Summary
- Armor Charge mods in Destiny 2 are essential for optimizing builds and gaining powerful benefits like improved ability cooldowns and increased weapon damage.
- There are various ways to generate Armor Charges, including breaking shields, collecting orbs, getting finisher kills, and using specific mods.
- Different types of Armor Charge mods, such as Kickstart, Font, Surge, and Finisher mods, provide different benefits like immediate ability energy, stat increases, damage boosts, and special abilities upon scoring finisher kills.
After the Lightfall expansion was released, most of the existing armor mods In Destiny 2 were removed, so Armor Charge mods quickly emerged as the uncontested meta. Understanding how these mods work can be incredibly useful for players looking to optimize their builds in Destiny 2.
After reaching Guardian Rank 5 in Destiny 2, players will gain access to Armor Charge mods. These mods allow players to gain stackable buffs, like improved ability cooldowns, increased weapon damage, extra utilities when getting Finisher kills, and other powerful benefits.
How to Generate and Maintain Armor Charges in Destiny 2
As long as players have a mod equipped that will put Armor Charges to use, collecting an Orb of Power will always grant an Armor Charge. Sometimes the Seasonal Artifact Perks can give players new ways to generate Armor Charges as well. Additional ways to generate Armor Charges require specific mods, and these include:
- Breaking an Elemental shield with a matching damage type
- When nearby teammates collect Orbs of Power
- When nearby teammates cast their Super
- Getting a Finisher kill
- Collecting Ionic Traces, Firesprites, Void Breeches, Stasis Shards, or destroying Strand Tangles
Some Armor Charges will last until the player consumes them or dies, although certain mods will make Armor Charges decay over time. Temporary Armor Charges only last eight seconds, but the Time Dilation mod can extend the duration to 15, 18, or 20 seconds depending on how many mod copies are equipped. Armor Charges will only decay one at a time, and the timer will reset for each consecutive charge that decays. There is also a stackable mod that increases the maximum amount of Armor Charges players can have, which potentially boosts their length as well as their potency.
Kickstart and Font Armor Charge Mod Builds
Stat and ability improvement Armor Charge mods generally fit into two categories: Kickstart or Font mods. The special exception is the Emergency Reinforcement mod that gives players a period of increased damage resistance when their shield breaks. Kickstart mods will consume Armor Charges to immediately return ability energy after using a grenade, melee, or class ability. These are great for use in Destiny 2’s PvP since Kickstart mods won’t make Armor Charges decay, which means that players can store and use them strategically.
The Font Armor Charge mods provide players with increases to any of their character stats, which generally means faster ability and Super cooldowns, but it also includes Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery. Unlike Kickstart mods, Font mods are temporary and will make Armor charges decay over time. Font Armor Charge mods will grant around 30, 50, or 60 total points to any particular stat depending on how many mods are stacked. The trick to optimally using Font mods is to equip them for stats that aren’t already at 100 since anything past this threshold will have no use. Compared to Kickstart mods, Font mods are generally the better choice for regenerating abilities when players have multiple uses of a particular ability.
Surge Armor Charge Mod Builds
Surge Armor Charge mods boost the damage of each of the Light and Darkness Element types as well as Kinetic damage. All Surge mods are temporary Armor Charge mods. Players can stack or mix any combination of up to three Surge mods, and the damage boost provided is either 10%, 17%, or 22% depending on how many duplicate mods are equipped. These mods can make a huge difference in endgame content, especially high-difficulty Nightfalls and Raids in Destiny 2.
Finisher Armor Charge Mod Builds
Another playstyle in Destiny 2 that uses Armor Charges is the Finisher mod builds. Upon scoring a Finisher kill, these mods can provide:
- Ability energy
- Overshields
- Health regeneration
- Full reload for all weapons
- Orbs of Power
- Special ammo for the whole team
Finisher mods are permanent Armor Charge mods and although duplicate mods won’t stack, their low mod cost makes them easy to add to existing Armor Charge builds depending on the player’s needs.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.