Destiny 2 Undercurrent God Roll: Best PvP & PvE Perks

The Undercurrent is the newest Nightfall weapon to be released in Destiny 2 Season of the Wish. It is an Arc wave frame grenade launcher and because of this, the weapon is immediately compared to the best PvE GL ever added to the game – the Forbearance grenade launcher.

My initial reaction upon hearing of the Undercurrent was to completely write it off as a pretender that didn’t stand a chance of dethroning the current king of Arc wave frames. But after a little bit of testing and reading up about what others had to say about the weapon, I can confidently say now that I’ve warmed up to the idea of it being a viable alternative.

How to Get Undercurrent in Destiny 2?

The Undercurrent is earned as a chance reward at the end of Nightfalls during the weeks it is the featured weapon in rotation. Once you have the weapon unlocked, you can talk to Commander Zavala in the Tower and focus decrypt a random roll for the hefty price of 5 Vanguard Engrams and 25,000 Glimmer. Completing Grandmaster Nightfalls will allow your Guardian to get the Adept version of the weapon along with its coveted Adept mods.

Looking at the Undercurrent’s perk pool, it is obvious that the weapon is meant to be a primarily PvE weapon. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t somehow make it work in PvP. It doesn’t have the must-have perks like Auto-Loading Holster or Disruption Break, mind you, but it does have Field Prep and Eddy Current that help you reload faster when certain conditions are met. Pair that with Voltshot and you have something that can be considered fun in 6v6 lobbies.

You simply don’t have any good options for PvP aside from Voltshot which already got nerfed in recent seasons. If you plan on bringing this weapon into the Crucible, you’ll just have to play around with the reload perks and hopefully start chaining jolted targets together.

For many players, an Ambitious Assassin + Voltshot roll can be considered a god roll. Ambitious Assassin reloads the cylinder with two shells after killing a bunch of red bars and Voltshot does Voltshot things. This is very similar to the Forbearance god roll except you have Chain Reaction in that 4th column. Both weapons can clear rooms with ease. The only difference is that the jolt effect from Voltshot weakens bosses while Chain Reaction does more damage in general. More on this further down the article.

The roll that I’ve grown attached to so far is Demolitionist + Voltshot. Demo almost always ensures that you have a grenade ready after a single big hit on red bars. You can then toss a grenade to instantly reload your GL for another quick Voltshot hit. I’ve run this in Altars of Sorrow with an Arc class and the results speak for themselves. A total rout of the enemy and an easy chest at the end. In theory, you should be able to deal out more damage with Adrenaline Junkie but I have yet to confirm this. My gut tells me that the effectiveness is relatively the same.

As for other perks to consider, the rest of the pool appears to be viable except for High Ground. (Sorry, Obi-Wan.) I’m also on the fence with Attrition Orbs considering how mid the perk is. Imagine killing a host of red bars in one shot only to produce one small Orb of Power. Bungie needs to address if they want this perk to be relevant.

How good is the Undercurrent?

Let’s put it this way, if you already have the crafted version of the Forbearance Adept, then you won’t need to give this weapon a second look. Not unless you’re looking for that Demolitionist roll.

For me, it all boils down to accessibility. Remember, the Forbearance can only be acquired from the Vow of the Disciple raid. Not everyone is keen on doing raids. And even fewer players have the time and patience to acquire all the red borders needed to craft one. Contrast this with how easy it is to get the Undercurrent. You just need to do a few Nightfalls and you’ll have a roll to start experimenting with.

Objectively speaking, the Forbearance (Adept) is in many ways better than the Undercurrent (Adept), at least on paper. The Forbearance has a slight advantage in terms of stat distribution and the fact that is a craftable weapon with Enhanced Perks. But in practice, that all goes out the window rather quickly.

It is worth noting that the 3rd column perks are support-oriented, specifically ways to reload faster. The 4th column perks are damage perks active when certain conditions are met.

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And that’s everything I have for this Undercurrent god roll guide. I hope that this article helps you see the weapon as something more than just a budget Forbearance. I’ll continue running tests on the weapon whenever I can. I don’t quite understand how Bait and Switch help wave frame during boss damage phases. If it’s noteworthy, I’ll update this article with my findings. In the meantime, good luck and have fun out there, Guardians.