Destiny 2 Ikelos Hand Cannon God Roll for PvE and PvP

Eoin Black
Eoin Black
8 Min Read
Image via Bungie

These two Destiny 2 Ikelos Hand Cannon god rolls are pretty good. It’s a quality Hand Cannon, at least in PvE. In PvP, it has a harder time keeping up, but it can pop off in the right hands. This Hand Cannon was clearly designed for PvE, though, so that’s where the majority of my focus is going to go when breaking down these god rolls.

I’ll be going over an Ikelos Hand Cannon god roll for both PvE and PvP. I’m going to break each roll down perk-by-perk, and offer alternatives where I feel they’re viable. I’ll also be throwing in a bonus PvE god roll, as well – because one of this weapon’s god rolls is S-tier, but only on the right class.

Destiny 2 Ikelos Hand Cannon God Rolls

Ikelos_HC_V1.0.3 God Roll for PvE

Destiny 2 Ikelos Hand Cannon god roll for PvE.
Image via D2Gunsmith
  • Arrowhead Break
  • Seraph Rounds
  • Subsistence
  • Golden Tricorn

There are two Ikelos Hand Cannon god rolls worth considering for PvE. The first one is this Subsistence / Golden Tricorn roll. The other is a little bit more niche, so I’ll talk about that later on.

Starting off this roll, I’m using a combination of Arrowhead Break and Seraph Rounds, and I’m honestly not entirely sold on either of them just yet. Arrowhead is nice, but something like Smallbore might be preferable thanks to that extra bit of range that Hand Cannons like this sorely need. You don’t have Explosive Payload here, so you need to make up for range in other ways.

That’s also the reason why I think Seraph Rounds may be suboptimal here. Sure, it’s a powerful ammo perk, but is it really better than Accurized Rounds on this Hand Cannon? In PvE, maybe. Play around with a combination of barrels and ammo perks to see what works for you – I can’t really say which is better either way.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Subsistence / Golden Tricorn combo, and, honestly, there’s not too much to discuss. Subsistence has been a PvE king for years now, and that’s never going to change. Refunding bullets per kill will never not be good for Add-clear, so that’s what I’m going for in column three. Alternatively, though, you could go for Triple Tap or Rapid Hit. All three of these perks help your ammo economy in some way.

If you’re not a Golden Tricorn-kind of player, then pick Rampage in column four. It’s less damage, but easier to keep the buff active. However, with how easy it is to juggle abilities in this current sandbox, you can maintain a pretty insane uptime on Golden Tricorn‘s 50% damage buff – even if it’s not as constant as Rampage. You do need to build into that kind of playstyle, though.

At the end of the day, this Ikelos Hand Cannon god roll isn’t too special. Zaouli’s Bane and Fatebringer both outclass it dramatically as Add-clear Hand Cannons. Despite that, it can hold its own in most mid-level activities. However, there is one alternative roll that takes this from being a tier-2 Hand Cannon to a tier-1 with the right build, and it’s Subsistence / Repulsor Brace with Void Hunter.

Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk is destroying the PvE META right now – letting Hunters maintain almost 100% uptime on Volatile Rounds. That means every kill will be triggering Repulsor Brace, meaning you’ll always have an Overshield.

If you’re a Hunter main, hunt that roll. For everyone else, stick with Tricorn.

Ikelos_HC_V1.0.3 God Roll for PvP

Destiny 2 Ikelos Hand Cannon god roll for PvP.
Image via D2Gunsmith
  • Smallbore
  • Accurized Rounds
  • Rapid Hit
  • Focused Fury

The Ikelos Hand Cannon isn’t much to look at in PvP. Compared to the monster Crucible weapon we got at the same time, Rose, there’s practically no reason to use this thing outside of a PvE environment. All the same, we’re going to talk about this roll a little bit.

As I was saying in the PvE god roll, there’s an argument to be made for Smallbore and Accurized Rounds on this Hand Cannon. Range is infinitely more important in PvP than it is in PvE, so I’ve actually gone ahead and made that swap here. Again, this is more personal preference than anything else, but I would keep one of the two, at the very least.

Our column three choice is Rapid Hit, and the logic behind this being an ammo economy perk remains the same. Subsistence only triggers on a kill, meaning it’s no good for us inside the Crucible. Rapid Hit, on the other hand, scales based on precision hits, not kills. This makes it much easier to trigger, especially since you should be hitting precision hits regularly with a Hand Cannon.

Rapid Hit also synergizes nicely with our column four perk – Focused Fury. While not something I would typically run inside Crucible, it does have some usage here that I think surpasses both Rampage and Frenzy. Feel free to use either of them if you would prefer to, though.

Focused Fury is going to give us 20% more damage for 11 seconds after hitting at least six precision hits out of the Ikelos Hand Cannon’s 12-round cylinder. That’s very doable inside PvP, especially with a Hand Cannon.

These two perks together will make your precision hits give you faster reloads, and count toward activating a damage buff.

This Ikelos Hand Cannon PvP roll isn’t the best in the world, but it might be a bit of fun to play with. Just don’t go bringing it into Trials.

How to Get Ikelos_HC_V1.0.3 in Destiny 2

Image via Bungie

There are a lot of really great god rolls for the Ikelos Hand Cannon, especially inside PvE. What’s better, the gun isn’t just craftable – but you can outright buy it from the Exo Frame in the H.E.L.M. for:

  • 1 Umbral Engram.
  • 50 Legendary Shards.
  • 30 Seraphic Umbral Energy.
  • 4 Resonate Stem.

That’s not too much to ask for per roll, although you do need to have the Ikelos Weapon Focusing upgrade. Buying the weapon like this can drop red borders, as can hunting Override Frequency nodes and opening Seraph chests at the end of Battleground runs.

All in all, there are countless ways to get your hands on this thing – so it shouldn’t take you too long to find a roll you like.

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Eoin has been playing video games his entire life. He specializes in narrative-driven, single-player titles, and brings his extensive Esports experience into his writing.
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