Devil’s Ruin was released the other day in Destiny 2 and my initial expectations going into the update were low. Not only have most of the exotic weapons released lately been highly situational, but sidearms in general have struggled to find a place in Destiny 2, especially in PvE. Color me surprised then when I got my hands on Devil’s Ruin and quickly learned that it kicks ass. With that said, let’s dive right into our Devil’s Ruin exotic weapon review.
By far the biggest and best part of Devil’s Ruin is that it is a weapon that uses primary ammo. That is the most important thing to keep in mind when reading the rest of this review. It’s very hard to run out of Devil’s Ruin ammo, especially if you spec out your armor with perks. Considering how hard this weapon hits, that’s going to be a major plus for using Devil’s Ruin.
Devil’s Ruin has two modes of fire: a traditional 300 RPM (Drang, Buzzard) firing sidearm. It hits very hard at close to short range, and is great for mopping up red bars very fast while not being totally useless against majors either.
What Devil’s Ruin has though that other sidearms don’t have though is its “Close the Gap” alternate firing mode which shoots a laser at the enemy which operates very similarly to a fusion rifle; in particular One-Thousand Voices (although obviously not nearly as powerful and minus explosions).
It takes quite a bit to charge up and will consume the rest of the ammo in the magazine, but it will hit majors and even bosses real hard with fairly easy ease of use from medium ranges.
The perk Pyrogenesis will allow you to pull ammo from reserves and fire the laser beam at full power if you at least have one bullet in the chamber. This allows you to get into a fun/nice flow of nearly emptying out your ammo firing Devil’s Ruin traditionally, and then before reloading also dumping a laser charge at something.
PvE Review
I tested Devil’s Ruin a few times in Sundial and I comfortably used it the entire time without ever feeling the need to switch. It mopped up every enemy and hit the boss for solid damage as well by just spamming the laser. So even under this extreme circumstance where I was just trying to force it, Devil’s Ruin felt really great to use.
To be fair though, any weapon in Destiny 2 can be used effectively in just about any PvE content other than 980 hunts/nightfalls and raids. The hardcore PvErs meta is going to be determined on how well Devil’s Ruin performs in something like a raid.
This video from Destiny YouTuber Rick Kackis demonstrates better than I can in words the damage potential of Devil’s Ruin. Is it going to dethrone something like Izanagi’s Burden? Of course not. But remember what I said above: Devil’s Ruin is a primary weapon. It uses primary ammo which is ubiquitous.
So if you’re in a scenario where you can get away with using a legendary grenade launcher like Wendigo, pair it with something like Tranquility in your kinetic slot, you can burn those out and still have a third, primary ammo weapon in Devil’s Ruin that is A: more helpful in phases that don’t involve shooting a boss, and B: can absolutely hold its own and out perform almost any other primary weapon in the game and even a lot of energy weapons for that matter.
PvP Review
In PvP/Crucible activities there are so many good legendary weapons in every slot that it’s even easier to find a space in your loadout for something like Devil’s Ruin and the unique perks it brings.
Without the laser, it’s a powerful sidearm that can do what sidearms do best, as good as any other sidearm currently popular in crucible. It hits hard at close range, and can be swapped out fairly quickly and mop up someone at low health.
Just keep in mind though, there’s a very slight delay from when you pull the trigger to when the gun actually fires the first sidearm shot, presumably because the game is checking whether or not you’re just pressing or are actually holding the fire button to shoot the laser. So it does work a little differently than other sidearms in that regard.
The laser can kill an enemy in one burst assuming that you’re accurate. It gets hard to control at long ranges, so you shouldn’t try to use this like a scout or a sniper. You want to essentially be at fusion rifle engagement range.
Speaking of fusion rifles, the people I would recommend this to are those that use fusion rifles and know how to pre-charge. The charge time for the laser is massive at 1000, and the bullets don’t hit instantly like regular fusion rifles, so you need to keep the laser on the opponent for a second or so to kill them.
If you can master the pre-charge and catch guardians around corners (most fusion rifle mains practice this all the time) it is a very powerful weapon that’s useful in so many scenarios.
Devil’s Ruin Review: Is it Worth Using?
Absolutely. Devil’s Ruin is probably tied for second with Monte Carlo (behind Divinity) as the best exotic weapon to be added so far in Year 3 and it probably has more versatility across all game modes than both of those weapons.
Carrying Devil’s Ruin with you is basically like having four weapons in your loadout and two of them are tied to primary weapon ammo which is very easy to find. And, on top of all of these perks, it’s a blast to use in any game mode.
