Retold Tale is a Void precision frame shotgun from the reprised Dreaming City weapon set. In a time when precision frames weren’t all that common, this shotgun alongside the Fractethyst, was the most accessible precision shotty in all of Destiny 2. Fractethyst is still used to this day despite coming from a bygone era of Destiny 2. But does the reprised Retold Tale hold up in today’s sandbox?
I have never really got into Retold Tale back in the day. I remember getting a bunch of not-so-good rolls and then finally giving up on the pursuit. A decision made all the more easier when I got my god roll Fractethyst. Today’s Retold Tale is a different beast, however. It has almost all the must-have PvP perks for a shotgun. More importantly, it can roll with the coveted Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds combo.
How to get Retold Tale in Destiny 2?
The Retold Tale is a chance drop from chests inside Season of the Wish activities. You can get a near-guaranteed Dreaming City weapon from the secret chest in the passage section of the Coil. All you need to do is collect enough glass shards until you get the message that the doors to the side room have opened. Equipping treasure locator mods will reveal the location of the chests if you are not familiar with their spawn locations yet.
The Retold Tale does come with red borders and thus cannot be crafted. It might be worthwhile to get a few random rolls of the weapon and see which perks work for you and your play style.
Best Retold Tale PvP God Rolls
- 1st Column: Barrel Shroud
- 2nd Column: Accurized Rounds
- Handling Masterwork
- Quick Access Sling Mod
- Slideshot + Killing Wind
This is the roll you go for if you wish to slide into every engagement with the hopes of taking enemies by surprise. It doesn’t have as much range as the other god roll but at least with this one, you don’t have to worry about it too much since sliding quickly closes the gap between you and the opponent. And with Killing Wind in the fourth column, you have confidence that the next slide attempt will go better than the last.
- 1st Column: Smallbore
- 2nd Column: Accurized Rounds
- Range Masterwork
- Free Hand Grip Mod
- Quickdraw + Snapshot Sights
This is the roll you go for if your play-style involves doesn’t involve sliding around corners. You’ll want as much range as possible with this one as any duel with a shotgun lives or dies with the extent of your reach. In my personal experience, as long as you get a Guardian’s profile to fill the reticle, that’s almost always a guaranteed kill. Quickdraw and Snapshot help you get the jump on unprepared opponents.
The reason why I say almost always with this gun is because it doesn’t one-shot as often as I would expect. I’m fairly certain Fractethyst can get more one-taps at range. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just my potato aim. Regardless, I see it now as a finisher weapon. I don’t expect it to one-tap but if I see even a small chunk of shield missing, I will happily swap to the Retold Tale.
Best Retold Tale PvE God Roll
- 1st Column: Smoothbore
- 2nd Column: Assault Mag
- Stability Masterwork
- Backup Mag Mod
- Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds
Hands down the only reason to even pick up Retold Tale for PvE is for the Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds combo. The formula for this one is rather simple: shoot and kill one enemy and the enemy next to it becomes volatile. Shoot and kill the debuffed enemy to gain an Overshield. Rinse and repeat. The best part of it is that you don’t even need to be on a Void subclass to make it work. Destabilizing Rounds adds the Void debuff regardless of the subclass you are on. Also, who doesn’t love seeing the Void explosions? They’re almost as good as watching Solar explosions go off.
How good is the Retold Tale?
Compared to the original, the Reprised version of the Retold Tale is far and away the better shotgun. It didn’t lose much in terms of perks and what it got is simply better. For the most part. I wish it could have had more options for PvE but the Void explosion combo makes up for the lack of variety.
Let me make this clear, the Retold Tale is not a good substitute for Matador. It may have its moments but for some reason, the gun suffers from some consistency issues that sometimes do not guarantee the kill when it should have. It can also be me expecting too much from it. Give it a couple of matches in the Crucible, you’ll get what I’m saying.
These are the Retold Tale base stats before any perks are applied:
- Impact: 70
- Range: 65
- Stability: 45
- Handling: 34
- Reload Speed: 41
- Zoom: 12
- Rounds Per Minute: 65
- Magazine: 6
Retold Tale’s perk pool is lean and mean with obvious, yet effective combos. I still don’t know why Loose Change and Deconstruct are on this list after seeing how ineffective they are currently. Fun fact – I tried making something work with Loose Change and Destabilizing Rounds but the reload speed increase was barely noticeable. I’ve never been so disappointed in a failed perk test.
There is a case for perks like Well-Rounded and One-Two Punch, if you prefer jumping through loops for decent buffs. The Void combo is very much the best combo you can hope for PvE. Anything else doesn’t stack up no matter what stunts you think you can pull off.
3rd Column Perks
- Quickdraw
- Slideshot
- Lead From Gold
- Repulsor Brace
- Loose Change
- Well-Rounded
4th Column Perks
- Snapshot Sights
- One-Two Punch
- Killing Wind
- Barrel Constrictor
- Deconstruct
- Destabilizing Rounds
And that’s everything I have for this Retold Tale god roll guide. All things considered, this was one of the most fun guns I’ve farmed from the set. Seeing the Void explosions and following up with a second blast never got old. It almost makes me want to run shotguns in higher content more often. Provided we are in a Void Surge environment with a shotgun damage increase. Good luck and have fun out there, Guardians.
Check out our list of reprised Dreaming City god rolls: