Moon weapon reprises dropped with this weekly reset, and they are... we'll say 'a mixed bag', but there are a couple of exceptions. The sleeper pick I want to highlight right now is Dream Breaker, which is a Solar Adaptive Fusion Rifle.

Let's give some context here. It's currently double-reward Nightfalls, and with one of the most farmable strikes in the game on rotation, people who are jonesing for a god-rolled Plug One.1 are almost certainly going to be able to get one. So why should you, as a fusion fiend, be excited for Dream Breaker? (Skip ahead to the end for the tl;dr.)

Perks

For a PvE fusion rifle, the biggest hurdle this fusion has to overcome is that it can't roll with two important perks: Feeding Frenzy, the best reload perk on a weapon that can't deal precision damage, and Reservoir Burst, probably the best PvE perk on any fusion rifle in the game. And while this does hurt it, Dream Breaker still has a solid pool and can at least get very close to some of Plug One's rolls.

At the time of writing, no other fusion rifle in the game can roll with Frenzy, and it's one of the easiest damage/reload perks in the game to proc. All you have to do is be in combat for a reasonable amount of time. That's not a hard ask, and it gives part of the reload from Feeding Frenzy and the damage from Reservoir Burst. Yes, you'll be missing out on those sweet sweet explosions—a real shame, given how much Wrath of Rasputin buffs every source of Solar splash damage—but you'll still have a very good perk for a fusion archetype that really wants extra damage.

Cornered is a perk I've really come around on, and my Feeding Frenzy/Cornered Plug One.1 roll is amazingly fun. On a faster-firing fusion rifle the bonus charge rate gets silly. As the final (and probably least preferable) damage perk the gun can roll, the damage boost of Surrounded is still nothing to sneeze at, especially not with its spec. I'll also mention Wellspring as a utility pick here if you're not interested in damage, since fusions overpenetrate, and fast-firing ones especially clear adds reasonably well because of that.

If you're looking for a PvE roll on this fusion rifle, any perk combo from (Slideways/Heating Up/Lead from Gold) + (Frenzy/Cornered/Surrounded/Wellspring) will most likely serve you well.

Where I think this fusion rifle will shine, though, is in the Crucible. That third column is absolutely stacked with S-tier accuracy perks in almost every slot. Heating Up is an outstanding newcomer to the fusion perk pool, while Under Pressure has been amazing since the glory days of Erentil. Tunnel Vision is also, again, totally unique to Dream Breaker, and with how absurdly sticky it makes Chroma Rush, you can bet Dream Breaker's bolts will find faces.

Unlike the Plug One.1, all the Kickstart mains will be overjoyed to find that Dream Breaker can roll with Slideways+Kickstart. Cornered is also one of those perks that really can come in clutch in the crowded rush of sixes, and come Iron Banner week you're basically certain to proc it on a regular basis.

The most intriguing perk that it can roll, though, is Eye of the Storm. This was only present elsewhere on the much-maligned Coriolis Force, but I think it's extremely well-placed on a fast-firing frame like the Dream Breaker.

Think about how the most recent patch affected how shotguns and fast fusions played against each other. Fast fusions used to struggle badly against shotguns because while they were both consistent kills in similar ranges, the extra couple of meters that fusions could get didn't matter when most shotguns would just kill you outright if you mis-spaced by just a fraction.

Now, though, you're probably just going to be on red health instead. Some of you oldhead fusion mains might remember how consistent an Opening Shot Tempered Dynamo used to be. When you're low, Eye of the Storm will give you an accuracy boost of equivalent strength that stacks with any other accuracy perk you rolled on the gun. Any Fighting Lion mains (myself included) will be glad to tell you how powerful stacking accuracy buffs are.

At the very worst you'll be more likely to trade with the ape where you wouldn't have gotten a clean shot off before. At the best, you'll be able to steal a fight out from under them thanks to your turbocharged aim assist. If you're one of the rare aggressive fusion mains out there, I think this gun will sing in your hands.

If you're looking for a PvP roll, go for (Slideways/Under Pressure)+Kickstart for lethality, or (Tunnel Vision/Heating Up/Under Pressure)+(Cornered/Eye of the Storm) for consistency.

Farming

Probably the most slept on aspect of this gun, though, is its acquisition method. Think about what happened to the Palindrome when the season rolled over. The Palindrome got bundled in with The SWARM and Shadow Price, slashing the chances of getting the gun at all to a third of its already meager drop rate. Chances are good that Plug One.1, Hung Jury and Uzume will likely have the same thing happen to them.

So grinding a good Plug One.1 might be viable now, but could potentially be nigh-on impossible if it follows the trend set by the last season's crop of Nightfall weapons. Even if it doesn't, the strike could simply be a pain in the ass to farm—looking at you, Glassway!—and the drop rate without doubled rewards is obscenely low. The weapon's also only available every four weeks.

You have a limited window to grind, the chances are good you'll get an extremely small number, and should you miss your shot, you'll have to wait nearly a month to try again. That blows.

By contrast, unless the Essence of Servitude quest gets massively overhauled, getting a good Dream Breaker is both easy and deterministic. If you have a Phantasmal Core, all you need to do is kill 30 Vex on the Moon and get 15 fusion rifle kills. This is trivial to accomplish by going to the Lunar Battlegrounds and taking the first left, where you'll find yourself at the Vex gate from Garden of Salvation. Killing just over half of the adds that spawn there will finish the quest outright, making acquiring a Dream Breaker a barely one-minute errand.

Granted, farming Phantasmal Cores aren't super speedy either, but the easiest way to get them is by doing the Altars of Sorrow—and that's fantastic news. Remember:

• The Altars drop Blasphemer, Apostate and Heretic, all incredible weapons in their own right, and well worth grinding for. Heretic in particular would be borderline best-in-slot in PvE if not for Hezen Vengeance's Overflow roll, while Blasphemer and Apostate are terrifyingly lethal in PvP.
• The Altars are public events that are worth a hefty percentage of activity completion for Moon weapon quests.
• You can also obviously get the kills with whatever weapon you need to complete that quest.

Sure, it's not an S-tier gun the way that a Feeding Frenzy/Reservoir Burst Plug One is. It's not going to have access to Adept mods, its perk pool pales in comparison, and you're not going to get Prisms and Shards while you farm it.

But you can just farm out a solid B-tier fusion rifle alongside whatever's on rotation at the Altars for almost zero additional effort. You can even do it alongside your search for a Kill Clip Loud Lullaby or a Elemental Capacitor Tranquility or a One for All Night Terror, if you want. And unlike Plug One.1, it's not going to take you hours before you see a single drop.

A Personal Opinion RE: Rewards

On the off-chance Cozmo decides to scare the sh*t out of me again by replying to this post: I would like to see Nightfall rewards get a Spoils-like treatment of some kind, and it's really disappointing that Bungie seems to be adding yet more RNG to an already pretty difficult grind for these guns. I don't want a return to Stonktaline, far from it. But given how scarce drops this season seem to be, I'm real mad on behalf of all the players who want the godrolls on these guns far more than I do.

That said, I'm not a Bungie employee. The most I can do about this problem is trying to highlight guns with a time-to-reward ratio I consider reasonable, and this is probably the best grind for any non-raid weapon I can think of. It's very easily repeatable, and most importantly, the rewards you get are both deterministic and high-tier. This is obviously good on its own! (Even if I think Altars should get the Escalation Protocol treatment and reset to Level 5 instead of Level 1 after you complete a run.)

But it also gives me a rare reason to play in my favourite patrol zone, and engage in public events with other random Guardians. There's a really wholesome, unique camaraderie you have going on when you stumble your way into a full clear of Altars with five other dipsticks who just happened to hop into your instance, and that does a whole lot to make the Altars grind a lot more bearable than something like Overrides.

Even my cold dead heart melts a little seeing a fresh-faced blueberry having a blast just plugging away at the final boss with their first exotic. The Altars are both spectacular for newbies and rewarding for old vets, and it's why I like the idea so much even if the execution's a little hit or miss. This kind of reward structure is a really good direction I'd like to see Bungie move towards in future, and I hope that the fact they've tried this model twice (EP and Altars) suggests they'll perfect it come Witch Queen.

tl;dr

Don't expect Dream Breaker to be the best fusion rifle in the game. Still, Frenzy allows it to keep a solid place in PvE, and for the fusion apes out there, it has just about every elite accuracy perk in conjunction with Cornered and Eye of the Storm. It's extremely farmable, and unlike Plug One.1, it's going to stay that way until they vault the Moon. If you're out of Phantasmal Cores, even better: you'll also be able to bag yourself a sweet roll on an Altar gun in the process. Go get you one.

PvE Rolls: (Slideways/Heating Up/Lead from Gold) + (Frenzy/Cornered/Surrounded/Wellspring)

PvP Rolls: (Slideways/Under Pressure)+Kickstart for lethality, or (Tunnel Vision/Heating Up/Under Pressure)+(Cornered/Eye of the Storm) for consistency.

External link →