On the weekend, players could earn the new Trials bow “Pfeiffer’s Favor” in its master version in Destiny 2. The perk “Kill Clip” is considered by players to be the god roll and thus the strongest option for the weapon. However, a new perk from Season 18 could be the much better choice as it automatically grants bonus damage, even if your shots are not accurate.
Which weapon is it? The current Season 18 introduced two new weapons into the loot pool of the “Trials of Osiris”. A new shotgun and for the first time, also a bow called “Pfeiffer’s Favor”. It is just a reimagining of the “Whispering Plate” that was released in Season 11, but with significantly better stats.
This weekend, one could earn the kinetic bow for the first time in the master version for a flawless run to the Lighthouse. Many players prioritized its “Light Frame” with the “Kill Clip” perk as the god roll. Especially since it is also the first bow that can drop with it.
However, a few content creators, like Legoleflash, now say: “Don’t be blinded by it!” They, along with us at MeinMMO, have identified another strong perk favorite that is better than “Kill Clip”, especially when aiming down sights rather than firing from the hip.
These two perks vie for the title of favorite: “Pfeiffer’s Favor” can drop with both “Kill Clip” and the new perk “Direct Shot to the Gut”. However, upon closer inspection, the advantages of the latter outweigh.
- The perk “Kill Clip” causes increased damage when reloading after a kill. This grants you exactly 33% more damage for 5.5 seconds in Season 18. But only if you can make a kill with it.
- “Direct Shot to the Gut”, on the other hand, increases body shot damage when aiming down sights and reduces target acquisition. This, unlike “Kill Clip”, is a passive 20% damage bonus that is always active. And this even applies to inaccurate shots, i.e., body shots, when aiming down sights.
With the perk “Direct Shot to the Gut”, “Pfeiffer’s Favor” can not only offer free extra damage, a quick draw time, and a slight speed boost. It is also very forgiving with misses. In PvP, your damage with a body shot increases from 86 to 103.
Additionally, you should not be deterred by its “Light Frame”, which is known for its rather poor time-to-kill values. “Pfeiffer’s Favor” has extremely good precision stats to compensate, making you quickly forget this downside.
As shown impressively by Legoleflash in his video, which is also a tribute to lightweight bows. In it, he explains in detail why the new perk is his favorite.
With a precision value of 38, the bow has a higher precision than any other bow in the game with a “Light Frame”. For comparison: Thornbite has 32 points. Every other bow of this legendary archetype ranks even lower, with stats around 20.
On the website destinymassivebreakdowns.com, you can view the exact base stats of all currently available bows in the game in a detailed overview:
Legoleflash recommends the following perk combo:
- Polymer String
- Fiber-Optic Arrow Shaft
- Mobile Target (Optional would be Deadly Wind or Tunnel Vision.)
- Direct Shot to the Gut
- Masterwork: Draw Time
For PvE, in addition to “Direct Shot to the Gut”, you might consider “Cornered” and “Onslaught”.
In addition to the regular perk benefits, you also have the choice between three optional origin traits.
- Quickness: for improved reload speed, stability, aim assist, and range when you are the last living member of your fireteam or fighting solo.
- A Quiet Moment: Grants increased reload speed outside of combat.
- Veist Spike: This grants bows a faster draw speed.
Quickness is slightly better suited for this bow than Veist Spike. With the perk combo mentioned above, you have already reached the maximum draw speed of 500.
In this combination, the new bow essentially plays like a constant 2-tap hand cannon. However, this is only true if you keep a few things in mind.
This is how to play the bow correctly: To trigger the perk, you have to adjust your playstyle a little. Especially if you have preferred firing from the hip.
For “Direct Shot to the Gut” to work, you must always aim down sight and then draw the bowstring. You cannot “pre-load”. However, once you get the hang of this adjustment, the combination of movement boost and 2-body-shot kills is really impressive and absolutely worth the effort.
Have you already gotten the weapon in Destiny 2? Then let us know what perks you had. Feel free to tell us in the comments if you also think that “Direct Shot to the Gut” can outperform “Kill Clip”.
If you don’t spend much time in PvP, we recommend the current story of Destiny 2. There, an old character, whom many players have hoped for years, is now revealed:
