Like just about the entire playerbase, I've been looking forward to crafting Aberrant Action today. It's the first solar rocket-powered sidearm in Destiny 2 and it comes with a stacked set of perks. The gun was added to the game as part of Act 2 of Echoes, along with an arc heavy-burst pulse rife called Corrasion, at the weekly reset.
If, like me, you've saved up enough quest XP to turn in and unlock a copy of Aberrant Action from the season pass, you might be confused as to why the gun still can't be focused from Failsafe, the vendor at the H.E.L.M. social space. The answer is because you first need to progress the seasonal questline. Here's the order of business, assuming you're already up to date with the questline from episode 1, if not you'll need to finish that first.
How to craft Aberrant Action
- Visit Ikora Rey in the Tower. She will give you a quest called A Rising Chorus: Act II.
- Complete Battlegrounds: Delve on Nessus. Open the planet from the Destinations map and it's in the bottom left. You will receive a "Deep Sight" copy of Aberrant Action.
- Return to the H.E.L.M. and Failsafe will now have Aberrant Action and Corrasion listed as focusing options. However, both options are greyed out with a message that reads "Requires the Act II Engram Focusing upgrade".
Despite progressing the A Rising Chorus: Act II questline as far as it will go this week, I still haven't received that upgrade, so can't focus either weapon. It may be I've missed something. Regardless, I have been able to craft Aberrant Action already by acquiring enough Deep Sight copies (also known as Red Boxes). There are two ways to get these, which can be done in combination until you have all five patterns needed.
- Complete Echoes activities (Battlegrounds, Breach Executable and Enigma Protocol) and hope that the weapons drop from the chests at the end. In my experience, they're pretty common. It took my clanmate six runs of Battlegrounds to get the remaining red boxes he needed to craft Aberrant Action.
- Alternatively, use the random Echo Engram focusing at Failsafe to turn. So long as you've had one drop, there's a chance you'll get a Deep Sight Aberrant Action or Corrasion. Bear in mind you can also spend Deep Sight Harmonizers to turn normal versions into red boxes, but note that this is a very rare currency so spend wisely.
Aberrant Action god rolls
As for the gun, it's every bit as beastly as had been predicted. The god roll crafting combo is Heal Clip + Incandescent. I also like Flared Magwell and a reload masterwork to make those healing procs quicker to come by. You might also consider Pugilist or Strategist in the third column for more melee or class ability energy respectively. Ambitious Assassin is also decent if you want a big magazine.
In the fourth column, you could also opt for a damage perk like Swashbuckler or Golden Tricorn instead of the AoE from Incadescant, but you would need to set your build up to activate them often. Honestly, for most players in almost all content Heal Clip + Incandescent is going to be too good to pass up on.
Aberrant Action is an add-clearing monster that will also do decent single-target damage at medium-long ranges and stun Unstoppable Champions. In fact, rocket-powered sidearms are so strong right now thanks to their peerless ammo economy that the archetype will likely catch a nerf after Echoes is over. Until then, enjoy the explosions.
