Destiny 2 Ritual Weapon is the CALUS Mini-Tool rival we’ve longed for

Introduced in Season 17, CALUS Mini-Tool was the best Solar SMG in Destiny 2 for over two years, but now it finally has some serious competition with a new top option arriving as a Ritual Weapon.

Destiny 2 adds a new Ritual Weapon every season that can be unlocked by progressing the Crucible, Gambit, or Vanguard vendors to rank 16. Historically, these haven’t been particularly strong, with weapons like Chivalric Fire, Last Rite, and Malediction not seeing much use in their respective seasons.

However, Episode Echoes has introduced the most promising Ritual Weapon in a long time, Perfect Pitch. The new Solar SMG is a Precision Frame (600 RPM) that gets access to Subsistence & To The Pain in column three and Incandescent & Onslaught in column four.

The PvE god roll of Subsistence and Incandescent places it as a direct competitor against both Bug-Out Bug and the fan favorite CALUS Mini-Tool. When compared to the former, Perfect Pitch easily wins out thanks to Enhanced Incandescent. With Ember of Ashes equipped, Enhanced Incandescent offers a huge upgrade on an already top-tier perk, increasing how many Scorch Stacks it applies.

As for Calus Mini-Tool, the Solar SMG has long since become a staple. Its unique frame and access to Enhanced Incandescent make Calus Mini-Tool a great SMG, but its third column of perks hasn’t aged well, with Unrelenting being the best option.

In contrast, Perfect Pitch can use Enhanced Subsistence, which returns 20% of the magazine (6 shots w/Backup Mag) on every weapon kill. This greatly extends how long you can fire without reloading, especially in low to mid-level activities where SMGs excel. This effect is triggered by Incandescent too, giving Perfect Pitch’s perks strong synergy with one another.

Unfortunately, while Perfect Pitch is arguably the best Solar SMG, there are some drawbacks to using it. Most notably, SMGs aren’t performing well right now in Destiny 2’s meta, being almost entirely outclassed by Sidearms. Furthermore, Precision Frame SMGs are amongst the worst Primary Weapons for DPS, only beating out Aggressive Scout Rifles.

As a result, Guardians are better off using a meta Solar Sidearm like Heliocentric QSc. However, if SMGs get buffed in the future, Perfect Pitch will be a strong option to pair with Solar builds that can make use of Incandescent.