Destiny 2's Season of the Seraph is finally here, bringing with it a new set of weapons and armor sets for players to chase. And as with any new season, you can expect 25 new Artifact mods to experiment with. While most of these mods are Champion counters or cheap mod variants, some of this season's mods are absurdly powerful.
Related: Destiny 2: How To Reach Max Power Level Quickly
Gain a damage buff when playing solo, become Charged with Light by stunning Champions, and even a (nerfed) version of Breach and Clear are all present on this season's Seraph Cipher Artifact. This guide will give a quick overview of all 25 Artifact mods added this season.
Updated December 25th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: We've spent the last few weeks unlocking and testing all 25 Artifact mods introduced in Season of the Seraph, notably the final column mods. We've updated this guide with in-depth information about how each mod works, providing exact values for some of this season's new damage buffs and utility effects.
Artifact Overview
Column One
Column Two
Column Three
Column Four
Column Five
Unstoppable Hand Cannon (Arms)
GL Holster (Legs)
Hand Cannon Targeting (Helmet)
Unstoppable GL (Arms)
Passive Aggressive Guard (Class)
Overload Scout Rifle (Arms)
Legacy Ambush (Helmet)
Scout Rifle Loader (Arms)
Counter Charge (Combat Style)
Weakened Clear (Class)
Anti-Barrier Bow (Arms)
In-Flight Compensator (Helmet)
Energy Diffusion Substrate (Chest)
Advance Scout (Class)
Monochromatic Maestro (Class)
Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle (Arms)
Bow Dexterity (Arms)
Sharp Shooting (Helmet)
Lord Kelvin's Basilisk (Class)
Solo Operative (Class)
Overload Rounds (SMG & AR, Arms)
Mobile Retrofit (Legs)
Resilient Retrofit (Chest)
Low Entropy Superconductor (Class)
Lucent Finisher (Class)
Column One
Unstoppable Hand Cannon
Arms
1 Energy
Aiming down sights with any Hand Cannon you are wielding loads a powerful explosive payload that stuns unshielded combatants.
Strong against Unstoppable Champions.
Overload Scout Rifle
Arms
1 Energy
Landing consecutive hits on combatants with any Scout Rifle you are wielding disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability regeneration and lowering combatant damage output.
Strong against Overload Champions.
After any fireteam member disrupts a Champion, your Scout Rifles temporarily deal bonus damage against Champions.
Piercing Bowstring
Arms
1 Energy
Bows gain shield-piercing arrows which bypass combatant defenses.
Strong against Barrier Champions.
Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle
Arms
1 Energy
Pulse Rifles you are wielding fire shield-piercing rounds and stun Barrier Champions.
Pulse Rifles deal bonus damage against Barrier Champions.
Overload Rounds (SMG & AR)
Arms
3 Energy
Uninterrupted fire from your equipped Auto Rifles and SMGs grants bullets that stun combatants, delaying ability energy regeneration and lowering combatant damage output.
Strong against Overload Champions.
Column One Mods Explained
Unstoppable Hand Cannon infuses your next shot with Unstoppable energy upon aiming down sights for a few seconds. The delay between aiming and triggering the perk seems to have been increased compared to past seasons, so be sure you're in a safe location before triggering this perk. Unstoppable Hand Cannon does not work on Eriana's Vow.
Overload Scout Rifle infuses your shots with Overload rounds upon firing your weapon for roughly a full second, stunning Overload Champions until you stop firing. Additionally, you gain a damage bonus against Overload Champions whenever your fireteam (yourself included) stuns a Champion, stacking with other damage buffs and debuffs. Any Scout Rifles with intrinsic Anti-Champion properties won't stack with this mod.
Piercing Bowstring infuses a fully-nocked arrow with Anti-Barrier energy, piercing through Barrier Champion shields and immunity phases on fodder enemies—notably Vex Hobgoblins, Vex Hydra shields, and physical shields held/created by Cabal, Taken, and Hive enemies. Piercing Bowstring does not work on Exotic Bows. It actually disables the Exotic perk for Wish-Ender if you have this mod equipped.
Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifle allows your Pulse Rifles to pierce Barrier Champion shields and immunity phases on fodder enemies. This works on all Scout Rifles that don't intrinsically have anti-Champion properties.
Overload Rounds work for your Auto Rifles and SMGs, granting Overload rounds while firing your weapons for about a second. This effect persists until you stun a Champion or stop firing. Weapons with intrinsic anti-Champion properties will not stack with this mod.
read moreColumn Two
Grenade Launcher Holster
Legs
1 Energy
Gradually reloads your stowed Power Grenade Launchers over time. Multiple copies of this perk stack to reduce the time taken to fully reload.
Legacy Ambush
Helmet
1 Energy
Increases the duration and effectiveness of the Ambush Origin Trait and the Bray Inheritance Origin Trait.
In-Flight Compensator
Helmet
3 Energy
Increases the airborne effectiveness of all equipped weapons.
Bow Dexterity
Arms
1 Energy
Faster ready and stow speed for Bows.
Mobile Retrofit
Legs
3 Energy
+5 Mobility
Column Two Mods Explained
Grenade Launcher Holster is a cheaper variant of the default GL holster mod on your legs, costing one energy instead of five. Heavy Grenade Launchers (Specials don't count) will reload a portion of their magazine roughly every five seconds. Stacking this mod reduces the time to four seconds. We only recommend using this mod with the Parasite Grenade Launcher since it fully loads the weapon.
Legacy Ambush currently doesn't work. It doesn't seem to impact either origin trait as it's supposed to. Bray Inheritance is an origin trait added to all Deep Stone Crypt weapons that grants about 2.5% ability energy whenever you damage a target. Ambush is an origin trait found on Season of the Seraph gear, granting a boost to range, stability, and a 10% damage buff for the first few seconds of combat. We assume that the mod increases the effectiveness and/or duration of both buffs by 50%, but we can't confirm this until Bungie releases a patch.
In-Flight Compensator grants +15 Airborne Effectiveness for all weapons. Stacking this mod has diminishing returns, granting about +22 AE if you have two mods equipped. We only recommend using this mod inside the Crucible; Airborne Effectiveness in PvE is hardly noticeable.
Bow Dexterity is a cheaper variant of the standard Bow Dexterity mod on your arms, granting a small animation scalar for drawing and holstering your Bows. It has the same effect as the standard mod.
Mobile Retrofit grants +5 Mobility and sockets in your main leg slots, not your stat socket. This means you can equip a +10 Mobility mod and two Mobility Retrofit mods to gain +20 Mobility solely through mods. If you're already using Powerful Friends and need more Mobility in your build, this mod might be useful. Do not make builds around this mod, as all Artifact mods are removed at the end of a season. Considering how expensive this mod is, we can only recommend PvP players use it. PvE players are better off using scavenger mods on their leg armor.
read moreColumn Three
Hand Cannon Targeting
Helmet
1 Energy
Improved target acqusition, accuracy, and aim-down-sights speed for Hand Cannons.
Pulse Rifle Loader
Arms
1 Energy
Increases reload speed of Pulse Rifles.
Energy Diffusion Substrate
Chest
1 Energy
Gain a small amount of resistance to all damage dealt to you by combatants. Additional copies of this mod stack to increase this effect.
Sharp Shooting
Helmet
1 Energy
Greatly increases the duration and effectiveness of the Tex Balanced Stock Origin Trait and the Veist Stinger Origin Trait.
Resilient Retrofit
Chest
4 Energy
+5 Resilience
Column Three Mods Explained
Hand Cannon Targeting is a cheaper variant of the standard HC targeting mod for helmets, granting an ADS animation scalar and +10 aim assist for all equipped Hand Cannons. This variant does the same thing but only costs one energy, from five. Stacking this mod has diminishing returns.
Pulse Rifle Loader greatly increases the reload speed of all equipped Pulse Rifles. This variant does the same thing but is cheaper to equip. Stacking this mod has diminishing returns.
Energy Diffusion Substrate grants 5% damage resistance against all elemental attacks in PvE. As with all other chest DR mods, Energy Diffusion Substrate does nothing inside the Crucible. As of writing, this mod does not stack on itself, removing its 5% DR bonus if stacked. We recommend equipping one copy of this mod alongside Concussive Dampener.
Sharp Shooting seems to double the effectiveness of the Tex Balanced Stock Origin Trait and greatly increases the proc chance of Veist Stinger. It's hard to quantify the proc chance buff, but it's noticeable. Stacking this mod does nothing.
Resilient Retrofit is a chest mod that grants +5 Resilience. Since it costs four energy, you can either stack two of these or a retrofit + core Resilience mod. Do not make builds around this mod, as all Artifact mods are removed at the end of a season. Only use this mod if you desperately need to hit 100 Resilience but don't want to adjust your other mod slots or Fragments.
read moreRelated: Destiny 2: Every New Weapon In Season Of The Seraph
Column Four
Unstoppable Grenade Launcher
Arms
7 Energy
When you ready or reload a Grenade Launcher, for a short period, that weapon stuns Unstoppable Champions.
Strong against Unstoppable Champions.
Counter Charge
Combat Style
3 Energy
Become Charged with Light whenever you or a member of your fireteam stuns a Champion.
Advance Scout
Class
1 Energy
Champions you stun take additional damage from teammates.
Lord Kelvin's Basilisk
Class
1 Energy
Void and Stasis grenades cause disruption, delaying ability regeneration and lowering combatant damage output.
Strong against Overload Champions.
Low Entropy Superconductor
Class
1 Energy
Stasis and Arc melee abilities stun unshielded combatants.
Strong against Unstoppable Champions.
Column Four Mods Explained
Unstoppable Grenade Launcher activates whenever you draw or reload a GL, infusing your next shot with Unstoppable energy for the next few seconds. Anything caught in the blast radius will be stunned. This works on all Grenade Launchers, both Special and Heavy GLs.
Counter Charge is a Combat Style Mod that grants one stack of Charged with Light whenever a Champion is stunned. Both you and your fireteam can stun Champions to trigger this perk. Unlike other Artifact mods, Counter Charge cannot be slotted into Artifice mod sockets. It must be equipped in the Combat Style socket on your armor. CwL modifiers like Stacks of Stacks work with Counter Charge. We recommend pairing this mod with High-Energy Fire for a free 20% damage buff whenever you stun a Champion.
Advance Scout debuffs stunned Champions by 10% for roughly 10 seconds. Whoever stuns the Champion does not benefit from this debuff, so we don't recommend using this mod for solo content. Advance Scout does stack with other debuff sources like Weaken and Shadowshot.
Lord Kelvin's Basilisk allow Void and Stasis grenades to stun Overload Champions, doing so instantly whenever they deal damage. Stasis shatters that originate from your grenades—notably shattered Glacier Grenades—do not trigger Overload stuns. Some great grenades to pair with this mod are Vortex Grenades and Duskfield Grenades.
Low Entropy Superconductor buffs your Arc and Stasis melees with Unstoppable energy, forcing targets to stagger whenever you melee them. This immediately triggers and doesn't have a cooldown.
read moreColumn Five
Passive Aggressive Guard
Class
6 Energy
Receive less damage from combatants that are close to you while you are wielding a Glaive.
Weakened Clear
Class
5 Energy
When using a Grenade Launcher, damaging a boss, damaging a Champion, or breaking a combatant's shield reloads your stowed weapons and weakens the combatant.
Monochromatic Maestro
Class
6 Energy
Dealing damage with elemental abilities grants increased damage to weapons of the same element for a short duration. Dealing damage with elemental weapons grants increased damage to abilities of the same element for a short duration.
Solo Operative
Class
5 Energy
While you are the only member of your fireteam, you deal increased damage to all combatants.
Lucent Finisher
Class
3 Energy
Defeating a Lucent Hive Lightbearer or Champion with your finisher spawns Heavy ammo for you and your allies.
Column Five Mods Explained
Passive Aggressive Guard grants a 50% damage resistance buff if you're wielding a Glaive and are within melee distance of a target. You must have your Glaive equipped to trigger this perk. Only one enemy needs to be near you. This DR buffs stacks multiplicatively with other DR sources and does nothing in the Crucible.
Weakened Clear returns from Season of the Splicer albeit slightly nerfed. Stunning a Champion, damaging a boss, or breaking a combatant's shields with your GL will inflict Weaken and automatically reload all weapons. Weaken is a 15% debuff that lasts for roughly 5 seconds. Both Special and Heavy GLs can trigger this perk, although Weakened Clear doesn't trigger in any PvP content. We highly recommend equipping this mod if you're attempting to solo difficult content like Legendary Lost Sectors or dungeons. Pair this with Witherhoard or Anarchy for near-permanent Weaken during a DPS phase.
Monochromatic Maestro grants a 10% damage buff for 5 second when damaging a target with a matching elemental ability. Abilities also get the same buff when damaging a combatant with a matching elemental weapon. This buff stacks with other damage buffs including Well of Radiance and Font of Might, doing so multiplicatively. You cannot refresh this buff while it's active. Monochromatic Maestro does not work inside PvP, but all PvE monochromatic builds should have this mod equipped at all times; it's free damage.
Bear in mind that Stasis shatters do not trigger Monochromatic Maestro for some reason, meaning builds that utilize Ager's Scepter or similar shatter-related weapons will struggle to trigger this mod.
Solo Operative grants a permanent 15% damage buff while you're playing PvE content by yourself. Any PvE activity will trigger this perk; you just need to be playing with no one else in your fireteam This buff is just like Monochromatic Maestro and stacks with both empowering buffs and Font of Might, doing so multiplicatively. You have just enough energy to pair Solo Operative with Weakened Clear, making this by far the best season for completing solo content.
Lucent Finisher returns from previous seasons, forcing Lightbearers and Champions to drop a brick of Heavy ammo when finished. This mod has no cooldown, doesn't drain Super energy, and drops ammo for both you and your allies. If you're playing Nightfalls or solo Legendary content, we highly recommend equipping this mod.
read moreNext: Destiny 2 Season Of The Seraph: All Week 1 Seasonal Challenges
