Destiny 2 Season of the Witch seasonal artifact perks & mods

The seasonal artifact perks and mod for Destiny 2 Season of the Witch are here, and with them, we can decide how we should build our Guardians throughout the season.

Dave McAdam

22nd Aug 2023 18:15

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The seasonal artifact perks for Destiny 2 Season 22 have been revealed, giving players an idea of how their builds will look in the new season. Destiny 2 changes things up each season with a new seasonal artifact, which grants perks (once known as mods) that can drastically alter the powers of your Guardian.

Seasonal artifact perks are a big part of build crafting in this role-playing game, so here are the perks and mods you will be able to employ with Destiny 2's seasonal artifact in Season of the Witch.

Click here to learn everything we know so far about Destiny 2 The Final Shape

All Season of the Witch artifact perks in Destiny 2

Guardians fighting the Hive in Destiny 2

Here are all of the perks included in the Season of the Witch seasonal artifact:

Tier One
Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle	Piercing Bowstring (anti-barrier bows)	Unstoppable Scout Rifle	Overload Hand Cannon	Unstoppable Fusion Rifles

Tier Two
Arc/Strand Siphon Combo: Combines Arc and Strand Siphon mods into one	Solar/Strand Siphon Combo: Combines Solar and Strand Siphon mods into one	Void/Strand Siphon Combo: Combines Void and Strand Siphon mods into one	Origin Perk Specialization I: Greatly improves the benefits provided by the Head Rush, Nanotech Tracer Rockets, Unsated Hunger, and [REDACTED] Origin traits	Diviner's Discount: All Scavengers mods are discounted

Tier Three
Thanatotic Tangles: Strand weapon final blows have a chance to generate a Tangle	Origin Perk Specialization II: Weapons with the Head Rush, Nanotech Tracer Rockets, Unsated Hunger, and [REDACTED] Origin traits are always overcharged when that modifier is active	Elemental Orbs: Void: Final blows with a Void weapon while using a Void subclass have a chance to spawn a Void Elemental Orb. Throwing the orb does damage and makes enemies Volatile	Elemental Orbs: Arc: Final blows with a Arc weapon while using a Arc subclass have a chance to spawn a Arc Elemental Orb. Throwing the orb does damage and Jolts enemies	Elemental Orbs: Solar: Final blows with a Solar weapon while using a Solar subclass have a chance to spawn a Solar Elemental Orb. Throwing the orb does damage and Scorches the enemy

Tier Four
Overload Machine Guns	Elemental Fury: While stunned, Champions take bonus damage from your abilities and Elemental Orb damage	Communal Pickups: When an ally destroys or picks up a Tangle or Elemental Orb, the Tanlge cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds and you gain bonus damage with weapons matching your subclass for 10 seconds	Refreshing Pickups: Picking up a Tangle or Elemental Orb grants energy to your least-powered ability	Semi-Auto Striker: With less than 2 stacks of Armour Charge, rapid precision shots with Bows, Snipers, and Scout Rifles generate Armour Charge

Tier Five
Monochromatic Maestro: Dealing elemental damage with either your abilities or weapons increases the damage of the other by 10% for 5 seconds	Rapid-Fire Ranger: Rapid precision hits made from long range weaken the target	Elemental Embrace: Subclass elemental buffs grant you bonus recover and damage resistance against combatant attacks of the matching element type	Elemental Munitions: Combatant final blows with Tangles or Elemental Orbs have a chance to drop Special or Heavy ammo	Frenzied Stacks: Your Armor Charges grant bonus damage to your thrown Tangles or Elemental Orbs. Your Armor Charge now decays over time

Get the full rundown of the new season with our Destiny 2 Season of the Witch guide

How to unlock artifact perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch

Savathun in Destiny 2

While partaking in any activities in Destiny 2, you will gain experience which will go towards ranking up your seasonal artifact, and as you level up, you will gain extra power levels to go beyond your gear level, and also unlock perks.

Each perk costs one point, and you will need to purchase a certain amount of perks to unlock each tier, going from left to right. Thankfully, with recent changes, you no longer need to reset your entire artifact if you want to make those changes, as you can now refund any perk on the artifact for free and spend that point elsewhere.

Here are all of the changes in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch update 7.2.0 early patch notes

Which perks should you unlock first in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch?

Ikora in Destiny 2

As you are limited by the perk tiers, it goes without saying that you must unlock perks from tier one first. This is probably the most important tier, however, as this is where the majority of the anti-Champion mods are. Each season, which weapons are effective against Champions changes, so your first order of business should be making sure you can stun each type of Champion.

Make sure you pick up at least one anti-barrier, overload, and unstoppable mod. The choices will largely be decided by which weapons you like to use, but we would recommend going with Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle, Overload Hand Cannon, and Unstoppable Fusion Rifle.

In tier two, pick up Diviner's Discount and any Siphon mods that suit your build. In tier three, Thanatotic Tangles is great for Strand builds, and the Elemental Orbs for each subclass are excellent, so choose the ones that work with how you play. If you play mostly with Arc or Void, the Elemental Orbs perks for those elements will be hugely beneficial.

The perks in tier four are quite situational, mostly of benefit to Strand users who make a lot of Tangles. The Elemental Fury perk is a must-get for most, especially folks planning on tackling Grandmaster Nightfalls this season.

In the final column, the best options for most builds are Monochromatic Maestro and Rapid-Fire Ranger. Monochromatic Maestro is an amazing perk for any build that uses the same elements across the subclass and weapons, adding a handy 10% damage buff that almost never goes away. Rapid-Fire Ranger is a bit more situation, but the ability to inflict Weaken on enemies, particularly bosses, with just your weapon is hugely beneficial.

That is it for our Destiny 2 Season of the Witch artifact perks & mods guides. For more on the game, head to our Destiny homepage, or check out our guide to Destiny 2 Guardian Ranks.

About The Author

Dave McAdam

Dave is a Senior Guides Writer at GGRecon, after several years of freelancing across the industry. He covers a wide range of games, with particular focus on shooters like Destiny 2, RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, and fighting games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8.

This is part of the ‘Destiny’ directory

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