For countless seasons now, the Heavy weapon meta in Destiny 2 has been defined almost entirely by one weapon type: Rocket launchers.
Boasting both best-in-slot damage numbers and easy accessibility for newer players, it’s hard for other weapons to compete. That’s where Cataphract GL3—a new grenade launcher introduced in Season of the Witch—comes in, with a set of powerful perk combinations that are entirely unique to the gun that makes for a god roll potentially worthy of meta status.
To get your hands on it, you’ll have to brave Trials of Osiris, which can be a daunting prospect for even the most hardy of PvE mains in Destiny 2, but if you’ve ever needed a reason to bravely battle your way to the Lighthouse, a god roll of the Cataphract GL3 or its Adept version is it.
It would only take a few more balance tweaks to the sandbox for heavy grenade launchers to jump toward the top of the Heavy weapon meta, and Cataphract’s unique rolls make it a contender for one of the best available.
Here are our recommendations on the best perks you should grind for when building your god roll of the Cataphract GL3 in Season of the Witch, both for PvE and PvP.
Cataphract GL3 PvE god roll in Destiny 2’s Season of the Witch
- Launcher barrel: Quick Launch
- Magazine: Spike Grenades
- First perk: Envious Assassin
- Second perk: Bait And Switch
There are a lot of fantastic options to choose from when it comes to Cataphract GL3’s perk pool, but Envious Assassin and Bait And Switch top our recommendations due to the interplay between how both perks are activated.
Thanks to its recent buff, Envious Assassin is an easy way to overflow a Heavy weapon’s magazine prior to using it for boss damage in a raid or dungeon encounter as you accrue kills with your other weapons.
Once you’re ready for a damage phase, you need only do a small portion of damage with each of your equipped weapons to then give your now overflowed Cataphract GL3 a hefty 35 percent damage bonus for 10 seconds with Bait And Switch.
Destiny 2 has made a habit of re-releasing previously raid-exclusive perks onto new weapons a year or two after that raid’s release. We see this again on the Cataphract GL3, which features Bait And Switch from the Vow of the Disciple weapon set. Bait And Switch is not only a perk that quickly gained prominence for its DPS potential from the moment it was put onto a Linear Fusion Rifle in The Witch Queen, but has also never been featured on a heavy grenade launcher before now.
It’s a recipe for some really impressive damage output, especially in boss fights that have brief damage windows which demand a lot of damage very quickly.
Alternatives do exist—the likes of Auto-Loading Holster aren’t going out of fashion anytime soon if you’re using Cataphract GL3 alongside a Special weapon for DPS. There’s also Explosive Light in the fourth column alongside Bait And Switch, which grants a huge 60 percent damage bonus as long as you have the Orbs of Power to keep it active.
Even players that want nothing to do with boss damage and only plan on using the grenade launcher in neutral game encounters have options, with the likes of Field Prep, Demolitionist, Hatchling, and Chain Reaction.
Cataphract GL3 PvP god roll in Destiny 2’s Season of the Witch
- Launcher barrel: Confined Launch
- Magazine: High-Explosive Ordnance
- First perk: Impulse Amplifier or Demolitionist
- Second perk: Full Court or Chain Reaction
It’s rare to bring a heavy grenade launcher into Destiny 2’s PvP modes, but for those who want to, Cataphract GL3 comes stocked with great options like Impulse Amplifier and Full Court to make the weapon far more consistent against agile opponents. Yet what’s most important of all is making sure you have the right barrel and magazine choices for the job.
With how nimble Guardians can be, improving the weapon’s blast radius can be a big help. This is where options like Confined Launch and High-Explosive Ordnance come in, giving each grenade fired a much wider area of effect to compensate for any attempted dodges. Equip that with Impulse Amplifier in the third column, and any reductions caused to the velocity of the grenades fired are immediately compensated for as well. Whatever helps you with consistency will be your ally here.
There aren’t a lot of standout options in the fourth column, but a perk like Full Court or Chain Reaction has enough of a passive benefit to at least feel impactful in the limited amount of shots you’ll have available after picking up Heavy ammo.
A case could also be made for Vorpal Weapon, which provides a small damage boost against enemy players in an active Super, but that case in question is a rather niche one.
