The Hard Light auto rifle is one of the more troublesome weapons in Destiny 2. Originally, it had a terrible case of the shakes whenever it was continuously fired. Recent patches have made it more manageable and dramatically increased accuracy, but it’s still a little wobbly.
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Fortunately, the Hard Light Catalyst improves things even further, to make the Hard Light a much better experience. Whether or not the Hard Light is still worth it after this point is debatable. Additionally, obtaining and upgrading the Hard Light Catalyst is no picnic. Here’s everything players should know about what the Hard Light Catalyst is capable of and where to get one.
As mentioned earlier, the Hard Light Catalyst helps minimize the shakiness that comes with firing the Hard Light in continuous firing mode. This is accomplished by the following benefit that comes with the Hard Light Catalyst:
- Increase weapon stability by 18
It's impossible to understate how wonderful this added stability is on top of the recent patch changes. For players who may have given up on this weapon a long time ago, it’s definitely worth taking another look with the Hard Light Catalyst installed.
The Hard Light Catalyst will appear randomly whenever the player completes Heroic or Nightfall Strikes. There’s no indication exactly how rare a Hard Light Catalyst drop is, but like other, Catalysts it’s not likely to appear right away.
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Whether the player is in Heroic or Nightfall doesn't seem to affect the odds of a drop. The important thing to remember is that it appears as a result of successfully completing a Strike. Thus, players should only tackle a difficulty they can manage.
Once players have obtained the Hard Light Catalyst, they can further augment it via upgrading. This is where a bit of grinding comes into play, as it takes one thousand kills with the Hard Light to upgrade. It doesn’t matter whether the enemies are PVE or Guardians, so long as one thousand are defeated.
It’s also important to note that the player must achieve these kills with the Hard Light. It doesn’t matter how the enemy took damage; as long as the final blow is dealt with the Hard Light weapon, it will count. These kills can also be retroactive. If the player killed anything with the Hard Light before obtaining the Hard Light Catalyst, it will also count towards the thousand.
Hard Light is handy in certain PVP situations thanks to its ability to destroy enemy shields. For some players, this means winning Crucible matches on smaller maps where the continuous fire can wreak havoc. There are far better weapons for PVP though, so this isn’t the best choice.
Alternatively, players can take the Hard Light into PVE. Its Fundamentals perk enables players to alternate between different elemental damages whenever they want. This means the Hard Light weapon will enable players to have elemental advantage no matter what enemy they face. The continuous fire and high penetration is also helpful against tanky enemies, like bosses.