Destiny 2: 9 Best Sniper Rifles For Your Arsenal

Guardians playing Bungie’s Destiny 2 don’t always have to head to battle guns blazing. However, other players with a flair for tactical battles might want to approach their missions with a degree of finesse. After all, what better way of keeping safe on the battlefield than by dealing damage from afar? And thanks to the Sniper Rifle, players can easily play with enemies from the rear while their allies pick them off.

Moreover, Sniper Rifles come in a wide range of varieties – from Kinetic variants to more specialized Energy and Power types. Players who want to add a degree of flair to their playing experience can add a Sniper Rifle to their Guardian’s arsenal. However, which ones are the best?

Updated August 29th, 2024, by Nathan Halsey: Snipers have been given a significant boost in Destiny 2 with the release of The Final Shape, and this list has been updated to reflect that. Not only do many of these new weapons push the envelope in terms of damage, but Bungie has also increased the utility of the weapon type with a particular entry. As a result, Snipers are seeing increased use across the PvE landscape, from Grandmaster Strikes and Raid Encounters to Dungeons and basic Strikes. While they aren’t the easiest weapon to use, and often require good intuition with regard to enemy movement, many of these weapons are well worth practice, and won’t skimp out on results.

9 Embraced Identity

A Great Pick When Void Is Required

• How to Acquire: The Pale Heart Destination Weapon
• Element: Void
• Frame: Adaptive Frame, 90 RPM

Embraced Identity is a decent enough sniper for those who require a Void Sniper. Not only is it craftable, but it comes with very flexible PvE perks that allow players to tailor it to their needs. In activities like Grandmaster Nightfalls, perk combinations like Reconstruction and Fourth Time’s the Charm come in handy for making every bullet count while reducing the need to reload.

For damage, Precision Instrument bumps the damage up to 25% with enough hits. The gun isn’t by any means a must-have, but high-end players will want one of these around for when Void Surge is active, where it really pushes past the competition.

8 Cloudstrike

Single-Target And Add-Clear In One

How to Acquire: Empire Hunts

Element: Arc

RPM: 140

Cloudstrike is like a smaller Thunderlord in the Special Weapon slot. It has a lot of the same utility, but with the trade-off of being a Sniper Rifle as opposed to a Machine Gun. What this translates to is a Sniper that functions in both single-target sustained damage and ad-clear on lower damage thanks to its lightning strikes.

This gives the weapon a lot of flexibility so long as the player can operate within its effective distance. Don’t sleep on this weapon in Arc Surge modified activities.

7 Izanagi’s Burden

Easily Deployable Burst Damage

• How To Acquire: Monument to Lost Lights
• Element: Kinetic
• RPM: 90

Izanagi’s Burden is a bit of a niche pick, but it’s so unique in what it does that it’s hard to recommend anything else that fits the job. What sets Izanagi’s Burden apart from the rest is that it can hold onto an absurd amount of burst damage, that can be unleashed whenever desired.

Unlike long term DPS options like Still Hunt, which have long animations and timers involved, Izanagi’s Burden can have its powerful shot stored for the perfect moment, and it won’t disappear unless the player dies. This comes particularly in handy when dealing with minibosses at range, or in fights that require a lot of movement and positioning where Still Hunt may lose out on its effectiveness.

6 Whisper Of The Worm

One Of The Best Sustain Damage Options

• How to Acquire: The Whisper Exotic Mission
• Element: Solar
• RPM: 72

An embodiment of Xol, the Will of Thousands, and one of the horrifying Worm Gods, the Whisper of the Worm is a terrifying Sniper Rifle in both its appearance and ability. Matching its rather unsettling “infected” appearance is an impressive stat array with high impact, range, and aim assistance.

Aiding players greatly is its White Nail, an Exotic Perk that not only grants this weapon high precision damage at the base but also refills the magazine when landing three quick precision hits. As such, Whisper of the Worm becomes an incentivizing weapon for snipers who don’t want to reposition often and can take advantage of its extra shots.

5 The Supremacy

Highly-Mobile PvE And PvP Weapon

• How to Acquire: The Last Wish Raid
• Element: Kinetic
• Frame: Rapid Fire, 140 RPM

Players that want a Kinetic Sniper Rifle should look at The Supremacy to see if it fits their needs. It’s an incredibly varied weapon, with perks that work in PvP while being one of the best Snipers in PvE. Perks like Fourth Time’s the Charm and Rewind Rounds extend ammo economy, and Bait and Switch adds 30% to damage so long as players use every weapon in their arsenal beforehand.

PvP perks are a lot more simple, with Snapshot Sights or Elemental Capacitor to tweak its stats further. It’s also an incredibly snappy weapon, with a fast fire rate and good mobility, a boon in both PvE and PvP.

4 Succession

A High-Capacity Rifle That Hits Hard

• How to Acquire: Deep Stone Crypt Raid, Onslaught
• Element: Kinetic
• Frame: Aggressive Frame, 72 RPM

Succession boasts incredible firepower for a Special Weapon, and its destructive power matches its large size, boasting impressive impact and inventory size, as well as decent aim assistance.

Succession is all the more impressive when taking into account its perks. Reconstruction keeps the gun loaded to double its magazine size, and Recombination makes it so that getting kills with the game’s various elements stacks a damage bonus up to 100%. This gun can also run with Focus Fury and Firing line, making it a great pick for sustained damage on Champions and minibosses. The gun is also incredibly easy to acquire in Onslaught, and can be target farmed at Zavala, as well as acquired from its original source, Deep Stone Crypt. Both options for this gun are great, especially for players who want a slower and more deliberate rifle than The Supremacy.

3 Beloved

A Solar PvP Menace

• How to Acquire: Presage Exotic Mission
• Element: Solar
• Frame: Adaptive, 90 RPM

One of the more artistically savvy of the Sniper Rifles in the game, Beloved is easily one of the best Snipers in terms of reliability and consistency. Aside from impressive impact and aim assistance, the rifle also boasts one of the fastest RPMs in the game, making for a quick-hitting Sniper Rifle perfect for skirmishes.

In terms of overall builds, Hunters may want to consider relying on sheer speed to secure their targets as fast as possible. For instance, Snapshot Sights and Moving Target are great for getting into combat quickly, as both Traits boost ADS time – especially while mobile. Another interesting Trait includes Box Breathing, which boosts damage when waiting at ADS before firing – perfect for those who want to commit to the sniping role.

2 Critical Anomaly

For Best Champion Utility

• How to Acquire: Salvation’s Edge Raid
• Element: Stasis
• Frame: Aggressive, 72 RPM

Critical Anomaly arguably brings more utility than any sniper rifle before it. Not only is this a great weapon for dealing damage — with just about every boss damage perk one could want — but it is also the first of Destiny 2’s Sniper Rifles to roll with Chill Clip. This allows players to stun Overload Champions in a single shot by applying Slow to them, and stun Unstoppable Champions in at least two shots of the sniper by applying Freeze, which will stun them and deal outgoing damage when Shattered by any other weapon.

This makes the gun an easy pick for players that do high-difficulty Nightfalls all the way up to Grandmaster. And the kicker? Chill Clip rolls in the first perk column, meaning there are plenty of damage perks available.

1 Still Hunt

Solar Sniper Designed For Hunters

• How to Acquire: Wild Card Quest
• Element: Solar
• RPM: 90

Still Hunt is one of the strongest snipers in the game, if not definitively the best. It’s main trait, Cayde’s Retribution, allows the gun to fire Golden Gun shots after landing enough headshots and/or picking up enough Orbs of Power.

These Golden Gun shots are powerful, and interact similarly to the Super ability, though it does not create Orbs of Power on kills like the actual Golden Gun. Exotics like Celestial Nighthawk are able to transform its Golden Gun rounds into a single round, just like the original.