Hammerhead god roll & best perks

Hammerhead — Destiny 2 Machine Gun
Legendary · Machine Gun
Where it drops: Random Perks: This item cannot be reacquired from Collections.

“Smash through the veil.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Hammerhead →

Built from 1008 curated wishlist rolls for this Machine Gun. Perks marked essential appear in every roll of a recommendation; alternatives are the other perks curators call worth keeping.

Recommended rolls

Community wishlist roll

224 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for clearing individual Minor adds or tougher enemies in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. Hammerhead offers double damage perks for dealing with tougher adds, which is the usual go-to. In the first trait perk column, Rampage stacks up to ×3 on kills for ×1.331 damage for a refreshable 5s, with the stacks decaying one at a time. For your second column choice, Killing Tally gains a stack for each enemy killed up to ×3 to boost damage by up to ×1.3 until you reload or stow, One For All boosts damage by ×1.35 for a non-refreshable 11s after hitting three separate targets within 3s of each, or Desperate Measures provides up to ×3 stacks for ×1.3 damage for a refreshable 7.5s for a weapon and then two ability kills. Alternatively, Onslaught, while not boosting damage per shot does increase raw DPS as you ramp up to the max ×3 stacks, for a refreshable 5s per kill, to increase RPM from 450 to around 720. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Rampage

Strong alternatives

Killing Tally Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds One for All Desperate Measures Onslaught Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

224 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for clearing individual Minor adds or tougher enemies in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. In the first trait perk column, Fourth Time's the Charm generates 2 shots from thin air after 4 crits within 3s of each other, almost doubling your total ammo if you can keep hitting crits. For your second column choice for damage, Killing Tally gains a stack for each enemy killed up to ×3 to boost damage by up to ×1.3 until you reload or stow, One For All boosts damage by ×1.35 for a non-refreshable 11s after hitting three separate targets within 3s of each, or Desperate Measures provides up to ×3 stacks for ×1.3 damage for a refreshable 7.5s for a weapon and then two ability kills. Alternatively, Onslaught, while not boosting damage per shot does increase raw DPS as you ramp up to the max ×3 stacks, for a refreshable 5s per kill, to increase RPM from 450 to around 720. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Fourth Time's the Charm

Strong alternatives

Killing Tally Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds One for All Desperate Measures Onslaught Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

224 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for clearing individual Minor adds or tougher enemies in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty, particularly with Void builds. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. Hammerhead offers double damage perks for dealing with tougher adds, which is the usual go-to. In the first trait perk column, for Void synergy, Destabilizing Rounds spreads Void Volatility on a kill in a 6.5m radius and provides Volatile Rounds for 5.25s. For your second column choice, Killing Tally gains a stack for each enemy killed up to ×3 to boost damage by up to ×1.3 until you reload or stow, One For All boosts damage by ×1.35 for a non-refreshable 11s after hitting three separate targets within 3s of each, or Desperate Measures provides up to ×3 stacks for ×1.3 damage for a refreshable 7.5s for a weapon and then two ability kills. Alternatively, Onslaught, while not boosting damage per shot does increase raw DPS as you ramp up to the max ×3 stacks, for a refreshable 5s per kill, to increase RPM from 450 to around 720. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Destabilizing Rounds

Strong alternatives

Killing Tally Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds One for All Desperate Measures Onslaught Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

168 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. For sustained boss damage, in the first trait perk column, Fourth Time's the Charm generates 2 shots from thin air after 4 crits within 3s of each other, almost doubling your total ammo if you can keep hitting crits. Not quite as good, but there's also Rewind Rounds to refill 70% of hits landed from reserves when the magazine empties, or Demolitionist provides an instant magazine refill on grenade use and chunk grenade ability energy on kills. For your second column choice for damage, Target Lock stacks up to 5 times on repeated hits within 0.2s of each other, for up to ×1.4 damage at 110.33% of base magazine capacity - so works well with overflowed or auto-refilled magazines. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Target Lock

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake Fourth Time's the Charm High-Caliber Rounds Rewind Rounds Demolitionist Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

112 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty, particularly on Void builds. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. For Void synergy, in the first trait perk column Destabilizing Rounds spreads Void Volatility on a kill in a 6.5m radius and provides Volatile Rounds for 5.25s, or Dimensional Shift grants Dimensional Breach on picking up a Void Breach which, while active provides a refreshable 8s overshield on kills. In the second column, Demoralize spreads a ~4m AoE cloud of Void Weaken to nearby enemies for a ×1.15 boost to damage for your fireteam for 5s on a crit kill. For your second column choice for damage, Target Lock stacks up to 5 times on repeated hits within 0.2s of each other, for up to ×1.4 damage at 110.33% of base magazine capacity - so works well with overflowed or auto-refilled magazines. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Demoralize

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds Destabilizing Rounds Dimensional Shift Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

56 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for clearing individual Minor adds or tougher enemies in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty, particularly with grenade builds. Hammerhead is an adaptive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "technically a strict downgrade to aggressive damage profile, but barrier intrinsic is noticeable". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Barrier, but offers no bonuses beyond being "well-rounded, reliable and sturdy" as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is vertical and reasonably tight so you could improve recoil control or just look to boost Stability to help hit crits with the barrel perk, or just boost Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags, or perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size are fine. With grenade builds, Demolitionist generates chunk grenade ability energy on kills and an instant magazine refill on grenade use. You can use these grenades to help proc Desperate Measures in the second column to provide up to ×3 stacks for ×1.3 damage for a refreshable 7.5s for a weapon and then two ability kills. There's two useful origin traits: Aegis ranks Forge's Kin as S-Tier - it provides a ×1 stack of "Forge's Kin" for 5s after a kill, or on swapping from another Black Armory weapon kill within 7s. Each additional Black Armory weapon equipped adds an additional stack, boosting the activation window by +2s each together with increasing Reload Speed and Ammo Generation and damage boosts of ×1.1 and ×1.13. There's also the B-Tier Indomitability which provides 6% grenade energy on Light subclasses or melee energy on Darkness subclasses, on kills. If you're interested, the name refers to the business-end of a blacksmith's hammer, a direct homage to the Black Armory's culture of industrial craftsmanship, forging weapons, and "striking down" humanity's enemies. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Minor PvE-SingleAdd PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Desperate Measures Demolitionist

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

What these Hammerhead perks do

Killing Tally

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of Killing Tally. Maximum of 3 Stacks. Stowing or reloading the weapon removes all Stacks. Damage increase at 1|2|3 Stacks: • PVE: 10% | 20% | 30% • PVP: 5% | 10% | 15%

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%.

Rampage

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of Rampage. Maximum of 3 Stacks. Stacks expire one at a time every 4.5 seconds. Grants a 10%|21%|33.1% damage increase at 1|2|3 Stacks. Does not buff the Splash/Explosive damage elements of other perks.

One for All

Scoring Weapon Hits against 3 Separate Enemies within 3 seconds of each grants 35% increased damage for 10 seconds. Does not require Direct Hits. Buff duration cannot be refreshed.

Desperate Measures

Weapon Kills grant 'Desperate Measures x1' (DMx1), increasing damage by 10% for 7 seconds. Grenade or Melee Kills grant 20% increased damage for 7 seconds (DMx2). Scoring another Grenade or Melee Kill with DMx2 active increases this to 30% (DMx3). Can be activated while stowed. Weapon, Grenade, and Melee Kills refresh the buff duration.

Onslaught

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of 'Onslaught' for 4.5 seconds. Maximum of 3 Stacks. Benefits at 1|2|3 Stacks of Onslaught: • 16.7% | 28.6% | 37.5% decreased Firing Delay • 15 | 25 | 35 Reload Speed

Armor-Piercing Rounds

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

Alloy Magazine

Linearly grants a Reload Duration Multiplier as your magazine drops from 50% capacity to empty. Reload Duration Multiplier scales from 0.9x at 50% capacity to 0.8x with an empty magazine.

Fourth Time's the Charm

Scoring 4 Precision Hits within 2 seconds of each refills 2 Ammo into the Magazine from thin air. Cannot load the Magazine beyond its base capacity. Precision Hit counter persists through stow.

Target Lock

Successive Hits within 0.2 seconds of each grant a ramping Damage Buff after scoring 12.5% of the Magazine Capacity as hits. Missing deactivates the buff. Stacks displayed on-screen are only visual aides, the buff ramps up with each shot once active. Reaches maximum strength at 5 Stacks. % of the Magazine Capacity as Hits required for each Visual Stack: 12.5%|35.5%|54.5%|74.5%|110.33% Damage Buff ramps up from 16.73% [10.46%] to 40% [25%] upon reaching maximum strength. Assuming no missed shots, it provides roughly a 25% [15.85%] Damage Buff on average after firing 100% of the Magazine Capacity.

Rewind Rounds

Upon emptying the Magazine: Refills 60% of the number of Hits landed (rounded up) into the Magazine from reserves. Hits are counted from either your last reload or the last time the perk was triggered. Does not require Direct Hits. Requires firing 28.75% of the Magazine Capacity for the refill to activate. Cannot load the Magazine beyond its base capacity. Hits after triggering a refill do not count while the Rewind Rounds buff is active (1? second). Adaptive Burst Linear Fusion Rifle behavior: • Each individual bolt in the burst counts as a Hit • Refill amount is uniquely 14% of the number of Hits rounded up (numbers are subject to change once we get more data points)

Demolitionist

Weapon Kills grant 10% Grenade Ability Energy. Kills with Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Glaives, and Fusion Rifles grant 20%. Using your Grenade Ability refills the Magazine with a 3 second cooldown. 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.

Demoralize

Precision Kills apply Weaken to enemies within 7 meters of the target for ? seconds. 1.5? second cooldown between activations.

Destabilizing Rounds

Weapon Kills apply Volatile to enemies in a 7 meter radius around the target and grant Volatile Rounds for 3 seconds. 1.5 second cooldown between activations.

Dimensional Shift

Collecting a Void Breach grants 'Dimensional Breach' until your next Weapon Kill. Scoring a Weapon Kill while Dimensional Breach is active grants a 22.5 HP Void Overshield for 8 seconds (12 with Echo of Persistence) and begins a 5 second timer. Additional weapon kills extend the timer back to 5 seconds.

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

Hammerhead in Destiny 2

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