Explanation of the controversy surrounding Necrochasm in Destiny 2

One of the most anticipated moments in the entire world of Destiny 2 is often the moment when a new raid is released or reintroduced. This leads to a race for world-first completion on launch day, a collective effort to uncover the secrets of the new activity, and much more. Crota's End in Destiny 2 is just the latest addition that solidifies this trend. While some players would have preferred the return of Wrath of the Machine, others are satisfied with this choice. However, the general opinion is that it is a significant step in the right direction after Root of Nightmares. Nevertheless, the reintroduction of Crota's End also brought back the exotic auto rifle Necrochasm, which, however, was not praised like the accompanying activity - instead, a major controversy emerged within the community.

Raid exotics are often polarizing additions to the game, as they can either be excessively strong or disappoint for some reason, making it difficult for Bungie to find the right balance between the two. Vow of the Disciple's Collective Obligation was not particularly well-received upon release but was later improved. On the other hand, Root of Nightmare's Conditional Finality is often regarded as one of the best raid exotics in Destiny 2. Necrochasm is one of those rare situations where Bungie's balancing act was successful, but some players feel that it lacks a significant part of its identity and is disappointing in other ways.

Destiny 2's Necrochasm Doesn't Follow the Rules of Weapons of Sorrow

Necrochasm was originally an arc auto rifle in the first game but was changed to a kinetic weapon in Destiny 2 when Crota's End returned for the Season of the Witch. This was a good decision in many ways, especially considering that the energy slot in endgame activities is often occupied by multiple DPS options, and Necrochasm wouldn't have fit there.

Furthermore, Necrochasm is one of the four currently known "Weapons of Sorrow," a collection of weapons in the Guardians' arsenals that are considered dangerous or forbidden due to their connection to powerful Hive magic. In the lore, the Weapons of Sorrow are often referred to as infamous tools of destruction, as they can corrupt those who wield them. In gameplay, these weapons all have a nice feature: green projectiles that visually distinguish them as Weapons of Sorrow. However, in the case of the Necrochasm auto rifle in Destiny 2, despite its original version, it does not fire green projectiles, which confuses the players.

Crota's End's Necrochasm Has a Potentially Underwhelming Exotic Catalyst

In addition, the exotic weapon Necrochasm from Crota's End has new statistics, abilities, and an exotic catalyst, all of which serve to support its purpose in gameplay. The weapon's exotic ability is Cursebringer, which causes precision kills to generate a cursed explosion around the target and these explosions refill the weapon's magazine. The weapon also has Desperate Measures, an enhanced version of Desperate Measures that increases the fire rate of Necrochasm after a precision kill or a kill with a cursed explosion. Essentially, the weapon is an incredible tool for eliminating enemies in Destiny 2 raids or other endgame environments.

Necrochasm's catalyst grants it Outlaw, which has caused some players to be dissatisfied as the weapon already has a base reload time of 76 and therefore doesn't need the additional 50 points from Outlaw. However, Outlaw has a hidden reload time scaling factor that makes the reload increasingly faster, and it works well with Necrochasm's other abilities. Nevertheless, the weapon could have benefited from a better enhancement for an exotic catalyst, especially considering that the exotic catalyst of Monte Carlo in Destiny 2 has exceeded expectations. For this reason, the exclusive weapon from Crota's End is under closer scrutiny by some members of the community.

Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.