Festival of the Lost Auto Rifles: Horror Story, Braytech Werewolf - best perks & rolls

The two Auto Rifles ‘Horror Story’ and ‘Braytech Werewolf’ have returned again this year for Festival of the Lost. These weapons have a chance to be earned inside the Haunted Forest by using a Cipher Decoder on each of the reward chests at the conclusion of the activity.

Both of these weapons come with a special curated roll that is fully Masterworked, as well as random perk rolls.

These special curated rolls, that have even been updated as a Season of Arrivals weapon with max power cap, can be grabbed straight from collections if you have already earned them, even if it was from a previous year.

Let’s start with the curated rolls

Curated BrayTech Werewolf

• Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling (+10 Range)
• Magazine - Armor Piercing Rounds (+5 Range)
• Perk 1 - Zen Moment
• Perk 2 - Multikill Clip
• Masterwork - Range

The curated roll for BrayTech Werewolf is honestly really solid. This is one of those rolls that is a great all rounder and you will find it useful in almost any situation you find yourself in, except maybe endgame content.

The excellent barrel and magazine options of Hammer-Forged Rifling and Armor-Piercing Rounds give a substantial boost to Range, while the Range Masterwork gives a further little add on to the stat.

Zen Moment is an excellent perk to have on an Auto Rifle as it helps with consistency of the weapon with continuously landing shots. This perk is more important in PvP but can still come in clutch in PvE content.

Multikill clip is a simple damage increasing perk. This perk is more effective in PvE as it's much easier to achieve quick, successive kills in these activities than it is in PvP. However, don't write this perk off for use in PvP as even a single kill paired with a quick reload gives a solid 17% increase to BrayTech’s damage. This is enough to lower the optimal time to kill on the weapon from 0.93 seconds to 0.67 seconds on Guardians with average Resilience.

The one problem with the curated roll for BrayTech Werewolf is that it is the epitome of “Jack of all trades, master of none”. While the weapon can perform fine in most situations, there are a few other perk choices in each slot that are definite upgrades over the curated ones for certain activities. This is where the random rolls come in…

Recommended PvP Perks for BrayTech Werewolf

Before we start talking about random rolls it's important to note that the curated perks for both BrayTech Werewolf and Horror Story cannot roll randomly as well. So don't bother trying to get a BrayTech Werewolf with Zen Moment and Swashbuckler as it simply can't happen.

• Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling (+10 Range) or Extended Barrel (+10 Range, +10 Recoil, -10 Handling)
• Magazine - High Caliber Rounds (+5 Range), Armor-Piercing Rounds (+5 Range) or Ricochet Rounds (+5 Range, +10 Stability)
• Perk 1 - Dynamic Sway Reduction
• Perk 2 - Tap the Trigger, Eye of the Storm
• Masterwork - Range or Stability (Controller)

This roll is all about consistency. While it might not have any damage boosting perks it will be much easier to hit your shots as Dynamic Sway Reduction and Tap the Trigger give a significant boost to overall weapon Accuracy and Stability.

The Magazine, Barrel and Masterwork options will also ensure you are able to maintain optimal time to kill at even greater ranges.

Recommended PvE Perks for BrayTech Werewolf

• Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling (+10 Range), Extended Barrel (+10 Range, +10 Recoil, -10 Handling)
• Magazine - Appended Magazine (+20 Magazine), Allow Magazine, Light Mag (+5 Range, +10 Reload Speed)
• Perk 1 - Fourth Time’s The Charm
• Perk 2 - Swashbuckler, Unrelenting
• Masterwork - Range, Reload Speed

This roll is all about sending a constant stream of high-powered rounds at your target.

The increased magazine size/reload speed granted by the magazine options as well as Fourth Time’s The Charm refunding bullets back to the mag give a decent increase to overall DPS.

Less time reloading is more time shooting bad guys. Killing said bad guys will also activate Swashbuckler, giving a large increase to damage once it’s stacked up.

Swashbuckler can also be swapped out for Unrelenting to ensure you stay healthy, just as long as you continue to slay enemies.

Curated Horror Story

• Scope - Red Dot Micro (Short Zoom, +9 Range, +7 Handling, +2 Zoom)
• Magazine - Flared Magwell (+5 Stability, +15 Reload Speed)
• Perk 1 - Zen Moment
• Perk 2 - Rampage
• Masterwork - Reload Speed

The curated roll for Horror Story functions in a very similar way to the curated roll for BrayTech Werewolf so there really isn't a lot to say here. Like BrayTech, the curated Horror Story is an all round workhorse that will be consistent in most activities.

Recommended PvP Perks for Horror Story

• Scope - Red Dot Micro (Short Zoom, +9 Range, +7 Handling, +2 Zoom)
• Magazine - Accurized Rounds (+10 Range)
• Perk 1 - Outlaw, Killing Wind
• Perk 2 - Moving Target
• Masterwork - Range, or Stability (Controller)

Unfortunately, Horror Story does not have quite the same quality of PvP perks as BrayTech Werewolf but we can still make this work. The extra Range given by the Scope, Magazine and Masterwork ensures a good time to kill in the midranges while Moving Target gives a large boost to target acquisition so that more shots will hit. Outlaw isn't an amazing perk for Auto Rifles but it's really all we have to work with in the first perk column. At the very least if you manage to finish off an enemy with a precision hit you will be locked and loaded for the next gunfight.

Recommended PvE Perks for Horror Story

• Scope - Red Dot Micro (Short Zoom, +9 Range, +7 Handling, +2 Zoom)
• Magazine - Tactical Mag (+5 Stability, +10 Reload Speed, +10 Magazine), Appended Mag (+20 Magazine Size)
• Perk 1 - Ambitious Assassin or Subsistence
• Perk 2 - Demolitionist
• Masterwork - Reload Speed, Range

It’s a real shame that Horror Story cannot randomly roll with any damage increasing perks as paired with something like Subsistence this could be quite a weapon.

Don't disregard Demolitionist though as this is a fantastic PvE perk that can give full grenade energy after just a handful of easy kills. Pair this with Oppressive Darkness or the Titan’s Roaring Flames and you have a very powerful build.