Destiny 2: 10 Best Armor Mods

Highlights

• Mods are crucial for build crafting in Destiny 2, helping players maintain ammo supply and enhance weapon damage during end-game activities.
• Key mods like Ammo Finder, Lucent Blade, and Damage Resistance are must-haves for PvE and PvP, improving gameplay strategies.
• New mods like Kickstart and Weapon Surge offer unique benefits, requiring players to experiment and adapt their loadouts based on the activity.

Armor mods are a crucial element of build crafting in Destiny 2. The game’s new loadout system has made creating and managing builds more straightforward and user-friendly. With an excellent selection of mods and the addition of new subclasses, the variety of mods continues to expand. Each season introduces a new build meta, and mastering build crafting requires a deep understanding of the best armor mods.

In addition to build crafting, mods play a significant role in end-game PvE and PvP activities. Mods like damage resistance and ammo finders are incredibly helpful for completing challenging end-game content like Grandmaster Nightfalls and Raids. Certain mods have remained part of the meta since their introduction, and players should ensure they have these in their collection.

10 Ammo Finder

Helmet Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 3
• Ammo Type: Special and Heavy Ammo

Ammo Finder is one of the most essential leg armor mods in Destiny 2, especially for PvE activities. In the Lightfall DLC, the ammo system was slightly modified, shifting from affinity-based to type-based Ammo Finder mods. When equipped, these mods ensure an ammo brick drops after a set number of kills—typically 13 to 17 for Special weapons and 15 to 20 for Heavy weapons.

Ammo Finder mods help players maintain a steady supply of ammo for their special and heavy weapons. To enhance their effectiveness, players can pair these mods with weapon perks like Lead from Gold, ensuring they never run out of ammo during critical moments.

9 Lucent Blade

Chest Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 4
• Weapons: Swords and Glaives

Lucent Blades is an S-Tier chest armor mod designed for swords and glaives. It is one of the most popular mods for end-game activities, especially during boss phases. The mod’s primary perk increases the damage of swords and glaives for 5 seconds, consuming one stack of Charged with Light.

The mod’s secondary perk increases the swords’ charge rate and is active when at least one Arc mod is socketed in any other armor piece. Players can combine the Lucent Blade armor mod with perks like Relentless Strikes to continuously strike the boss with minimal cooldowns, significantly improving their DPS potential.

8 Energy Siphon

Helmet Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 3
• Affinity: All Energy Types

Siphon mods are extremely useful in any game activity. These mods enable weapons to create Orbs of Power by killing multiple enemies, offering an excellent alternative to other orb-generating armor mods by naturally producing orbs during ad clearing. Siphon mods are slotted into head armor and cost one energy.

Siphon mods are available in all affinities, including Void, Solar, Arc, and Strand. Players can also use the harmonic siphon to align the mod with their equipped class. Using multiple Siphon mods enhances the potency of the generated orbs, and players can pair Siphon mods with weapons like Sunshot to continuously generate Orbs of Power for themselves and their teammates.

7 Ammo Scavenger

Leg Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 3
• Affinity: All Energy Types

Ammo scavenger mods are a great addition to one’s leg armor in Destiny 2. When paired with Ammo Finders, these mods can significantly boost the amount of ammo players get from drops, often doubling or tripling the ammo intake. This is especially handy in PvE, where just one scavenger mod can net the player multiple rounds of heavy or special ammo.

Ammo reserves are the most crucial part of the end-game activities, and this mod pair can really make them easy. Just like most of the other mods, the scavenger mods also come in all affinities including solar, arc, void, strand, and harmonic scavenger.

6 Special Finisher

Class Item Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 1
• Affinity: Universal

Finishers provide a stylish way to eliminate enemies in Destiny 2 and offer practical benefits. The Special Finisher mod allows players to create ammo bricks through finishers. This mod generates ammo bricks at the cost of one-third of a player’s Super energy, which is particularly useful in end-game PvE content. This mod can be applied to class items and costs only one energy.

Special Finishers are a reliable alternative to Ammo Finder mods, as they guarantee ammo drops for players and their teammates. The generated ammo bricks contain more than those dropped by Ammo Finder mods, making them a valuable resource in challenging end-game activities.

5 Ability Kickstart

Arms Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 3
• Affinity: Universal

Kickstart mods are gauntlet mods that cost between 1 and 3 energy. Kickstart mods are ideal for players aiming to minimize their ability cooldowns. Introduced during the Season of the Lost, these mods quickly became a staple in the meta. A Kickstart mod refunds 15% of one’s ability energy when it’s completely depleted, consuming a player’s Armor Charge in the process.

These mods can be stacked, allowing one to regain 30% of their energy by equipping two Kickstart mods on their armor. There are three variants of Kickstart mods, each affecting different ability cooldowns: Grenade Kickstart, Melee Kickstart, and Class Ability Kickstart.

4 Weapon Targeting

Helmet Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 3
• Affinity: All Energy Types

The targeting mod is arguably the best weapon mod in the game for PvP activities. These mods improve weapon targeting and aim to assist specific elemental types. When equipped with helmets, they enhance target acquisition and precision aiming with weapons such as hand cannons, auto rifles, sniper rifles, and more.

Targeting mods help players maintain accuracy and land shots more effectively, especially in fast-paced combat situations like Crucible activities. Apart from PvP, they can also be helpful in PvE activities with weapons perks like headstone and firefly, as precision hits will give these weapons amazing ad clearing.

3 Damage Resistance

Chest Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 2
• Affinity: All Energy Types

Damage Resistance mods are an important part of any loadout for end-game activities in Destiny 2. Each activity in the game has a threat modifier that allows players to select the proper damage resistance mods. Damage resistance mods are applied to chest armor, and they cost 2 energy, depending on the damage type.

These mods reduce incoming damage from a specific damage type by 25%; stacking two mods increases the reduction to 40%. Apart from elemental damage, these mods also allow players to choose protection against different kinds of damage, such as melee, splash, and sniper damage.

2 Protective Light

Chest Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 4
• Affinity: Universal

The Protective Light mod was introduced in the Season of Dawn and is one of the most frequently used armor mods for players tackling end-game activities solo or aiming for flawless completions. Once Charged with Light, the Protective Light mod grants significant damage resistance against combatants when the player’s shields are depleted, consuming all stacks of Charged with Light.

The duration of this damage resistance increases with the number of stacks consumed, providing extended protection based on the amount of energy expended. Protective Light is an extremely valuable mod for improving survivability, particularly in high-difficulty and solo end-game activities.

1 Weapon Surge

Leg Armor Mod

• Energy Cost: 4
• Affinity: All Energy Types

Armor Surge mods are currently the most effective mods for increasing weapon damage in Destiny 2, making them extremely helpful in the game’s most challenging pinnacle activities, such as contest mode raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls. Weapon Surge mods come in different elements, such as Arc, Solar, Void, and Strand, allowing them to align with one’s subclass and weapon type for increased damage output. These mods are equipped with leg armor and have specific energy costs.

Weapon surge mods mostly depend on armor charges, which can be acquired by picking an orb of power. Players get increased weapon damage depending on their armor charges. The effectiveness of weapon surge mods can also be improved by combining them with mods like Stacks on Stacks to increase the stacks of Armor Charge and Time Dilation to extend the duration of Armor Charge.