If you’re going to face down a Knight with an ascendant blade, bring an ascendant gun.
Swordbreaker is a Legendary special shotgun.
This weapon has the chance to drop after defeating Crota in Crota’s End.
8.7/10
9/10The good: High rate of fire, large magazine size, fast reload speed.
The bad: Lowest Impact of any shotgun, low range (before upgrades).
Conclusion: Excellent in PvP, great perks.
Shotgun (Special Weapon)
300/331Talent Upgrades Tree
Void Damage
This weapon causes Void damage.
Smooth Ballistics
Less recoil. Penalty to range.
Grenadier
Kills with this weapon reduce the cooldown of your grenade.
Kills add 10% to grenade energy.
Upgrade Damage 1
Increases Attack Power, resulting in more Damage.
Flared Magwell
Reload this weapon even faster.
+50 Reload
Final Round
The last round in a magazine deals bonus damage.
33% bonus damage.
Upgrade Damage 2
Increases Attack Power, resulting in more Damage.
Upgrade Damage 3
Increases Attack Power, resulting in more Damage.
Accurized Ballistics
More range and Impact. Increased recoil.
+5% Damage
+10 Range
-10 Stability
Hammer Forged
Improved range and accuracy.
+40 Range
Hive Disruptor
Increase damage to Hive Majors.
Upgrade Damage 4
Increases Attack Power, resulting in more Damage.
Field Choke
More range and Impact. Increased recoil.
+5% Damage
+12 Range
-15 Stability
Lightweight
When held, this weapon grants +2 character Agility.
Upgrade Damage 5
Increases Attack Power, resulting in more Damage.
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Swordbreaker Video Review
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Weapon Review
Swordbreaker is a special shotgun that can only be obtained by defeating Crota. We have a full guide to Crota’s End if you need help with the raid.
How does this compare to the shotguns obtainable at the Tower vendors? Is it worth upgrading? Keep reading!
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Recommended perks:
Field Choke
+5% Damage
+12 Range
-15 Stability
Hammer Forged
+40 Range
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The Good
The rate of fire on Swordbreaker is actually extremely high at 35. This makes time between shots extremely low (.70 seconds), almost matching the fire rate of Found Verdict, the shotgun from Vault of Glass.
Is it going to be as quick as Invective or another full auto shotgun? Of course not. However, its got the highest rate of fire out of any shotgun, tied with Secret Handshake – which actually has very similar base stats.
The Grenadier perk really makes this shotgun viable in some PvE encounters. It takes about 7 kills to bring your grenade energy from 0-100% (each kill = 10%). The first encounter in the raid makes good work of this perk, allowing you to take out some enemies with a grenade, and then clear out a few more with your shotgun.
The Final Round perk is nice for when times get hectic as well. It will do that extra bit of damage to get you out of an encounter alive, and might just be the extra damage you need to down an enemy.
The gun has a nice array of muzzles, allowing you to reduce some of the stability to help out with the range. The perks also allow for some customization, but Hammer Forged is the clear choice if you want more range, since the base range is low.
This shotgun has the fastest reload speed of any shotgun at roughly 4.9 seconds (without Flared Magwell). With its 6 round magazine, it’s an excellent choice for PvP.
As for the elemental damage, it’s going to be most helpful in the Vault of Glass and a Void Burn Nightfall.
Unique to the raid weapons is the “Hive Disruptor” perk which increases damage to Hive Majors. You’ll be able to do about 400 additional damage to Hive Majors. Majors take 10% less normal damage and only 50% critical damage, but this shotgun ignores that 10% reduction for Hive Majors.
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The Bad
Swordbreaker has an extremely low starting range of 9, which is the second lowest of all shotguns.
The Impact is also extremely low. While this doesn’t really affect tier 1 enemies, you will notice it when facing tier 2 or higher enemies. Hive Disruptor perk will alleviate this a bit, but that leaves out all the other PvE enemy types.
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Cosmetics
It’s an “ascendant gun” according to its description.
This weapon is adorned by bones and skulls. The skulls have a nifty feature: their eyes will light up and flash if you run out of ammo.
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Conclusion
Swordbreaker is a decent secondary for some Hive encounters. Its low range and impact sometimes make it a difficult weapon to recommend for PvE.
In PvP its quick rate of fire and Grenadier perk make it absolutely worth using.
Overall, it shines in PvP and is worth using in PvE now that the shotguns have gotten a buff.
For PvP this weapon earns a 8.7/10 and for PvE a 9/10.
