Alongside this week’snew Guardian Games eventinDestiny 2, developer Bungie also delivered the game’s latest exotic, Heir Apparent. A heavy machine gun with a Cabal theme, the Heir Apparent is part of the Guardian Games reward tier and is only accessible by participating in a good chunk of the event’s activities. Of course, players have already sped through to get the exotic to see whether it’s worth the effort for others.
Heir Apparent Damage
Heir Apparent isDestiny 2’s version of a chain gun (like Sweet Business, but bigger), a heavy machine gun that must first be “spun up” before it can fire. As one might expect, this gives the weapon a high rate of fire and high DPS, but only if the player is relatively close to a target.
In terms of base damage, the Heir Apparent is strong enough to compete with most heavy machine guns but it is not going to outclass the top tier DPS weapons in the slot. For example, the Xenophage heavy machine gun packs a lot more punch and is great for burst DPS during a damage phase, and it doesn’t require hitting precision shots to get the most out of the weapon.
RELATED:How to Get the Heir Apparent Exotic
Heir Apparent’s utility from a boss damage perspective is tied to the player’s ability to handle the muzzle climb and hit the target. For a strike boss with a large crit spot this shouldn’t be a problem, but there are plenty ofDestiny 2bossesthat require players stand a decent distance away and will not be easy to crit with this exotic.
Boss damage aside, the Heir Apparent is still very strong. It can chew through regular enemies with relative ease, as long as players spin up the weapon first. Many ofDestiny 2’s exotic heavy weapons either are cool to look at but not that useful (likeLeviathan’s Breath) or very useful but not particularly unique in its design. Heir Apparent offers a little bit of both.
Unique Exotic Perk - Armor of the Colossus
Heir Apparent shoots fast and its damage is pretty high, but what adds an additional layer of uniqueness to the exotic is its Armor of the Colossus perk. As long as the player is at full health, the exotic will protect them with an arc shield when the weapon is spun up.
When running through challenging content like thenew Grandmaster Nightfall, the Heir Apparent lets players tank a couple of extra shots before the weapon’s shield breaks and their own shield starts to lower. Basically, the Armor of the Colossus allows players to live out their Rambo fantasy in Destiny 2, walking through an army of combatants, chewing through them with minimal damage.
Again, the key is that the player has to be at full health for the shield to activate, so it’s not going to fit all situations. On top of that, any boss DPS phase typically doesn’t include incoming damage, which makes this shield more situational.
Destiny 2’s New Exotic in Crucible
On the PvP front, Heir Apparent can give a whopping 68 rounds when picking up heavy ammo. For any heavy machine gun that would be enough to get a few kills, but Heir Apparent’s need to spin up can throw a wrench into those plans. If the player can spin up from behind cover or before seeing a target and then start firing, they are likely to get at least a few kills (even in quick succession). However, if caught off-guard, the weapon can leave a player vulnerable as they wait to spin up.
With the arc shield, though, players are likely to be able to spin up and get those kills off, assuming that they haven’t taken any damage prior. And once the arc shield is active it can tank a few types of incoming damage, while others actually are made stronger.
Opponents using kinetic weapons are going to see their outgoing damage decrease when firing at the Heir Apparent’s arc shield. A hand cannon that typically would do around 68 points of damage on a precision shot will instead do about 22, for example. Snipers and shotguns, however, will still blast through the shield with little issue. Supers are also going to be able to blast right through it too.
TheDestiny 2exotic’s shield can also mitigate some damage from elemental weapons, but not as much as the kinetic. Elemental weapons are a little stronger against the shield, but they still are going to take longer to kill.
Where Heir Apparent Falls Apart
However, what’s interesting about PvP encounters with Heir Apparent is that the arc shield functions exactly like it would on an AI enemy in PvE. So if an opponent uses anything with arc, they will actually chew through the shield faster. On top of that, the arc shield “pops” when it is destroyed and damages the Heir Apparent user. So if someone was using Heir Apparent and they were hit by an arc grenade, they would end up with lower health than if they were not using Heir Apparent’s shield.
Whether or not this is a coding issue where Bungie simply took the arc shield from PvE and brought it to the weapon is unclear. But it certainly seems like a weird flaw to give an otherwise solid exotic heavy weapon. It wouldn’t be the first time that aDestiny 2exotic wasn’t working as intended.
All told, Heir Apparent is better than many of the exotic heavy weapons that have released over the last few seasons. It has a unique animation, it fits a variety of situations, and it is decently strong in both PvE and PvP. There are some things about the gun that keep it from reaching thetop tier ofDestiny 2exotics, but at this point Bungie’s goal seems to be delivering fun looking exotics rather than overpowered ones.
Destiny 2is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
