Destiny 2‘s first expansion of 2025, The Edge of Fate, introduced huge sweeping changes to the game that have proven immediately controversial, but one gun is getting universal praise.
In what’s the first of its kind, Mint Retrograde is a Rocket-Assisted Pulse Rifle. Just like Rocket Sidearms, this absolute monster uses special rather than primary ammo and spews explosive ordnance instead of boring, ordinary bullets.
As you’d no doubt expect, the damage of this weapon of mass destruction far surpasses any ordinary Pulse Rifle and also comes packing some seriously good perks that work best in Strand builds but perform just as well with almost any other loadout.
Let’s get to the perks you’ll want to hunt for this top-tier gun.
Mint Retrograde god roll – Meta analysis
For this perk breakdown, we’ve decided to forego deliberating over possible PvP rolls. Just like Rocket Sidearms, Mint Retrograde doesn’t perform well in the Crucible due to the slow nature of its projectiles and bad ammo economy.
For PvE, on the other hand, the roll below is the absolute best means of playing to Mint Retrograde’s strengths:
PvE God Roll |
|---|
Barrel: Volatile Launch Magazine: Appended Mag Perk 1: Rewind Rounds Perk 2: Chain Reaction Masterwork: Handling or Stability |
Due to the gun’s incredibly small default magazine size of five, Rewind Rounds is a must-have for the first perk column. This completely foregoes the need to reload by automatically refilling the magazine based on how many shots you landed with the last mag.
For the second perk column, the best choices are Master of Arms and Chain Reaction. The latter provides Mint Retrograde a damage boost when scoring kills with other weapons, which is nice, but the increase isn’t enough to justify using a primary weapon.
Chain Reaction, on the other hand, adds to the gun’s AoE damage by triggering additional elemental – Strand in this case – explosions on every kill. This essentially turns Mint Retrograde into an excellent all-round add-clear and boss DPS special.
Due to the neutral nature of these perks, you don’t need to build around them, although Edge of Fate’s seasonal artifact provides some additional synergy with the likes of Threaded Blast.
