The return of Destiny 2‘s Solstice of Heroes event brings back Compass Rose. The shotgun has never been especially impressive, but this year, a revamp of its perks have changed things, making it a great addition to your loadout for taking down other players in the Crucible. If you’ve been struggling to get a good Matador 64, Compass Rose should offer comparable stats and be a little easier to chase. It’s also not bad for PvE, but the new perks on Compass Rose make it potentially as useful in PvP as some of the top shotguns in the meta. Here’s how you can get Compass Rose and what rolls you’ll want to focus on during Solstice of Heroes.
How To Get Compass Rose
Compass Rose is one of the four weapons that are part of the Solstice of Heroes loot pool, and thus only available during the event. The main way to get it is to play through Bonfire Bash, the Solstice event–you can access it from the Tower map in the Director. Compass Rose will be among the random weapons you can get from completing the event. Alternatively, you should be able to occasionally pick up Compass Roses from Solstice packages, event card Triumphs, and Solstice and Forge bounties you complete during the event. The most reliable way to farm Compass Rose, however, is to finish Bonfire Bash runs.
Compass Rose
Compass Rose God Rolls
Compass Rose PvP God Roll
Barrel: Small Bore +7 Range, +7 StabilityMagazine: Accurized Rounds +10 RangeFirst Perk: Slickdraw / Threat Detector / Slideshot Slickdraw: Significantly increases handling, significantly decreases target acquisition.Threat Detector: Increased reload speed, stability, and handling when enemies are in close proximity.Slideshot: Sliding partially reloads this weapon’s magazine and temporarily boosts range and stability.Second Perk: Opening Shot Improved accuracy and range on the opening shot of attack.Masterwork: Range
The common go-to perk combo for a PvP shotgun is Threat Detector and Opening Shot, and with its revamp this year, Compass Rose can now roll those perks. However, the theory going around is that Slickdraw might be a better choice. High handling on a PvP shotgun is great because you want to quickly pull that gun out for a point-blank blast to an opponent’s face, whether it’s to finish off a hurt opponent or surprise someone in tight confines. Slickdraw kicks handling up to 100 for Compass Rose at the expense of target acquisition, but at close range, you shouldn’t really need any. Threat Detector also boosts your handling, but requires you to be close to two opponents to get the benefit, where Slickdraw has no prerequisite.
Alternatively, Slideshot is always a good choice for a PvP shotgun if you like slidy, agile play–and if you don’t, skip this one, because sliding all the time is essential. The perk boosts your shotgun’s range right after a slide, making it great for coming in hot around a corner to surprise an opponent, even if they’re not perfectly in position for a point-blank blast.
All the perks are great with Opening Shot, which adds to the range at which Compass Rose can be deadly, and with the rest of your choices, you want to boost range as much as possible to make it more reliable that you’ll get those one-hit or finish-off kills.
Compass Rose PvE God Roll
Barrel: Fluted Barrel +5 Stability, +15 HandlingMagazine: Assault Mag +15 Stability, +5 Rate of FireFirst Perk: Grave Robber Melee final blows or dealing damage with a charged melee reloads this weapon’s magazine from reserves.Second Perk: Trench Barrel / One-Two Punch Trench Barrel: After a successful melee hit, this weapon gains increased damage, handling, and reload speed for a short duration–or until three shots are fired.One-Two Punch: Hitting an enemy with every pellet in a shot increases melee damage for a short duration.Masterwork: Handling / Reload Speed
In PvE, Compass Rose isn’t necessarily the best shotgun out there, but it can be very useful for melee builds. Both Trench Barrel and One-Two Punch pair well with punchy builds. With Trench Barrel, you boost Compass Rose’s damage after you land a punch, while with One-Two Punch, Compass Rose boosts the power of your melee, so pick the perk that works best with your build. Meanwhile, Grave Robber lets you use your melee to reload the shotgun, circumventing any slow reload issues you might have with the gun.
Alternatively, Compass Rose can also roll Incandescent, which is always a fun perk for Solar builds and can be great with certain builds meant to knock out a lot of small enemies quickly. None of these options are particularly unique to Compass Rose, but they can all make it pretty useful.
