Eighty-Six was a positive surprise for Destiny 2 fans, and not just because of its god roll. Although it does boast great perks, the real hidden gem is its origin trait and how it interacts with your abilities.
Using Eighty-Six’s heavy attack turbocharges the Bray Legacy origin trait, which grants an enormous (and probably illegal) amount of energy to the ability closest to a full charge. Since it’s a Vortex Frame, this sword’s heavy attack hits multiple times, apparently returning energy on each.
If nearly infinite ability energy wasn’t too good a deal to pass up, Eighty-Six also brings some potent perks, making this an even deadlier option to have. In fact, it’s so good you’ll barely miss Eager Edge. Here are our Eighty-Six god rolls in Destiny 2, based on perk data from d2foundry.gg.
Eighty-Six PvE god rolls in Destiny 2
- Blade: Jagged Edge or Tempered Edge
- Guard: Swordmaster’s Guard
- First perk: Relentless Strikes, Sharp Harvest, or Slice
- Second perk: Elemental Honing, Redirection, or Attrition Orbs
Swords don’t always get the luxury of having double-damage perks, so in most cases, whatever goes in the third column is about ammo generation. In this case, you have two options on that front: Relentless Strikes to make ammo for Eighty-Six itself, and Sharp Harvest if you’re looking to fuel your special weapons. They work the same, granting you ammo for every third light attack. The difference is that the former creates ammo for itself, while the latter grants you special ammo instead. You can use it to top up reserves with Mint Retrograde or other green-ammo weapons.
Slice comes up as a utility-based alternative that favors higher-end content. This perk severs foes, reducing the damage they do, which comes in handy for enemies that hit particularly hard. It’s a solid pick, particularly if ammo economy isn’t an issue. Taking advantage of Eighty-Six’s busted ability regeneration means you can spam your class ability, constantly keeping Slice active.
Your pick for the fourth column depends heavily on what you’d like out of the weapon. Elemental Honing is the simplest buff as long as you have a multi-colored build to take advantage of it, with extremely low maintenance and a high uptime. It’s by far our favorite here because of how simple it is to use, particularly on Prismatic builds, and with how long its buff is. You might switch out of it if you’re going full Strand, though.
Redirection is a particular case where you need to kill red bars to stack up bonus damage, but hitting sturdier targets eats up your stacks. This isn’t that feasible for longer boss phases, where you’ll benefit more from Elemental Honing‘s fixed timer.
Lastly, Attrition Orbs appears as a special option if you need orbs of power for health regeneration, Super, or to keep the Smoke Jumper set bonus active. Heavy attacks seem to count as more than one hit.
The rest of the perks here don’t improve boss damage, but they can work for day-to-day scenarios. Binary Orbit is a damage buff if you get a kill with a Light-based element, Chain Reaction is for crowd control, and En Garde is probably better off in its own corner far away.
The goal in the fourth column is to bump up Eighty-Six’s damage, particularly so you can spam its attacks for ability energy using the Bray Legacy origin trait. You should use it to top up your abilities anyway, so you might as well get bigger numbers out of it.
How to get Eighty-Six in Destiny 2
Despite having the Bray Legacy origin trait, Eighty-Six is just your run-of-the-mill Portal weapon. You can get it in regular Solo Ops or Fireteam Ops. Pinnacle Ops and the Crucible have their own separate loot pools, so don’t dive into those if you’re chasing this sword. Missions with bonus rewards or shorter activities are your best choice, and it’s also a possible Bonus Focus drop. If that’s the case, you’re guaranteed a roll on your first clear with a B grade or above that day, with chances of getting it on subsequent activity completions.
