History of Heavy Metal (perk)

Heavy Metal is a Season 20 intrinsic trait that transforms every fourth bullet into a heavy projectile. It is the core mechanic of Deterministic Chaos, an Exotic machine gun.

How It Works

While holding the trigger, every fourth bullet automatically becomes a heavy projectile that applies weakness on impact. To activate the effect, you must maintain fire continuously; firing in short bursts will not generate the heavy projectiles reliably. This is a holdover from the weapon's intrinsic design that rewards sustained fire over tap-fire play.

The trait effectively converts 25% of your bullets into enhanced projectiles, making sustained fire significantly more powerful than intermittent bursts.

Deterministic Chaos

Heavy Metal appears as the intrinsic perk on Deterministic Chaos, an Exotic 720 RPM machine gun introduced in Season 20. The weapon also comes with an additional trait called Vexadecimal, which causes every fourth heavy projectile to also apply the vulnerable status, amplifying damage further against affected targets.

Deterministic Chaos is obtained by completing the "What Remains" exotic quest, which grants the weapon through quest completion.

Acquisition

Since Heavy Metal is an intrinsic perk locked to Deterministic Chaos, it cannot be obtained independently. To use this trait, you must acquire and equip the exotic machine gun from the quest.

Comparison with Weakness vs. Vulnerable

The perk applies weakness, which increases damage taken by enemies. The Vexadecimal trait that works in conjunction with Heavy Metal on Deterministic Chaos upgrades this effect to vulnerable status on heavy projectiles, providing even greater damage amplification.