Destiny 2 weapon review: Is the Horror Story auto rifle worth grinding for?

The Horror Story auto rifle is the exclusive weapon for Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost, 2018. It’s essentially a remake of the Origin Story auto rifle from the Vanguard in Year One, with a fixed roll guaranteed to drop at 600 power. But getting the Horror Story is going to cost you a lot of Fragmented Souls, so you may be asking yourself, “Is it worth my time?”

In this review, we’re going to help you answer that.

How do you get Horror Story?

During Festival of the Lost — which runs this year from Oct. 16 to Nov. 6 — Amanda Holliday will be selling Horror Story for 120 Fragmented Souls. This is a pretty steep price, although it’s easy enough to grind out if you’re willing to spend the time in the Haunted Forest and complete Amanda’s weekly bounty. Her bounty requires you to complete 15 daily Festival of the Lost bounties, and it awards Masterwork Cores and 40 Fragmented Souls.

As long as you’re getting to Branch 7 of the Haunted Forest during each run, you’ll need about 12 runs to get this auto rifle. If you space out your grind and complete Amanda’s bounty as you go — you’ll need at least three days worth of bounties to do — you’ll only need eight runs.

Horror Story perks and Masterwork

Horror Story comes with a decent roll. Its main perk is Rampage, which increases your damage up to three time after a kill and is excellent on auto rifles. The other perk is Zen Moment, which increases the weapon’s stability as you deal damage. The Masterwork — which comes fully upgraded — is reload speed.

Bungie/Activision via Polygon

Is Horror Story any good?

This is the ultimate question here, and it’s unfortunately very easy to answer: Horror Story is a bad auto rifle.

Stability and handling are both decent for this gun, and the range is fantastic. But the impact — better thought of as damage — is very low, so the weapon feels more like a peashooter than an auto rifle. Trying to get that first stack of Rampage is a chore, but it feels required to deal any amount of meaningful damage.

Auto rifles aren’t in the best place right now in Destiny 2, but Horror Story feels especially lacking. When we took the gun into the Crucible, we were unable to get a single solo kill with it in Rumble. In Strikes and the Haunted Forest, the gun just feels subpar. If you want to use an auto rifle in the Haunted Forest, we would recommend a high-impact frame rifle like the Age-Old Bond that you can get from the Last Wish Raid.

Horror Story could be good one day if Bungie buffs auto rifle damage — especially on console where you can take advantage of Zen Moment. But right now, on PC, the gun is a disappointment.

If you find yourself flush with Fragmented Souls by the end of the Festival of the Lost event, or you’re looking to be a completionist, then Horror Story is worth a buy. But if you only have limited time to spend in Festival of the Lost, skip it. I’d rather have a cosmetic Shaxx mask than this auto rifle.