Destiny 2 Volatile Weapon mods, explained

Destiny 2‘s Arms Week events celebrate one specific weapon category each time, turbocharging them through the powerful, time-limited Volatile weapon mods. They can be applied to several weapons from the archetype of the week, giving them a few extra effects.

Volatile weapon mods appear at the top of your weapon mod list when browsing the designated weapon category. You can apply them to any gun of that type as long as it has a mod slot, even if it’s old enough not to have an origin trait (shoutout to the OG Palindrome).

Due to their power, they have a few limitations. The biggest is, they’re only active during a given Arms Week, so enjoy them while they last. They won’t function in the Desert Perpetual raid or in all Crucible playlists outside of Hardware, either, but you can place them in some of the best hand cannons to grab during the event.

All Volatile weapon mods in Destiny 2’s Hand Cannon Arms Week

The hand cannon Arms Week has three weapon mods:

• Fragmentation Rounds: “Precision final blows create explosive submunitions.”
• Cowboy Grip: “Supremely improves hipfire performance.”
• Chaotic Munitions: “Precision final blows produce randomized effects.”

Fragmentation Rounds creates small grenades upon precision final blows, causing a couple of secondary explosions. Cowboy Grip gives the weapon more accurate hipfire and seems to improve its fire rate while not aiming down sights.

Chaotic Munitions is by far the most fun one thanks to its long list of effects. We’ve encountered Lorentz Driver-style Void explosions, Stasis crystals like if a weapon had Headstone, Ruinous Effigy orbs, the Scythe from Season of the Haunted, and Exotic Engrams à la Counterfeit, complete with sound effects.

How to get Volatile weapon mods in Destiny 2’s Arms Week

We got Volatile weapon mods as regular drops from killing enemies in Portal activities. They dropped as Engrams on the ground, and picking them up added them to our collection.

The Arms Week title, Sharpshooter, requires you to unlock and use the Volatile weapon mods to defeat enemies. They’re indicated by an orange clock icon on the top left, showing you they’re only available for a limited time.