Written by: Kyt_Kutcha

Breakdown of all Mods

These are all of the Armor, Weapon, and Ship mods in Destiny 2. If we get other types of mods, I'll add them in. I'm also posting a copy of this at the destinymassivebreakdown.com website if you would prefer to view it there. A special thank you to Datto, FalloutPlays and Mercules for laying some of the groundwork that went into this. enter image description here

Notes for Using This Guide

Ctrl-F is your friend. Want to find all of the Helmet Mods, or all of the Reload Mods, or all of the [insert word here] Mods? Ctrl-F, Guardian. I have done my best to ensure accuracy with all numbers, referencing the work of others where possible and confirming their work with my own testing, which is ongoing. Where possible, I measure mods that affect the speed of things by counting frames. Ultimately, I had to make some estimations due to rounding and it's always possible I miscounted frames. Please feel free to double check me and tell me if I screwed up. I also had to make some educated guesses as to the "real" effect of certain mods. I'll refine those over time, but for now the evidence supports these numbers. I'll upload videos showing some of my testing when I can, but right now I can't connect my PS4 to YouTube for some reason, so all I have here are some of the screenshots I used. I am rounding to the nearest second, rather than providing you fractional times. I don't see much point in being more precise than that, and most people understand seconds better than frames.

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Armor Mods

I'm not the first person to list out all of the armor mods, but I'm hoping that some solid numbers and the presentation in a searchable list instead of a spreadsheet will add some utility I haven't seen elsewhere. See below for some notes and explanations. Mod Location(s) Effect

  • Arc Impact Mod Helmet, Arms Reduces Melee Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Solar Impact Mod Chest, Leg Reduces Melee Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Void Impact Mod Arms, Leg Reduces Melee Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Arc Ordnance Mod Chest, Leg Reduces Grenade Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Solar Ordnance Mod Helmet, Leg Reduces Grenade Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Void Ordnance Mod Helmet, Arms Reduces Grenade Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Arc Paragon Mod Arms, Chest, Mark Reduces Class Ability Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Solar Paragon Mod Helmet, Leg, Bond Reduces Class Ability Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Void Paragon Mod Helmet, Chest, Cloak Reduces Class Ability Cooldown by 9%, Stacking
  • Mod Location(s) Effect Kinetic Counterbalance Mod Chest, Cloak Increase Kinetic Weapon Recoil Direction, Stacking
  • Kinetic Munition Loader Arms, Mark Increase Kinetic Weapon Reload Speed by ~12%, Stacking
  • Energy Counterbalance Mod Arms, Cloak Increase Energy Weapon Recoil Direction, Stacking
  • Energy Bracket Mod Helmet, Bond Increase Energy Weapon Handling Speed by ~15%, Stacking
  • Power Bracket Mod Chest, Bond Increase Power Weapon Handling Speed by ~15%, Stacking
  • Power Munition Loader Chest, Mark Increase Power Weapon Reload Speed by ~9%, Stacking
  • Impact Absorption Mod Helmet, Mark +1 Resilience (+1 or 2 Health)
  • Self-Repairing Mod Leg, Bond +1 Recovery (Recover fully ~.3 seconds sooner)
  • Acceleration Mod Arms, Cloak +1 Mobility (Improved Jump Height, Walking Speed, and Crouching Speed)

Notes on Cooldowns:

Important: Class Ability refers to Dodge, Rift, and Barrier. Those mods do NOT affect Grenade or Melee cooldowns. I did test for that. One interesting thing I found is that all cooldown mods have the same effect. The "diminishing returns" people have been talking about are in fact a function of these mods reducing cooldowns by 9% rather than a fixed number of seconds. These mods all stack directly, so having two Paragon Mods reduces your Class Ability cooldown by 18%. This holds true across all classes and abilities. I timed these directly, and referenced Datto's numbers to error-check. We came out almost exactly the same.

FYI on Cooldowns

Grenade Cooldowns are ~83 seconds except for Firebolt and Arcbolt, which are ~60 seconds. Titan and Warlock Melee Cooldowns are ~83 seconds, except for the Stormcaller Melee which has a ~96 second Cooldown. Hunter Melee Cooldowns are also ~96 seconds. As for Class Abilities, Hunter Dodge Cooldown is ~25 seconds, Titan Wall Cooldown is ~38 seconds, and Warlock Rift Cooldown is ~83 seconds.\

Actual Cooldown Time Math

  • With 1 Mod = Seconds x .91

  • With 2 Mods = Seconds x .82

  • With 3 Mods = Seconds x .73

Notes on Handling/Reload Speed:

To check the effects of the Reload Speed and Handling mods, I recorded myself reloading and, erm, handling (that is, equipping, stowing, and aiming down sights/zooming back out) weapons with and without those perks. I used weapons with both high and low stats to see if the effects were a set number of frames or a percentage. They were clearly either a percentage or a set stat bonus as the number of frames varied widely. I need to do some more testing on Kinetic Munition Loader as I have to rely on third parties (it hasn't dropped for me somehow), but I thought it was interesting it gave a different bonus than the Power Munition Loader. Handling was tough to work out, because ADS, Equip, and Stow are so fast that the real percentages were all over the place, but they average out to ~15%. Allowing for rounding, multiplying by .85 with a mod on gave me all of the right numbers, so I'm going with that until I find evidence otherwise. It's possible that it's actually a set stat bonus as well, but that's going to take a lot of testing to determine concretely, and this works in the meantime. There does seem to be a cap on the effects of Handling and Reload Speed, and there is likely a cap on other stats. I will try to test more when I can, but I noticed guns with very high stats (looking at you, Hard Light and Wardcliff Coil) did not get the full benefit that guns with lower stats did. Bear this in mind.

Notes on Counterbalance/Recoil Direction:

To calculate the effects of Stability mods, I shot at walls without attempting to control the recoil, and measured the horizontal and vertical height of the impacts using image editing software. Counterbalance Mods definitely have an effect on Recoil Direction and seem to increase that stat directly, as you can see in this gallery of shots from MIDA Multi/Mini and Origin Story. Mercules got similar results with Lincoln Green, and I've had a number of other similar test results. In these shots, you can see clearly that the recoil does change, but there is always some randomness to it. For now, I'm not comfortable putting an exact number on this effect, but it is definitely converting horizontal recoil to vertical recoil, and will therefore be helpful when you are having trouble staying on target with a gun. The effect is more obvious and pronounced on weapons with less vertical Recoil Direction, and less so on weapons that already have a highly vertical Recoil Direction. The type of weapon and your in-game rate of fire will also affect whether or not you feel the benefits of these perks. Obviously, the faster you shoot, the more likely you are to notice the difference. If you don't know, a RD stat at 90-100 indicates generally vertical recoil, RD of 70-80 is generally vertical but favors bouncing either left or right, and RD below 60 is fairly horizontal, either favoring one side or bouncing back and forth a lot. The exact pattern is somewhat random and varies by gun. Armor Mod Tier List (for PVP) enter image description here

Tier Armor Mods

  • S Varies
  • A Energy Bracket Mod, Kinetic Munition Loader, Paragon Mod, Ordnance Mod, Self-Repairing Mod
  • B Impact Mod, Acceleration Mod, Impact Absorption Mod, Kinetic Counterbalance Mod, Energy Counterbalance Mod
  • C Power Bracket Mod, Power Munition Loader Suggested Adjustments:
  • Play 1 Subclass Only: If you play the subclass 90% of the time on a given character, I would add +1 Tier to the Paragon, Ordnance, and Impact Mods. Having your abilities up several seconds sooner is definitely better than a few frames off your ADS or Reload.
  • Hunter: +1 Tier to Self-Repairing Mod because you need the Recovery. Or I do, at least.
  • Warlock: +1 Tier to Acceleration Mod and -1 Tier to Self-Repairing Mod because you have the heals and need the speed.
  • Crappy Recoil: Do you favor a weapon with crappy recoil? +1 Tier to a Counterbalance Mod.

  • PVE: +1 Tier to the Paragon, Ordnance, Impact, Self-Repairing, and Impact Absorption Mods, and +2 Tiers to the Power mods.

    PVE is all about what you think is fun, though, so don't overthink it (unless that's fun for you). These are my initial opinions, and I would love to get some feedback and discussion going on these. Obviously, the situations and reasons for choosing a specific set of mods can vary widely, and I don't think there's a wrong answer (unless you have rainbow elemental mods equipped, that's just silly). I think figuring out the optimal setups for our mods is going to be really interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading arguments for different mods (or to finding out that everyone agrees, as the case may be). Please feel free to share your thoughts and reasoning!

Additional Links A Visual Aid for Mod Placement by /u/fe3dbak Datto's Spreadsheet for what mods can be placed where, with his cooldown numbers Massive Breakdown Weapon Stats Spreadsheet, showing Reload, Handling, and Recoil stats as well as estimated Resiliency numbers by /u/mercules904

Weapon Mods These are included for completeness' sake, and in case we get more in the future I can come back and add them in. Hopefully they eventually do something more interesting. ¯(?)/¯

Mod Name Slot(s) Effect

  • Kinetic Damage Mod Kinetic Sets Damage Type to Kinetic

  • Arc Damage Mod Energy, Power Sets Damage Type to Arc

  • Solar Damage Mod Energy, Power Sets Damage Type to Solar

  • Void Damage Mod Energy, Power Sets Damage Type to Void Ship Transmat Effects

Obviously these are all cosmetic, but I was on a roll and there are probably some collectors needing a list, right?

Mod Name

  • Default Effect
  • Arc Effects
  • Solar Effects
  • Void Effects
  • Veteran's Flair
  • Cabal Arrival
  • Fallen Arrival
  • Hive Arrival
  • Taken Arrival
  • Vex Arrival
  • Crucible White
  • Crucible Gold
  • Crucible Green
  • Crucible Pink
  • Crucible Blue
  • Amethyst Rabbit
  • Coral Rabbit
  • Ghost White
  • Ghost Gold
  • Ghost Green
  • Ghost Pink
  • Ghost Blue
  • Guardian White
  • Guardian Gold
  • Guardian Green
  • Guardian Pink
  • Guardian Blue

Okay, that's all I've got. This is Version 1 of this guide, and I'm sure there is a lot of refining to be done, but I wanted to get it out there so people can start making decisions and comparing numbers. I'll check in a few times today to reply to comments and make any corrections/edits needed. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Corrected some numbers in the cooldown explanation. I had originally estimated 8%, but recounting frames found it was actually closer to 9%. Then edited again to fix a formatting issue that the first edit somehow triggered.

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