New ‘pinnacle’ weapons come to Destiny 2 with Season 5

Destiny 2’s fifth season, Season of the Forge, starts tomorrow, on Nov. 27. Like all seasons, Forge brings new rewards for players to grind for, even if they don’t own all the new content.

In Season 4, Destiny 2 players were able to grind competitive PvP for Luna’s Howl, a powerful hand cannon. But in Season 5, Bungie is adding pinnacle weapons — guns that are earned from specific activities and designed to perform well there — like Luna’s Howl for Gambit and strikes as well as competitive multiplayer.

All of these weapons come with their own elaborate quests. However, the new Crucible weapon is far more difficult to achieve than the Gambit and strike weapons. Each weapon is Legendary and has a distinct look to it as well, despite being an alteration from an already existing model.

The Loaded Question is the pinnacle weapon for strikes this season. It’s a high-impact fusion rifle with the unique perk Reservoir Burst. When Loaded Question has a full magazine, the first shot will deal bonus damage and cause enemies killed to explode, damaging nearby enemies.

The quest to earn Loaded Question is time consuming, but not terribly difficult. Over the course of the season, players will need to complete 40 strikes or Nightfalls, get 1,000 kills with Arc damage and get 500 kills with Fusion Rifles.

In Gambit, players will be able to work toward Breakneck, a precision auto rifle. Breakneck’s unique perk is Onslaught, which causes the gun to fire faster the more stacks of Rampage it has active — a damage bonus earned after getting a kill that stacks up to three times. To get Breakneck, you’ll need to get 500 auto rifle kills, kill 150 challenging enemies, earn 100 auto rifle multi-kills and complete 40 Gambit matches.

Bungie/Activision

The final pinnacle weapon of Season 5 is The Mountaintop, a kinetic grenade launcher earned from the Crucible. Unlike other grenade launchers, The Mountaintop fires a “micro-missile,” which is exactly what it sounds like. The projectile moves very quickly and does not arc, making it much easier to actually hit targets. On its default setting, the missile will detonate when it impacts on a wall, but you can also switch over to sticky grenades for more of a trap oriented play style.

The quest for The Mountaintop is the hardest of any of the pinnacle weapon quests this season. First, players will need to earn Glory rank of Brave (rank two) in the competitive playlist. After that, players will need to complete certain feats in multiplayer: 750 points with grenade launchers (three points per kill in non-competitive, 10 in competitive), 200 multi-kill points (two points per double in non-competitive, five in competitive) and 100 Calculated Trajectory points (one point for each medal earned in non-competitive, four for competitive). To earn the Calculated Trajectory medal, players will need to kill three opponents with a grenade launcher without dying. For the final step of The Mountaintop, players will need to reach the rank of Fabled (rank four) in the competitive playlist.

Unlike previous pinnacle weapon quests, the Season 5 weapons can all be earned on any character, and progress made toward one will be shared across all of them. These quests will also persist past Season 5, although specific objectives (like reaching Fabled) will reset at the start of each season.

Season of the Forge will be released on Nov. 27. The following week, Black Armory, the first mini-expansion included in the annual pass for Destiny 2, will be released on Dec. 4.