“Surprise” Destiny 2 Exotic delivers devastating one-two combo

One of the most overlooked weapons in Destiny 2 was reworked to have devastating burst damage and now offers incredible synergy with melee builds.

With the arrival of Prismatic and meta Exotics like Still Hunt, Guardians haven’t been paying as much attention to Destiny’s older weapons. However, that might be a mistake, as the Bastion rework in The Final Shape has transformed an overlooked Exotic into one of the best options for dealing burst damage.

Following the rework, Saint’s Fists now provides Bastion with a 45% damage boost for 7 seconds after any successful melee hit. Considering Bastion already hit hard for a Fusion Rifle, this is a massive boost. This is only made better by the fact that Bastion can intrinsically stun Unstoppable Champions, giving it some genuine utility.

If that’s not enough, landing most pellets in a burst also empowers melee damage by up to 150%, effectively making Saint’s Fist a combined version of both One-Two Punch and Trench Barrel, two incredibly powerful damage perks.

The potency of this combo was not lost on Destiny veteran Datto, who admitted, “Bastion is actually something that surprised me quite a lot,” after testing the buffed Exotic. He then theorized that Bastion now has “a lot of synergy with melee-based setups,” which is an appealing prospect given how prominent meta builds are in Echoes Act 2.

With Bastion offering two great melee damage perks in one, it is indeed now one of the best weapons to use with melee builds. Alongside the likes of Tractor Cannon, Breachlight, and more or less any shotgun with One-Two Punch, Bastion is right up there as a legitimately top-tier option.

Where Bastion truly excels is when it is partnered with either Synthoceps or Liar’s Mask. After stacking the damage boost of both Bastion and these Exotics, you are unlikely to encounter many enemies that can survive this lethal combo.

However, the reworked Exotic isn’t perfect. Firstly, its effective range is quite limited, so you’ll have to get up close to make the most of it. While this is fine in low and mid-tier activities, it makes using Bastion in harder content like GMs somewhat impractical.

Equally, it only has a 5-round magazine. These days, the best Fusion Rifles all roll perks like Reconstruction, Envious Assassin, and Overflow, so having such a small magazine isn’t ideal. Using the Kinetic Loader mod mitigates this problem, but it is still a con of using Bastion that you should be aware of.