Destiny 2: Avalanche God Roll (& How to Get It)

The Dawning continues in Destiny 2 and Guardians are adding holiday bakers to their repertoire. The “Great Destiny Baking Season” is showing players that Bungie wants them to be more than slayers of Taken, Cabal, Fallen, Vex, and Scorn, but also glorified food couriers, at least until January 5, 2021 when the event concludes. However, gamers who take the opportunity to showcase their baking skills and deliver holiday snacks to their allies across the Destiny 2 universe will earn some returns on their investments.

Namely, delivering treats to vendors such as the Cryptarch, Zavala, Ikora, and the rest has a chance to reward Guardians with a fancy box called A Gift in Return, which functions as a fancy legendary engram. Fans will find this box in their inventory tab when received, and it has a chance to contain one of the event’s seasonal weapons, adding some potentially serious firepower to their arsenal. These weapons are not only deadly, but also festive, making them less intimidating… at first.

How to Get the Avalanche in Destiny 2

The Avalanche is the machine gun players can acquire during 2020’s The Dawning seasonal event. When players bake one of the Destiny 2 holiday recipes available to them and deliver the treat to the appropriate ally, they have a chance to receive A Gift in Return. This box resides in gamers’ inventory tab and functions as a legendary engram when opened.

Upon opening the box, Guardians have a chance to acquire the Avalanche machine gun. However, like the season’s Cold Front SMG and Glacioclasm fusion rifle, the Avalanche is only available as a potential drop until January 5, 2021, when The Dawning ends. So, players interested in getting their hands on the weapon – along with decent rolls – should work hard on accumulating as many A gift in Return boxes as possible to by baking a plethora of Destiny 2 recipes to maximize their chances of getting a good drop.

Avalanche PvE God Roll in Destiny 2

The Avalanche is not a top-tier machine gun by any stretch of the imagination. Its primary use in Destiny 2’s PvE content is dealing with a hoard of minor enemies and should not be a go-to weapon for dealing boss damage or taking out high value targets. However, for players who wish to collect the weapon and must have a god roll for it (either because they like the aesthetic or because they are collectors), they would do well to focus on the following perks.

For the Avalanche’s scope, SLO-21 Post is recommended. This sight increases the machine gun’s range and handling, letting players deal damage from a little further away while improving how quickly the gun can be drawn. This is important for giving them some wiggle room during encounters while improving the weapon’s availability during emergencies.

Next, High-Caliber Rounds or Extended Mag would be useful for PvE in Destiny 2. The High-Caliber Rounds trait gives players more range with which to work, improving their damage from further away. However, being a machine gun, the Avalanche can be more useful at medium-to-close ranges, making the Extended Mag trait (which increases magazine size by 30 rounds) beneficial. Either trait is useful for the coveted PvE god roll.

The primary perk on which Guardians should focus for the Avalanche’s Destiny 2 PvE god roll is Auto-Loading Holster. Upon emptying the weapon’s magazine, players can put the Avalanche away and use one of their other weapons to take out enemies while the machine gun is automatically reloaded over time. This allows fans to keep dishing out damage with their other firearms and not have any downtime going through a slow reload animation. Buffs can help reload speed, but reloading becomes unnecessary with Auto-Loading Holster.

Finally, gamers will want Swashbuckler for the weapon’s final perk. Vorpal Weapon could have been a good choice if the Avalanche were worth using against bosses, but the machine gun’s overall damage output is subpar compared to other machine gun options, such as Xenophage or Commemoration. Thus, the Avalanche’s best use is clearing adds, making Swashbuckler far more useful, as it gives players stacks of a damage buff (up to five stacks), all of which can be accumulated immediately with a single melee kill.

In a nutshell, Destiny 2’s Avalanche PvE god roll looks like this:

Scope: SLO-21 Post
Ammunition/Magazine: High-Caliber Rounds or Extended Mag
Primary Perk: Auto-Loading Holster
Secondary Perk: Swashbuckler

Avalanche PvP God Roll in Destiny 2

PvP has a different priority system in Destiny 2 than PvE. Often, range is preferential to handling, stability, or even reload speed, though, the latter is extraordinarily useful. The further away Guardians can do damage, the higher their chances of surviving a confrontation. While the Avalanche is not the first choice gamers should consider for the Crucible, it is not useless.

For the scope, Guardians should aim to get the SPO-57 Front, which increases range and zoom while decreasing handling. The range this scope offers is the primary motivator for aiming for this sight, as it gives Guardians a bit of an edge in PvP by letting them do damage from further away. The increased zoom power is also helpful to make target acquisition a bit easier at that increased distanced. The reduced handling, however, is negligible in PvP.

The Avalanche’s second PvP trait should be High-Caliber Rounds. Again, this trait increases the weapon’s range, combining with the SPO-57 Front scope to turn the machine gun into a hard-hitting designated marksman rifle. While this will not make the weapon as useful at long ranges as a sniper rifle, it will make it decent at medium range.

The primary perk players will want for the Avalanche in the Crucible is Dynamic Sway Reduction. This lets players improve accuracy and stability when they fire the Avalanche continuously (holding down the trigger). While this is less useful on PC given the advantages of using a keyboard and mouse, it is much more beneficial for console players. That does not make it irrelevant for PC users, however.

Lastly, gamers will want High-Impact Reserves for the gun’s final perk. This roll is one of the most difficult to get for the Avalanche, but it is worth it once obtained. The High-Impact Reserves perk makes rounds at the end of the magazine deal more damage, which is crucial in PvP content. Given the low amount of heavy ammo available in the Crucible, players will almost always be at the end of their magazine with the Avalanche. Thus, High-Impact Reserves guarantees some brutal hits.

Together, the Avalanche’s Destiny 2 PvP god roll looks like this: