Festival of the Lost has returned to Destiny 2 for 2024 and, alongside the arrival of Superblack and Eva selling free Exotic Class Items, the most exciting addition for this year’s festivities is a brand new Shotgun. The Arcane Embrace is the latest in the line of seasonal Festival of the Lost weapons but it is quite special for one main reason: Arcane Embrace is the first of a Shotgun archetype, the Heavy Burst Shotgun, which fires two slugs back-to-back similar to Heavy Burst Hand Cannons.
This very unique weapon frame is currently only available from Festival of the Lost and, with a host of interesting perk combinations and heaps of potential in both PvE and PvP, many players will want to obtain as many Arcane Embrace rolls as possible.
Here are the Arcane Embrace god rolls and best perk combinations in Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost 2024.
If you’re looking for some other Destiny 2 content, including a deep dive into this year’s FotL event, you can find more here on KeenGamer:
- Destiny 2 Festival of the Lost 2024: How It Works
- Destiny 2 Vesper’s Host Dungeon Guide | All Encounters Explained
- Destiny 2 | All Vesper’s Host Hidden Message Locations (Rogue Network Guide)
- Destiny 2 | How to Get the Ice Breaker Catalyst
- Destiny 2 Episode: Revenant | How It Works
Festival of the Lost Exclusive Shotgun
How To Get the Arcane Embrace in Destiny 2
First and foremost, let’s look at how you can get your hands on the Arcane Embrace, as well as the other reprised Festival of the Lost weapons in Destiny 2 Episode: Revenant. Arcane Embrace is the fifth Festival of the Lost exclusive weapon that Guardians can get their hands on this year: the others are the reprised Horror Story, Jurassic Green, Mechabre, and Acostic.
By completing the introductory Festival of the Lost 2024 quest from Eva Levante, all players will earn the same static roll of the Arcane Embrace. This roll will come with Dual Loader and Trench Barrel, a potent PvE combination and an excellent roll for those just wanting a solid version of Arcane Embrace to keep in their Vault.
If you’d like to grind for other rolls of the new Shotgun, though, you’ll need to engage with the Festival of the Lost gameplay loop. By completing Haunted Sector runs on either Normal or Expert difficulty, there is a chance that you will be awarded an Arcane Embrace at the end. However, this weapon drop also has a chance of being one of the other Festival of the Lost weapons, giving you roughly a 1/5 chance of getting one each run.
The other things you’ll obtain by running Haunted Sectors with a festive mask on are Eerie Engrams and Candy, both of which you can use to obtain additional weapon rolls. In the Tower, Eva offers her Hocus Focusing system, allowing you to turn Eerie Engrams into specific weapon drops, including the Arcane Embrace. To do this, you’ll need one Eerie Engram as well as 1000 Candy, both of which are relatively easy to obtain.
Focus Eerie Engrams at Eva For More Shotguns
Arcane Embrace Perk Pool
Now that you know how to get the Arcane Embrace in Destiny 2, what perks can it roll with in each column? As the first Heavy Burst Shotgun, Arcane Embrace has a ton of potential in both PvE and PvP environments: as a double slug, it has a higher range and accuracy than most other Shotguns at the cost of requiring far more precision to wield effectively. You can also Enhance Arcane Embrace, granting it access to the new suite of mods as well as enhanced perks.
In the first column, Arcane Embrace can have one of the following perks:
- Air Trigger
- Fourth Times the Charm
- Grave Robber
- Lone Wolf
- Slideshot
- Dual Loader
- Threat Detector
Meanwhile, in the second column, Arcane Embrace has access to these perks:
- Closing Time
- Desperado
- Precision Instrument
- Surrounded
- Tap the Trigger
- Swashbuckler
- Voltshot
One notable absence that you might spot from this list is Trench Barrel, the perk which comes on the static roll of the Arcane Embrace given out by Eva. Trench Barrel is incredibly strong on a Heavy Burst Shotgun and it is unclear whether or not Bungie intended this weapon to have it at all. Currently, Bungie has not commented on this combination, but they have corrected or changed perks on weapons in the past. For right now, though, just enjoy Trench Barrel until we get a clear comment from Bungie.
Dual Loader + Trench Barrel Bugged Roll
Search Party Origin Trait
In addition to the perk combinations listed above, all Arcane Embrace drops will also come with the Festival of the Lost exclusive Origin Trait, Search Party. This gives the affected weapon faster aim down sights speed and movement speed while aiming down sights when no allies are nearby.
While far from the most powerful or game-changing Origin Trait in Destiny 2, Search Party does do a decent job of making Arcane Embrace feel a lot snappier. You can certainly feel the increased movement speed and aim down sights speed which, for a precision weapon like a Heavy Burst Shotgun, does a lot of heavy lifting. As a result, Arcane Embrace feels incredible to use by default.
Search Party isn’t going to be doubling your damage or allowing you to triple your grenade output, but it is going to make moment-to-moment gameplay with Arcane Embrace feel incredibly snappy and responsive.
Search Party Origin Trait
Destiny 2 Arcane Embrace God Rolls
In the first column, Fourth Times the Charm is a simple and very effective option for those confident in their aim. Heavy Burst Shotgun use two ammo for every shot and, while they larger magazines to compensate, they take a lot longer on average to reload. Fourth Times solves this issue, refunding ammo to the magazine with every other shot if you land all precision hits. For a similar reason, Dual Loader is actually really decent on Arcane Embrace, allowing you to get back into the action much faster as you’ll be reloading two ammo at a time.
Meanwhile, for PvP and Crucible-focused players who want a bit more utility, column one also features Slideshot and Threat Detector, two staples on PvP-oriented Shotguns. Slideshot ensures that you’ll always be able to get at least one round into the weapon by just sliding which, considering the slow reload on Heavy Bursts, is great. It also increases Arcane Embrace’s range and stability, two incredibly important stats for a precision weapon.
Then, in column two, there are some interesting damage perk options. Firstly, there’s Precision Instrument, which can pair wonderfully with Fourth Times. Heavy Burst Shotguns excel at precision damage and Precision Instrument just rewards you with more precision damage for landing your shots, something you can easily maintain with Fourth Times. Alternatively, there’s Surrounded or Swashbuckler. Surrounded is a more reliable, if risky, buff, especially for a precision weapon, whereas Swashbuckler can pair great with Grave Robber from column one in a melee-heavy build.
Column two on Arcane Embrace also has Closing Time and Tap the Trigger, two perks worth considering if you want to take this weapon into PvP. Closing Time is a new perk introduced in Episode: Revenant and it is quickly gaining steam as an excellent Opening Shot alternative as it improves your range, accuracy and handling as the magazine gets lower. In PvP, you’ll almost always have a low magazine, meaning 100% uptime on this powerful utility perk. On the other hand, Tap the Trigger will reward accurate and patient players with every shot.
Deadly Precision
So, overall, what are the main God Rolls you should be looking for on Arcane Embrace in Destiny 2?
- Dual Loader + Trench Barrel (Trench Barrel alone makes this roll worth keeping as you get a huge 50% damage boost from simply whacking a target with your melee – might be a bugged roll but, for now, keep it and enjoy it)
- Fourth Times the Charm + Precision Instrument (Great option for accurate players in PvE who want access to a big damage boost and easy ammo management for a slow reloading archetype)
- Grave Robber + Swashbuckler (Solid choice for melee-focused builds as it gives you a damage boost as well as a way to circumvent the Heavy Burst ammo economy with one ability)
- Threat Detector + Closing Time (Good for PvP as it grants you a lot of potent stat bonuses at almost all times, especially when paired with Search Party)
Arcane Embrace God Rolls
Those were the god rolls and perk combinations for the new Festival of the Lost Heavy Burst Shotgun, Arcane Embrace, in Destiny 2. Arcane Embrace, as well as the entire Festival of the Lost event, will go away on November 19th so ensure to get all your grinding done before then.
