deliberate Freeze > Shatter combos.
In terms of raw time-to-kill values, Strand weapons seem to match or slightly beat out Void and Solar counterparts according to early Guardian testing:
| Weapon Type | Strand TTK* | Void TTK | Solar TTK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Rifle | 0.80s | 0.83s | 0.77s |
| Pulse Rifle | 0.67s | 0.73s | 0.60s |
| Scout Rifle | 0.93s | 0.97s | 0.87s |
*Time-to-kill estimates based on body shots only
As you can see, Strand pulse rifles like the one we‘re covering today offer extremely competitive lethality on paper. Combined with their signature movement restrictions, they‘re likely to remain powerful options even if minor tuning adjustments occur.
Now let‘s see why the Strand Pulse Rifle stands out even among its remaining Strand siblings…
Overview: Why the Strand Pulse Rifle Dominates Battlefields
On top of introducing the generally powerful Strand damage type covered above, the Strand Pulse Rifle sets itself apart through specialized origin traits and perks:
Unsated Hunger (Origin Trait)
Greatly increases handling, reload speed and stability when your abilities are fully charged. This allows you to swap to the pulse rifle and start firing accurately at a moment‘s notice to mop weakened enemies.
Hatchling (intrinsic perk)
Defeating targets spawns hatchlings (little purple spiders) that seek out enemies. This softens up targets, distracts them, and gives you damage assistance. Plus it looks super cool seeing strands and spiders erupting from defeated foes!
Combine these effects with certain synergistic perks covered later, and the versatility and crowd control power of the Strand Pulse Rifle stands leagues beyond any primary weapon we‘ve seen before. Let‘s dive deeper into the perks and traits that contribute to this dominance on the battlefield.
Specialized Origin Trait and Intrinsic Perk
As mentioned briefly above, the Strand Pulse Rifle introduces both a custom origin trait and intrinsic perk specifically designed to play into Strand crowd control strengths:
Unsated Hunger
The Unsated Hunger origin trait offers a major boost to weapon handling, reload speed, and stability any time your melee ability or grenade is fully charged.
- +30 stability
- +50 handling
- +50 reload speed
This allows you to quickly finish enemies off with your abilities, then seamlessly transition back to shred incoming targets using your drastically improved pulse rifle capabilities. Testing indicates the buff lasts around 5 seconds after casting an ability, which is ample time to output damage.
Hatchling
The Hatchling intrinsic perk spawns small spider-like drones any time you secure a kill with the Strand Pulse Rifle. These purple arcane spiders will then home in on nearby enemies and attach to continually sap their health and restrict movement.
Destiny data miners have determined hatchlings inflict the following debilitating effects:
- -50 mobility
- Slowed movement
- Steadily drains enemy health
This softens up groups of adds nicely for easy clean-up. But more importantly, the health drain and movement restrictions force even the most mobile Crucible combatants into easily dispatched sitting ducks.
Both intrinsic traits feed into and enhance the Strand Pulse Rifle‘s capabilities beautifully. Now let‘s see how you can build into these strengths further through combat-tailored god rolls.
The Crucible God Roll – Vaporizing Guardians
While certainly no slouch in PVE scenarios, the Strand Pulse truly shines when it comes to ruthlessly dominating enemy Guardians in the Crucible.
For maximizing lethality against opponents wielding all sorts of powerful abilities and exotic armor, here is the definitive Crucible god roll:
- Barrel: Smallbore (Increases range +7, stability +9)
- Magazine: Ricochet Rounds (Increases stability, moderately increases range)
- First Perk: Moving Target (Increases movement speed, +10 aim assist)
- Second Perk: Headseeker (Body shots increase precision damage for a short time)
- Masterwork: Range
Let‘s break down why this precise combination of perks and stats transforms you into an apex predator in PVP environments:
All About Consistent Ranges
Between the Smallbore barrel increasing range and stability by solid amounts, plus the extended damage falloff from Ricochet Rounds, you‘ll be beaming opponents reliably across most Crucible sightlines.
The Range masterwork pushes this even further for competition against Scout Rifles. Overall, expect to shred within 40+ meters with minimal damage drop-off.
Rapid Target Acquisition
Between a +10 aim assist buff and generally enhanced movement speed, Moving Target makes it almost frustratingly easy to track targets and line up rapid precision shots.
Even highly mobile Hunters and Titans dashing around with shotguns struggle to break your target acquisition. Combine this with Headseeker‘s body shot boost, and even messy reactions secure lethal damage.
Ability Uptime Synergies
Activating your Void/Stasis grenade or melee to take enemies low then swapping to the pulse rifle triggers Unsated Hunger for maximum swap speed and stability. This means effortlessly transitioning to mopping up kills before the target can react.
Pair with a Shotgun or Fusion Rifle to quickly shut down apes getting too close between pulse rifle volleys. With the versatility of ranged lethality and close quarters shutdown potential, you‘ll give opponents absolute fits trying to pin you down!
PVE God Roll – Add Clearing Monster
While the Crucible roll focuses on range and gunplay, the PVE roll shifts to all-out add clearing domination:
- Barrel: Hammer-Forged Rifling (Increases range)
- Magazine: Appended Mag (Increases magazine size)
- First Perk: Subsistence (Kills partially reload the magazine from reserves)
- Second Perk: Adrenaline Junkie (Grenade, melee, and super final blows increase weapon damage)
- Masterwork: Reload Speed
Let‘s explore why this precise combo transforms you into an absolute monster against the hordes of enemies constantly swarming your fireteam in PVE:
Never Reloading DPS
Between Subsistence instantly reloading from your generous 48 round reserves and Adrenaline Junkie buffing lethality to shred targets quicker, you‘ll effortlessly chain kills and almost never manually reload.
Subsistence returns roughly 30% of the magazine per kill. This keeps pace easily with Adrenaline Junkie activated off your subclass abilities and super.
Reloading manually does still help maximize damage phases against bosses or champions. Hence why the Reload Speed masterwork pushes this to the extreme.
Crowd Control Overdrive
With endless streams of hatchling spiders immobilizing adds and sapping their health as you constantly mow them down, even the most oppressive enemy mobs melt away in seconds.
Whether constantly repositioning from a Salvager‘s Salvo breach grenade‘s flames or blindly spraying into packs of Thrall, everything disintegrates under sheer damage potential and restrictive spider locks.
Hammer-Forged Rifling ensures even distant Acolytes or Psions get shredded to fuel the carnage. Bask in the glow of Strand death!
Advanced Combat Tactics
Now that you understand the ideal god roll perk combinations for PVP and PVE dominance, here are some next level tactics to truly dominate combat scenarios.
Overcharged Particle Deconstruction
The seasonal Overcharged origin trait adds substantial bonus damage against targets affected by your Strand subclass abilities. Ensure you tag enemies with ensnare or entanglement to vaporize them with massively boosted pulses.
Chaining Supers
Activating your Strand Super to ensnare groups of enemies then switching to your buffed Pulse Rifle essentially guarantees effortless multikills to immediately recharge another Super activation via shards. This allows endless crowd control chaining.
Weapon Swapping
While lethal up close, the Strand Pulse Rifle truly dominates at mid-range. But enemies slipping into close quarters can threaten this. Quickly swapping to a Shotgun or Fusion Rifle to shutdown apes enables safely returning to ranged decimation.
Master hot swapping between special weapons and your pulse depending on engagement range for maximum destruction!
Farming & Acquisition Tips
While random world drops can eventually bless you with a Strand Pulse Rifle, intentionally targeting certain activities massively speeds up the farming process:
- Void Sever Missions: These public events have a high chance to drop Strand weapons including the Pulse Rifle upon completion. Farm them on a loop!
- Guardian Ranks: Ranking up your Guardian rank has a small chance to directly decode into a Deepsight Resonance version for eventual crafting.
- Mission Replay: Missions like "Swarm" have guaranteed Deepsight weapon rewards for multiple weekly completions.
- Loot Focusing: Umbral engrams can be focused into Strand weapon decryptions at the H.E.L.M. using Vestiges of Dread for only 10 vestiges a pop.
Following this focused farming approach allows acquiring your perfect God Roll much quicker!
Quantitative PVE Performance
While feeling and playstyle is crucial, it‘s still helpful to understand quantified damage benchmarks to assess the Strand Pulse Rifle‘s PVE viability:
Body Shot Damage (Per Trigger Pull)
| Hatchling Active | Hatchling Inactive | |
|---|---|---|
| Red Bar | 2303 | 1920 |
| Orange Bar | 1690 | 1400 |
| Yellow Bar | 788 | 646 |
*Damage values represent 6 stacked shots against a target
Time-to-Kill vs. Raid/Dungeon Enemies
| Enemy | TtK (Body Shots) |
|---|---|
| Duality Psions | 2.04s |
| Caretaker Psions | 2.58s |
| Exhibition Bellkeeper | 4.62s |
| Caiatl Bellkeeper | 4.95s |
These benchmarks demonstrate extremely competitive damage output compared to all but the most specialized legendary primaries. Combined with endless crowd control abilities, add clearing and counteracting enemy attacks becomes trivial.
While less linearly impressive against raid bosses, the utility cannot be understated. Constantly restricting boss movement provides easier damage windows for your team‘s heavies or specials.
Future Sandbox Changes
As with any new damage type, balancing iterations from Bungie over the next few seasons will shape Strand‘s ultimate lethality and utility. Here are the current expectations:
PVP Tuning Pass
With extremely quick optimal TTK values, minor adjustments lowering Strand weapons‘ Crucible effectiveness feels likely at some point. This still keeps them strong options though.
I‘d expect either a body shot damage reduction, increased damage falloff start, or lowered aim assist/target acquisition on console platforms.
Buffing Other Elements
To avoid outright needing Strand too quickly, expect slight potency increases to older elements like Arc and Solar throughout Year 7. This brings balance while keeping Strand‘s unique utility.
New Strand Perks & Traits
Future Strand weapons will introduce synergistic perks not seen on the current Pulse Rifle. New build potential further cementing Strand‘s combat control.
Conclusion: Wield theTrue Power of Strand
Hopefully this guide has shed light on exactly why the Strand Pulse Rifle stands leagues above any primary weapon preceding it – along with how to maximize its potential through purpose-built perk combinations!
While future tuning passes seem inevitable as Guardians continue unleashing utterly broken abilities and exotics, Strand and this pulse rifle look to remain powerhouses in both PVP and high-tier PVE activities for the indefinite future.
Now get out there and sling strands, Guardian! Once you chain that first Flawless Crucible card or claim a day one raid race thanks to the Purple Death Beam Pulse, you‘ll know why I‘m so highly advocating this weapon.
Let me know your own god roll finds and favorite deadly tactics with this innovative new gun once Lightfall releases! For even more best-in-class legendary and exotic weapon breakdowns, be sure to subscribe to the channel.