Fusion Rifles have seen something of a resurgence in PvE ever since the Controlled Burst perk was introduced in season 21. Scatter Signal, the latest Strand Fusion Rifle to be added in Season of the Wish, is a testament to that resurgence, with some fantastic god rolls worth crafting.
It helps that there isn’t much competition in the Strand Fusion Rifle space. Guns like Pressurized Precision have their own strengths, but lack the very perks that make Scatter Signal such a worthwhile weapon to chase. The ability to combine perks such as Overflow or Slice with equally great options like Controlled Burst and Under-Over gives players no shortage of excellent PvE builds to try out, and the fact that Scatter Signal is craftable means that everyone has the freedom to do so without relying on luck.
Here’s where to get Scatter Signal for yourself, as well as our recommendations on PvE and PvP god rolls for the weapon.
How to get the Scatter Signal Fusion Rifle in Destiny 2
Scatter Signal is a Strand Fusion Rifle that was added in Season of the Wish. It’s part of the seasonal weapon set, which means that it drops as a reward from the two seasonal activities—Riven’s Lair and The Coil. For the players that want to farm for it specifically, they can also focus Wish Engrams in the H.E.L.M after unlocking the Wishful Weapon Focusing upgrade.
If you want to get the crafted version, you’ll need to acquire five of its weapon patterns. Scatter Signals with Deepsight Resonance have a random drop chance, but players can also consistently receive a drop with guaranteed Deepsight Resonance each week from the Spirit of Riven vendor after getting the Keycrafting and Wishcrafting upgrades.
Scatter Signal PvE god roll in Destiny 2
- Barrel: Arrowhead Brake or Polygonal Rifling
- Battery: Liquid Coils or Projection Fuse
- First perk: Overflow
- Second perk: Controlled Burst
- Masterwork: Charge Time
When it comes to PvE, no Scatter Signal god roll is better than the idyllic perk combination of Overflow and Controlled Burst. If you want a Fusion Rifle for the Kinetic slot that can output an impressive amount of damage against a single target on par with The Eremite, this is the roll for you.
Controlled Burst’s damage and charge time bonuses are difficult to put down once you’ve experienced it, and Overflow’s ability to double the gun’s magazine with ease allows you to reap those benefits for far longer during a boss’ damage window. Pair that together with a Charge Time masterwork and a choice of barrel and battery that can further enhance Scatter Signal’s consistency, and you have one of the strongest Rapid-Fire Frame Fusion Rifles in the game on the basis of damage-per-second.
It’s worth remembering that this isn’t the only direction you can go here though. Season 23’s newest Strand perk, Slice, is in the third column on Scatter Signal, and it can be a great alternative perk for those running the weapon against groups of smaller targets as opposed to a single, large target. It can temporarily inflict enemies with Sever, which reduces their damage output and consequently enhances the wielder’s overall survivability when surrounded. It’s great for activities such as Legend Lost Sectors when running solo.
Scatter Signal PvP god roll in Destiny 2
- Barrel: Hammer-Forged Rifling
- Battery: Projection Fuse or Liquid Coils
- First perk: Perpetual Motion
- Second perk: Kickstart
- Masterwork: Range
Rapid-Fire Frame Fusion Rifles are tough to build for PvP after the sandbox changes implemented over the past few seasons, but Perpetual Motion and Kickstart provide one of the most consistent god rolls for Scatter Signal that you could hope for.
While our barrel, battery and masterwork picks all focus on maximizing Scatter Signal’s overall range, Perpetual Motion and Kickstart stabilize the performance of what is otherwise an unruly weapon. After all, with a base recoil direction of 59 and 36 stability, it needs all the help it can get. Like with the PvE roll, this might make some players flock toward Arrowhead Brake, but I believe that a Counterbalance Stock mod is more than enough to make the recoil feel more reliable, freeing up the barrel slot to further enhance our range.
Perpetual Motion’s benefits are both essential and easy to proc, as players only need to keep moving to retain the 20 stability, 20 handling and 20 reload speed benefit it provides at two stacks. That’ll kick our stability up to 56 overall, which will make it a lot easier to hit all of the bolts that the weapon fires on a player at close to medium range. Kickstart is then the icing on the cake, with the 15 percent damage bonus upon its activation making it easier to confirm a one-burst kill against opponents with higher resilience as Scatter Signal starts to operate outside of its optimal range.
Some players might note that, as Scatter Signal is a Rapid-Fire Frame, the gun might need more than just Kickstart to be able to chew through the sea of overshields and Woven Mail-buffed enemies that now infest the Crucible. That’s where Under-Over comes in as a niche alternative in the fourth column—a rare perk to see on a Fusion Rifle.
This perk gives you a flat 20 percent damage bonus against any kind of overshield, meaning that you’ll need less overall bolts per shot to kill a player that currently has one. This can hugely improve the consistency of a weapon that already suffers from a short damage falloff, but how effective of a perk pick it is ultimately will depend on the Crucible lobbies you get put into. If you aren’t running into a lot of overshields at your skill level, you’d be wasting the perk slot when something like Kickstart would serve you better. Players should only experiment with Under-Over if their experience in PvP reflects the need for a perk like it.
