Red Death

"Vanguard policy urges Guardians to destroy this weapon on sight. It is a Guardian killer."

- Weapon description

"Only rumors tell of the mad Guardian who fashioned this butcher's tool. But its power is undeniable, and fear is a formidable weapon."

- Grimoire description

"This is our ‘Heavy Metal’ gun."

- Tom Doyle, Bungie Art Lead.

Red Death is an exotic pulse rifle introduced in Destiny Year One. It was formerly owned by a Guardian, until its owner was killed, presumably in battle. It was then taken by a bandit, who repainted it and modified it, among other things hacking the optics and adding new graphics. A Year Two version of Red Death is available in The Taken King.

Year One
In addition to being conventionally powerful, Red Death can restore health and increase reload speed for a short time after every kill. The Red Death can be an incredibly viable asset during the Crota's End raid as the health restoration perk of this weapon effectively negates the "Presence of Crota" debuff which halts normal health regeneration.

Trivia

 * The Red Death is constructed and reloads like an Auto Rifle yet it behaves like a Pulse Rifle and is classified as one.
 * The Crimson exotic weapon in Destiny 2 is effectively a hand cannon version of Red Death.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King