In Destiny 2 your weapons have various stats, but what exactly do they do in the game? Let’s take a closer look at stability and recoil direction.
Stability in Destiny 2: Guardians are meant to have a good and relaxed time in the Destiny universe. Therefore, Bungie decided to keep stats simple and avoid a confusing jumbled mess of numbers in the game.
However, at some point a Guardian will wonder: What does it matter if my weapon has high or low stability? In the game itself, it is stated: Stability is “the recoil force exerted by firing this weapon.”
Destiny 2 itself doesn’t say much about the effects of recoil force. What remains unclear is what high or low stability actually changes.
Things get even more interesting when considering that there are so-called hidden stats for every weapon in the game. These can only be accessed through external apps or databases like light.gg, but they have a strong impact in-game.
But one thing is reliable in Destiny: the community. Resourceful Guardians are true analysts and tireless experimenters. As such, they have also dealt with the issue of stability and recoil.
Stability Under Examination
General Effects of Stability: Destiny players have found (via Reddit), that stability affects these factors:
- Visual Kick – this is the visual recoil. So how much or how far the weapon barrel “jumps” on the screen.
- Recoil – the actual kick. This refers to the distance and inaccuracy that the reticle or projectiles travel between shots.
- Recoil during a Burst – some weapons, like pulse rifles, fire in bursts. More stability means that the bullets in a burst remain closer together.
The so-called Centre Speed is not affected. This is the value that determines when the weapon returns to its original position after firing.
Differences Between Mouse and Controller: An important topic in these considerations is the differences between various input devices. Generally, it can be said: The issue of stability is more important for controller players.
With the mouse, weapon recoil is much lower, and stability plays a lesser role. The same weapon, with the same stability, changes its behavior depending on the input device.
The distinctions also apply when PC players are using a controller. This is how the difference appears in-game:
Hidden Stats Matter: To balance out the differences, the so-called Aim Assist kicks in for controllers. This is a hidden value that varies depending on the weapon, perks, and mods. More Aim Assist simply means:
- Your bullets “magically” find their way to the opponent, even if you shoot slightly off-target
- Your reticle sticks closer to the opponent and slows down when you aim at enemies
During the tests, it should be noted that shots were fired on stationary surfaces. Aim Assist does not apply there. In a real duel, therefore, one can expect somewhat different results.
What You Need to Know About Recoil Direction: Not only stability influences the kick and recoil of your weapons. A further hidden value is very important for recoil: the recoil direction.
This value affects the direction in which the weapon is likely to kick when fired. In summary, it can be said:
- With odd values (10, 30, 50, 70, 90), the weapon kicks to the left
- With even values (20, 40, 60, 80), the kick goes more to the right
- With values ending in “5” (e.g., 25, 55, 95), the recoil is nearly vertical
So you can determine and prepare for the kick direction when shooting based on the recoil direction.
Which Weapons is Stability Important in Destiny 2?
In his investigations on stability, the expert Fallout Plays identified some weapons that benefit from stability. However, even if there are general trends, each weapon must be examined individually in case of doubt.
Generally, the harder the weapons hit, the harder they kick.
Translation by Fallout Plays via YouTube
It also matters which mods and gear are used or how other stats fit into the overall picture.
These Weapons Benefit from Stability:
- Pulse Rifles – for burst weapons, high stability has a very noticeable effect.
- Fusion Rifles – even if fusion rifles cause fear and terror in PvP due to their range, stability has noticeable effects on the category
- Auto Rifles
- Pistols
- SMGs
- Hand Cannons – the popular hand cannons are a topic in themselves. However, since the changes in Shadowkeep, stability plays a more important role with revolvers
- Scout Rifles – especially rapid-firing scout rifles can be used better with good stability.
These Weapons Require Little Stability:
- Rocket Launchers – the powerful weapons fire just too slowly to feel the recoil unless you use a fully automatic rocket launcher build
- Grenade Launchers – even if some grenade launchers, the boss killers, fire relatively quickly, stability doesn’t really change their behavior
- Linear Fusion Rifles
- Shotguns – Most shotguns require little stability. Anyone hunting their God-Roll Mindbender will focus on other attributes.
- Bows – with a combat bow, the kick bizarrely goes down, not up. But stability changes that only minimally.
- Sniper Rifles – with most sniper rifles, follow-up shots don’t matter. You want that one perfect shot. A small exception are the rapid-fire snipers.
If you want to see Fallout Plays’ investigations in full length, you can do so here:
Which value is particularly important to you for weapons? Did you find the information on stability and recoil interesting? Why a perk makes stability almost irrelevant, read here:
