Destiny 2: 10 Best Shotguns, Ranked

An important fact that cannot be stressed enough is that you will find many lists that will differ when it comes to ranking Destiny 2 weapons. This is mainly because different classes perform better or worse with different weapons that synergize with them, and with the play style the user is going for.

RELATED: Destiny 2 Season Of Defiance: 10 Best Artifact Mods, Ranked

A player with a weapon from the bottom of this list might perform significantly better than another player with a higher-listed weapon because that weapon might really mesh well with how they play and use it with the class they have chosen. Everyone starts off as a beginner and needs to figure out what works best for them, so always be packing the weapon that best suits you and that you do best with. With that said, let’s talk shotguns.

10 The Chaperone

A lot of players like to jokingly call this exotic weapon a sniper rifle, and it’s easy to see why with its perk, The Roadborn, which for a short duration, will grant a bonus to handling, range, and precision damage when the player gets a precision kill.

It has seen many nerfs over the course of the game, rightfully so, as this shotgun easily makes it onto this list for its great handling, a maxed-out range, and its high aim assist even after all these nerfs. You’ll be able to hit headshots at further away than any other shotgun, and avoid deaths when matched up against someone outside the usual effective range of a shotgun.

9 Astral Horizon

You can get this weapon as a drop through the Trials of Osiris matches, this may be an aggressive frame and its stats may seem a little harsh at the start compared to others, but if you focus on building up its handling and its range, this shotgun is going to become a favorite quite rapidly.

RELATED: Destiny: Hardest Boss Fights In The Series, Ranked

A big thing when it comes to using the Astral Horizon or not is what weapons work best for what you’re playing and how you choose to play. Different classes in destiny shine in different ways, and it is important to build to what best suits that.

8 Fractethyst

Sadly, this gun is not one you can farm, but deserves to be recognized for what it can do, if you are not interested in reading about guns you cannot farm, please progress to the next entry.

Something unique that comes with using this weapon is that it will be dealing status damage, something you won’t find on other shotguns. In Destiny 2, going over 100 in a stat does not make the gun any better at what it does, and it is easy to jump the gun and push the range well past 100 on this gun, so that is something to be aware of.

7 Found Verdict

Argued to be the best shotgun in Destiny 2, the Found Verdict starts with its range and handling where the past entries on this list have to climb to get to, so once you start factoring in perks pushing it even higher makes it perform at an incredible rate. Going specifically for the Timelost Found Verdict will have a vast array of options thanks to all the adept mods you’ll be able to run with it.

You’ll be able to farm for the Timelost in The Vault Of Glass, one of the many raids in the game, but if luck is not on your side, this is going to be a long and repetitive farm, so be sure to have friends to talk to on your headset to make the grind bearable.

6 Matador 64

Found exclusively in the Grasp of Avarice dungeon, this gun is a callback to the first Destiny game. A lot of players aim to run this weapon with Threat Detector and Opening shot to make it a concise hitting weapon.

What adds to this is that this gun has a very nicely fitting spread shape. You will want to aim for the center point of your target to make the most of the weapon’s spread design because when aim dead in the middle of your target, most of your pellets will connect with them.

5 The Inquisitor

The second weapon on this list you’ll be tackling the Trials of Osiris matches for is The Inquisitor. This is a slug shotgun that comes with a really nice collection of perks to make use of with some solid base stats, including the best base range stat of any slug shotgun that sits in the 70s, while all the others are sitting in the 50s, except for Heritage.

RELATED: Destiny 2: Hardest Raid Bosses, Ranked

If you can get an adept version of this gun, you’ll be able to build a slug weapon with a high amount of stability, and that will be a satisfying weapon to walk into a PvP game with.

4 Duality

Duality’s name is very fitting since it is a hybrid of two different shotguns, Slug and Pellet. It has two different styles of fire, a blast of pellets when using hip fire, and a longer-ranged slug shotgun when you aim down its sight. This makes it one of the most, if not the most, versatile shotgun in Destiny 2.

Thanks to its perks, it can reload incredibly fast and bonus to precision damage, allowing for some devastatingly scary opponents behind cover with a very consistent long distant spread per shot.

3 Gunnora’s Axe

This gun looks like a block of iron when compared to the futuristic, highly detailed, and downright alien-looking designs of a lot of the weapons found in Destiny 2. This weapon is just all around a good pinpoint slug shotgun and that is due to the fact it is the only shotgun with access to Voltshot.

How this works is that when you land a kill, your next subsequent weapon hit will apply Jolt. Jolt deals additional damage to enemies on top of the damage you are dealing with your shotgun damage. This stacks up incredibly fast and can be a lot of fun with the consistent application of Jolt.

2 Conditional Finality

This gun brings something interesting to the table. It has two barrels and each of them fires different pellets. One shot from Solar pellets will ignite your enemies and the other will fire stasis pellets that will freeze them in place.

This gun is something you will need to get a feel for and in some fresh hands, it can feel finicky, but give it time and get a feel for it. Definitely bring it into Champion boss-type fights, as this gun will be able to stun them.

1 Heritage

Topping this list is Heritage, a shotgun that you will only be able to get your hands on through the Deep Stone Crypt Raid. Both its stats and perks offered are some of the best compared to the rest of the shotguns in Destiny 2 and is very fun to alternate between the hip fire and aimed shots while playing.

This shotgun performs incredibly well in both PvP and PvE, making it a gun you can enjoy the entirety of Destiny 2’s story while getting ready for the crucible once you get your hands on it.

NEXT: Destiny 2 Season Of Defiance: Weekly Challenge Guide