Destiny 2‘s Duality dungeon gave players one of the most unique SMGs in the game. Unforgiven comes with a slew of great perks, as well as the unique Duality aesthetic. And thanks to both, odds are you’ll want at least one copy of it.
Unforgiven’s fourth column is all about boosting damage, and it has access to several of the best damage-boosting perks in the game. Its Void element also offers additional options to pair with Void 3.0, which means Void players can find even more use for this SMG. That said, Unforgiven can mow down the opposition regardless of what subclass you’re using, thanks to its loaded perk pool.
Like most Duality weapons, however, Unforgiven suffers from a slow reload speed, which is offset to a degree by the Bitterspite origin trait. This means perks and parts that boost reload take some precedence, and lucky for players, a few of them are also on the line. Here’s our god roll for Unforgiven in Destiny 2.
Unforgiven god roll in Destiny 2
Unforgiven PvE god roll
- Barrel: Chambered Compensator, Corkscrew Rifling, or Smallbore
- Mag: Flared Magwell or Light Mag (for reloads) or High-Caliber Rounds (for staggering).
- First perk (column three): Demolitionist or Feeding Frenzy.
- Second perk (column four): Rampage, Dragonfly, or Frenzy for general use. Adrenaline Junkie for damage boost and Solar/Arc subclass builds that use grenades, and Golden Tricorn for Void grenade builds.
Unforgiven PvP god roll
- Barrel: Corkscrew Rifling, Hammer-Forged Rifling
- Mag: High-Caliber Rounds
- First perk (column three): Tunnel Vision or Steady Hands
- Second perk (column four): Rampage
Finding a god roll is a matter of preference, and Unforgiven brings plenty to the table, according to its perk pool on light.gg. Five of its six perks in the fourth column are great choices for general use, so picking between them depends heavily on builds and availability. Golden Tricorn, for instance, can boost damage by 50 percent after getting an ability kill that matches Unforgiven’s Void element, which makes it a prime target for Void builds post-3.0. Though it still offers a hefty boost on its own regardless of subclass, not running Void makes other perks like Rampage, Frenzy, and Adrenaline Junkie more desirable. The choice depends heavily on what you’re running and what you can get your hands on, so here’s a breakdown of Unforgiven’s perks so you know what to look for.
Unforgiven best perks: Third column
Demolitionist
Demolitionist is a two-pronged perk, and Unforgiven gets major benefits from both of its parts. The main one is that it gives you grenade energy on a kill, which Unforgiven definitely benefits from. The other, less common use is that activating a grenade with a weapon that has Demolitionist will reload it, saving you a lengthy animation. Free grenade energy and fast reloads make this an invaluable addition, particularly for grenade builds.
Feeding Frenzy
Unforgiven’s reload speed seems to be balanced around the Bitterspite origin trait, which means it’s abysmal at base value. If you don’t want to get shot at, Feeding Frenzy helps you mitigate that by speeding up your reload based on the number of kills, which vastly increases its usefulness given Unforgiven’s terrible base values.
Tunnel Vision
Tunnel Vision improves aim assist and ADS speed if you reload after a kill. It’s a handy perk, and one that gets more value in the Crucible. This doesn’t mean Tunnel Vision is a bad choice for PvE, and it’s not enough to dismantle the weapon, especially if the rest of the roll suits your playstyle.
Steady Hands
Steady Hands shines in the Crucible, but the free weapon handling boost to all weapons makes this a comfortable perk to have. Your quickswap and ADS speeds will go through the roof with all weapons, and though this is a coveted perk for PvP so you can shoot and swap quickly, you’ll find it’s also comfortable for PvE modes. It may not make a roll, but it won’t break it either.
Well-Rounded
One of the newer perks in Season of the Haunted, Well-Rounded gives you bonus stability, handling, and range after you land a powered melee or throw a grenade. It’s not necessarily a bad perk and can make this gun even more comfortable, but it not tackling reload speed also means you can get more use out of Feeding Frenzy or Demolitionist.
Fragile Focus
Fragile Focus feels like a quasi-Opening Shot, which gives you some range as long as you don’t get shot at. It could work in the Crucible, but for PvE, it directly contradicts the Bitterspite origin trait, and the bonus you get from it isn’t that significant compared to other PvE bonuses you’d get from Feeding Frenzy or Demolitionist.
Unforgiven best perks: Fourth column
The fourth column in Unforgiven is filled to the brim with choices. Five of them are good in any scenario, and picking them will depend on what synergizes best with your build and what you’re running alongside Unforgiven. The Demolitionist/Adrenaline Junkie combo is appealing, especially after the Adrenaline Junkie buff. Though it’s one of the stars of the show, there’s plenty to run with it as well. Unforgiven feels like a Void 3.0 showcase, and though a season late, it can still give Void users plenty of choice in what to run.
Rampage
A tried-and-true damage-boosting perk, Rampage is extremely simple and extremely effective. Kills create stacks of Rampage, which boost damage. The long reload can make it hard to make the most out of Rampage, and that’s where Feeding Frenzy comes in, but Rampage is still a top-tier perk for Unforgiven on its own.
Dragonfly
Though SMGs already have their fair share of crowd control thanks to spitting bullets, Dragonfly is welcome to add even more of it to the mix. The Void-element explosions can make it easy to mow down small groups of targets, so in enemy-dense areas, they’ll come in handy.
Golden Tricorn
Golden Tricorn brings a hefty damage boost on its own after getting a kill, but its catch is that killing an enemy with an ability that matches the element on the gun you’re using (in Unforgiven’s case, Void) will give it an even greater boost, and by far the biggest on the list. It’s universally useful, but Void subclasses will get tremendously good mileage out of it. Pair it with Demolitionist for even more grenade energy and you’ll be keeping that 50-percent damage boost up often by refreshing it before it runs out.
Frenzy
Frenzy is rarely a bad choice since it boosts reload, handling, and damage by being in combat for 12 seconds. This means you need to wait a bit for it to kick in, but by the time it does, you’ll take care of one of Unforgiven’s main shortcomings (its reload speed) while also boosting its damage.
Adrenaline Junkie
Pairing Adrenaline Junkie with Demolitionist has been appealing since the former was buffed, and Unforgiven can come with this coveted combination. Even without Demolitionist, though, any player will get benefit from this perk after it was changed to function like a grenade version of Swashbuckler.
Repulsor Brace
The least popular perk of the bunch, Repulsor Brace has a highly specific use that only triggers in even more specific circumstances. Killing a Void-debuffed target will grant you an overshield with this perk, which means you could potentially get plenty of survivability as long as you have ways to debuff your targets en masse. There aren’t many of those at hand, but with the right builds, this can have some decent uptime. It’s a lot of setup, however, so don’t be afraid to ditch this if you don’t think you can pull it off—or just don’t want to go through the trouble.
