Adrenaline Junkie Explained (and Explosive Titan PVE Build)

Adrenaline Junkie was not performing as Bungie intended, so they gave it a huge buff for update 3.4.0 back in December. When you combine this with a few other elements, this now is a great perk, especially if you can combine this with Demolitionist to create very explosive builds. Today I’m going to have a look at Adrenaline Junkie in a bit more detail, then put together a Titan PVE build, which is a whole lot of fun, plus you’ll be able to take this into all levels of PVE in the game.

First, let’s have a look at Adrenaline Junkie.

Adrenaline Junkie is a legendary trait where this weapon gains increased damage and handling from grenade kills and kills with this weapon.

Here are the changes Bungie made in update 3.4.0

Kills can add single damage stacks or extend existing ones.
Grenade kills boost the stacks immediately to x5.
Lowered the duration to compensate for weapon activation

At x5 you’re getting a 33% buff to damage, although this doesn’t last very long, so you have to be quick to take advantage of it. Rather than think of it in isolation as a perk, I’m going to use this as part of a toolkit to make an explosive build.

If grenade kills immediately stack Adrenaline Junkie to x5, then ideally we want to be throwing as many grenades as possible, to have that x5 active as much as we can dishing out that 33% damage increases to our PVE opponents.

Adrenaline Junkie Titan PVE build

This build is going to use Adrenaline Junkie at the core, but also throw in a few other things like Elemental Wells, and use the subclass and exotic armour abilities to create a build with near-infinite grenades.

Exotic Armor – Ashen Wake

Bring the Heat – Fusion Grenades now explode on impact and gain increased throw speed. Final blows with Fusion Grenades grant grenade energy.

Bungie buffed Ashen Wake a while back by saying “Killing an enemy with a Fusion Grenade while wearing this exotic now refunds grenade energy. This scales with the enemy types”. You get about 33% of grenade energy back for a red bar kill, 50% for the orange bar and 100% for the yellow bar. This works well with the original perk that makes fusion grenades fastball and explode on their targets.

Subclass – Code of the Siegebreaker

I’m using a bottom-tree sun breaker here, which works great with Ashen Wake for the fusion grenades as well as working well with Solar weapons like the BxR-55 and Gjallarhorn, more on that in a minute.

Mortar Blast — Strike an enemy with this melee ability to release a Solar explosion, setting nearby enemies on fire.
Sol Invictus — Solar ability kills restore your health. Grenade, melee ability and Sun Warrior kill leave a deadly Sunspot in their wake.
Sun Warrior — Passing through a Sunspot causes your grenade and melee abilities to recharge faster and your Super to last longer. It also increases all damage you do.
Endless Siege — Hammers create a Sunspot on impact. While standing in Sunspots, you throw hammers faster.

Here I’m using Sol Invictus to create Sunspots, then passing through those are going to recharge grenades faster.

Weapons

Fractethyst

Fractethyst is a Legendary Kinetic Shotgun that deals Stasis damage plus it has a Precision Frame meaning the weapon’s recoil pattern is more predictably vertical.

For PVE Smoothbore, Assualt Mag, Ensemble, Trench Barrel would be a decent roll. SMoothbore gives you plenty more range, Assualt Mag more stability, and rounds per min. The ensemble is a new perk, which improves handling and reloads speed when allies are near and finally Trench Barrel you get increased damage, handling, and reload speed for a short duration after a melee hit.

I have one with autoloading holster and trench barrel, which is nice for PvE.

BxR-55 Battler

BxR-55 Battler with Adrenaline Junkie & Demolitionist.

Adrenaline Junkie – 5 x stack on grenade kills gives you an increase to damage.
Demolitionist – Kills with this weapon generate grenade energy.

Gjallarhorn

Gjallarhorn is an Exotic Power Rocket Launcher that fires solar damage and it comes with some pretty special perks

Wolfpack Rounds – Rounds fired split into tracking cluster missiles upon detonation.

Pack Hunter – Gain increased handling and reload speed when standing near allies. Firing this weapon also grants Wolfpack Rounds to nearby allies wielding non-Exotic Rocket Launchers.

It’s also worth getting the catalyst

More Wolves – Increases magazine size. Final blows with Wolfpack Rounds spawn a faster, more powerful missile at the target’s location. Not only do you get an extra rocket in the magazine, but also you’ll get a faster and more powerful missile at the target’s location when you trigger wolfpack rounds.

To get this one you have to own the 30th anniversary and complete the quest from Shaw Han.

Mods

Elemental Ordnance – Defeating a combatant with a grenade spawns an elemental well that matches your subclass energy type.
Font of Might – Picking up an elemental well that matches your subclass energy type grants a temporary bonus to weapon damage of that same elemental type.
Ashes to Assets – Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills. There’s also Enhanced Assets to Ashes, which boosts super energy regen even more.
Well of Ordnance – Picking up a Solar Well grants additional grenade energy.
Explosive Wellmaker – Create wells with explosions
Bomber – Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.

Let me know what you think of the build in the comments, plus let me know if you have any improvements.

That’s it for this look at Adrenaline Junkie in Destiny 2. For more Destiny 2 content like this check out This Week In Video Games on YouTube and subscribe today.