The Destiny 2: Edge of Fate expansion has finally settled down with players completing the campaign and the World’s First Desert Perpetual Raid. Before the DLC was released, there were questions surrounding the key DPS options.
Since the first week has passed, the DPS meta has more or settled with a few weapons standing strong ahead of others. Here are the strongest DPS weapons that are standing strong in the Edge of Fate expansion.
Destiny 2: Edge of Fate Expansion – Top 5 DPS weapons
If you want the short answer, the strongest DPS weapons in Destiny 2: Edge of Fate are as follows:
- Thunderlord
- Lord of Wolves
- Queenbreaker
- Third Iternation
- Whirling Ovation
There’s no order to these, as depending on the situation, one might be stronger than the other. However, if you’re trying to go for boss DPS, these weapons will carry you, whether it’s raid or Nightfalls.
It’s also important to mention that just because these are the strongest, it doesn’t mean you cannot use other weapons. For instance, Hezen Vengeance, Sleeper Simulant, and Whisper of the Worm are also good choices.
The only difference is that, in the current scenario with how the bosses have been setup, especially with the raid in question, these weapons are looking better than the rest. Since you have the list, it’s now time to dive deep into why these are so strong.
Thunderlord
Thunderlord is an Arc Exotic Machine Gun that has existed in the game for about ten years. However, it’s still extremely strong, primarily because of the catalyst.
The way this weapon works is that when you shoot, it generates Lightning strike that deals damage to enemies. However, with the catalyst, your ammo loads from reserves whenever a Lightning strike triggers.
This means, as long as you’re accurate with your shots, you can keep shooting the Thunderlord bullets until your ammo runs out. This means it can deal an absurd amount of DPS to bosses over a period of time.
The single-shot damage is lower than any Rocket launcher. However, Thunderlord shines at overall DPS, and with the Desert Perpetual raid offering easy crit spots on the bosses, it makes the weapon even more valuable.
Additionally, with the new armor changes, it’s very easy to generate heavy ammo now, which makes the Thunderlord even more consistent.
Lord of Wolves
Lord of Wolves is a very unique weapon that shoots like a Pulse Rifle, despite being a Shotgun. The way this weapon works is that when you shoot from its hip, it triggers the perk Release the Wolves.
This perk allows the weapon to shoot as fully automatic while dealing increased damage. Now, imagine a weapon that deals shotgun levels of damage, but it shoots like an autorifle when shot from the hip.
As such, Lord of Wolves deals very high amounts of damage, despite being a Special ammo weapon. It can shred through bosses that have a long DPS phase, where you can really make use of the full auto system.
The only downside to this weapon is that it doesn’t work well in long-range settings. However, the Desert Perpetual raid has short-range bosses, which makes Lord of Wolves highly effective.
Queenbreaker
There was a time when Queenbreaker was a meme weapon in Destiny 2. However, the changes to this Linear Fusion Rifle in 2025 have turned it into a top-tier DPS weapon.
The reason is twofold, where firstly Queenbreaker received a new sight, which provides faster charge time, and it further reduces that time, provided you are hitting your shots. Secondly, It also received a Catalyst that provides Rewind Rounds.
All of this combined means, as long as you aren’t missing your shots, you don’t have to reload your weapon for the first 12 shots. If you’re using a Rally Barricade, then your reload is quite fast, and within 20 seconds, you can dish out a massive amount of damage.
In fact, bosses who run around too much and make it difficult to spam Thunderlord will be easily shut down by the Queenbreaker.
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Third Iteration
This might come as a surprise to everyone, but Third Iternation is a very good DPS option in this season. There was a bug plaguing the weapon where it dealt extra damage with Anti-Barrier Rounds active.
That bug has been resolved, but even then, when combined with its catalyst, the weapon does surprisingly high damage to bosses. This is primarily because of the perk Amalgamation Shots.
When you ADS the weapon, it reduces the spread of its shots. Now, holding the ADS for a few seconds, compressed the shots to a single powerful projectile that deals massive damage to bosses.
If you add the Catalyst, any precision kills with Amalgamation Shots will denote the target with a weakening blast. This means, if there are smaller ads close to the boss, you can kill one with precision shots and then damage the boss.
The weakening on the boss will further increase the damage from the weapon, making it potent even in raid content.
Whirling Ovation
This is a very interesting exotic Rocket Launcher in Destiny 2 and can be obtained as part of The Desert Perpetual Raid. The way this weapon works is that it shoots a Strand shot onto a target, accompanied by a Solar Payload.
This Solar Payload is only triggered if you charge the Strand Shot, and upon hitting a target, you deal two instances of damage. The first instance is from the initial shot, and the second one is from the explosion of the Solar Payload.
The charging takes a bit of time, but the damage you get is very high, and it’s effective against both bosses as well as champions. The only downside to this weapon is that it’s a raid Exotic, so it will be hard to obtain for the average player.
Apart from that, since it’s a Rocket Launcher, if you fire it too close to the boss, you’ll also damage yourself from the explosion radius. Thus, it’s important you maintain a safe distance when firing this weapon in endgame content.
