To get the Archon’s Thunder, you will need to dive into the Iron Banner Crucible activity. This only appears a few times throughout the season and lasts until the Weekly Reset. You can get Archon’s Thunder by finishing the fourth step of the Iron Banner quest, completing Iron Banner matches, or turning in Iron Banner tokens for packages. Remember, tokens cannot be turned into Saladin until you finish the entire Iron Banner quest. Even though this may take a bit of time, the quest’s progress will be carried over to each Iron Banner throughout the season.
Archon’s Thunder God Rolls
Archon’s Thunder PVE God Roll
- Arrowhead Brake
- Tactical Mag or Appended Mag
- Surplus or Killing Wind
- Rampage
If you’re looking to bring this into PVE, the only real use this weapon has is for general mob clear. Machine guns aren’t great for single target DPS (damage per second) so you’ll want a roll that revolves around taking down multiple targets. To achieve this I suggest Arrowhead Brake in the first slot to help with Archon’s Thunder handling and general recoil control. This makes it easier to land critical hits, allowing you to maximize your killing potential. As for the magazine, either Tactical Mag or Appended Mag are ideal choices. Tactical is definitely the best of the two since it increases our reload speed along with our magazine size.
In the primary slot, I suggest either Surplus or Killing Wind. The former can be quite useful if you combine it with specific exotic armor pieces that reduce ability cooldowns. With that being said, I honestly like Killing Wind since we will be going from target to target, so this bonus will constantly trigger. Tying into this is Rampage, which offers a flat damage boost based on the number of enemies we kill in quick succession. With a Rampage Spec Mod, we can keep this damage boost and enjoy the benefits of Killing Wind as well. It’s a deadly combo that works wonders on machine guns — especially hard-hitting ones like Archon’s Thunder.
Archon’s Thunder PVP God Roll
- Corkscrew Rifling
- Accurized Rounds
- Rangefinder or Killing Wind
- Iron Grip
Now if you decide to use Archon’s Thunder in PVP you’ll want to reduce the weapon’s stability while giving it a bit more range. A lot of players prefer Commemoration’s 450 RPM archetype, but thew Archon’s Thunder is also a great option despite the slower fire rate. In the barrel slot, you’ll want Corkscrew Rifling to give us a nice mix of handling, stability, and range bonuses. However, if you want to solely focus on stability then you’re going to want Chambered Compensator instead. We are also looking for Accurized Rounds to increase the Archon’s Thunder effective range in combat.
If you can’t get enough range, then you’ll want to hunt for a roll with the Rangefinder perk. This is better for Crucible in my opinion since Killing Wind can be tricky to consistently trigger. Yes, the benefits are nice, but we are also working with a limited about of ammo. Finally, we are looking for Iron Grip to greatly increase the stability at the cost of a much slower reload speed. Since we are almost never reloading this gun in PVP, this is just free stability with virtually no penalty.
