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Destiny 2 The Swarm god roll and drop location

Heart of the Swarm.

The Swarm is a legendary Heavy Machine Gun in Destiny 2. It initially arrived during the Season of the Chosen, and has been brought back as part of the Season of Defiance.

This heavy weapon focuses on hitting hard, rather than fast, emphasizing high impact and damage, rather than rate of fire.

This page will detail how to get The Swarm in Destiny 2, and what to look for in a The Swarm god roll.

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How to get The Swarm in Destiny 2

The Swarm is a Nightfall weapon, available exclusively when it is due up during the Nightfall Rotation.

Farming The Swarm is all about timing. Every week the featured weapon that is available at the end of a Nightfall changes. In the Season of Defiance Nightfall Rotation, there are six different weapons that can drop, including The Swarm.

Whether the weapon drops is a matter of luck, but you do have the ability to tip the scales in your favor. Increasing the difficulty also increases the odds of the Nightfall weapon dropping, from Rare at the lowest difficulty to Common at the highest.

You can also equip the Ghost mod Prosperity (Vanguard). This gives playlist strikes and Nightfalls a chance to drop an additional piece of legendary gear upon completion. It’s never been confirmed that this includes the Nightfall weapons themselves, but anecdotally it seems to have an effect.


The Season of the Deep is here alongside the Into the Depths quest. You can know go fishing too! Don't forget to keep an eye on the Lost Sector and King's Fall challenge rotation schedule!


The Swarm god roll recommendation in Destiny 2

The Swarm is a damage dealing monster. It’s exceptionally suited to eliminating champions and doing boss DPS.

The Swarm is built to hit hard with every shot. This makes it a good choice for clearing a room of adds, and outstanding at focused damage to bosses. An ideal, or 'god roll' version of The Swarm uses the continuous fire of Heavy Machine Guns to make this a deadlier weapon the longer it remains on a target

Here is our recommended The Swarm god roll in Destiny 2:

  • Arrowhead Break
  • Tactical Mag
  • Dynamic Sway Reduction
  • Target Lock
  • Stunning Recovery

Arrowhead Break is a frequent favorite barrel, and perfect for The Swarm. Controlling recoil makes it easier to stay accurate during long periods of sustained fire, and the increased handling makes this more viable for encounters against multiple targets as an add clearing tool.

Tactical Mag is great. It buffs stability, further enhancing accuracy, improves reload speed, which this weapon needs, and adds four rounds to the magazine. Shoot better for longer? Yes, please.

Dynamic Sway Reduction is where things start to get really good. The longer this weapon fires, the more accurate and stable this becomes. This is good against any hard target, but raid bosses in particular tend to have clearly established damage phases. Unloading all of your rounds with precision at the right time is huge for maximizing damage.

Target Lock is the ideal complement to Dynamic Sway Reduction. With this perk, damage increases the longer your weapon stays on target. With every else built to create sustained, accurate fire, this becomes extremely powerful against even the toughest of enemies.

Stunning Recovery is one of two selectable Origin Traits. None of the options are exceptional, but Stunning Recovery is great in certain situations. With it, stunning a Champion will partially refill your magazine, boost recovery, and trigger health regeneration. It’s very situational, but fighting Champions is exactly the sort of situation where it is nice to have an edge.

As per usual, once you have your preferred roll, be sure to upgrade it to a Masterwork to give it a stat boost, ability to generate Orbs on multi-kills, and add the option of a kill tracker!

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