I was thinking about the weapons in Destiny and wanted to make sure I had everything straight in my head before diving into the beta. Here's what little I know. Please correct me if I'm wrong and fill me in on anything I leave out.

Three weapon slots: Primary, Special, and Heavy.
Primary: hand cannons, auto rifles (full auto only), pulse rifles (burst fire only), and scout rifles (single shot only)
Special: sniper rifles (semi auto, no bolt action), shotguns(pump action only), fusion rifles (charge up and fire multiple rounds)
Heavy: heavy machine guns and rocket launchers

Am I missing anything? Have there been any hints that there will be any other types of weapons?

For those who played the alpha, how different did each weapon behave and feel within each group? Are the main differences just fire rate and recoil? Will the biggest variations be the attachments and type of damage they do?

I'm hoping for more variation in the heavy weapons in particular. In Halo you have rocket launchers, fuel rod guns, spartan lasers, plasma launchers, and incinerator cannons. These behaved very differently from each other. Will we have that kind of variation in Destiny?

A couple of questions on loadouts: How many weapons can we hold in reserve? I think I heard someone say 9, but is that 9 total or 9 for each weapon slot (primary, special, heavy). On weapon slots, will we be limited to always having a primary, special, and heavy slot? What if I wanted to not carry a special but instead carry two primary weapons? Could that be an option?

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

So, we know at least one more type of Heavy weapon, A Rail gun, exists,

http://destinynews.net/new-info-game-master-magizine/

I'm hoping for some more variety in the primary and secondary. Where are the SMGs, are they now just a variety of auto rifle? What about a semi auto pistol? What about crazy things, like Reach's amazing nade launcher. What about non hitscan weapons like plasma rifles? There's a lot of room to expand here, though I guess each weapon type creates an exponential growth in terms of balance.

I'd guess we have 90% of the "Types" for destiny, and we'll see 1-2 new weapon classes per expansion/mainline iteration.

So, we know at least one more type of Heavy weapon, A Rail gun, exists,

http://destinynews.net/new-info-game-master-magizine/

I'm hoping for some more variety in the primary and secondary. Where are the SMGs, are they now just a variety of auto rifle? What about a semi auto pistol? What about crazy things, like Reach's amazing nade launcher. What about non hitscan weapons like plasma rifles? There's a lot of room to expand here, though I guess each weapon type creates an exponential growth in terms of balance.

I'd guess we have 90% of the "Types" for destiny, and we'll see 1-2 new weapon classes per expansion/mainline iteration.

I, too, have this concern. It looks unlikely that we'll see entire new categories of weapons, at least early on. I think you're right about SMGs, with all the damage being dished out at close range between melee, powers, shotguns, and autorifles; there doesn't seem to be a niche where SMGs would really be justified. Autorifles are probably it.

Nade launchers seem redundant (not to mention spammy, which seems to have been deliberately designed out)with recharging grenades; and other non-line-of-sight weapons seem to be missing entirely. Though with all of what we've seen so far, it doesn't seem like there are any gaps in terms of what can be accomplished combat-wise. Area denial options are there, sniping options are there, CQC options abound. Weapon selection at this point seems much less a question of functionality than it does look and feel.

Definitely looking forward to what crazy weapons (if any) we get to play with.

~m

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

They do - if you're on Playstation. Oooooh

- CC

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Three weapon slots: Primary, Special, and Heavy.
Primary: hand cannons, auto rifles (full auto only), pulse rifles (burst fire only), and scout rifles (single shot only)
Special: sniper rifles (semi auto, no bolt action), shotguns(pump action only), fusion rifles (charge up and fire multiple rounds)
Heavy: heavy machine guns and rocket launchers

Am I missing anything? Have there been any hints that there will be any other types of weapons?

This seems correct to me.

For those who played the alpha, how different did each weapon behave and feel within each group? Are the main differences just fire rate and recoil? Will the biggest variations be the attachments and type of damage they do?

The main differences are indeed the impact, fire rate, recoil and range.

I could certainly feel the difference between them, but it is slight, though it's enough to find the correct difference to suit your playstyle. The upgrades will boost these stats further, as well as sometimes enhance other gameplay elements - an example being a FWC shotgun that allows for extended butt slides; a deadly combo.

There are some damage types indicated by icons on some weapons that I believe apply to enemies outside of PvP.

I'm hoping for more variation in the heavy weapons in particular. In Halo you have rocket launchers, fuel rod guns, spartan lasers, plasma launchers, and incinerator cannons. These behaved very differently from each other. Will we have that kind of variation in Destiny?

I don't think we'll see that level of variation within each weapon type, though we've seen homing rockets in some footage. Who knows what else there is to shake things up a little. In the alpha I didn't experience any drastic difference between the heavy weapon types themselves beyond the stats... we'll have to wait and see! :)

A couple of questions on loadouts: How many weapons can we hold in reserve? I think I heard someone say 9, but is that 9 total or 9 for each weapon slot (primary, special, heavy).

That'd be 9 for each weapon slot. Armour works the same way.

On weapon slots, will we be limited to always having a primary, special, and heavy slot? What if I wanted to not carry a special but instead carry two primary weapons? Could that be an option?

You are limited to the primary, special and heavy combo. I think this is important in regards to the way ammo is distributed around the map.

Only your primary weapon regains ammo after respawn, so if you had two of these equipped, you'd never have to worry about ammo collection. Meanwhile special weapons need to be refilled at green ammo pickups/boxes scattered liberally around the map. Usually you won't have a problem, but if you're getting carried away on a long kill streak, or defending a certain location for a prolonged period, you'll have to venture out to collect some ammo.

Then heavy ammo is only deployed a couple of times per game and indicated by a purple marker to both teams, often creating nice conflict zones for ammo control! Picking it up in the presence of a teammate gives them some too, so the'res no disappointment. Though upon death, any heavy ammo you carry is lost...

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

Hah, that'd be great. I'm hoping to see more weapons types. In the alpha I didn't really find a heavy weapon that resonated with me. I was very happy with my primary and secondary combo though - a Scout Rifle and a Shotgun.

Hopefully that answers some things, albeit a bit rambly. Let me know if I've failed to explain something clearly haha!

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

They do - if you're on Playstation. Oooooh

- CC

Don't make me make a new target. I'm almost out of Bones targets.

Definitely looking forward to what crazy weapons (if any) we get to play with.

~m

I'm still holding out hope for some alien weapons...

Can you carry two or even three Primary weapons into battle at the expense of not having a special or heavy?

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

They do - if you're on Playstation. Oooooh

- CC

Don't make me make a new target. I'm almost out of Bones targets.

You sure you wanna go there? I'm not a city slicker like Bones.

- CC

There are a lot of CQC weapons, but the maps I've seen seem to lean towards close quarter fighting. Even with a crowded armory, I would like to see some swords or other big melee weapons. Maybe an energy sword that needs to be charged with specials ammo?

I really hope they are holding back on showing some unique weapons. So far this looks like a futuristic Battlefield armory. I want to see something that really mixes sci-fi and fantasy. Some kind of weapon that is truly unique to Destiny.

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Can you carry two or even three Primary weapons into battle at the expense of not having a special or heavy?

Nope. You always have to have 1 of each equipped - a primary, a special and a heavy.

You can switch the equipped primary for another primary via your character/inventory screen midgame though, but that's the closest you'll get.

I would actually not be surprised if SMGs were folded into the Autorifle archetype. There were autorifles in the alpha that behaved in the fashion of an SMG, with extremely high fire rate but poor range/accuracy.

You mention using the scout rifle. How big of a difference is there between it and the pulse rifle? Is it like the difference between the DMR and BR in Halo 4?

I'll be happy when I can finally experiment with all these.

You mention using the scout rifle. How big of a difference is there between it and the pulse rifle? Is it like the difference between the DMR and BR in Halo 4?

I'll be happy when I can finally experiment with all these.

I never really found a Pulse Rifle that felt good to me during the Alpha. All the Pulse Rifles I used seemed to have poor stability so you'd have to adjust a lot after each trigger pull. I'm sure there will be ones with better stability, but that was my experience. The Scout Rifles tended to have good stability for the most part which is why I tended towards them.

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Since Gears of War I've loved burst-rifles. (No Halo 2's BR wasn't kind to me)

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On weapon slots, will we be limited to always having a primary, special, and heavy slot? What if I wanted to not carry a special but instead carry two primary weapons? Could that be an option?

You can access your 27 reserve weapons at any time (even while in combat) from the 'Options' menu. Duck behind a crate, bring it up, swap to the weapon you want and get back to shooting. It's not as elegant as if you could just press Triangle (Y), but it achieves the same job.

In the Alpha, you could even switch between Primaries with no ammo penalty.

So basically, you can carry around 10 primaries - go wild!

In the Tower there is 'The Vault' were you can store an additional 20 weapons of any type. Note that it is shared between your characters.

And why can't they give me a cool futuristic crossbow for my hunter?

I hope so. I think they're saving up cool stuff. The Fallen had a weapon that fired slow projectiles that tracked you. A bit like a Needler. I hope they let you try that out.

Definitely looking forward to what crazy weapons (if any) we get to play with.

~m

I'm still holding out hope for some alien weapons...

Me too! I think human weapons are really limiting in a formal sense. Since they are mostly kinetic, hitscan you end up playing with fewer variables. What type of damage do you do, how large is the spread, how big is the magazine, damage, ROF etc. Adding in more alien weapons allows for more craziness. Projectile speed, tracking, combinatorial effects,status effects etc.

I understand why they break things down this way (Enemies with Hitscan weapons aren't all that fun, and using projectile weapons with slow projectiles is challenging, especially in a networked enviroment) but in a game with a large focus on breadth of content, having a narrow set of weapon classes is a bit odd.

There are a lot of CQC weapons, but the maps I've seen seem to lean towards close quarter fighting. Even with a crowded armory, I would like to see some swords or other big melee weapons. Maybe an energy sword that needs to be charged with specials ammo?

I really hope they are holding back on showing some unique weapons. So far this looks like a futuristic Battlefield armory. I want to see something that really mixes sci-fi and fantasy. Some kind of weapon that is truly unique to Destiny.

I think we'll get some of that in the exotics, but I'd like to see more woven right into the core fabric of the game.

I'd also like to see some weapons designed around support more than direct damage. Slowdown, siphoning guns, guns that displace enemies, etc.

My thoughts is that thats it, until we get to exotics. I think then we will see some drastically different stuff.

I really hope they are holding back on showing some unique weapons. So far this looks like a futuristic Battlefield armory. I want to see something that really mixes sci-fi and fantasy. Some kind of weapon that is truly unique to Destiny.

I think we'll get some of that in the exotics, but I'd like to see more woven right into the core fabric of the game.

This, this, this. Everything so far (with the exception of Thorn, which I don't recall seeing in action) keeps to a fairly narrow aesthetic. I'd like to see more Space Magic baked into the weapons, for sure.

I'd also like to see some weapons designed around support more than direct damage. Slowdown, siphoning guns, guns that displace enemies, etc.

Really, really want more of this, too. But one has to consider how it will translate into PvP. I'm sort of expecting that the divide between how the weapons behave in each environment will widen over time, especially since the MLG crowd will almost certainly pare the game down to one particular winning formula for instant or near-instant death.

My guess is that the chance of any weapon with really unique support-style properties is eventually going to be nerfed into oblivion or simply won't be effective in PvP situations.

After all, while weapons with status effects and other sorts of oddball behaviors will undoubtedly come in super handy against hordes of enemies, it doesn't seem to me like they'd be as useful in the short PvP encounters it seems The Crucible is built around.

~m

My take on it is that there will at least be a few weapon types we haven't heard about. This is mostly because of the "railgun" mentioned in the past. If it's true that there is a railgun in the final gun that gives evidence they are keeping at least one weapon type secret, and with Bungie's history I would guess that means there are even more we don't know about.

Indeed. The only thing I think we maybe might have see all of are the three top level classes of Guardians: Titan, Hunter, Warlock. I'd expect everything else from gun types to entire enemy races to be partially hidden from view.

Really, really want more of this, too. But one has to consider how it will translate into PvP. I'm sort of expecting that the divide between how the weapons behave in each environment will widen over time, especially since the MLG crowd will almost certainly pare the game down to one particular winning formula for instant or near-instant death.

My guess is that the chance of any weapon with really unique support-style properties is eventually going to be nerfed into oblivion or simply won't be effective in PvP situations.

After all, while weapons with status effects and other sorts of oddball behaviors will undoubtedly come in super handy against hordes of enemies, it doesn't seem to me like they'd be as useful in the short PvP encounters it seems The Crucible is built around.

~m

This is why the reliance on traditional PVP is so disappointing to me. Instead of Leaning into the interesting part of crazy weapon systems, they are pairing back differences.

Ohh well, rest of the game looks great, and the PVP seems fun for what it is, but I can't help but feel that it could have been something far more than what it appears to be.

My take on it is that there will at least be a few weapon types we haven't heard about. This is mostly because of the "railgun" mentioned in the past. If it's true that there is a railgun in the final gun that gives evidence they are keeping at least one weapon type secret, and with Bungie's history I would guess that means there are even more we don't know about.

If you mean as far as primary/special/heavy, I don't think there will be any more because of how they let you have extras in your immediate inventory and when you get past 2-4 items it's unwieldy to switch between them with a button (I expect the number only goes up a little if you have two buttons to use). If you mean like "hand cannon" and "rare" and "exotic" and all that, yeah, probably. I feel a little... not good about it, because innovation is good and I want to support it, but what I'm most looking forward to with the weapons is seeing which of their old ideas they've brought back.

This is one of my biggest concerns so far, is the lack of variety. There are obviously tons of weapons, but every weapon of the same type seems pretty similar to me. Every primary weapon that I've seen is just a hit-scan rifle, and even the specials and heavies are pretty conventional. Comparing back to Reach, that game offered a ton of different options in play style depending on weapon choice. Yes, the grenade launcher and the rocket launcher were both AoE, but the grendade launcher played much differently than any other weapon in the game. Needlers, needle rifles, plasma launchers, energy swords, the plasma pistol, spartan laser, focus rifle, all brought in unique game mechanics. That's the sort of variety that I'm hoping for in Destiny. The amount of unique weapons is cool, but as someone else said, the differences (aside from damage output) seem mostly cosmetic so far. They are pretty much all just aim-fire-kill weapons, with very little to make me play differently when I use a new one.

I'm hoping the full game will make me eat my words, because I would really like to see them get crazier with the weapon types. The fiction they've established allows them to make pretty much anything imaginable, but right now, 90% are things we've seen in most every other shooter. I mean, Mass Effect weapons didn't have much more variety, but they also had about ten times as many powers to work with.

I'm hoping the full game will make me eat my words, because I would really like to see them get crazier with the weapon types. The fiction they've established allows them to make pretty much anything imaginable, but right now, 90% are things we've seen in most every other shooter. I mean, Mass Effect weapons didn't have much more variety, but they also had about ten times as many powers to work with.

Mass Effect 3's weapons ranged all over the place. No trigger-tricky weapons like the Reach Pro-Pipe, but the selection was pretty varied across the board.

But I share your hope. It may just be that the weapons that really change up your play style will be exotics, rather then entire weapon types (which would be my preference). But there's always DLC. They could certainly add in a weapon type or two per class.

Heck, even just new types of weapon upgrades, or existing ones in weird places (like cluster explosions on a hand cannon) would be 8 different kinds of fun.

~m

The unique weapon upgrades I'very seen in the beta have added some variety. Miss a shot with that rocket launcher? No problem, you might get it back. I like my Mos Gannon hand cannon that does bonus damage with one random round per magazine. I've got a shotgun that does extra damage with the last round in the mag. Gotta love a sniper that pics up ammo when you shoot it. They're not totally different weapons, but those upgrades do add some nice variety to standard weapons.