Warmind gun IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.2 is taking Destiny 2’s PvE playlists by storm

An older weapon that was originally from the Warmind DLC has taken the Destiny 2 PvE world by storm with it becoming possibly the top weapon to use for these activities. That weapon is the 'IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.2.'

How to Obtain

A new Exotic quest called ‘Preparation’ was recently added into the game that involves heading to Titan, Io, Mercury and Mars to complete one of two Weekly Bounties in order to help prepare each destination’s defenders for the imminent Darkness invasion.

Completing each of these Weekly bounties will reward the player with an ‘Exodus Focused Umbral Engram’. These engrams contain either the ‘First In, Last Out’ Shotgun, ‘IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.2’ Submachine Gun, ‘IKELOS_SR_v1.0.2’ Sniper Rifle or the ‘Berenger’s Memory’ Grenade Launcher.

As a side note only the first part of this Exotic quest is in the game and the rumoured reward of the ‘Traveler’s Chosen’ Sidearm cannot yet be earned.

Once this quest line is completed, regular Umbral engrams can now be focused into the above mentioned Exodus engrams but can also be focused even further into containing one of two Exodus weapons.

Why it's Good

Ikelos SMG is an Aggressive Frame Submachine Gun that deals Arc damage. The version of the gun that is rewarded through Exodus engrams has also been updated as a Season of Arrival weapon and with random rolls.

This means this new version is a massive step up from its Warmind counterpart.

Some of you may have noticed that the version number for the returning IKELOS weapons has been updated from ‘V1.0.1’ to V1.0.2’ to show that they are new and improved.

One of the biggest reasons why this weapon is so exceptional at PvE activities is due to Warmind Cells. Warmind Cells are a new mechanic that was added in with Season of the Worthy and they can allow the player to easily clear a room of enemies without much effort at all.

If certain armor mods are equipped and a player scores a kill with a Seventh Seraph weapon, also added during Season of the Worthy, there is a chance that a large glowing Warmind Cell will drop.

The player is then able to empty a few rounds into the Cell to cause it to explode, dealing a massive amount of damage in a huge area, as well as other unique effects depending on the mod equipped.

What a lot of players don't know, due to the description of the armor mods being misleading, is that the IKELOS weapons are also capable of creating Warmind Cells.

Armor Mods

Any of these below mods can work to great effect. You are able to only take the Global Reach mod if you wish to create a simple, damaging explosion and then rely on other weapon or armor effects to finish off the job.

You are also able to stack many of these mods together to create a massive explosion from the Warmind Cell that deals huge damage as well as other effects such as suppression and a knockback blast. The choice is yours.

Global Reach

The bare minimum you need for this build to work. This is a Seasonal mod and so can only be used on an armor piece that is capable of taking Season of the Worthy mods.

Global Reach only costs one energy and so is extremely easy to squeeze into almost any existing build. This mod will simply cause destroyed Warmind Cells to create a large explosion, killing all weaker enemies within a large radius.

Cellular Suppression

This mod costs four energy and has Void affinity. Damaging a Warmind Cell creates a pulse of void energy that suppresses and weakens enemies. Handy for disabling stronger enemies and making them easier to take out with weapon fire.

Modular Lightning

This mod costs three energy and has Arc affinity. Collecting a Warmind Cell creates a pulse of Arc energy around you. Works great with IKELOS SMG as you will be close range with this weapon allowing you to kill an enemy and then quickly collect the dropped Cell to damage nearby enemies.

Burning Cells

This mod costs three energy and has Solar affinity. This is another simple mod that just adds solar damage to any explosion created by destroying a Warmind Cell and also adds a short damage over time effect to any enemy that is damaged by the explosion.

Rage of the Warmind

This mod costs five energy and has Solar affinity. Like Burning Cells, Rage of the Warmind adds even more Solar damage to Warmind Cell explosions except this one does not come with the extra damage over time.

Breach Resonator

This is not a Warmind Cell mod but it can be very handy to use in conjunction with Anti-Barrier Rounds on IKELOS SMG. Only costs three energy.

Submachine Gun Loader

Only costs two energy and has Solar affinity. Combine this with Threat Detector on IKELOS and you are able to hit the reload speed cap quite easily.

IKELOS SMG Perks

With the re-release of the IKELOS SMG the gun has been updated with random rolls which significantly improves its viability over its earlier counterpart. Here are the best perk rolls for this weapon when it comes to PvE activities:

• Barrel - Corkscrew Rifling, Smallbore
• Magazine - Tactical Mag, Appended Mag
• Perk 1 - Threat Detector, Subsistence
• Perk 2 - Surrounded, Demolitionist
• Masterwork - Any work quite well although Handling is probably the least preferred.

The two Barrel options give some nice, albeit small, bonuses to Stability, Range and Handling which are great stats to increase. The Magazine upgrades are always great to have in PvE as less time reloading is more time killing.

Having an extra few rounds in the mag will also make it easier to kill an enemy and use the remaining rounds to destroy the Warmind Cell, allowing you to clear out enemies and then reload in peace.

Since this weapon is a Submachine Gun, Threat Detector is a great choice as it will be active for most engagements and gives a welcome bonus to Reload, Stability and Handling. Threat Detector combined with the Submachine Gun Loader mod will cap out the reload speed as well.

Subsistence can be used in place of Threat Detector and will allow you to empty many rounds into enemies before a reload is needed, as long as you manage to actually score some kills.

Be warned though that this will cut your reserve ammo by over 40% so be sure to make every shot count.

Surrounded, like Threat Detector, is a great perk on a Submachine Gun as it will be active for a lot of engagements.

This perk gives a 30% increase to weapon damage when it is active and can be combined with the Surrounded Spec weapon mod from Ada-1 to increase this bonus damage to 40%.

Demolitionist is just a great all round perk as each kill with a weapon that has this perk gives a significant amount of grenade energy.

This perk can be combined with Anti-Barrier Rounds and the Breach Resonator armor mod to generate full grenade energy in only a handful of kills. Works great with Oppressive Darkness.