If you’re lucky enough to have Treads Upon Stars drop for you in the Nightfall this week, here’s what you should be looking out for!
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Scout Rifle
Mid-Impact
Treads Upon Stars – Available from the Shield Brothers, Dust Palace, and Cerebus Vae III as a random drop.
- Pros – Above average Reload Speed.
- Cons – Average Mag Size and Range. Low Stability. Below average Aim Assist.
- Time-to-Kill: 1.00s (2 crit shots and 2 body shots)
- Rate of Fire: 37
- Impact: 48 (61 damage per crit shot, 41 per body shot)
- Range: 66
- Stability: 38
- Reload Speed: 66
- Mag Size: 16
- Aim Assist: 44
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Column 1 – Red Dot-OAS, TrueSight IS, Red Dot-ORES, Red Dot-ORS1
- Column 2 – Crowd Control, Zen Moment, Life Support
- Column 3 – Hand-laid Stock, Perfect Balance, Injection Mold, Smallbore, Explosive Rounds, Braced Frame, High Caliber Rounds
- Column 4 – Hidden Hand, Third Eye, Outlaw, Reactive Reload, Grenadier, Army of One, Firefly
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Column 1 – Red Dot-OAS, TrueSight IS, Red Dot-ORES, Red Dot-ORS1
- Column 2 – Crowd Control, Triple Tap, Life Support, Zen Moment
- Column 3 – Explosive Rounds, Hand-laid Stock, Perfect Balance, Injection Mold, Smallbore
- Column 4 – Firefly, Reactive Reload, Grenadier, Army of One, Outlaw
Unfortunately, this gun is in the weakest of the scout rifle archetypes in the Crucible. The time-to-kill is quite slow, at 1.00s, but it is slightly redeemed by the fact that it only needs two head shots and two body shots to kill, making it a very forgiving gun for those who are just learning to play with scouts. In terms of optics, Red Dot-OAS is generally going to be your best bet, given that it’s a very stable, and aim assist boosting sight. If you can’t get that one, TrueSight, ORES, and ORS1 are all passable options, in that order.
In the second column, Crowd Control is probably the best choice, because it gives you the ability to kill with 3 crit shots immediately following another kill, which negates this guns biggest weakness in PvP. Zen Moment can help with the sub-par base stability, and Life Support is always a good thing to have when it activates.
In the third column, improving stability is the name of the game, in order to minimize the time is takes to reacquire a target after a shot, hopefully maintain the optimal TtK. Hand-laid Stock is the best option here, mostly because scout rifles tend to have an excess of range to begin with, and losing a bit for a ton more stability is a worthwhile trade-off. Perfect Balance is also acceptable, or Injection Mold or Smallbore, but I tend to stay away from Braced Frame, just because a 12 round mag on this archetype can be a hindrance. If you aren’t lucky enough to get a good stability perk, Explosive Rounds can be nice, helping to cause severe flinch to your opponents.
In the last column, Hidden Hand will be the best choice to help improve the below average base aim assist, but Third Eye and Outlaw are both useful as well. Reactive Reload is a special perk that takes a particular play-style to use, but can be very effective when done correctly. Grenadier and Army of One are both decent, and Firefly is fun, if not very useful.
Although the gun struggles in the Crucible, it’s actually a solid weapon for the rest of the game. It’s in the same archetype as the fabled Dead Orbit Hung Jury, and, with a good roll, can be used as a decent substitute for anyone unlucky enough to not grab the original.
For PvE, the sight choices will remain the same as PvP, as will the second column options, with the exception of Triple Tap, which is very useful when shooting at large, mostly stationary bosses. In the third column, stability is not nearly as important in PvE, so Explosive Rounds takes the lead. If you can’t get that, stability is still nice to have, just to make the gun feel better and be easier to use. In the last column, Firefly is a fantastic perk for killing mobs, and Reactive Reload is much easier to take advantage of when facing adds, so I would hope for one of those two. Grenadier and Army of One can also be useful.