Destiny 2 The Final Shape and Episode Echoes artifact: every mod and what to use

The Destiny 2 Artifact is always important to mastering a new season or expansion. It offers powerful mods that define how, and what you play with every meaningful content drop in the game. 

To truly come up with the best builds, you will need access to the best Artifact mods, which will take time and experience to unlock. That is unless you’ve saved a lot of bounties before it lands. 

With the launch of the Final Shape, Destiny 2 players will get their hands on the Hunter’s Journal. This will act as the artifact for the expansion and the first Episode: Echoes. As ever this will dictate what weapons you can use for Champions, as well as what subclasses are doing the best for each class. 

This season’s artifact has some exceptional perks on it, that should make those excited to play with some new additions and some subclasses that needed a little love. Oh yeah, and bring a sword!

Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Episode: Echoes season artifact mods

The seasonal Artifact this episode is called Hunter’s Journal – a little something from Cayde himself. In order to unlock high levels of the Artifacts, you will need more experience, which you get from doing anything in the game. If you saved some bounties (that aren’t part of anything that uses the new Pathfinder system), you can even get a nice burst at the beginning of the season. 

Here’s all the mods you can unlock in during the Final Shape Launch and Episode: Echoes, as revealed in a Bungie blog:

First column

Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle	Your equipped Pulse Rifle fires shield-piercing rounds and stun Anti-Barrier champions. Additionally, Pulse Rifles are always overcharged when that modifier is active.
Unstoppable Sidearm	Aiming down the sights of a Sidearm for a short time loads a powerful explosive payload that stuns Unstoppable champions.
Unstoppable Scout Rifle	Aiming down the sights of a Scout Rifle for a short time loads a powerful explosive payload that stuns Unstoppable champions.
Overload Hand Canon	Landing Consecutive hits with any Hand Cannon you are wielding disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions.
Anti-Barrier SMG	Your equipped SMG fires shield-piercing rounds and stun Anti-Barrier champions. Additionally, Pulse Rifles are always overcharged when that modifier is active.

Second column

Logic Reductor	Weapons with the Radiolaria Transposer origin perk deal increased damage to Vex. Extends the Duration of the Radiolario pools created by Radiolaria Transposer.
Overcharged Armory	Weapons with the Dealer’s Choice Radiolaria Transposer, Collective Purpose, and Sundering Origin traits are always Overcharged weapons for you when that modifier is active.
Authorized Mod: Elemental Charge	The energy cost of Elemental Charge mods are significantly discounted.
Sanit’s Inspiration	Rounds loaded by the Cast No Shadows origin perk can overflow the magazine.
Winning Hand	While using the weapons with the Dealer’s Choice origin trait, combatant precision final blows or rapidly defeating combatants cause the target to explode, dealing Solar damage to nearby combatants. Having several equipped weapons with the Dealer’s Choice origin trait increases the effects of the explosion.

Third column

Elemental Siphon	Rapid final blows with a kinetic weapons or a weapon matching your Equiiped super create and elemental pick up that matches your equipped super.
Overload Sword	Breaking a combatant’s shield grants increased weapons stability, handling and reload speed. Swords gain increased Guard resistance.
Creeping Chill	Stasis weapon Final blows against Slowed or Frozen targets release a burst that slows.
Press the Advantage	Breaking a combatants shield grants increased weapons stability, handling and reload speed. Swords gain increased Guard resistance.
Threaded Blast	Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion..

Fourth column

Counter Energy	When you or a member of your fireteam stuns a champion, you gain energy for your least charged ability.
Blade Stamina	Rapidly defeating combatants with a sword refunds some ammo.
Void Hegemony	While you have a void or Prismatic subclass equipped, defeating weakened targets provides a small void overshield.
Radiant Orbs	While you have a void or Prismatic subclass equipped, defeating weakened targets provides a small void overshield.
Galvanic Armor	While you have an arc or prismatic Subclass equipped, incoming damage from combatants is reduced while amplified.

Fifth column

Prismatic Transfer	When you cast your Super, each member of your fireteam with a Super type different than yours gains a bonus to weapon damage.
Argent Blade	While you have Armor Charge, Dealing damage with a sword consumes an Armor Charge and Embpowers your Sword for a Short Time, granting it bonus damage and Energy Charge Rate.
Expanding Abyss	Void sources deal increased damage to Weakened targets.
Shieldcrush	While you have Woven Mail, Frost Armor, or a void Overshield, your melee recharges faster and deals increased damage.
Transference	Gain increased Grenade and Melee damage while Transcendent. Weapon Final blows while Transcendent refunds light and dark energy after Transcendence ends.

Which Hunter’s Jorunal mods are the best?

So, what are actually going to be the important Artifact mods this Episode? There are a couple that should be worth your attention, and you should try to sprint to. Unfortunately, they are in the last column where the most powerful mods go. 

Before jumping in, one thing to consider is that we don’t have hard numbers on buffs and debuffs. So, be aware, until more testing is done, we can only guesstimate how much of an effect a mod will have. 

Here are our top picks for the best mods on the Artifact:

• Expanding Abyss: This will live or die on the strength of the effect but adding a buff directly onto a debuff is a pretty strong move on paper. Anything that Weakens could become instant meta, so any Buried Bloodlines and Felwinter’s Helm users should fly through. This will pair especially well with Void Hegemony too.
• Prismatic Transfer: This will need both team coordination and testing, but on paper this sounds exceptionally strong. If you run it optimally, then you will either have your team on different subclasses, or prismatic using a different subclass super, up to all five of the elements in the game. What’s not clear though is the potency of the buff, or if it stacks, and if so how much. If every character in your raid group pops their super, do you get x5 of this effect, or do you instead want to pop one by one to keep the buff up? There’s a lot that needs to be figured out here, but this seems like it should be strong. 
• Argent Blade (and other sword mods): Argent Blade is a classic, and you have access to it already. However, this will make it passive. Also, there are other mods making swords strong here too – Blade Stamina and Overload Sword. Having all of these active will make you a heavy hitter with a blade. Anyone starting to think there might be a sword encounter in the raid?

Those are our best suggestions for what to go after in your artifact. There’s a lot here that is potentially very interesting. We will update our picks if anything else ends up taking our interest as again, we have no access to numbers here, which will really make or break them.