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Destiny 2: The Final Shapehas made some major changes to the way seasons work. The seasonal model has been replaced with an episodic model, trading the weekly drip-fed narrative for a more organic model that evolves over three acts. Each act comes with small changes and additions, ranging from modified activities to new quests.
The Artifact is one such element that has been modified by the new model. While it is functionally identical to past seasonal Artifacts, the Artifact tied to Echoes will receive new perks through each act. To help you get the most out of this altered Artifact, this guide will explain how the Artifact system works in Echoes, how to unlock it, and give a breakdown of how each perk works. Expect updates as the episode develops.
Updated June 12, 2025, by Charles Burgar:The last row of Artifact perks is now active in Episode: Echoes, bringing with it a new suite of Auto Rifle-themed perks. We’ve updated this guide to include exact numbers and notable information about every new Artifact perk.
Targeting Autoloader
Shock And Awe
The Hunter’s Journal is unlocked partway through The Final Shape campaign, similar to seasonal Artifacts from past expansions.All XP you earn throughout the episode will increase the Artifact’s level,unlocking additional Artifact perkswhile increasing your account’s Power level. The more XP you earn, the more perks and bonus Power you’ll earn.
Any XP you earned before claiming the Hunter’s Journal will still be tracked on your Artifact.
For the first two acts of Echoes, the Artifact has30 perks to choose from, broken up into five columns.From the inventory screen, inspect your Artifact to bring up the perk menu.These perks are passive and always active, even in PvP. The columns are set up in a hierarchical order, so you’ll need to spend points on previous columns to unlock the next set of perks.You can have up to 12 perks active at a time.
Unlike the seasonal model, the new episodic model will actually change the Artifact over time.Each new act in the current episode will add new perks to the Artifact,presumably by adding a new row. It’s unclear how perk limits will change to account for these new options, but keep this in mind when allocating perk points. We’ll update this article as the Artifact evolves.
Resetting Your Artifact
If you aren’t getting much use out of your Artifact, you can reset it byholding onto the “Reset Artifact” option in the Artifact menu.You can also select active perks on your Artifact to deactivate them, allowing you to reallocate your points. This might be useful if you’re switching between builds or from PvE to PvP. Resetting your Artifact costs nothing and can be done as many times as you please.
Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle
Your equipped Pulse Rifles pierce Barrier Champion shields.
Additionally, Pulse Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Unstoppable Sidearm
Aiming down sights for a couple of seconds will load an explosive round, stunning Unstoppable Champions.
Additionally, Sidearms are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Unstoppable Scout Rifle
Additionally, Scout Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Overload Hand Cannon
Landing consecutive hits with a Hand Cannon will stun Overload Champions.
Additionally, Hand Cannons are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Anti-Barrier Sniper Rifle
Your equipped Sniper Rifles pierce Barrier Champion shields.
Additionally, Sniper RIfles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Overload Auto Rifle
Landing consecutive hits with an Auto Rifle will stun Overload Champions.
This column buffs your weapons with anti-Champion capabilities, which is needed to tackle Destiny 2’s endgame PvE content like Nightfalls and Master Lost Sectors. These anti-Champion properties also give your weapons some unlisted effects:
Additionally, any weapon buffed through these mods will gain theOverchargetag in endgame content, increasing that weapon archetype’s damage by 25%. This doesnotstack with elemental surges, but it does stack withall damage buffs.
Column Two Perks
Logic Reductor
Weapons with the Radiolaria Transposer origin trait deal increased damage to Vex.
Extends the duration of the radiolarian pools created by this origin trait.
Applies to the episodic weapons added in Echoes.
Overcharged Armory
Weapons with the Dealer’s Choice, Radiolaria Transposer, Collective Purpose, and Sundering origin traits are always Overcharged.
Applies to all non-reissue Final Shape weapons and Warlord’s Ruin weapons.
Sets the mod cost to 1 energy.
Saint’s Inspiration
Rounds loaded by the Cast no Shadows origin trait can overflow the magazine.
Applies to all reissued Season of Dawn weapons.
Winning Hand
Weapons with the Dealer’s Choice origin trait can trigger Solar explosions by landing rapid kills or precision final blows.
Authorized Mod: Charged Up
Sets Charged Up mod cost to 1 energy.
Logic Reductorincreases the effectiveness of the Radiolarian Transposer origin trait, although calculating an exact value is difficult. It seems to give roughly a 20% damage bonus and increases the origin trait’s duration by one second.
Overcharged Armorybuffs every weapon added in Final Shape and Echoes with overcharge, an endgame PvE modifier that grants weapons with active overcharge 25% more damage. This doesnotstack with surges and is only active in activities where overcharge is enabled, such as Master raids and Lost Sectors.
Authorized Mods: Elemental Chargesets the cost of the Elemental Charge mod to one energy. This is a leg mod that grants Armor Charge upon collecting subclass pickups. Consult ourarmor mods guidefor more information on how this mod works.
Saint’s Inspirationbehaves similarly to Ambitious Assassin. Melee damage triggers Cast no Shadows, which will overflow the magazine while this artifact perk is active. This can overflow up todouble your base magazine size, the same as the Overflow perk.
Winning Handis a tough perk to test, but it seems to give your Pale Heart weapons a discount variant of Firefly. All weapons with Dealer’s Choice (the Pale Heart destination weapons) will trigger a small Solar explosion on precision kills and multikills. The explosion covers roughly a two-meter radius and deals slightly less damage than Firefly, although the explosion has damage falloff. This makes the explosion far weaker in practice.
Wielding multiple Dealer’s Choice weapons will increase the explosion’s overall damage, but it doesnotaffect the explosion’s damage falloff or blast radius. We suggest using this perk since it’s free damage in PvE; just don’t expect it to pull much weight.
Authorized Mods: Scavengerreduces the cost of all scavenger mods to one energy. Scavenger mods are found on leg armor and increase the amount of ammunition you gain from ammo bricks.
Authorized Mods: Charged Upreduces the cost of the Charged Up chest mod to one energy. This increases your maximum Armor Charge capacity by one and stacks up to three times.
Column Three Perks
Elemental Siphon
Multikills with weapons that match your Super element will create an elemental pickup of that damage type.
Additionally, Swords are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
Creeping Chill
Stasis weapon kills against slowed or frozen targets release a burst that slows.
Works similarly to Chill Clip.
Press The Advantage
Breaking a combatant’s shield grants increased weapon stability, handling, and reload speed.
Swords gain increased guard resistance instead.
Threaded Blast
Detonating Tangles with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion.
Solar Sniper Rifle precision hits Scorch targets.
Sustained Fire
Gain 40% damage reduction for 6 seconds upon landing consecutive hits with an Auto Rifle.
Elemental Siphoncreates an elemental pickup matching your Super element when you land multikills with a matching damage type. For example, if you land multikills with a Strand weapon, you’ll create a Tangle. This perk triggers afterthree rapid kills. Pickups are as follows:
Overload Swordallows your Swords to stun Overload Champions upon landing three hits. This can be tricky to activate on an Overload Champion in the middle of combat, but you can prime this perk by hitting other enemies first. Additionally, all Swords are considered overcharged in endgame PvE content, provided the modifier is active.
Creeping Chillreleases a pulse of Stasis energy whenever you defeat a Stasis-debuffed foe with a Stasis weapon. Enemies caught in the pulse are slowed, restricting their movement and ability usage.This perk works in PvPand has absurdly strong synergies with Wicked Implement, which is currently the only Primary weapon that can slow enemies with consecutive hits.
Press the Advantageis an amazing neutral game bonus for every PvE build this season. Breaking a PvE enemy’s shields will grant +20 stability, +30 handling, and +30 reload speed for ten seconds. This buff can be refreshed by breaking another combatant’s shields, allowing for near-constant uptime in most activities. This doesnottrigger in PvP.
Threaded Blastis more of a sidegrade than a raw upside. When you detonate a Tangle with a Strand weapon, its blast radius will double at the cost of half damage. This makes it better for clearing out fodder units, but if you’re using Tangles in endgame PvE content or even Crucible, this is usually a straight downgrade. Threaded Blast doesnotaffect any Aspects that modify Tangles, such as The Wanderer and Whirling Maelstrom.
Incendiary Rifle Roundsbuffs your Sniper Rifles with Scorch ammo. Landing a precision hit with a Solar Sniper Rifle will inflict x25 Scorch, increased to x35 with Ember of Ashes (Solar subclasses only). With good aim, you can nowtrigger Ignitions with Solar Snipers, which will greatly increase your single-target DPS. Great weapons to pair with this include Whisper of the Worm, Still Hunt, and the IKELOS Sniper Rifle.
Sustained Firegives you a 40% damage resistance buff for six seconds upon landing consecutive damage with an Auto Rifle. You must actively be dealing damage with the weapon for Sustained Fire to proc. The buff itself is displayed as “Resist x3” on your HUD and can be refreshed. This DR buff stacks multiplicatively with other DR sources. You cannot activate this perk by damaging Guardians in PvP.
Column Four Perks
Counter Energy
When you or a member of your fireteam stuns a champion, you gain 30% energy for your least-charged ability.
Blade Stamina
Triple kills with a Sword refund three ammo. Only works in PvE.
Void Hegemony
While you have a Void or Prismatic subclass equipped, defeating weakened targets provides a small Void Overshield.
Radiant Orbs
While you have a Solar or Prismatic subclass equipped, picking up an Orb of Power makes you Radiant.
Galvanic Armor
Gain 30% damage resistance while Amplified. Only applies to Arc and Prismatic subclasses.
The DR is reduced to 10% in PvP
Your Ignitions do increased damage in an increased radius.
While you have an Auto Rifle equipped, AR kills reload your equipped weapon and temporarily increases Auto Rifle damage.
Counter Energyrestores a whopping 30% ability energy to your least-charged ability whenever a Champion is stunned. This works in all PvE content with Champions, including Grandmaster Nightfalls and Master Lost Sectors. Counter Energy doesn’t have a cooldown either, so this perk is nothing short of S-tier if you plan on farming any difficult PvE content.
Blade Staminarestores three ammo whenever you land a triple kill with a Sword, allowing you to hypothetically use your Sword indefinitely while slaying adds. In practice, the timing for this perk is incredibly tight, requiring you to land that triple kill within a three-second window to receive that bonus ammo.
Ergo Sum only received two ammo when Blade Stamina procs.
Void Hegemonygrants +15 Void Overshield whenever you defeat a weakened foe as a Void or Prismatic subclass. Void Overshields cap out at roughly +45, so you’ll need to kill three weakened enemies to receive a full overshield. Reactivating Void Hegemony will also refresh your Void Overshield timer.
Radiant Orbsis back and remains an S-tier pick. While on a Solar or Prismatic subclass, picking up an Orb of Power will grant Radiant for ten seconds, increasing all weapon damage by 25%. This also buffs the damage output of Golden Gun for Hunters. Virtually every Solar and Prismatic build will want this perk active.
Galvanic Armorprovides a 30% damage resistance buff while affected by Amplified, an Arc keyword that increases your movement speed and jump height. This DR bonus is reduced to 10% in PvP. Galvanic Armor does stack with other sources of DR, doing so multiplicatively.
Solar Fulminationdoesn’t technically buff your Ignitions. It instead adds a second damage instance with each Ignition explosion. This second damage instance is about 25% as effective as a standard Ignition, covers a ten-meter radius, and benefits from Ignition-related fragments like Facet of Ruin.
Targeting Autoloader’sin-game description is slightly misleading. While you’re actively using an Auto Rifle, kills will build stacks of the Targeting Autoloader buff, up to five stacks. At maximum stacks, your Auto Rifle restores 40% of its magazine with each kill and deals 20% more damage. This buffonlyapplies to Auto Rifles, not all weapons like the in-game description implies. This buff stacks with other damage buffs, including Radiant and surges.
Column Five Perks
Prismatic Transfer
Casting a Super grants a damage buff to allies with non-matching Super elements.
Argent Blade
While you have Armor Charge, dealing damage with a Sword consumes an Armor Charge and grants “Argent Blade” for five seconds.
Argent Blade grants a 10% stacking damage buff and increases your sword’s energy recharge rate.
Void sources deal increased damage to weakened targets.
Shieldcrush
While you have Woven Mail, Frost Armor, or a Void Overshield, your melee recharges faster and deals increased damage.
While you have amplified or radiant, your grenade recharges faster and deals increased damage.
Transference
Gain increased grenade and melee damage while transcendent.
Weapon final blows while transcendent refund Light and Dark energy after Transcendence ends.
Sniper’s Meditation
Sniper Rifle hits grant a 15% stacking Sniper RIfle damage, stability, and reload speed for a short time.
Heavy ammo Sniper RIfle hits count as two hits.
While amplified, Arc final blows cause targets to explode, jolting nearby foes.
This only works while you’re using an Arc or Prismatic subclass.
Prismatic Transferoffers a 20% damage bonus for ten seconds to all allies with a non-matching Super element. This counts as an empowering buff and doesnotstack with Radiant, Weapons of Light, and similar character-bound damage buffs. Itdoesstack with leg surges and weapon perks, however.
Argent Bladeincreases all Sword damage by 10% for five seconds while active. You must damage an enemy with a Sword while you have Armor Charge for this perk to trigger. Unlike Prismatic Transfer,Argent Blade stacks with all damage buffs, making this a fantastic option for PvE encounters where Swords are ideal.
Expanding Abysshas a somewhat misleading description. Weakened enemies receive more damage from all Void weapons, increasing the magnitude of the weaken debuff; this isnota damage buff like Radiant or Argent Blade. The source of weaken doesn’t matter. As long as you damage the target with a Void weapon, you’ll receive the bonus damage.
Expanding Abyss doesnottrigger from Divinity’s cage.
Shieldcrushis technically two perks in one. While you havea defensive keyword active—Frozen Armor, Void Overshield, or Woven Mail—yourmelee abilitieswill deal 25% more damage and recharge 25% faster in PvE. While you havean offensive keyword active—Amplified or Radiant—yourgrenadesdeal 25% more damage and recharge 25% faster.
This perk works in PvP, albeit with reduced effectiveness. Your abilities deal 10% more damage and recharge 5% faster in the Crucible.
Transferencebuffs the Transcendence state of Prismatic. While Transcendent, your grenades and melee abilities deal 10% more damage, stacking with other damage modifiers like Exotics and Shieldcrush. Additionally, kills with weapons during Transcendence will refund Transcendence energy once the effect ends, restoring 2.5% Super energy for every enemy slain. The maximum refund you may receive is 50% energy.
Sniper’s Meditationgrants up to a 15% damage buff with all Sniper Rifles, stacking with all other damage buffs like Radiant and leg surges. Each hit grants one stack of Sniper’s Meditation, lasting seven seconds. You’ll need to hitfive stacksto achieve the maximum 15% damage bonus. This works on all Sniper Rifles as well, including Still Hunt, Whisper of the Worm, and Izanagi’s Burden.
Shock and Awereturns from previous seasons and works as you’d expect. While you are Amplified, all Arc kills (including weapons) will trigger a miniature Storm Grenade at the target’s location, spawning a cluster of lightning bolts that deal heavy damage and inflict Jolt. This effect has a five-second cooldown between activations.
