The Taken King Adds Exotic Fusion Rifle Railgun On The Destiny

Love it or hate it, the Gjallarhorn has become one of the central weapons of Destiny, an essential piece of every Guardian’s arsenal or the golden goose that all players seek. As such, Bungie has been hard at work figuring out just how to design Gjallarhorn‘s competitor and (hopefully) its successor.

In an interview with Game Informer, the team at Bungie shared details about a new gun coming in Destiny: The Taken King this fall. The exotic fusion rifle, called the Sleeper Simulant, is like a fusion rifle combined with a railgun, complete with ammunition that can bounce off walls up to five times and can pass through multiple enemies. Based on that brief description, it sounds as if the Sleeper Simulant will be unlike anything Destiny players have seen before, and a devastating heavy weapon option.

While detailing the heavy fusion rifle’s perks, Bungie also offered a full breakdown of how the team approached building a weapon that could challenge some of Destiny‘s most stalwart weapons. Although the gun’s design is inspired by mid-1900s projects like the first stealth fighter and NASA’s Mars rover, the actual mechanics behind its gameplay are more current.

The team says they took an initial approach towards the gun under the assumption players would want to use it for its ping-pong effects, watching the lasers careen around a room and hit multiple enemies. In practice, however, Bungie found players were much more interested in using the Sleeper Simulant for precision hits – something that it was not very good at to start, but was adjusted to suit later. Bungie also experimented with the charge time of the weapon, as the ricochet effect will only happen once the weapon fully charges.

For those Destiny players who felt like Bungie didn’t test weapons enough in the game’s initial release and think too few guns are viable in PvP, this kind of interview is a major source of optimism. It’s pretty clear from the team’s comments that an extensive amount of testing went into the Sleeper Simulant, and the modification process was based upon player feedback.

Furthermore, players who want the Sleeper Simulant will not have to wait for it to be offered by Xur or run endless raids in the hopes of a low percentage drop – Bungie has designed the weapon as the reward for a long quest chain that will see players collecting relics of the Golden Age before Banshee-44 will craft the weapon for them. In fact, many of Destiny‘s new rewards will be structured like that, so players know exactly what they are working towards and are challenged along the way.