Destiny 2’s new Gryphon vehicle is the Sparrow of death I never knew I wanted

Destiny 2’s new vehicular slaughter-fest PvP mode Heavy Metal just went live, and it’s cool, but the real draw is the new vehicle type you can get for playing it. It’s called the Gryphon and it rocks.

I paid-to-win for the Gryphon (I had the Silver, don’t judge me) so you don’t have to, but I did it to let you know that the vehicle is definitely worth grinding for otherwise. It’s slower than a Sparrow, but feels tankier, too, and it has two different weapons to use while on the move.

The Gryphon is the third option for personal vehicles now in Destiny 2, and it may be my new favorite. While the Sparrow offers the basic ride everyone has known since 2014, and the Skimmer is like a wild surfboard/skateboard to move quickly and do tricks on, the Gryphon is all about bangin’.

When you hop in your Gryphon, you’ll notice the slight sluggishness compared to the other vehicles, but there’s also the big blue reticle on screen that lets you know immediately that it’s ready to kick some ass. The primary fire for the Gryphon is a shotgun-like blast with decent range and can one-shot red bar enemies while on patrol, which is a welcome change from just letting them blast you in the face while you drive by.

But the Gryphon also has a secondary fire, like the Drake or Fallen Brig in Heavy Metal, which locks on to enemies and launches projectiles at them from afar. Speed-wise, the Gryphon is easily the slowest of the three vehicles in the game, but it doesn’t matter when you can kill enemies in three different ways now.

I haven’t done much testing in any sort of high level content, but knowing the Destiny community, I would not be surprised to see the Gryphon showing up in raids and Nightfalls for fun with fireteams trying to use them to take down bosses.

Sometimes you gotta go fast, but other times you can’t be bothered with hopping off of your vehicle to blast an enemy in the face, and that’s where the Gryphon comes in. And if this isn’t your thing and you don’t care, that’s fine, there’s plenty of Sparrows to choose from. But I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more Gryphons in the future.

Heavy Metal itself is pretty meh to me, honestly. One team has Drake tanks while the other has Fallen Brigs in the three-vs-three mode, and it’s meant to be silly and not taken seriously, but it was so clunky that I just used my on-hand Silver to get the Gryphon and move on with my time. You may do the same, but you don’t have to.

You can unlock the Gryphon for free by completing Heavy Metal challenges (the mode’s event where you claim the Gryphon will be here for one week), so it’s worth grabbing if you can. If you want it right now, you can purchase all of the rewards in the Heavy Metal event for 1,500 Silver, too. It’s up to you.