Empirical Evidence god roll & best perks

Empirical Evidence — Destiny 2 Sidearm
Legendary · Sidearm
Where it drops: Source: The Witch Queen Campaign

“Under duress, a soul will say whatever they think you want to hear. Trust your own eyes.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Empirical Evidence →

Built from 528 curated wishlist rolls for this Sidearm. Perks marked essential appear in every roll of a recommendation; alternatives are the other perks curators call worth keeping.

Recommended rolls

YeezyGT's WQ

pvp 480 wishlist rolls

[YeezyGT's WQ] [MW: Stability] "Empirical Evidence has some decent perks in Perpetual / Pulse Monitor, pairing with Swash / Harmony. It should be a flinch king if you're able to land your shots, though I found some difficulty in finding consistency, or making it feel "good" at all - I imagine it'll largely come down to personal preference."

Essential perks

Psychohack

Strong alternatives

Perpetual Motion High-Caliber Rounds Fluted Barrel Swashbuckler Swashbuckler Harmony Harmony Perpetual Motion Pulse Monitor Pulse Monitor Ricochet Rounds Armor-Piercing Rounds Light Mag Flared Magwell Smallbore Polygonal Rifling Hammer-Forged Rifling Corkscrew Rifling Arrowhead Brake

Community wishlist roll

pve 24 wishlist rolls

Inspired by DMB Player Versus Enemies Podcast 8. Shapeable through the Mars Relic. PvE backup roll for general content. Probably more of a PvP weapon, looking at the perks. Barrel and mag depend on your range/stability/handling/reload speed and combat perk (Armor-Piercing/High-Calibre Rounds) preferences. Perpetual Motion and Tunnel Vision improve gun feel. Adagio is effectively a 10% chainable damage buff, Thresh and Wellspring give faster super/ability charging. Recommended MW: your choice to round out barrel and mag perks, with Backup Mag or damage-boosting (Minor, Major or Taken Spec) mod.

Strong alternatives

Perpetual Motion Adagio Perpetual Motion Tunnel Vision Tunnel Vision Adagio Thresh Thresh Wellspring Wellspring

pandapaxxy

pve mkb controller 12 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvE / M+KB / Controller): "It is good to see another aggressive burst sidearm back in the game. These have always been a hot topic within the community. [...] Empirical Evidence is just alright. Nothing flashy but also nothing bad. Just middle of the pack. With a better perk pool you could see this being a top contender for possibly end game activities. But Empirical Evidence’s perk pool just lets it down." Recommended MW: Reload.

Essential perks

Perpetual Motion

Strong alternatives

Appended Mag Fluted Barrel Adagio Hammer-Forged Rifling Armor-Piercing Rounds Extended Mag Swashbuckler

pandapaxxy

pvp mkb controller 8 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / M+KB / Controller): "Within PvP the aggressive burst sidearms are extremely consistent. Swashbuckler will change the time to kill but even at lower stacks it will make it far easier to secure those three burst kills, or artificially extend your ranges. As long as you can maintain bursts on target this sidearm will do you well, not meta shattering well, but will definitely take some people by surprise." Recommended MW: Range.

Essential perks

Perpetual Motion

Strong alternatives

Smallbore High-Caliber Rounds Swashbuckler Hammer-Forged Rifling Ricochet Rounds Adagio

Community wishlist roll

pve 4 wishlist rolls

Inspired by DMB Player Versus Enemies Podcast 8. Shapeable through the Mars Relic. PvE first choice roll for general content. Probably more of a PvP weapon, looking at the perks. Barrel and mag depend on your range/stability/handling/reload speed and combat perk (Armor-Piercing or High-Calibre Rounds) preferences. Perpetual Motion passively improves gun feel. You're likely to be in CQC, so Swashbuckler is the obvious damage boost perk. Recommended MW: your choice to round out barrel and mag perks, with Backup Mag or damage-boosting (Minor, Major or Taken Spec) mod.

Strong alternatives

Perpetual Motion Swashbuckler Perpetual Motion Swashbuckler

What these Empirical Evidence perks do

Perpetual Motion

While moving at a minimum of 2 meters per second: Grants a Stack of 'Perpetual Motion' after 2 seconds and a second Stack after 10 seconds. Each Stack provides 10 Stability, 10 Handling, and 10 Reload Speed. All Stacks are removed if movement speed is below 2 m/s for 0.5 seconds. Works and can activate while stowed.

Adagio

Weapon Kills grant the following for 7 seconds: • 10 Range • 30% increased damage • 20% longer Firing Delay/Charge Time/Draw Time Hand Cannons only recieve a 27% damage increase. Buff is removed on stow.

Armor-Piercing Rounds

Grants 5% increased damage against Elemental and Barrier Champion Shields. Allows bullets to overpenetrate enemies once.

Swashbuckler

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of 'Swashbuckler' for 4.5 seconds. Maximum of 5 Stacks. (Glaive) Melee Kills grant all 5 Stacks instantly. Damage increase at 1|2|3|4|5 Stacks: 6.7% | 13.3% | 20% | 26.6% | 33.3% Stowing the weapon removes the buff.

High-Caliber Rounds

Hits inflict increased Flinch on Enemies. PVE: Tier 1-2 Minors can be repeatedly staggered. Higher Tier Combatants stagger quicker. PVP: Flinch against Players varies based on damage and Weapon Archetype. Flinch increase ranges between 5-10%.

Perpetual Motion

While moving at a minimum of 2 meters per second: Grants a Stack of 'Perpetual Motion' after 2 seconds and a second Stack after 🡅9 seconds. Each Stack provides 10 Stability, 10 Handling, and 10 Reload Speed. All Stacks are removed if movement speed is below 2 m/s for 0.5 seconds. Works and can activate while stowed. 🡅 Second Stack is gained 1 second sooner.

Swashbuckler

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of 'Swashbuckler' for 🡅6.5 seconds. Maximum of 5 Stacks. (Glaive) Melee Kills grant all 5 Stacks instantly. Damage increase at 1|2|3|4|5 Stacks: 6.7% | 13.3% | 20% | 26.6% | 33.3% Stowing the weapon removes the buff. 🡅 Buff Duration is increased by 2 seconds.

Tunnel Vision

Grants the following for 5 seconds upon finishing a Reload within 3.6 seconds of a Weapon Kill: • 20 Aim Assist • ? ADS Handling • ?% decreased Accuracy Cone Growth

Tunnel Vision

Grants the following for 5 seconds upon finishing a Reload within 3.6 seconds of a Weapon Kill: • 20 Aim Assist • ? ADS Handling • ?% decreased Accuracy Cone Growth 🡅 Buff Duration is increased.

Adagio

Weapon Kills grant the following for 🡅8 seconds: • 10 Range • 30% increased damage • 20% longer Firing Delay/Charge Time/Draw Time Hand Cannons only recieve a 27% damage increase. Buff is removed on stow. 🡅 Buff duration is increased by 1 second.

Thresh

Weapon Kills grant an additional 1% Super Energy. Kills with Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Glaives, and Fusion Rifles grant an additional 1.5% instead.

Thresh

Weapon Kills grant an additional 🡅1.33% Super Energy. Kills with Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Glaives, and Fusion Rifles grant an additional 🡅2% instead. 🡅 Bonus Super Gains are increased by 33.3%. (e.g. 1.5%⁠🠚⁠2%)

Wellspring

On Weapon Kill: Grants 8% Ability Energy split equally amongst all uncharged abilities. Abilities with multiple charges only receive one third of the ability energy normally split to them once they have a full ability charge ready. Ability energy gained may be significantly decreased based on your selected ability's Chunk Energy Scalar. Learn more about this mechanic in our explainer blog post on the Clarity website.

Wellspring

On Weapon Kill: Grants 🡅9% Ability Energy split equally amongst all uncharged abilities. Abilities with multiple charges only receive one third of the ability energy normally split to them once they have a full ability charge ready. Ability energy gained may be significantly decreased based on your selected ability's Chunk Energy Scalar. Learn more about this mechanic in our explainer blog post on the Clarity website. 🡅 Ability Energy Gain is increased by 12.5%. (8%🠚9%)

Psychohack

Scoring multiple Hits on targets Exhausts them. Triggering it on Players makes them deal 10% less damage. Exhaust duration cannot be refreshed. Hit Requirements by Weapon Type: • 3 Hits: Bows, Glaives (both Projectile and Melee), Grenade/Rocket Launchers (Impact and Detonation damage count separately), Sniper Rifles • 7 Hits: Scout Rifles • 12 Hits: Sidearms • 13 Hits: Submachine Guns • 14 Hits: Fusion Rifles • 16 Hits: Auto Rifles

Harmony

Upon readying the weapon within 3 seconds of getting a Kill with a different weapon: Grants 20% increased damage and 15 Handling for 7 seconds.

Harmony

Upon readying the weapon within 3 seconds of getting a Kill with a different weapon: Grants 20% increased damage and 15 Handling for 🡅8 seconds. 🡅 Buff Duration is increased by 1 second.

Pulse Monitor

Refills Magazine from reserves upon dropping to 30% Shield Health. Can activate while stowed. Grants 50 Handling and a 0.95x Ready/Stow Animation Duration Multiplier while at or below 30% Shield Health. Buff lingers for 1 second once the condition is no longer met.

Pulse Monitor

Refills Magazine from reserves upon dropping to 🡅35% Shield Health. Can activate while stowed. Grants 50 Handling and a 0.95x Ready/Stow Animation Duration Multiplier while at or below 🡅35% Shield Health. Buff lingers for 1 second once the condition is no longer met. 🡅 Activates with 5?% more Shield Health remaining.

Recommendations aggregated from curated community wishlists; credit to the curators linked above.

Empirical Evidence in Destiny 2

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