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MERCILESS

Exotic / Energy / Fusion Rifle

Entropy is inevitable.

Source: Exotic engrams; extremely rare world drops.

Exotic Perks

Conserve Momentum

Conserve Momentum

Hits with projectiles decrease this weapon's charge time for a short duration.
Impetus

Impetus

Reloading immediately after a kill increases weapon damage for a short time.

Stats

Impact
75
Range
39
Damage Falloff  
Stability
32
Handling
41
Reload Speed
43
Reload Time  
Aim Assistance
69
Inventory Size
55
Zoom
15
Airborne Effectiveness
15
Recoil
64
Charge Time 1000
Magazine 8
Selected Perks
Popularity: Overall Select 4 perks to see their popularity.  
Popularity: Perks  
Popularity: Trait Combo  
Popularity: MW Bonus  
Credits

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Objectives

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Lore

Merciless

Entropy is inevitable.

"The thought was simple enough—sync a weapon's firing and targeting systems to a caged onboard artificial intelligence programmed to actively seek fulfillment of the weapon's base driving function. Simply put, give the weapon an awareness of its purpose.

"If the machine is meant to destroy, what would happen if we made it aware of its intended goal?

"What would happen if it reacted to any failure to achieve that goal by focusing more intently on defining the parameters of said goal and adjusting its function to more aggressively seek out the successful execution of its purpose?

"These are the questions we asked ourselves while engineering the initial prototype. The answers we found—I think you'll agree—were encouraging."

– Incomplete record, author unknown

 
 
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Show reviews since:
Season 14 Icon
13
If you remember when Merciless was the best DPS option in the game, you legally qualify for a senior citizen discount.
13
Reply      Report Posted 4 years ago
Season 19 Icon
10
With the arrival of Season of the Seraph, Merciless has gotten a major glow-up and absolutely should not be slept-on at all at this point. Conserve Momentum is now a stacking buff with a timer, with every bolt of every shot contributing to the buff, and the timer refreshed by any shots landing at all. This buff will now persist through kills, despite what the exotic text still reads, which has already been confirmed as an intended change by Bungie. Kill a mob prior, reload to trigger Impetus, and you've got a massively buffed Kill Clip effect in play as well.

The result? The thing mulches yellow bars now. It'll chew through your ammo just as quick, but the gun lives up to its name now and is downright vicious with deleting enemies. It's no slouch for boss damage either, though longer-range options will probably still be preferable. Definitely worth giving it another look though.
10
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 19 Icon
5
Merciless has, at last, risen from the grave! Rather than simply firing faster each non-lethal hit, Merciless now gets a stacking charge time reduction on each hit that lasts for 5 seconds, no matter what, and is both increased and refreshed each hit! No longer is Merciless strictly a single-target DPS weapon and nothing else - since the faster charge speed lasts for an entire short engagement, it can now cut down rank-and-file by the dozen (at the cost of eating through its ammo supply disastrously fast), nor requires full commitment to aiming at and never missing one target. All of this on top of still having Impetus, acting as Kill Clip, but with double the strength, giving a whopping +50% damage when reloading right after a kill.

Perhaps funniest of all, however, is that this buff also did the unthinkable - made it not just viable in PvP, but good, maybe even great. What was once an option so impractical that it was only used by masochists, Merciless's ability to keep its charge speed bonus for a few seconds after a hit makes this weapon a nightmare against teams that travel in tight-knit groups. Assuming you kill with your first shot, your second victim (and onwards, if you have the ammo saved up) won't have time to react thanks to Conserve Momentum, especially if you manage to time a reload to proc Impetus first... which is admittedly quite hard, since this weapon still has a fairly slow reload speed.
5
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 15 Icon
5
Due to the recent shift in the meta (and Particle Deconstruction), Merciless has risen from the grave of outclassed and overlooked Year 1 exotics.

Really what I'm trying to say is that if you don't have a Vorpal Cartesian Coordinate and don't want to run Overrides to farm it, this gun, right here? It'll be your best friend.

Welcome back, Merciless. Welcome back.
5
Reply      Report Posted 3 years ago
Season 18 Icon
2
With the high impact buffs, Merciless performs decently well in pve, and in PvP it absolutely shreds once you get used to the 1000ms charge time. Insane stability and range for a high impact fusion rifle once you get the catalyst done, and with more damage than the typical high impact to boot.
2
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 13 Icon
2
surprisingly good base stats in pvp, miniboss shredder in pve
2
Reply      Report Posted 4 years ago
Season 13 Icon
2
The catalyst makes this weapon INSANE in pvp. Kills at 18m, rarely at 19. He perk is a better kill clip that makes this weapon a 3 bolt, that kills even farther. Now that shotguns are getting a nerf, fusions are getting an indirect buff. Join the cult.
2
Reply      Report Posted 4 years ago
Season 15 Icon
1
Nasty DPS with Path of the burning steps and seasonal mod.
1
Reply      Report Posted 3 years ago
Season 15 Icon
0
Great pve all star, tried it out in trials with my messenger and it absolutely shreds, just pre-charge and it'll do the job for you. I also don't have the catalyst finished so that's gotta count for something...
0
Reply      Report Posted 3 years ago
Season 14 Icon
0
Good boss damage in pvp. It has kill clip + insane range for PvP
0
Reply      Report Posted 3 years ago
Season 7 Icon
0
its nice for dps on bosses but its only really useful in pvp if it has the catalyst and it can still be outranged by a good rolled erentil fr4
0
Reply      Report Posted 6 years ago
Season 10 Icon
0
This thing shreds minibosses and does work on bosses, although it is not the best boss DPS around. Weak for ad clear obviously. In PVP it's just like your average fusion rifle really, so I'd rather take a normal fusion rifle and use the exotic slot somewhere else.
0
Reply      Report Posted 5 years ago
Season 10 Icon
0
Surprisingly not that bad in PVP, although definitely worse than erentil er4. Viable for Cast in iron
0
Reply      Report Posted 5 years ago
Season 10 Icon
0
Very good for boss dps, but it is outclassed by other options. I would recommend using it in places with multiple minibosses, or if you just feel like switching up your loadout, and still need something that can do reliable damage.

Not so great in PvP. Just functions like a normal fusion rifle, so it's probably smarter to use something else where you can actually take advantage of the exotic trait.
0
Reply      Report Posted 5 years ago
Season 20 Icon
0
In PvE it does quite a bit of damage and the stacking buff makes it a very fast-firing weapon that can chew through mostly anything (but eats a lot of ammo aswell). In PvP it feels pretty bad due to its longer charge time in comparison with other fusion rifles and the burst shots that spread out quickly over longer ranges. For PvE it can work out pretty well but for PvP there are far better options.
0
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 21 Icon
0
Amazing weapon for soloing content
0
Reply      Report Posted a year ago
Season 19 Icon
0
This thing with caty goes so unreasonably hard now. Easy quick reload with a rangey fusion that has zero recoil? Yes please.
0
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 21 Icon
0
Most underrated dps in the game
0
Reply      Report Posted 2 years ago
Season 25 Icon
0
cant say i've ever considered this in PvP but seriously this gun is the definition of "I'm gonna give you some bullets and if that doesnt work i'll give you some more"
0
Reply      Report Posted 2 months ago
Season 23 Icon
0
Not a big fan of Fusions but holy cow the dps with this thing is insane for a special, which is also why I think this is goddamn trash.
Before going into the technical I wanna shout out to this thing's absolutely atrocious default appearance, this and default prometheus lens are literally fashion criminals and should be held accountable by the Senate of Dresstiny.

Anyway... the whole shtick of Merciless is dps, and its reserve is very limited which means it will run out way before you can find a brick unless you're lucky with the rng... do those two sentences sound like a description of something much more familiar? Oh yea a FUCKING HEAVY. Don't use this, just pick a heavy, maybe 1k voice if you're so into hold lmb -> gun goes brrr thing ( with extra booming earrape for good measure )

For pvp the Drake's-schlong-chargetime makes this the absolute worst fusion to bring along, unless you want to bottom frag in Control that bad.

Still giving it 3 for PvE because it can still be used more frequent than a heavy, but the thing is only useful for larger health pools and isn't reliable for usual yellow-bars and champions
0
Reply      Report Posted a year ago