Updated on September 9th, 2024, by Nathan Halsey: It's been a while since Hand Cannons have been this good in PvE, so this article has been thoroughly rewritten to reflect that. This list will encompass the best of both PvE and PvP, as this weapon type is an extremely useful pick in both modes. On the PvE end of the spectrum, enemy shield mechanics Hand Cannons have gotten the new Heavy Burst archetype that gives the weapon type a new way to excel at close to mid-range. Many of the game's Exotic Hand Cannons are fantastic as of this writing, with Legendaries that are incredibly competitive, allowing players many options to keep a Hand Cannon somewhere in their loadout no matter what the activity calls

The prime example that comes to mind is The Black Armory from the "Season of the Forge." This was something built up as offering players a special kind of new weapon to chase via a new kind of public event. Both of these claims were true, but unfortunately the forge events wound up being overly grindy (and poorly balanced at first), and the weapons largely weren’t worth the effort. Successive seasons have had similar struggles, but not to the same degree and were largely successful.

This is not only the result of Unstoppable Rounds, but also just how much damage this weapon does when proccing Explosive Shadow , which is easy to do on Champions when they are stunned and unable to m

Destiny 2’s fourth expansion, Shadowkeep, and its most recent seasons have kept the positive momentum going. With the release of Shadowkeep, Guardians got to return to The Moon to take on nightmarish versions of many defeated foes. The main content additions also included two new strikes, one new Crucible map, two new-ish Crucible Maps and the "Garden of Salvation" raid. Shadowkeep also brought with it the reorganization of the Crucible and the launch of "Armor 2.0."

That mentality extends to the way Bungie is handling post-launch content. Season of the Undying sees waves of Vex arriving via a storm to take over the Moon. Watching them arrive is breathtaking, and the firefights that ensue are hectic and enjoyable. Then there's the new Vex Offensive activity, which allows players to travel back to the Black Garden to take on the Vex. It's a surprisingly robust seasonal activity and it'll be interesting to see what lasting impact the Vex have on the Moon once the Season is over.

The Seasons of the Drifter and Opulence added new modes such as the Reckoning and the Menagerie, gave lore-fiends interesting stories to chase, and re-introduced fan-favorite exotic weapons like Outbreak Prime, Bad Juju and The Truth. If it hadn’t been for the broken mess that was "The Revelry" event, these two seasons likely would have gone-off without much issue outside of the usual power and weapon balancing.

"Armor 2.0" is perhaps the biggest foundational update that Destiny 2 has seen since Forsaken, as it both reintroduced the old stats from Destiny 1 and gave players a means to craft their own character builds via mods and randomly-rolled stats. Following this, Season of the Worthy hosted the return of every Crucible fanatic’s favorite mode: Trials of Osiris. There are still balancing issues and such to iron out of course, but at this moment it’s probably safe to say that Destiny 2 has finally surpassed its predecessor in just about every meaningful way. It’s still a different game of course, but that difference is no longer a bad thing.

With Season 10 winding down, players can obtain the remaining tiers in the season pass by purchasing them with silver. If players are more than halfway through or encroaching upon the end, throwing away a couple of silver can finish up the pass quickly and obtain the remaining rewards without any more grinding for fast EXP. The latter half of the season pass includes ornaments for both the Exotic weapon Tommy's Matchbook as well as the Seventh Seraph armor sets, shotgun, and smg. Exotic engrams also drop during the latter half of the pass, so the chance to earn the rest of the current season's exotics are pretty high with those engr

Sunshot is definitively the best Hand Cannon in PvE. A sole survivor of the 150 RPM archetype, the weapon has arguably the best crowd control in the game. This comes from its main trait, Sunburn , which makes the weapon's bullets deal area-of-effect damage, and its main perk, Sun Blast , which causes enemies who die by the weapon to explode, Scorching nearby targets. Enemies who gain too many stacks of Scorch also explode, and spread more Scorch around t

Destiny 2 is now in the midst of the Season of Arrivals, which as itself brought a new dungeon and public event to the game along with near weapons and gear to chase. So far it’s looking like a decent seasonal update and will likely serve as a good prologue to the major expansion, Beyond Light, coming this fall. Bungie has promised great content coming with Beyond Light (including the return of Hawkmoon!) as well as the "vaulting" of locations like Mars and Mercury. Seeing previous paid content get "vaulted" is concerning, but it should be fine so long as it comes back from time to time as has been promised. That issue aside though, the future is once again looking bright for Destiny 2. Let’s hope it stays that way.