The Ultimate Guide to Hand Cannons for PvE and PvP Dominance

As a Destiny veteran with over 500 hours wielding hand cannons, I can confidently say they are the best weapon class in the game. When used properly, they allow you to dish out devastating bursts of damage against any foe.

But the wide range of exotic and legendary cannons available can become overwhelming. You want options suited for crushing PvE content and also reigning in the Crucible.

In this extensive guide, I‘ll cover my top-tier picks for both formats, explaining what makes them shine above the rest. I‘ve played all of these hand cannons extensively, so you can trust my evaluations.

Breaking Down the Stats

Before jumping to the recommendations, let‘s briefly explain some key weapon stats that factor into hand cannon performance:

Impact: The damage inflicted per shot. Higher impact cannons can down enemies much faster but have slower fire rates.

Range: How far the weapon can shoot effectively before damage dropoff occurs. Longer range is better for larger maps.

Stability: How vertical and horizontal recoil is handled. More stability means it‘s easier to land successive precision shots.

Reload Speed: The time it takes to fully reload the weapon after expending the magazine. Faster is generally better for sustained damage.

Aim Assist: The "stickiness" when dragging your aim over a target. More aim assist means landing shots is more forgiving.

Magazine Size: The capacity before having to reload. Larger magazines increase total damage potential per reload cycle.

These all contribute toward weapon effectiveness in their own way. Understanding these will help explain why I recommend particular cannons.

PvE Powerhouses

Let‘s start with hand cannons specialized for mowing down aliens and clearing PvE content efficiently. These exotics stand at the top for handling swarms of ads or bursting down majors.

Sunshot

• Archetype: 150 RPM (rapid-fire)
• Perks
  • Explosive Rounds – explosive damage on impact
  • Sun Blast – enemies explode when killed with precision damage or after burning
• PvE Dominance
  • Ad-clear beast – Chain reactions of explosions decimates groups
  • 12 round magazine sustains damage on groups longer

I cannot overstate how phenomenal Sunshot performs when swarmed by minor tier enemies. The explosive AoE damage creates a sublime domino effect. Ads disintegrate in dazzling fashion as you rapidly headshot one after another.

It may lack impact for tougher enemies, but Sunshot devours packs of Thralls, Dregs, Goblins, etc. Exceptional stability and aim assist also make it very easy to control compared to others in its speedy archetype. This is easily my #1 recommendation for ad clearing.

Eriana‘s Vow

• Archetype: 90 RPM (precision)
• Perks
  • Shield-piercing rounds – bonus damage straight to health
  • Precision ADS hits grant stacking 45% damage buff
• PvE Dominance
  • Burst DPS on majors and bosses
  • Unmatched ammo economy from bonus precision damage

For raw burst potential against tankier enemies, Eriana‘s Vow wins out. The unique scope provides excellent mid-range accuracy on demand. This lets you reliably stack the damage buff and also safely engage beefier foes.

Paired with its hard hitting impact, you can melt through majors rapidly. Bosses and vehicles also get shredded by chaining those precision hits. The shield-piercing ammo also vastly reduces time reloading too. This offers incredibly efficient ammo use in prolonged fights.

Fatebringer

• Archetype: 140 RPM (balanced)
• Perks
  • Firefly – targets explode on precision kill
  • Frenzy – bonus damage + reload speed after 12s in combat
• PvE Dominance
  • Reliable workhorse for all content
  • Fan favorite from original Destiny raid

As a returning nostalgic favorite from Destiny‘s Vault of Glass raid, Fatebringer offers a perfect blend of stats. It provides solid versatility taking on both minor ads and respectable major/boss damage via Frenzy perk uptime.

The Firefly explosion damage creates nice ad clear potential too. And the faster reloads from both Firefly precision kills and Frenzy keep damage output flowing smoothly. This is the cannon to take everywhere.

Crucible Kings

Now for options specialized for destroying Guardians in PvP combat. These provide optimal practical time-to-kill for their archetypes against players.

Thorn

• Archetype: 150 RPM (rapid-fire)
• Perks
  • Mark of the Devourer – remnants track enemies, DoT
  • Soul Devourer – collect remnants for partial reload + damage
• PvP Dominance
  • Aggressive 0.73s optimal TTK
  • Excellent in-air accuracy for aerial attacks

Thorn‘s damage-over-time rounds present an oppressively fast time-to-kill that punishes grouped opponents. The remnant orbs also enable mid-fight reloading and damage buffs for dueling multiple enemies.

This exotic rewards an aggressive, mobile playstyle. The bleed keeps opponents‘ health low while aerial accuracy lets you win in the air. Thorn flaunts top tier KDA amongst skilled PvP mains for good reason. It brings lethality from all ranges and movement modes.

The Last Word

• Archetype: 225 RPM (lightweight)
• Perks
  • Fan Fire – effective hip-fire boosts precision damage
• PvP Dominance
  • Extreme 0.53s optimal TTK from hip fire
  • Very snappy, allows rapid darting between targets

Channel your inner gunslinger with this speed demon that replicates fanning a revolver cowboy-style. The Last Word absolutely melts in CQC if you master hip firing accurately.

Paired with precise movement, you can shred enemies before they even lift a finger because of the sheer fire rate. Just don‘t challenge longer distances outside its range dropoff. This is the ultimate dueling weapon to quickly eliminate single targets.

And there you have it – my picks for PvE and PvP greatness respectively among hand cannons. There are certainly other good options, but these stand at the top for their effective roles.

I suggest pairing the highlighted exotics with complementary energy weapons like fusion rifles or SMGs to create versatile loadouts. But now that you understand the strengths of these hand cannons, get out there and stylishly vaporize aliens and Guardians alike!