As part of its month-long coverage of Destiny 2’s upcoming Forsaken expansion, Game Informer has now unveiled one of the new Exotic weapons that will be included among the expansion’s other features: a DIY-style auto rifle called Cerberus +1.
Within the lore of Destiny 2, the Cerberus +1 was created by an NPC Guardian named Jeza “Jeopardy” Verlayn. After Jeza crash-landed onto the Tangled Shore (the same region that players will get to explore as part of Forsaken’s new story campaign), she was forced to quickly cobble together a weapon using scrap and parts she was able to scrounge up. As fans of Greek Mythology know, Cerberus refers to the three-headed dog who serves as the guardian of the underworld, but since Jeza’s weapon sports a total of four barrels, giving it the title of Cerberus +1 seemed appropriate.
Cerberus +1 is powered by a mysterious artifact called the Photonic Heart, and that enables it to fire all four of its barrels at once. Eagle-eyed players can even spot some familiar parts that make up the whole of the new weapon, as Bungie senior sandbox designer Greg Peng explains:
“There’s some Origin Story in there, some of it is Khvostov-inspired, there’s a bunch of various guns.”
In terms of performance, Cerberus +1 will naturally function best at shorter ranges where its four concurrent bullet streams can quickly annihilate any unfortunate mobs (or players), but it will also function surprisingly well at range too thanks to its unique Spread Shot Package perk that tightens the spread when the player is aiming down the sights. Players will also be able to customize the weapon to their liking thanks to a perk loadout which includes Full Bore (increase range at the cost of handling speed and stability), Fluted Barrel (increases stability while aiming), and Rifled Barrel (increases range but also takes more time to reload).
Along with adding in the new Cerberus +1 weapon, Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion will tweak the refresh rates for certain weekly activities, a move which will hopefully inspire players to visit the game more often.