Destiny 2 Cold Front God Roll 2023: Best PvP & PvE Perks

The Cold Front is an aggressive frame submachine gun in the kinetic slot. Considering how popular aggressive frames were until recently, you’d think that a submachine gun that’s not tied to any of the three light elements is a good thing. Well, the weapon has some of the lowest base stats for any current aggressive frame SMG. You’ll have to back years to find something that performs even worse.

The Cold Front was one of the worst in the Dawning set last year. That opinion still hasn’t changed much in 2023. There are plenty of reasons why you should stay away. But at the same time, there are a few compelling reasons why you may want to keep at least one roll.

How to Get Cold Front in Destiny 2

To get the Cold Front you can either acquire one random roll after completing the accompanying challenge from the event card or you can take your chances and exchange a return gift for the potential of getting a random roll for the Cold Front.

Once you have the weapon unlocked in your collection, you are now able to focus decode a random roll from Eva at the cost of a 1 gift and 25 Dawning Spirits.

Best Cold Front PvP God Rolls

• 1st Column: Hammer-Forged Rifling (or Smallbore)
• 2nd Column: Accurized Rounds
• Range Masterwork
• Backup Mag Mod
• Perpetual Motion + Rampage
• Tap The Trigger + Cascade Point

Perpetual Motion and Rampage is a classic god roll pairing that works with rapid-fire weapons. Perpetual Motion takes advantage of the mobile nature of SMGs and Rampage is a snowball perk that went great with older auto rifles. (Actually, you don’t have many options in the 4th column.) Unless you really love Cascade Point. Tap the Trigger is an S-tier perk on SMGs. In the current sandbox, I’d take it over Dynamic Sway Reduction if given the choice.

Range is the defining factor of whether or not a weapon succeeds in the Crucible. It doesn’t always apply to all weapons but that’s the general idea. Ironically, the Cold Front functions as one would expect an SMG to function. And because of that, it is put at a severe disadvantage in 1v1 SMG duels.

If you’re interested in bringing Cold Front into PvP, please make sure it is well above 50 range. Or at the very least, create opportunities to bring yourself just beyond shotgun range. That’s the only way you are going to survive with a lackluster SMG in PvP.

Best Cold Front PvE God Rolls

• 1st Column: Fluted Barrel
• 2nd Column: Flared Magwell
• Reload Speed Masterwork
• Backup Mag Mod
• Enlightened Action + Rampage
• Subsistence + Rampage
• Stats For All + One For All

The two stats that matter most in PvE for Cold Front are Handling and Reload Speed. If at all possible, prioritize handling as that plays a role in how fast you aim down sights and readiness/stow speed. Reload speed is still an issue but Subsistence, Stats For All, and Enlightened Action will help you get back to the action quicker.

If you’re going after Majors, you might want to consider Rewind Rounds + Cascade Point. The only reason why I don’t think it’s a god roll is because the Cold Front is primarily a crowd-control option. That all changes if Cold Front ever gets Kinetic Tremors in the future. If that ever happens, we might have reason to pursue a 5/5 god roll for PvE.

How good is the Cold Front?

There’s not much reason to like the Cold Front as a Destiny 2 SMG. The recoil kicks like a mule, you often feel like you don’t have enough bullets to secure a kill in PvP, you are constantly forced to play defensive as anything decent can flat-out kill you, and it has poor reload speed. The reason I kind of like the Cold Front is the fact that it has clean sights and little to no muzzle flash. That’s enough for me to keep a roll or two.

If you want further proof that the weapon is a severe underperformer, consider this. The Cold Front is in the same archetype as the Immortal. That stat monster blows the Cold Front out of the water in almost every stat category, save for range. The difference is so overwhelming that it’s not even funny. But a game like Destiny is all about options and someone, somewhere is going to main it, ridiculous as it sounds.

The Cold Front’s perk pool is a bit of a mess. Just looking at the perks list, I only see a handful of useful perks and a couple of fun perks. I like the idea of using Rewind Rounds for PvE in tandem with Rampage for kill chaining but that fell flat the moment I realized that Rewind Rounds only refills 12 or so bullets back into the magazine. I am better off using Enlightened Action for slightly faster reloads. Deconstruct with Hakke Breach Armaments might be a sleeper hit but knowing that you need to damage Guardians first before you can melt Titan shields is a bummer. I hope they modify that interaction.

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And that’s all I have for this Cold Front god roll guide. Not the worst weapon in Destiny 2. It doesn’t help that the perk pool hasn’t seen much of an upgrade since last year. If you decide to keep a roll, it better be a 5/5 god roll if you want to use it ever again. And even then, make sure that it’s worth that slot in your vault. You won’t miss something that’s just there to look pretty. Good luck and have fun out there, Guardians.

Check out my full list of Dawning god roll guides:

• Albedo Wing
• Glacioclasm
• Stay Frosty
• Cold Front
• Avalanche