Dead Orbit won Destiny 2’s first Faction Rally. Dead Orbit loyalists can buy the Haunted Earth scout rifle for only 1,000 glimmer. For those who pledged to the other factions (Future War Cult and New Monarchy), Dead Orbit’s gun can be theirs for the steep price of 50,000 glimmer.

Is Haunted Earth worth 50,000 glimmer? Or even 1,000? In this guide, we’ll help you decide.

All about Haunted Earth

What kind of weapon is Haunted Earth? A powerful, slow-firing, semiautomatic scout rifle. Range and impact are its best features.

If you like sitting back and taking shots at enemies from a distance or if you miss being able to regularly use your sniper rifle in Destiny 2, this may be a good weapon for you. Will it replace the feeling of having sniper ammo all the time? Absolutely not, but it will let you engage from a distance.

Bungie/Activision

Haunted Earth comes from the High-Impact Frame family, a group of scout rifles that have long ranges, fire slowly and deal big damage. However, their low rate of fire mitigates their high damage. In other words, despite doing more damage per hit, their damage per second is generally lower than most scouts that fire faster.

With slow-firing, High-Impact Frame scout rifles, every round counts, and distance offers an advantage. Contrast this with their opposite: submachine guns expel a flurry of comparatively weak rounds at a high rate of fire, which is best deployed at close range.

When you aim down the sights, Haunted Earth can hit faraway targets (particularly with the Model 6 Loop scope). It’s not quite sniper distance, but it’s fairly close. If you stand still and aim down the sights, you’ll get more accuracy because of the High-Impact frame. The Field Prep trait is always on, and it increases your ammo reserves and, while you’re crouched, increases your reload speed.

Unfortunately, opportunities to play this way are rather rare in Destiny 2, and for many Dead Orbit pledgers and scout rifles fans, Haunted Earth’s specializations could be pretty disappointing.

Haunted Earth perks and traits

Grid View

• Bungie/Activision
• Bungie/Activision
• Bungie/Activision
• Bungie/Activision
• Bungie/Activision
• Bungie/Activision

Let’s look at Haunted Earth’s perks and traits:

• Scopes: IS 5 Circle or Model 6 Loop: Close and medium range.
• Rounds: Tactical Mag or High-Caliber rounds: Use Tactical Mag for PvE (player versus environment), High-Caliber rounds for PvP (player versus player, like the Crucible).
• Trait: Field Prep: This gun reloads faster when crouched, and it has increased ammo reserves.

The Tactical Mag grants slightly increased stability, faster reload speed and slightly increased magazine size. This is a decent perk for PvE in Destiny 2.

High-Caliber rounds is an excellent perk that, you could argue, helps to offset Haunted Earth’s slow rate of fire. High-Caliber rounds rounds hit the target extra hard, causing them to stagger more and making it harder for them to aim (back at you). It also slightly increases range. For a midrange sniper feel, pair it with the Model 6 Loop scope, which offers a medium zoom, a red dot sight and increases range and handling speed.

This would be better if Haunted Earth fired faster. The MIDA Multi-Tool also has High-Caliber rounds, but it fires much faster than Haunted Earth can, making the perk far more effective. (The MIDA Multi-Tool fires 200 rounds per minute, whereas Haunted Earth tops out at 150.)

Field Prep is, well, a bland Destiny 2 trait. Increased reload speed is good, but making you crouch to do it is a little weird. Faster reloading can be helpful, but it feels more like a bonus than a trait designed to be the backbone of a gun. (Triple Tap, which puts another round in the magazine after three precision shots, would have been great here. So would Explosive Payload.)

Field Prep is convenient, but increased ammo reserves coupled with reload speed don’t present a compelling case for a backbone trait like this — especially given the potential price.

Should you buy Haunted Earth?

Haunted Earth looks cool, and if you want a sniper-like scout rifle that deals powerful damage at a long range — if you’re the kind of player who likes to squat, stay still and and aim down the sights at a distance — go for it.

If you pledged to Dead Orbit, feel free to grab one and stick it in your Vault. Maybe it’ll age well as the developers at Bungie update Destiny 2.

If you don’t fall into those categories, we can’t recommend that most players spend 50,000 glimmer on Haunted Earth.

What could you do instead? If you think, “I like the MIDA Multi-Tool. I need a Legendary scout like that,” then go for the Vanguard scout Nameless Midnight, which randomly drops from Zavala’s engrams. (You can also select it as a reward when you finish the campaign.) Nameless Midnight fires fast, deals comparable damage to the MIDA Multi-Tool and has Explosive Payload.

If you really just love the idea of a long range, High-Impact scout rifle, Lord Shaxx offers Do Not Compute. While the perks are not particularly glamorous, we think they’re better than Haunted Earth. And it won’t cost you 50,000 glimmer. The Steady Rounds and Moving Target perks make this gun easy to use and incredibly stable. If you run the Crucible even semi-frequently, you could get Do Not Compute quickly.

If you are looking for something to spend 50,000 Glimmer on in Destiny 2, you could also visit Banshee-44 and buy mods until your glimmer count reaches zero. We think buying random mods from Banshee is a better investment than the Haunted Earth. Buyer beware.