The Spire of the Watcher dungeon brought in the highly anticipated batch of Legendary Tex Mechanica guns, including Long Arm: the closest thing to a Legendary version of Dead Man’s Tale you’ll see in Destiny 2.
Long Arm has the same 120rpm archetype as Dead Man’s Tale, so players may have a familiar feel when shooting Long Arm. You can lean into the DMT lite hip-fire fantasy with Hip-Fire Grip, proc some Cranial Spike-like buffs with Adrenaline Junkie, and even get a good deal of benefit of Compulsive Reloader in its new state.
Here are our god rolls for Long Arm, as well as a breakdown of its perks so you know exactly what each perk does—and whether it’s worth keeping or turning into Legendary Shards.
Long Arm PvE god roll in Destiny 2
- Barrel: Corkscrew Rifling, Smallbore, or Polygonal Rifling.
- Mag: Tactical Mag
- First perk: Rapid Hit or Subsistence (Honorable mention: Wellspring, Compulsive Reloader)
- Second perk: Explosive Payload, Dragonfly, or Adrenaline Junkie
Long Arm PvP god roll in Destiny 2
- Barrel: Fluted Barrel, Corkscrew Rifling, or Smallbore
- Mag: Accurized Rounds, Tactical Mag
- First perk: Rapid Hit or Hip-Fire Grip
- Second perk: Explosive Payload or Opening Shot
Guide to the best perks for Long Arm in Destiny 2: third column
Rapid Hit
Rapid Hit is an incredible perk for scout rifles since they are precision weapons, meaning you’ll have decent uptime on this perk. Paired with the fact that Long Arm loads two rounds at a time, this can make your reloads particularly quick and extend your damage time. The 120rpm rate of fire can make it a bit trickier to activate compared to other weapons and misses may be more punishing, but it’s still at the top of our god roll alongside Subsistence.
Subsistence
Like Rapid Hit, Subsistence trims your reload time, though through completely different means. While Rapid Hit makes reloads quicker, Subsistence means you have to reload fewer bullets—and that’s if you have to reload at all. Defeating a target with Long Arm using Subsistence will load two rounds back into your magazine. Since the scout rifle reloads two rounds at a time, this means the fewer rounds you have to put into the weapon, the quicker your reload will be. Its effectiveness drops off in higher-level content, but as long as you’re getting consistent kills with Subsistence, you’ll get good mileage out of this perk.
Wellspring
Wellspring is a bit of a niche perk, but it’s around the middle of the pack when it comes to the Long Arm’s god roll. While it may not give you as much direct benefit as Rapid Hit or Subsistence, free ability regeneration isn’t a bad benefit.
Compulsive Reloader
Compulsive Reloader is in kind of a unique spot for Long Arm due to it reloading two bullets at a time. This means you can fire a couple of shots, get the reload speed bonus, and continue firing. Compulsive Reloader is also active for the top half of the mag as of the Season of the Seraph patch. In most guns, Compulsive Reloader would be an instant dismantle, but its post-buff version and Long Arm’s unique characteristics may make it actually viable.
Hip-Fire Grip, Under Pressure
Hip-Fire Grip allows you to lean on the cowboy fantasy and has a great deal of merit if you want to focus on hip-firing your Long Arm, which may be the case in PvP. If that’s not exactly your style, though, you’re better off ditching this perk.
Under Pressure can be somewhat handy if you manipulate your reloads so you’re always running on the bottom end of the magazine.
Guide to the best perks for Long Arm in Destiny 2: fourth column
Explosive Payload
Explosive Payload is a beast of a perk and usually tops the god rolls of any weapon that can roll it. Long Arm is no difference: this perk is a flat damage buff on PvP and deals extra flinch on PvP, making this a highly coveted option regardless of what activity type you’re running.
Dragonfly
This slow-firing scout rifle has a lot of firepower, but it may lack when it comes to crowd control. Dragonfly helps mitigate that issue by creating an Arc explosion when landing a critical kill. This perk is particularly useful after the buff it received in Season of the Seraph, embedding the functionality of the Dragonfly Spec mod into its base version. You’re trading a chunk of damage for a lot of crowd control, but the versatility of having Dragonfly on your weapon can make it more than worth ditching other perks, depending on your preference.
Adrenaline Junkie
Adrenaline Junkie may seem like an odd choice, but it might just bring the Dead Man’s Tale cousin far closer in feel to its Exotic counterpart. Adrenaline Junkie gives a stacking buff to damage, which increases per kill. Getting a grenade kill automatically grants all five stacks.
A Long Arm with Rapid Hit/Adrenaline Junkie will be the closest in feel to a Dead Man’s Tale with its signature Cranial Spike buffs, and you won’t even need to land precision hits to keep it stacked. Adrenaline Junkie is a good choice on its own, but having it on Long Arm just makes the weapon feel even better—and not just because of the hefty boost to damage.
Redirection, High-Impact Reserves
These perks may not see much uptime with Long Arm. Redirection is a gimmicky choice that improves your damage against Elites or higher based on how many red bars you’ve killed. Odds are you’ll be switching to your Special if you have a harder-hitting enemy that will consume your Redirection stacks, but this weapon may work as a Champion buster for when you’re low on ammo. It’s circumstantial, though it might work on some occasions.
High-Impact Reserves, on the other hand, can lend itself to some fun play due to Long Arm’s unique reload mechanic. Since you can control how many rounds you keep in your magazine at all times, you can deliberately keep your magazine low to get the most benefit out of this perk.
Both of these options may have their functions, but unless you actively want to slot them in your playstyle, you’ll have better results with the rest of the perks on this list.
Opening Shot (PvP)
In the Crucible, getting the first shot can be essential to winning an engagement since your flinch will throw off your opponent’s aim, putting you on a head start. Opening Shot gives you an even bigger advantage by ensuring that first shot will connect.
In an unsuspecting enemy, they might not even notice you before they’re dead, and even an aware opponent might struggle to outgun you.
How to get Long Arm in Destiny 2
Long Arm is only available from the Spire of the Watcher dungeon. Players can obtain it in the first encounter (the Spire Ascent).
Thankfully for players, it’s the simplest encounter in the dungeon and can be farmed solo or in two players without much of a hassle, compared to both Akelous and Persys. If you’ve already obtained a Long Arm, you can potentially find one in a hidden chest.
Related: All hidden chest locations in Destiny 2’s Spire of the Watcher dungeon
