May 09, 2019
Weapon Breakdown
Outbreak Perfected: Base stats
Rate of Fire: 450
Impact: 27
Range: 49
Stability: 46
Handling: 50
Reload Speed: 50
Magazine: 36
Aim Assist: 65
Recoil Direction: 80
The Corruption Spreads / Extended Barrel / Accurized Rounds / Outlaw / Parasitism
The Corruption Spreads - This weapon creates SIVA nanite swarms on rapid hits and precision kills.
Parasitism - This weapon does more damage to enemies based on the number of SIVA nanites that attach to them.
The stats for Outbreak Perfected are not yet released, and will be updated once the weapon has been declassified by Bungie. The values above are approximations based on what is shown in-game and should be treated as such.
Outbreak Perfected is the newest exotic to be added to Destiny 2. If you do not already have it, please see our guide for the quest steps. Outbreak Perfected is a 450 RPM pulse rifle, similar to the Nightshade and Chattering Bone. Unlike both of those pulses, Outbreak Perfected does not give the Lightweight Frame bonus of +2 character mobility.
On precision kills, 7 SIVA nanites will spawn and will stay for around 2-3 seconds. If an enemy is within 6 meters of that swarm the SIVA nanites will move towards that enemy and attach themselves. They will debuff that enemy, with the strength of the debuff based on the number of attached nanites. More nanites mean higher damage to the enemy. Anyone using Outbreak Perfected shooting that same enemy will also do increased damage.
On the fourth consecutive burst on a single target 3 SIVA nanites will spawn and will be attracted back towards the enemy you were shooting at. There is a chance for the nanites to attach to other enemies but the radius for that is small (3 meters) and the nanites have a stronger attraction to the enemy closest to the one you were shooting when they spawned.
PvE Performance
Outbreak Perfected performs really well against groups of enemies and specifically against Taken Thrall and Psions. The SIVA nanites spawn on every precision kill without a cooldown, which makes groups of enemies surrounding a shielded enemy or major really easy to take down. As a kinetic weapon for boss damage, its performance is dependent on the number of people using it, similar to Rat King. Compared to the heavy hitters like Whisper, Sleeper, Lord of Wolves, and Thunderlord, Outbreak Perfected sits nicely among them and has the benefit of using primary ammo, the easiest to find in-game.
From my own personal experience, Outbreak Perfected feels consistent. It isn't flashy but it consistently puts in work against groups and higher health enemies. The nanites help against shielded majors, but not enough to warrant breaking every shield with Outbreak Perfected. A fun new strategy is to start shooting a boss while they are immune to start applying the nanite buff and once the immunity shield is off you can start ripping away at their health bar.
PvP Performance
We do not know the recoil direction at this time, but I suspect that it will be in the low 70s based on my experience using the weapon. The pull is leftward and varies from burst to burst. The most consistent crosshair placement is your opponent's left shoulder so the pull will be across the target's head, making all the bullets land. 450 pulse rifles have an optimal time-to-kill (TtK) of 0.87s with 8 critical hits. This is the same TtK as 140 RPM hand cannons, like Ace of Spades. Compared to other pulse rifles, Outbreak Perfected will kill faster than Adaptive Frame pulses like the Bygones, but slower than Aggressive Frame pulses like the Blast Furnace.
The body-shot TtK for Outbreak Perfected is 1.33s with 12 body-shots. The unique aspect of Outbreak Perfected is the nanites that spawn on the fourth burst; this extra damage allows you to kill any resilience level of guardian with 4 bursts to the body. However, they have to be four full bursts. Missing a shot or two within a burst will cause the burst counter to refresh and the nanites will not spawn.
In the Crucible, the nanites do 10 damage each. If you were to attach all 7 nanites to another enemy guardian, the damage from the nanites plus the debuff will increase the base 25 critical damage to 44 damage. This combination will give you an incredibly fast TtK of just one burst. No other pulse rifle in the game has that potential. The issue is getting all 7 nanites to latch onto a target. Each nanite not only does 10 damage each, but changes Outbreak Perfected's damage output
Here is the damage per nanite stack:
0- 25c16b Base
1- 29c18b
2- 33c20b
3- 36c22b
4- 40c25b
5- 44c27b
6- 44c27b
7- 44c27b
The damage output caps at 44 critical damage and 27 body-shot damage with 5 nanites. Getting more than 5 nanites at a time to attach to a second guardian after killing the first will be a challenge. If you can get the stars to align and precision kill the first enemy guardian and a second walks into the nanite swarm you will be rewarded heavily.
Outbreak Prime has an effective range of 45 meters before experiencing damage drop off, but the sweet spot for consistently landing precision blows is around 36 meters. Outbreak Prime feels like it has a lot of aim assist, meaning chest level shots will get pulled and count as critical hits. Until the stats are released we cannot know for certain.
In practice, Outbreak Perfected feels like a good zoning weapon. The nanites stop guardians from pushing into a lane and if they do you will be able to kill them even faster. I feel like this weapon will be used a lot within the next few weeks, but after Season of the Opulence drops the usage will go down significantly.
I still feel like it will be a top contender, especially on PC where the recoil is much more manageable. However, weapons like Thorn, The Last Word, and Ace of Spades are each arguably better than Outbreak Perfected in different ways. Thorn has its DoT and refreshes its magazine on kills. The Last Word has the best time to kill of any primary, as well as dropping guardians in 4 shots. Ace of Spades is the whole package -- insane range, Firefly, Outlaw, Third Eye, and the Memento Mori bullets.
On controller, there's a different meta and a different story to tell. I don't think Outbreak Perfected is better than a well-rolled Nightshade or Chattering Bone. The benefit is that Outbreak Perfected is a static roll since it's an exotic and will beat a majority of lesser rolled lightweight pulses. I think it will find itself a home in the more passive play styles as well as during Iron Banner for control points. A full team of Outbreak Perfected will mean nanites are everywhere.
Outbreak Perfected pairs well with any close range energy weapon. That can mean a shotgun, fusion rifle, sidearm, or submachine gun. Some specific weapons are the Retold Tale, Mindbender's Ambition, or the new Last Man Standing for shotguns. I think the only good fusion rifle in the current meta is the Erentil FR4. Sidearms are a matter of preference really, but I like the Anonymous Autumn for PvP. And finally you can pair Outbreak Perfected with Recluse or any submachine gun of your choice.
The last Crucible point to mention is against supers. Damage resistance in supers is fickle and Bungie rounds the numbers up to what we see on screen. The important thing to know is middle tree Arcstrider, Way of the Current, will block all damage from Outbreak Perfected. If you were to get a precision kill to spawn the nanites reflecting with Whirlwind Guard will reflect the nanites back at you. I also tested Outbreak Perfected against a blocking Sentinel Titan. On both top and bottom trees, Code of the Protector and Code of the Aggressor, the fourth burst nanites can go behind the shield and attach to the blocking titan. But I found that attachment to be inconsistent . On middle tree Sentinel Titan, Code of the Commander, the nanites will attach wherever you are firing. On all trees of Sentinel, once the super is finished, if the nanites have not despawned they will track towards the titan and apply the debuff. The final note is that the nanites will not spawn on either titan barricade, nor on Ward of Dawn.
Overall, I love the timed missions to get weapons. Whisper, and now Outbreak Perfected, just feel so fun to me. The gun, just like Whisper, is rewarding and certainly a powerhouse given the right situations.
For general PvE content, and for higher end content, Outbreak Perfected is anywhere from a B to an A+ weapon depending on how many fireteam members are also using it.
For the crucible I can see it being used a lot over the next few weeks but that's purely due to the novelty factor. After that it will still be able to compete but it will be more of a B- weapon. The recoil is a bit hard to manage and there are going to be better options for all platforms.
I hope you enjoyed this review. Go get Outbreak Perfected and watch out for TR3-VR. I will add in the masterwork as its own section once the catalyst is complete. Happy Hunting Guardians!