Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is coming up on the horizon, and in addition to a bunch of new content, that means a lot of existing stuff will be leaving — including seasonal mods. Of these, perhaps the most important is Particle Deconstruction, a mod that gave new life to fusion and linear fusion rifles and made them one of the dominant weapon types of Season of the Lost. But we’re going to have to say goodbye to our Champion-rending fusions soon, which means looking for a replacement for our Null Composures and Sleeper Simulants. Of course, we don’t know what the new seasonal mods are going to be when The Witch Queen drops, but one weapon stands out right now as a solid choice in a Particle Deconstruction-free world.
I’m talking about Pardon Our Dust, the Kinetic grenade launcher added in the Bungie 30th Anniversary Celebration content, which draws its name from Bungie’s phrase for problems caused by updates or changes to the game. You can obtain it by turning in Treasure Keys to roll 30th Anniversary weapons right next to Xur in Eternity, and there are a few things about it that make it especially attractive in high-level PVE content.
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First, Pardon Our Dust is a Kinetic weapon, meaning that it’s not taking up your Energy slot. That’s a big deal for Destiny 2 content where the Match Game modifier is frequently in play, meaning Guardians have to choose corresponding Energy weapons to break enemy shields. Second, it’s a Legendary weapon, which leaves your Energy and Power weapon slots free to equip an Exotic of your choice.
Where Pardon Our Dust really shines, though, is in its perks. It’s the first Kinetic grenade launcher that’s been added to Destiny 2 which can roll Blinding Grenades and Auto-Loading Holster since the now-sunset Militia’s Birthright. That combination of perks makes it a powerful choice for hectic PVE content, where you can fire it to blind your enemies, switch to another weapon to take them out, then switch back to your reloaded grenade launcher to repeat the cycle. Plus, Pardon Our Dust can roll a number of powerful perks in its final slot, like Demolitionist, Vorpal Weapon, and the recently-buffed Adrenaline Junkie.
There are other breech-loading grenade launchers in Destiny 2 that are almost as good as Pardon Our Dust — Ignition Code can roll Blinding Grenades but not Auto-Loading Holster, and Empty Vessel gets both but as a Solar launcher is less flexible than a Kinetic weapon. That makes Pardon Our Dust rather unique, and positions it as a weapon well worth chasing as we prepare to shift to a new meta. And who knows, maybe next season will have a powerful grenade launcher mod that will make it even better, so get to turning in those Treasure Keys now and ask Xur very nicely for a good roll. If you want to see Pardon Our Dusy in action, check out this video by Hynra, who first made me aware of how important it might be for high-level content moving forward.
