BecauseDestiny 2is a looter-shooter, its weapons range from very good to quite bad, as there are a lot of factors to be considered from perks and random rolls to the meta’s current state. Sometimes weapons are shipped in a way that makes them extremely powerful, only for them to be adjusted or heavily nerfed later on. However, the opposite can also happen to weapons that are overlooked, but when they are brought more in-line withDestiny 2’s balance patches, they can become new go-to guns.
Season of the Lost saw the introduction of several Stasis Kinetic guns, something that had first been added a few months earlier with the unimpressive Cryosthesia 77K. The addition of guns like Vulpecula with Headstone and Ager’s Scepter trivialized Cryosthesia 77K because they were much easier to use, whereas Season of the Splicer’s Exotic sidearm had a more convoluted mechanism. The tables turned withDestiny 2’s December sandbox patch, released alongside the 30th Anniversary Pack, and now Cryosthesia 77K is a much better weapon than most of its Stasis counterparts.
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Destiny 2: Cryosthesia 77K and Ager’s Scepter
When Bungie added Cryosthesia 77K as the seasonal Exotic forSeason of the Splicer, Stasis was not in a good place. Despite the fact that Stasis launched in November 2020, the subclass was immediately seen as one of the most broken additions toDestiny 2in a long time. It was too oppressive by allowing Titans to move incredibly fast, Warlocks to single-handedly destroy the enemy team with a Super, and Hunters to stack slows and freeze enemies from a distance with Withering Blades.
Stasis was nerfed multiple timesbefore it became a less complicated version of itself, and while this was met with criticism by thoseDestiny 2players who wanted to use Stasis in PvE, the changes were necessary for PvP. The 30th Anniversary Pack brought more changes to Stasis subclasses in general, but also to the way all Supers and abilities work in terms of cooldown. This allowed Bungie to make changes to weapons like Cryosthesia 77K, which had been purposefully delivered in a bad state so it wouldn’t be too disruptive in PvP.
It is not too dissimilar fromAger’s Scepter, which can freeze all enemies surrounding a target that dies, repeating the effect every time players score a kill. Ager’s Scepter came just a few weeks into Season of the Lost, and when its catalyst was made available it became one of the strongest and most-used guns inDestiny 2. What the catalyst does is allow players to activate a Super-draining mode that empowers Ager’s Scepter to have double its magazine, deal extra damage, and constantly freeze enemies hit by the beam.
It’s little wonder Ager’s Scepter became a meta-dominating gun inDestiny 2, especially when paired with Mantle of Battle Harmony on Stasis Warlocks and a series of artifact mods on Stasis Hunters, allowing for chain freezes and huge DPS. But Ager’s Scepter uses Special ammo, which is something players may very well run out of inharder PvE content, and it also requires players to forego their Super to make it a more powerful weapon. This means using Ager’s Scepter is not always the best option, even though it remains a great weapon.
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Why Destiny 2’s Cryosthesia 77K is Now Better Than Ager’s Scepter
Cryosthesia 77K became easier to use and stopped consuming an entire magazine whenever a charged shot was loaded into the chamber, making it much stronger and more reliable. Though it is a gun that usesPrimary ammo, which is now infinite inDestiny 2, having to consume an entire magazine to use the weapon’s unique perk was a waste and meant that players needed to constantly reload the sidearm between kills and charged shots. Now that this is no longer the case, and considering Cryosthesia 77K capable of shooting an Area-of-Effect freezing shot, it give Ager’s Scepter a run for its money.
Bungie also pushed another change that flew under the radar because it wasn’t in the patch notes for the 30th Anniversary Pack sandbox update.Destiny 2’s Well of Radiance no longer synergizes with other bonusessuch as Focusing Lens. This mod was previously used in Raid encounters, with a Stasis Hunter triggering it for the whole team by casting Silence and Squall on a boss, effectively increasing the damage of every player within the Well of Radiance.
Cryosthesia 77Kdoes work with Focusing Lens now, as players can freeze enemies simply by scoring a kill and using the alternate reload animation for the charged Stasis shot, thus allowing them to deal extra damage with Light abilities and Supers. This can be achieved with Ager’s Scepter, but it is more difficult to do and it doesn’t synergize well considering the trace rifle requiresDestiny 2players to sacrifice their Supers to become more effective.
Overall, Cryosthesia 77K is now a very versatile weapon that is capable of taking Stasis to a fight effectively, without necessarily using Stasis as the character’s subclass. This opens up more build variety, and it makes for great combos, as seen with aDestiny 2player who dealt over 560k damage with a shoulder chargeability, combining Elemental Well mods and Focusing Lens. Against all odds, Cryosthesia 77K became a better Ager’s Scepter, and the sidearm is now seeing much more use.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
