Believe it or not, Retrofit Escapade is actually the highest DPS weapon in all of Destiny 2 – at least at the time of writing during Season of the Seraph. It’s beyond rare for a legendary Machine Gun to be at the top of the PvE META, making these two Retrofit Escapade god rolls something truly special.
I’m going to break down both of these god rolls perk-by-perk. Keep in mind that I’ll be talking a lot more about the Retrofit Escapade’s PvE god roll. Its PvP equivalent is good, but outside of the Crucible, this thing is a menace.
Destiny 2 Retrofit Escapade God Rolls
Retrofit Escapade God Roll for PvE
- Arrowhead Break
- Appended Mag
- Fourth Time’s the Charm
- Target Lock
As of Season of the Seraph, this Retrofit Escapade god roll has the highest DPS in the entire game. Yes, you read that right. This legendary Machine Gun is out DPSing Merciless, Taipan, Stormchaser, and the rest of the PvE world-beaters.
To actually get that damage, though, you need to be running a Void Volatile Rounds build. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk main or a Voidlock – so long as you can proc Volatile. If you can’t, you won’t be squeezing enough damage to out-DPS the entire META, but it’s still a contender regardless of that.
With that out of the way, I’m starting with Arrowhead Break, as per usual. There’s nothing to say about this barrel park that hasn’t already been pointed out. It’s great, and you should use it. If you don’t want to use it for some reason, then replace it with a range barrel like Smallbore.
It’s exceptionally rare that I run a magazine perk that doesn’t add range in some capacity. Something like Appended Mag is never a go-to for me, but that’s exactly what I’m recommending here. With Appended Mag and a Backup Mag weapon mod, you’ll have 104 rounds in this Machine Gun as opposed to its base 77. If you wanted to go one step further, you could even run Extended Mag to take that up to 115. Having all this extra ammo will help our DPS, sure, but it’s extra important because of our third-column perk.
That perk being Fourth Time’s the Charm. This will refund two bullets to your magazine every time you hit four consecutive precision hits. With Retrofit Escapade’s rate of fire and that extra ammo we’ve specced into, that’s a whole lot of extra damage in a short space of time.
That’s not the fun part, though. The fun part of this Retrofit Escapade god roll comes in the form of the S19 debuting perk – Target Lock. Target Lock increases your damage when you sustain fire on a target, up to four stacks. Each stack gives you 10% more damage. So, at four stacks, that’s an extra 40% more damage.
To lay all that out, you’re going to have 40% more damage on a weapon with 100+ bullets and Fourth Time’s the Charm. Throw Volatile Rounds on top of that, and you have the best DPS weapon in the entire game right now. Whether it’ll stay that way for long is anyone’s guess – but for now, make crafting this thing a top priority.
Retrofit Escapade God Roll for PvP
- Arrowhead Break
- Accurized Rounds
- Turnabout
- Rampage
Unfortunately, the Retrofit Escapade PvP god roll isn’t anywhere near as exciting as its PvE counterpart. That’s not to say it’s bad – because it isn’t. It’s just, well, a Machine Gun, and you know what to expect out of a Machine Gun in Destiny 2‘s PvP sandbox.
I’ve opted to keep Arrowhead Break as my barrel perk here, which is the only perk I haven’t changed between the two rolls. Once again, if you like more range, go for something else. Just remember that your stability will suffer for it.
Range is more important in PvP than PvE – and those extra bullets from Appended Mag don’t matter when you hardly have any heavy ammo to begin with. Accurized Rounds makes up for not taking a range barrel and is honestly the only column two perk really worth running on this thing in PvP.
Beyond that, I’ve opted for a Turnabout / Rampage combo. Turnabout is a pretty underutilized perk that I expect to see a little bit of play over the next season. With it, breaking a Guardian’s shield in PvP while they’re in their Super gives you an Overshield. That sounds niche, and it is, but it effectively means that this thing will outgun most Supers if you hit your shots and you’re not being too heavily focus-fired.
Rampage complements that nicely by giving you a tasty damage buff based on how many rapid kills you’ve made. It starts at 10% for one kill, and caps at 33% for three. You’ll rarely get that 3x buff, but you should almost always be good for at least one kill with a Heavy Machine Gun.
Put that all together and you have a weapon capable of not only getting multikills but getting multikills even if you’re fighting against a Super.
Sure, there are other god rolls for PvP. Golden Tricorn is a great choice, but there’s nothing to really compare to this roll in terms of pure potential.
How to Get Retrofit Escapade in Destiny 2
Thankfully, Retrofit Escapade is a seasonal weapon during Season of the Seraph. What’s more, it’s craftable. That means that it shouldn’t take too much effort for you to get your hands on a god roll.
The easiest way to get Retrofit Escapade in Destiny 2 is to simply buy it from the Exo Frame in the H.E.L.M. The Seraphic Weapon Focusing upgrade will let you specifically roll your Umbrals into Retrofit Escapades, while the Focusing Deepsight upgrade will guarantee your first focus each week is a red border.
Using that source alone, you should be able to get at least two red border Escapades per week. Beyond that, you can run Heist Battlegrounds and open Seraph Chests for even more drops, granted you’ll get fewer red borders this way.
With a little bit of effort and grinding, you should be able to get a crafted Retrofit Escapade within three weeks of starting – less if you’re lucky. Put in the time, and you’ll reap the rewards.
