Destiny 2: Buffs And Debuffs Explained

Published by Emma o n September 3, 2025, 12:54 pm

Destiny 2 is no stranger to MMO mechanics. Raids, dungeons, gear stats, buffs, and debuffs are all core systems of Destiny 2. Buffs and debuffs are one of the game's less-explained mechanics, leading to much confusion among new and returning players.

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In essence, players can increase their damage output through certain "buffs." These typically come from abilities. Debuffs also increase your damage output by a considerable amount, but these behave a bit differently than buffs. Add to that weapons perks and other damage multipliers, and you have yourself a somewhat complicated damage model. Let's go over exactly what buffs and debuffs are, how they relate to weapon perks, and list every buff and debuff you can use in Destiny 2.

Updated March 8, 2025, by Charles Burgar: Episode: Heresy has brought back the fan-favorite Particle Deconstruction mod in this season's artifact, this time called Particle Reconstruction. We've updated this guide to include exact percent values for this perk as well as the reworked Sealed Ahamkara Grasps Exotic, which now provides a damage buff while Nightmare Fuel is active.

What Are Buffs And Debuffs?

Buffs and debuffs are modifiers to character performance in Destiny 2, usually in the form of damage modifiers. Buffs increase the damage that you deal, while debuffs increase the damage that enemies receive.

Buffs come in the form of weapon damage perks, certain subclass perks, armor mods like weapon surges, and certain game mechanics. Debuffs typically come in the form of artifact mods, certain subclass abilities, and a handful of Exotic weapons and armor.

Weapon Damage Perks

Let's start with the simplest buff type in Destiny 2: weapon damage perks. Most weapons in Destiny 2 can randomly roll with a damage perk, amplifying your weapon's damage output by a percent amount for a variable duration. These perks include classics like Rampage, Kill Clip, Explosive Payload, Adrenaline Junkie, One-for-All, and many more. Weapon perks modify your weapon's damage from 10% to 50% in extreme cases. Most weapon perks buff your damage by 20 or 33%, so keep that in mind.

If you're one of the lucky few to own a weapon with two damage perks—for example, a Transfiguration with Kill Clip and Rampage—you might notice a massive damage spike when both perks are up. That's because weapon damage perks stack multiplicatively with one another.

In Transfiguration's case, instead of dealing 58% more damage (25% for Kill Clip, the other 33% from x3 Rampage), you'd deal 66% more damage. Weapons that can roll with two damage perks simultaneously are fairly rare, so think twice about dismantling them. This behavior also applies to damage spec mods and character buffs.

Empowering Damage Buffs

Certain abilities in Destiny 2 grant a damage bonus to all of your weapons, not just your currently-equipped gun. These are typically referred to as Empowering Buffs by the community, as they empower your character rather than a specific gun. The most common Empowering buff you'll find is Radiant, a 20% damage increase found on Solar subclasses. Most players obtain this buff through subclass Fragments such as Ember of Torches.

What confuses most players is how buff stacking works. In general, Empowering buffs do not stack with one another. For example, let's say that a Warlock uses Ember of Torches, granting Radiant to your character. You'd deal 20% more damage. Another player comes along and fires Lumina, providing a 35% damage bonus. You would now deal 35% more damage until Lumina runs out, at which point Radiant's 20% buff would kick in. You do not gain 55% damage here; only the strongest Empowering buff will benefit your character.

We've established that Empowering buffs don't stack, but what about weapon perks? Weapon perks do stack with Empowering buffs, doing so multiplicatively. Let's say that your character is Radiant, providing a 20% damage buff. You are also using a Primary weapon with Frenzy, providing a 15% damage buff. Both effects would multiply together to give you a 38% damage buff. That alone is quite a major damage increase, but we can take this even further by using a Weapon Surge buff.

Weapon Surges

This section is not referencing the Surge modifiers found in endgame activities. That's a separate mechanic that stacks with everything mentioned in this article.

Destiny 2: Lightfall added a new buff category called Weapon Surges, available through leg armor mods and certain Exotics. In essence, Weapon Surges buff the damage of a specific element. For example, equipping Void Weapon Surges on your leg armor will increase the damage of your Void weapons. If you swap to a Solar weapon, Void Weapon Surge will cease to boost your damage.

Bungie has standardized Weapon Surges into specific tiers of bonus damage, as shown below:

Tiers

PvE Damage Boost

PvP Damage Boost

Tier 1

11%

Tier 2

17%

4.5%

Tier 3

22%

5.5%

Tier 4

25%

The first three tiers are obtained from Weapon Surges installed on your leg armor. One mod equates to a T1 damage buff, two mods grant T2 damage, and three mods grant T3 damage. Tier 4 buffs are only obtainable through Exotics. As with Empowering buffs, Weapon Surges of the same type do not stack with one another; only the strongest version is used.

For example, if you used a single Weapon Surge mod on your legs and equipped the Foetracer Exotic, you'd benefit from x4 Weapon Surge when Foetracer procs, not x5. If a weapon deals multiple damage types—for example, Conditional Finality deals Solar and Stasis damage—then the surges will apply to each damage type only; they don't combine.

Damage Conversion And Surges

Perks that change your weapon's damage type, notably Permeability and Osmosis, benefit from Surge mods of the converted damage type. For example, if you convert your weapon to Solar damage, it will now benefit from Solar Weapon Surges.

Permeability and Osmosis weapons no longer benefit from multiple Weapon Surge types. This was hotfixed during Season 23.

As with weapon perks, Weapon Surges do stack with Empowering buffs and weapon perks, doing so multiplicatively. Going back to the example earlier, a weapon buffed by Frenzy and Radiant deals 38% more damage. If we added a T3 Surge buff (a 22% buff), you'd now deal 68% more damage since the buffs multiply together.

This type of bonus damage is more than enough to melt most enemies in Destiny 2 and greatly increase your boss DPS, but there is one more way you can scale your damage: debuffs.

Debuffs

Debuffs are negative effects that are applied to an enemy combatant, most of which cause the combatant to take increased damage from all sources for a certain duration. In general, an enemy can only have one damage-boosting debuff active at a time. Debuffs stack with every buff previously mentioned, acting as another multiplier to your damage. Most debuffs increase the damage an enemy takes by 15 or 30%. But just like player buffs, this can vary based on the debuff source.

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Every Weapon Damage Perk

Every notable damage perk in Destiny 2 can be found below, showcasing their damage buff percentage in PvE and PvP. We did not include damage perks that buff ability or melee damage (sorry, One-Two Punch). These perks only affect weapon damage.

Perk

Buff

Adagio

30%

Adagio (Bows)

20%

Adrenaline Junkie (x5)

33%

Ambush

10%

Bait And Switch

30%

Blunt Execution Rounds

PvE: 500%

PvP: 100%

Box Breathing

33%

Box Breathing (Scouts)

66%

Chaos Reshaped

x1: 20%

x2: 35%

Close To Melee

30%

Cluster Bombs

Up to 24%

Collective Action

20%

Controlled Burst

20%

Deconstruct

40% (objects only)

Elemental Honing

Up to 35% (40% for Kinetics)

Explosive Light (GLs)

44%

Explosive Light (Rockets)

25%

Explosive Payload

PvE: 12%

PvP: 0%

Firing Line

20%

Focused Fury

20%

Frenzy

15%

Full Court

Up to 25%

Golden Tricorn (Default)

15%

Golden Tricorn (Buffed)

50%

Gutshot Straight

10%

Harmony

20%

Headseeker

High-Impact Reserves

PvE: 12-25%

PvP: 3-6%

High Ground

PvE: up to 25%

PvP: up to 15%

Kickstart

20%

Kill Clip

33%

Multikill Clip (x3)

50%

One for All

35%

Precision Instrument

25%

Rampage (x3)

33%

Reservoir Burst

20%

Surrounded

Base: 40%

Enhanced: 47%

Swashbuckler (x5)

33%

Target Lock (x5)

Base: 40%

Enhanced: 45%

Timed Payload

PvE: 12%

PvP: 0%

Trench Barrel

50%

Vorpal Weapon

Primary: 20%

Special: 15%

Heavy: 10%

Notable Active Damage Buffs

Adrenaline Junkie: Grants a 33% damage buff after landing a grenade final blow.
Bait and Switch: Grants a 30% damage buff upon inflicting damage with all three weapons.
Controlled Burst: Fusion Rifles deal 20% more damage and charge 10% faster upon landing a full burst.
Elemental Honing: Grants up to a 35% damage buff (40% for Kinetics) as you damage enemies with unique elemental types.
Frenzy: Gain a 15% damage buff while in combat (requires periodic damage dealt or taken to remain active).
Golden Tricorn: Kill a target to gain a 15% damage buff. Land a matching elemental ability kill, and that buff increases to 50%.
One for All: Grants a 35% damage buff for hitting three unique enemies.
Swashbuckler: Grants a 33% damage buff after landing a melee final blow (charged or uncharged).

Notable Passive Damage Buffs

Explosive/Timed Payload: Passively deal 12% more precision damage and 15% body shot damage in PvE activities.
High-Impact Reserves: Deal up to 25% more damage (6% in PvP) as your magazine expends ammo.
Firing Line: Deal 20% more precision damage if two or more allies are nearby.
Full Court: GLs deal more damage as the grenade remains in flight, up to 25% more damage.
Precision Instrument: Grants up to a 25% damage buff to critical hits by hitting the same target multiple times.
Target Lock: Grants up to a 40% damage buff by hitting the same target multiple times. This is especially powerful on high RPM weapons like SMGs and Machine Guns.
Vorpal Weapon: Always deal bonus damage to bosses and Champions (20% for Primaries, 15% for Specials, and 10% for Heavy weapons).

Every Damage Buff

We're going to be separating this information into three tables: Empowering Buffs, Weapon Surges, and miscellaneous buffs that stack with Empowering and Surge buffs. Remember: you can only benefit from one Empowering buff and Weapon Surge at a time. The only exception is for multi-element weapons like Two-Tailed Fox, as they can benefit from multiple Weapon Surge buffs simultaneously.

Empowering Buffs

Name

Buff

(PvE)

Buff

(PvP)

Radiant

20%

10%

Blessing Of The Sky

(Lumina)

35%

15%

Hunter-Exclusive Buffs

Gyrfalcon's Hauberk

(Finisher)

35%

N/A

Sealed Ahamkara Grasps

(Nightmare Fuel)

35%

20%

Titan-Exclusive Buffs

No Backup Plans

Shotguns Only

35%

~5%

Wormgod Caress

Up to 35%

Up to 25%

Hazardous Propulsion

Rockets Only

Up to 35%

Weapons of Light (Bubble)

Requires Helm of Saint-14

25%

Weapons of Light (Shield)

40%

Warlock-Exclusive Buffs

Song Of Flame

20%

10%

Empowering Rift

20%

15%

Well of Radiance

25%

10%

Weapon Surge Buffs

Exotic armor buffs do not stack with Weapon Surge mods of the same element. The game will use whichever Surge bonus is higher.

Weapon Surge Buffs

Name

Buff

(PvE)

Buff

(PvP)

Weapon Surge Mod (x1)

11%

Weapon Surge Mod (x2)

17%

4.5%

Weapon Surge Mod (x3)

22%

5.5%

Hunter-Exclusive Buffs

Foetracer

Super Element

25%

Mask of Bakris

Arc & Stasis

25%

Raiju's Harness

Arc

25%

Titan-Exclusive Buffs

Doom Fang Pauldron

Void

Up to 25%

Up to 6%

Eternal Warrior

Arc

Up to 25%

Up to 6%

Icefall Mantle

Stasis

Up to 25%

Up to 6%

Path of Burning Steps

Solar

Up to 25%

Up to 6%

Warlock-Exclusive Buffs

Sanguine Alchemy

Super Element

17%

4.5%

Ballidorse Wrathweavers

Stasis

25%

Mantle of Battle Harmony

Super Element

25%

Stackable Buffs

Stackable Artifact Buffs

Name

Buff

(PvE)

Buff

(PvP)

N/A

Stackable Exotic Buffs

Oathkeeper

38-150%

N/A

Lucky Pants

45-450%

N/A

Mechaneer's Tricksleeves

100%

10%

Oathkeepergrants an escalating damage buff to Bows the longer you hold a fully-drawn arrow. This buff starts at a 37.5% damage buff and progressively increases to a 150% buff, lasting for a couple of seconds or until the arrow is released. This does not work with Leviathan's Breath or any Exotic traits.

Lucky Pantsprovide a 5.5-second damage buff upon switching to a Hand Cannon, increasing your Hand Cannon's damage by 45% for every bullet you land. This can stack up to ten times, providing a 450% damage bonus that stacks with other buffs. Lucky Pants will enter a ten-second cooldown before this buff can be triggered again.

Due to the limited buff window, fast-firing Hand Cannons generally gain the most benefit from Lucky Pants. Great weapon pairings include Malfeasance, Crimson, Warden's Law, and all 180 RPM Hand Cannons. Bear in mind that Explosive Payload and Timed Payload are not buffed by Lucky Pants, effectively halving the bonus damage received from this Exotic. Unfortunately, this also affects Sunshot.

Mechaneer's Tricksleevesgrant a 100% damage bonus to Sidearms while you're critically wounded. You must swap to the Sidearm while critically wounded for the buff to apply. Tricksleeves last until your shields break and can buff all Sidearm types, including Forerunner. Mechaneer's Tricksleevs also works in PvP, albeit with a much lower damage bonus of 10%.

Destiny 2: Buffs And Debuffs Explained

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