THE SWARM (Adept) god roll & best perks

THE SWARM (Adept) — Destiny 2 Machine Gun
Legendary · Machine Gun
Where it drops: Source: Season of the Chosen Nightfall Grandmaster

“Hunger is the all of it, and it is all of hunger.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for THE SWARM (Adept) →

Built from 57 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

pvp controller 24 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / Controller): Recommended MW: Range or Stability. High-Impact(360) Arc Machine Gun Heavy Ammo. "Over in the Crucible having Rangefinder in the third column and Tap the Trigger in the fourth column give this machine gun a leg up over other high-impact frames. It isn’t the strongest machine gun in the game but will do incredible work if you prefer this archetype over the adaptive frames."

Strong alternatives

Fluted Barrel Tap the Trigger Rangefinder Accurized Rounds Hammer-Forged Rifling Tactical Mag Extended Mag Dynamic Sway Reduction Target Lock

Community wishlist roll

18 wishlist rolls

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies Podcast vs Enemies episode 68 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/7e93LMhFDUbZZX5SKYzXf0?si=cec8c26785114ffb) with @Saint_Kabr, @CourtProjects and @ImpetusAlways. First-choice PvE pick for add-clear in end-game activities. It's difficult to love the reprised SWARM for PvE when the best damage perk has been lost, and the PvE options in both trait columns are weak. The only viable use is for minor add-clear as a kind of heavy scout rifle, but if you already have an older Bottomless Grief/One For All roll, just keep that and move on. If you do want to hold on to one, you could make an argument for any barrel perk - Fluted Barrel, for the handling and stability, Polygonal Rifling, for the big stability bump or Full Bore for the range bump, for example. In the mag, Appended Mag adds extra bullets, Flared Magwell adds straight stability and Reload Speed or Tactical Mag does both. In the first trait column as the support perk, Feeding Frenzy and Well Rounded are the best of a limited bunch, while in the second slot as the signature perk, Golden Tricorn is much the only choice - a straight 15% damage boost on kills that can be boosted to 50% with an arc ability kill for occasional burst damage against Majors. Recommended MW: Handling or Stability, with a damage-boosting (Minor or Taken Spec) or Backup Mag mod.|tags: PvE, PvE-MinorSpec, PvE-God, PvE-EndGame, Controller, M+KB

Essential perks

Golden Tricorn

Strong alternatives

Tactical Mag Fluted Barrel Feeding Frenzy Polygonal Rifling Full Bore Appended Mag Flared Magwell Well-Rounded

pandapaxxy

pve mkb controller 15 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvE / M+KB / Controller): Recommended MW: Reload. High-Impact(360) Arc Machine Gun Heavy Ammo. "Feeding Frenzy is the best in slot for keeping your mag topped off. Target Lock and Golden Tricorn are going to be your best damage perks if you like running arc in Pve. I would recommend any mag extending perk as Feeding Frenzy should make up for your reload. The Swarm fits a niche in between a pure damage and a pure add-clear machine gun."

Essential perks

Feeding Frenzy

Strong alternatives

Target Lock Appended Mag Fluted Barrel Smallbore Tactical Mag Flared Magwell Golden Tricorn Vorpal Weapon

What these THE SWARM (Adept) perks do

Golden Tricorn

While the perk's buff isn't active, Weapon Kills grant 'Golden Tricorn x1' for 7 seconds, increasing weapon damage by 15%. Additional Kills refresh the buff duration. While Golden Tricorn x1 or x2 is active: Grenade or Elemental Melee Kills matching the element of the Weapon grant Golden Tricorn x2 for 10 seconds, increasing weapon damage by 50%. Clarity tooltip editor's note: We're replacing the previous Powered Melee term with Elemental Melee. The former is now exclusively used for perks that require the consumption of a Melee Ability Charge. This note is temporary and will be removed in the future.

Feeding Frenzy

Weapon Kills grant 1 Stack of Feeding Frenzy for 3.5 seconds, increasing the Reload Speed of the weapon. Maximum of 5 Stacks. Bonuses at 1|2|3|4|5 Stacks: • 8|50|60|75|100 Reload Speed • 2.5%|10%|13%|16%|20% decreased Reload Animation Duration

Well-Rounded

Grenade Ability usage and Elemental Melee hits grant 1 Stack of Well-Rounded for 15 seconds. Super Ability usage grants 2 Stacks. Maximum of 2 Stacks. Each Stack grants 10 Range, 10 Stability, and 10 Handling. Clarity tooltip editor's note: We're replacing the previous Powered Melee term with Elemental Melee. The former is now exclusively used for perks that require the consumption of a Melee Ability Charge. This note is temporary and will be removed in the future.

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.

Vorpal Weapon

Deals increased damage against Minibosses, Bosses, and Vehicles, as well as Players in their Super Ability. Damage increase by Ammo Type: • Primary Weapons: 20% [60%] • Special Weapons: 15% [20%] • Power Weapons: 10% [20%]

Tap the Trigger

Firing grants 'Tap The Trigger' for 0.6 seconds, providing the following benefits: • 40 Stability • 50% decreased Recoil • 10% decreased Accuracy Cone Size Fusion Rifles only receive 25% of the benefits. Buff cannot be refreshed until Automatic Weapons stop firing, or until the next burst. [Controller-Only] Weapon fires the instant trigger pressure is applied.

Rangefinder

Aiming Down Sights grants the following benefits: • 10 Range • 10% increased Effective Zoom • 5% increased Projectile Speed The Effective Zoom increase pushes out Aim Assist Falloff by 10%, reduces (Absolute) Recoil by 10% and narrows the Accuracy and Aim Assist Cones by the same amount. (This is the normal behavior of Zoom and isn't unique to Rangefinder)

Dynamic Sway Reduction

Each shot while holding down the trigger grants the following benefits: • 1 Stability • ?% decreased Accuracy Cone Size • 10% decreased Accuracy Cone Growth Reaches maximum strength after 10 shots, granting 10 Stability, ?% decreased Accuracy Cone Size, and 100% decreased Accuracy Cone Growth.

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

THE SWARM (Adept) in Destiny 2

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