Pestilence

title: "Pestilence" description: "Exotic LMG that spreads the Plague debuff — solo Legendary viable AoE support weapon for Hunter's Fury and Eclipse Protocol." slug: pestilence weaponType: LMG rarity: Exotic baseDamage: 31000 rpm: 600 magazine: 100 reload: 4.46 headshotMultiplier: 1.65 lastReviewed: "2026-04-25" patch: "TU22.1"

At a Glance

Pestilence is the Exotic that turns a single bullet into a contagion. On paper it looks like a slow LMG with mediocre per-bullet damage. In practice, every shot has a 30% chance to apply the Plague debuff to its target, and any plagued enemy takes +30% damage from all sources. When a plagued enemy dies, the disease spreads to nearby targets — chaining through entire rooms. The talent rewards sustained fire over a 100-round magazine, which is exactly what the gun is built for.

This is the premier solo-and-support LMG in TU22.1. It does not have raw bullet DPS like St. Elmo or Strega, but it amplifies every other source of damage in your kit and your group. Run it with status-effect builds and you become the reason red bars cannot stand up. Run it with skill builds and your turret damage suddenly hits +30% harder on every target you have already coughed on.

If "death by a thousand cuts" sounds appealing, Pestilence is your weapon.

Stats

Handling Profile

Pestilence is an LMG and it handles like one. Recoil is moderate and predictable, the 100-round magazine gives you nearly ten seconds of sustained fire before reload, and the 4.46-second reload time is the worst of any Exotic in the game by a wide margin. You do not reload Pestilence between fights so much as you reload it between zones — every reload is a commitment, and Plague application benefits from staying on target without breaks.

The 600 RPM cadence is the textbook LMG feel. It is slower than every Exotic AR, but the 100-round magazine and the per-bullet plague proc chance more than make up for the lower fire rate. With an average 30% application chance, you will land plague on a target within the first 3–5 rounds of trigger contact. By the 10th round, plague is essentially guaranteed.

Damage Floor and Ceiling

At gear score 60 with a 4-piece Hunter's Fury status build, the per-bullet damage on a non-plagued target sits around 130k–145k. Once the plague debuff is applied and the +30% from-all-sources amplifier kicks in, that number jumps to 170k–190k per bullet — and every other source of damage in your kit (grenades, drone, turret, teammates, even reflective shield damage) gains the same +30%. Sustained bullet DPS is approximately 3–4M, but the effective contribution of a Pestilence player is much higher because of the amplifier on the rest of the kit.

In group play with 3 teammates contributing damage to plagued targets, Pestilence's effective DPS contribution often exceeds 10M when you count the amplification provided to the team.

Talent — Plague of the Outcasts

Hits have a 30% chance to apply the Plague debuff. Plagued enemies take +30% damage from all sources. When a plagued enemy dies, the Plague spreads to nearby enemies.

Plague is one of the most generous Exotic talents in the entire game. There is no resource to manage, no cooldown to track, no stack to maintain. You shoot, plague applies, plague spreads on death. The whole loop is automated.

How to use it correctly

The play pattern is simple. Open every engagement by hosing the largest target you can see — usually the elite or named at the back of the pack. Keep the trigger held until plague applies, then keep firing to maintain sustained damage while plague does its work on every other source in your kit. When the plagued target dies, plague spreads to nearby enemies, who in turn become amplified for further plague applications.

In practice, this creates a rolling AoE cascade. By round two of any encounter, every enemy on the field is plagued, and every grenade, every drone tick, every teammate's bullet is hitting +30% harder than it would have. The gun acts as a force multiplier rather than a primary damage source.

What breaks the rotation

• Plague does not stack — a target either has it or does not
• Plague spread radius is approximately 8 meters, which means widely-separated enemies do not chain
• Some named enemies and bosses are immune to status effects entirely (these still take +30% on direct application but do not spread on death)
• Reload mid-fight loses precious seconds during which plague applications cannot be made

Top Builds

Pestilence × Hunter's Fury (status build)

The classic Pestilence build: status effects everywhere, plague spreading constantly, AoE chains carrying entire rooms.

• Brand: 4-piece Hunter's Fury
• Chest: Hunter's Fury chest with status effect attribute
• Backpack: Hunter's Fury backpack with In Sync or Spotter
• Specialization: Survivalist (status effects + crossbow)
• Skills: Stinger Hive (bleed) + Riot Foam Chem Launcher (ensnare)
• Attributes: status effect, hazard protection, weapon damage
• Stat priority: WD > status effect > armor regen

This is the survivor build. With Stinger Hive bleeding everything and plague amplifying everything, you can solo Heroic patrols indefinitely without taking serious damage. The kill loop is: shoot, plague, plague spreads, hive bleeds, riot foam ensnares, repeat. It is also the best Pestilence variant for solo Legendary content because plague turns every other source of damage in your kit into a primary source.

Pestilence × Eclipse Protocol

A pure poison-status build that turns Pestilence into a chemical warfare engine.

• Brand: 4-piece Eclipse Protocol
• Chest: Eclipse chest, Glass Cannon or Vigilance backpack
• Specialization: Technician (skill tier max)
• Skills: Firestarter Chem Launcher (poison) + Fixer Drone or Striker Drone
• Attributes: skill tier, status effect, weapon damage
• Stat priority: skill tier > status effect > WD

Eclipse Protocol amplifies poison damage and Firestarter Chem Launcher applies poison in a wide cone. Combined with Pestilence's plague, you get two stacking debuffs on every enemy: poison ticking direct damage, plague amplifying everything. This build is more group-oriented than the Hunter's Fury variant but has higher overall team damage contribution.

PvE Performance

Pestilence is one of the best solo Legendary weapons in the game right now and a top-tier group support pick. In TU22.1 the plague spread radius was buffed slightly, making chains more reliable in open environments, and the +30% amplifier remained untouched.

Where it dominates

• Solo Legendary missions (huge survivability through status uptime)
• Group Heroic content (massive team damage amplification)
• Dark Zone PvE clear (sustained mag, AoE spread)
• Underground operations on Heroic+
• Long encounters with multiple enemy waves

Where it struggles

• Speedrun content (slow reload eats too much time)
• Pure boss DPS phases (plague does not stack, single target)
• Mobile cover-to-cover playstyles (LMG handling penalizes movement)
• Ranged sniper-style engagements past 60m

PvP Performance

Pestilence is a niche pick in PvP. The plague debuff applies to other players normally, and a group of three teammates focusing a plagued target deletes that target faster than they would any non-plagued enemy. In coordinated 4v4 Conflict, a Pestilence player who does nothing but apply plague to priority targets is a legitimate strategy. In solo PvP and DZ duels, the long reload and slow movement penalties make Pestilence a poor first-line weapon. Most PvP players run Pestilence as a secondary, swapping to it after the opening engagement to amplify finishing damage.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Massive team damage amplification (+30% from all sources)
• 100-round magazine for sustained engagement
• Plague spreads automatically on death
• Excellent solo Legendary survivability
• Pairs with virtually every offensive build

Cons

• 4.46s reload is the worst in the Exotic class
• Per-bullet damage is mediocre on its own
• Plague does not stack
• Slow LMG handling penalizes mobility
• Less effective against status-immune named enemies

Comparison

Pestilence is the only weapon in this comparison whose value is largely off-screen — the +30% amplifier benefits everything that is not Pestilence. In a pure damage chart it looks unimpressive; in a team contribution chart it dominates.

FAQ

Does plague apply to bosses and named enemies?

It applies to most named enemies, but some Black Tusk and Hyena bosses are flagged as status-immune and will not show the plague debuff. The +30% amplifier from a direct application still applies on those targets in most cases, but they do not spread plague on death. Always check by looking for the green plague icon above the health bar.

Does the +30% amplifier benefit my own grenades and skills?

Yes. The amplifier is "+30% from all sources," which includes grenades, all skill damage, melee, and any DoT effects you have applied. This is why Pestilence is so disgusting paired with Eclipse Protocol or Stinger Hive builds.

Does plague spread radius scale with anything?

No. The spread radius is fixed at approximately 8 meters and does not scale with status effect attribute, skill tier, or any other stat. Position your kills accordingly — try to kill plagued enemies in the middle of enemy clusters, not at the edge.

Can two Pestilence users in a group double the +30%?

No. Plague does not stack. A target either has the debuff or does not. Two Pestilences in a group is wasted — one is enough to keep the entire field plagued. Run different Exotics on the second player.

What attributes should I prioritize on Pestilence itself?

Weapon Damage and Critical Hit Chance are the standard. Magazine size is irrelevant — 100 rounds is already enough. Status Effect attribute on gear (not on the weapon) does not affect plague application chance, but it does affect other status effects you stack on top.

Is Pestilence worth the long reload?

In group content yes, because the +30% amplifier pays for itself immediately. In speedrun content no — the reload eats too much of your active fire window. For most players, the answer is to run Pestilence in their PvE rotation but swap to a faster Exotic for time-trial content.

Did Pestilence get changed in TU22.1?

The plague spread radius was increased from approximately 6m to approximately 8m, and the visual indicator for plagued enemies was made clearer. Damage values and proc rate were not changed.

Closing

Pestilence is the support weapon that pretends to be a damage weapon. Pick it up if you play group content regularly, if you want to solo Legendary without dying every twenty seconds, or if you have ever been frustrated that your skills hit "softer" than your bullets. Pair it with Hunter's Fury for the survivor archetype, or Eclipse Protocol for the chemical-warfare archetype, and watch entire rooms melt to debuff stacking.

Last reviewed: 2026-04-25 · TU22.1 · Verified vs in-game