Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Librarian Husky. We’ve got new weapons, a new story, and some new activities. If you want a guide on that, we’ve already covered how to go for AB in action and how to optimize the new Battleground activity.

New Artifact Mods

Today we’re going to be talking about the five New Artifact Mods. Bungie isn’t just rolling out content with each of these acts; they’re also giving us five New Artifact Mods. Considering that episodes are like an extended season, adding New Artifact Mods with each act really spices things up.

Artifact Mod Unlocks

Now we have five in total. We still have the same 12 out of 12 unlocks, which means decisions, decisions. It really just boils down to whatever your build is.

Anti-Barrier Sniper Mod

Just like our other artifact mods, these scale in power from left to right. Our first one is Anti-Barrier Sniper. This essentially allows sniper rifles to fire shield-piercing rounds and stun barrier champions. Additionally, sniper rifles are always overcharged when this modifier is active.

Benefits of Anti-Barrier Sniper Mod

It’s not just the ability to stun barrier champions that makes this artifact mod so good. It’s the ability to shoot through Phalanx Shields, Knight Shields, Band Shields, and Beck Shields. All of these can now be pierced by your sniper rifles. On top of that, all your sniper rifles will be overcharged, which means an extra 25% damage. This is beneficial for activities like Grandmaster Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, and even Battlegrounds. There’s obviously going to be a ton of different sniper rifles that are going to be useful.

Critical Anomaly Mod

Benefiting from this Champion mod, the one we’ve kept our eyes on the whole time is actually Critical Anomaly. That’s because this one can roll with Chill Clip, and now with the inclusion of Anti-Barrier Sniper, it can stun all three Champion types. A fantastic utility sniper that we’ve recently reviewed, I highly advise getting it, especially with this artifact mod.

Authorized Mods Scavenger

Continuing down the road, the next mod is Authorized Mods Scavenger. This is very straightforward, as it essentially drops our scavenger mods to a cost of only one.

Incendiary Rifle Rounds

Now let’s get into the juicy stuff. The next mod is Incendiary Rifle Rounds. This reads that solar sniper rifle Precision hits scorch targets. This seems pretty straightforward. Looking at the mod in action at Carl, when using a sniper, it would trigger an ignition in four Precision hits. That’s because this mod applies 30 Scorch stacks off of each one of those sniper hits.

Synergy with Ember of Ashes

For my solar enthusiasts out there, this will synergize with Ember of Ashes, which of course adds more Scorch stacks. What this essentially means is that we’re able to reach an ignition in just three hits as we are now applying 45 Scorch stacks per precision hit. For those wondering, no, weapon perks cannot increase our ignition damage. We actually tried it here with Focused Fury, and while all our shots get the damage buff, our ignitions do not.

Solar Sniper Rifle Scorch Stacks

I had been curious about how this differs from artifact to artifact and if heavy snipers like Whisper of the Worm apply more Scorch stacks. The answer is that it doesn’t change from source to source, so if you’re looking to reach ignitions as fast as possible, rapid-fire sniper rifles like Eolos are actually your best bet. To sum up this artifact mod into something you could share with your friends: Precision hits from solar snipers will apply 30 Scorch stacks at base and 45 Scorch stacks with Ember of Ashes. This is the case for all solar snipers.

Solar Fulmination Mod

This takes us to our next mod, and arguably the best mod on this list, Solar Fulmination. It reads that your ignitions do increased damage in an increased radius. Jumping into some in-game examples here at Carl, a base ignition without the mod dealt 36,200 damage. Then, with Solar Fulmination active, our ignition damage still does 36,200 damage, but if you notice, there’s an extra number being added here, that being an extra 9,120 damage. This is how Solar Fulmination is increasing our range and damage.

Effects and Benefits of Solar Fulmination

Visually, you can’t tell, but this number is effectively a second explosion, or more accurately, a second ignition. As for what this mod means at base, the second explosion will deal its damage in about a 12-meter radius, which is quite large. Since our new total damage from ignition is now 45,330, Solar Fulmination is increasing our ignition damage by 25%. This will happen to all sources, including abilities like Incinerator Snap or Consecration, weapons like Dragon’s Breath, and even increased artifact mods like Incendiary Rifle Rounds. They will all be buffed by Solar Fulmination.

Chain Reactions with Ignitions

What I mean by the second detonation counting as an ignition itself is that we can now have ignitions cause ignitions. What you’re seeing here is exactly that: one ignition from Incinerator Snap started a chain reaction that didn’t end until this group of enemies was reduced to nothing.

How It Works

Now, how does this work? Solar Fulmination can’t do it on its own. There are effectively three things you need besides the artifact mod itself.

Ember of Char

The first is Ember of Char. This is a fragment that reads that your solar ignition spreads scorch to affected targets. This will cause any enemies hit by ignition, excluding the ignited enemy, to receive 40 Scorch stacks. This is exactly where Solar Fulmination starts the chain reaction. That second invisible explosion will also proc Ember of Char, meaning you’re applying 80 Scorch stacks off the rim. But as you know, that’s not enough to cause another ignition.

Ember of Ashes

This is where piece two comes in, and that is Ember of Ashes. Ashes will increase the Scorch stacks applied by both explosions to 60, and with both hitting an enemy, that means you’re getting 120 Scorch stacks. That’s more than enough to trigger an ignition. So with Ember of Char, Ember of Ashes, and Solar Fulmination, you can cause chaining ignitions.

Surviving Enemies

What’s piece number three? Well, you can’t chain explosions unless the enemies being hit by that first ignition survive it. So piece three is really just having a tanky enemy that can withstand the first ignition. This is honestly what makes this chain ignition strategy so good; it works effectively when enemies survive the initial blast.

Infinite Chain of Ignitions

We need it the most when enemies don’t die to that first explosion. If they live, the infinite chain of ignitions will ensure that they don’t escape. This combo of solar fragments with Solar Fulmination is genuinely broken. You’ll be able to take this into GMs, all types of in-game content, even Battlegrounds, and literally lay waste.

Upcoming Build

Yes, we have a beautiful build coming very soon. It’s going to take full advantage of this, requiring nothing from your Guardian except standing still and letting the ignitions proc one after another. I know most of us have been glued to Prismatic, and don’t get me wrong, I love Prismatic, but this combination is strong enough to warrant getting back on solar.

Sniper’s Meditation Mod

While Solar Fulmination may be the mod that breaks the game the most, we have our final mod called Sniper’s Meditation. This reads that sniper rifle hits grant stacking sniper rifle damage, stability, and reload bonuses for a short time. Heavy ammo sniper rifle hits count as more than one.

Activation and Benefits

This mod will activate off any type of hit and will grant one stack per hit for special snipers and two stacks per hit for heavies. For instance, snipers like Whisper and Darcy. The buff lasts for 7 seconds, with a max stack of five, so that’s five shots from specials and three from our heavies.