Hammerhead god roll & best perks

Hammerhead — Destiny 2 Machine Gun
Legendary · Machine Gun
Where it drops: Source: Into the Light

“Smash through the veil.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Hammerhead →

Built from 141 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

pandapaxxy

pve controller mkb 81 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvE / M+KB / Controller): "There has never been a more iconic legendary machine gun in Destiny 2 outside of Hammerhead. My old Feeding Frenzy and Rampage has been collecting dust but nothing else feels as good. The Brave version of Hammerhead can roll Rewind (WeeWoo) Rounds and Fourth Time's the Charm which will both refund ammo back into your magazine. Envious Assassin will allow you to overflow the magazine to over 200 if you also slot in a backup mag mod. Pair any of those perks will work wonderfully with your “damage” perk of choice. Onslaught will ramp up the RPM to 714, giving you incredible DPS. Killing Tally is one of the best damage perks for machine guns (and trace rifles). It doesn't go away until you reload which is where magazine extending perks like Rewind Rounds or Fourth Time's the Charm work well. Desperate Measures is the best of both worlds combining Adrenaline Junkie / Swashbuckler and Golden Tricorn." Recommended MW: Range, Stability, Handling, Reload Speed.

Strong alternatives

Onslaught Arrowhead Brake Appended Mag Rewind Rounds Killing Tally Desperate Measures Fourth Time's the Charm Envious Assassin Armor-Piercing Rounds Flared Magwell Fluted Barrel Smallbore

pandapaxxy

pvp controller 24 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / Controller): "Over on the PvP side, machine guns haven't been high meta but they have always felt good. Hammerhead with Rewind Rounds and High-Impact Reserves will synergize well with the low ammo from the wall, and refund itself to get you a few more kills. If you wanted to really show some players their own ghosts you could instead opt for Onslaught to delete them at a blistering pace. Over-Under is another good shout here to get rid of most players in rifts. I wouldn't mind hearing more Hammerheads in the crucible. At least I'd know where they are." Recommended MW: Stability.

Strong alternatives

Onslaught Arrowhead Brake Ricochet Rounds Rewind Rounds Killing Tally High-Impact Reserves Under-Over High-Caliber Rounds Smallbore

pandapaxxy

pvp mkb 24 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / M+KB): "Over on the PvP side, machine guns haven't been high meta but they have always felt good. Hammerhead with Rewind Rounds and High-Impact Reserves will synergize well with the low ammo from the wall, and refund itself to get you a few more kills. If you wanted to really show some players their own ghosts you could instead opt for Onslaught to delete them at a blistering pace. Over-Under is another good shout here to get rid of most players in rifts. I wouldn't mind hearing more Hammerheads in the crucible. At least I'd know where they are." Recommended MW: Range.

Strong alternatives

Onslaught Extended Barrel Ricochet Rounds Rewind Rounds Killing Tally High-Impact Reserves Under-Over High-Caliber Rounds Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

12 wishlist rolls

Adamsdown_Boy - information as at v8.0.0.6 PvE / PvE-Boss / PvE-BossSpec / PvE-EndGame / PvE-God / M+KB / Controller): PvE pick for killing boss-tier Subjugators. As per @mossy_max (https://x.com/mossy_max/status/1804893174965338387) - boss-tier Subjugators have a 20% damage reduction to all non-matching damage, going up to 30% DR to all damage after they "screech", which counts as a shield in-game and reacts to shield-based trait perks. Hammerhead drops from Onslaught, but there's no focusing, so you're fate lies in the hands of RNGesus. First, Arrowhead Brake to help with recoil, or Chambered Compensator or Polygonal Rifling will also to help land consistent crits. Then Appended Mag which, with a Backup Mag mod, gets you to 75 in the mag (again, if your drop one, Extended Mag works too) - but the inventory stat is on the low side, so you'll max out at 430 - that's 20-25 less than other adaptives. In the first trait perk column, Under-Over provides a base +50% damage against the boss Subjugator "shield". To boost this further, you can choose between Target Lock or Killing Tally, depending on whether there are adds around or not. The Indomitability origin trait isn't going to be that useful, unfortunately, as it only procs on kills. Recommended MW: Stability, with a Backup Mag mod

Essential perks

Under-Over

Strong alternatives

Target Lock Arrowhead Brake Appended Mag Chambered Compensator Polygonal Rifling Extended Mag Killing Tally

What these Hammerhead perks do

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.

Under-Over

Increases damage against shielded targets: • 125% increase against PVE Combatant Overshields • 50% increase against PVE Combatant Elemental Shields and Barrier Champion Shields • 20% increase against Player Overshields and for bodyshots against Players with Woven Mail Notable Combatant Overshields include Shadow Legion Tech Pack and Lucent Moth Overshields. They are indicated with a glowing outline around the targets as well as a small blue health bar under the normal one. Does not buff the Splash/Explosive damage elements of other perks.

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%

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

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)

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.

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.

Envious Assassin

Upon readying the weapon after scoring Kills with your other Weapons: Refills and/or overfills the Magazine from reserves based on the amount of Weapon Kills scored. Maximum total overfill amount is 200% of the Magazine Capacity. Each activation can only load up to 100% of the Magazine Capacity into the magazine. Loaded ammo per Kill by ammo type (rounds up): • Primary Weapons: 10% of Magazine Capacity • Special and Power Weapons: 20%

Armor-Piercing Rounds

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

High-Impact Reserves

Increases damage by 12.1% [3%] to 25.6% [6%] as the Magazine drops from 50% of its base capacity to empty. The buff in PVE ranges between 10.3% and 22.9% instead on Fusion Rifles and Aggressive Frame Linear Fusion Rifles. Does not buff the Splash/Explosive damage elements of other perks.

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%.

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

Hammerhead in Destiny 2

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