Dead Man’s Tale is back with a vengeance in Season of the Witch. It was first introduced in season 13, and nearly 10 seasons later, it’s returning as a craftable Exotic. It’s still as powerful as ever, with some minor changes to its perk pool. Its god roll hasn’t changed much given its role is still somewhat intact, though for the first time, players can fine-tune the weapon to their needs without being at the mercy of RNG.
The reason behind Dead Man’s Tale’s firepower is its intrinsic, Cranial Spike, which grants the weapon a slew of benefits after landing successful precision hits. And its perk pool reflects that.
Dead Man’s Tale being reissued in season 22 gave it a couple of new perks, but it also took two old ones. Subsistence and Snapshot Sights are gone, but the repeater now has access to Rapid Hit, Compulsive Reloader, and Shoot to Loot. Rapid Hit synergizes well with Cranial Spike, granting you double the benefits.
In addition to the new perks, Dead Man’s Tale has a slew of original choices that also make this weapon tremendously effective. Here’s what we’re using on our Dead Man’s Tale god roll in Destiny 2, with a plethora of options to choose from.
Dead Man’s Tale crafted god roll and best perks to craft in Destiny 2
Depending on how long it’s been since you last used this weapon, you might notice it feels noticeably different, and that’s due to the litany of nerfs it received to reduce its dominance in the Crucible. This gun isn’t as amazing as it used to be, but it’s still formidable in its own right, especially if you have the proper roll.
Related: Are Season of the Worthy items returning to Destiny 2?
God rolls are usually a matter of personal preference and depend vastly on playstyle and activity. We use our Dead Man’s Tale mostly for PvE, though with the changes to leveling, getting a second one for the Crucible isn’t a bad idea. Here are our god rolls for our crafted Dead Man’s Tale.
Dead Man’s Tale PvE god roll
- Barrel: Fluted Barrel or Arrowhead Brake
- Magazine: Flared Magwell or High-Caliber Rounds
- Perk: Vorpal Weapon
- Stock: Short-Action Stock
We went with Arrowhead over Fluted for the extra handling, but both are potentially good choices. You can also run with Smallbore or Corkscrew for multi-pronged benefits, but we felt the weapon was performing well enough on the rest of the departments. Of course, this decision is up to you and what you feel your weapon needs.
As far as the magazine goes, though, Flared Magwell is our choice of perk here. Now that Cranial Spike has been gutted and its reload speed increase is seemingly gone, having a quicker base reload felt more useful than the extra flinch, though there’s certainly an argument in favor of High-Caliber Rounds.
We only have one option for Dead Man’s Tale perk, and that’s been a staple of it since its release: Vorpal Weapon grants you extra damage against Majors and Champions, which is basically where Dead Man’s Tale excels. To us, having the extra damage is more valuable than any other potential roll.
There are some good options instead of it, though: Rapid Hit, Outlaw, and Fourth Time’s the Charm all have their value when it comes to sustained damage. Shoot to Loot is some extra utility, especially with Orbs of Power, but we’d ditch it.
To round out our Dead Man’s Tale PvE god roll, we went with Short-Action Stock for some more handling, since we can’t really touch on reload speed here. Stability helps, especially if you’re not used to managing the recoil, but we’d rather have a bit of handling instead.
Dead Man’s Tale PvP god roll
- Barrel: Fluted Barrel or Arrowhead Brake
- Magazine: High-Caliber Rounds
- Perk: Rapid Hit (Honorable mention: Moving Target)
- Stock: Short-Action Stock
Our PvP god roll is similar to what we’d use for PvE, but with two notable differences. We’re doubling down on the handling and flinch over reload speed, and we’re leaving Rapid Hit and Moving Target as potential options. We’re more fond of Rapid Hit, but Moving Target also provides a bit of aim assist to help you land your shots.
The parts are all aimed at improving handling, since Dead Man’s Tale doesn’t really need that much range. The exception is High-Caliber Rounds, which we’ve opted into because of the added flinch.
You could go for more stability in general if you’re struggling to land shots, though. In that case, we’d pick Corkscrew Rifling and Hand-Laid Stock.
