Weapon

As a first-person shooter, Destiny features numerous weapons for Guardians to use in combat. Each weapon type contains exotic variants, which are given a unique name and which have additional abilities and/or effects. Such notable "exotics" include the Fate of All Fools, Thunderlord, Closing Time, Red Death, and Gjallarhorn, along with Thorn, Pocket Infinity, and Super Good Advice. Scopes and various sights have also been seen. Each Guardian will have 3 weapon slots to be able to carry a Primary, Special, and Heavy Weapon on their person, with the potential to store and access up to 12 additional weapons of each type. The primary slot is for the weapon used most frequently, such as auto rifles, scout rifles, pulse rifles, and hand cannons. The secondary slot is for specialty weapons that are highly situational such as shotguns, fusion rifles, and sniper rifles. The third slot is for heavy weapons such as rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. Ammo for the weapons will be color coded by slot type; white for primary, green for special, and purple for heavy. Purple is the rarest ammo to find, encouraging Guardians to use heavy weapons sparingly.

Many of the weapons in Destiny carry "implied fiction," bearing details of its creator, where it came from and the sort of person who'd wield it.

Rarity of the weapon as well as armor is color coordinated into five tiers: Basic (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue) Legendary (purple), and Exotic (gold).

Certain weapons are infused with different energies - thermal damage, arc damage, and void damage.

It should be noted that while Guardians are able to switch their weapon selection at any time through the menu, this comes at the penalty of losing both special weapon ammo and/or heavy weapon ammo for the switched guns. This encourages Guardians to plan their weapon selection in advance before entering a firefight.

Special Legendary Weapons
All the Factions, the Vanguard and the Crucible have special versions of a standard weapon type, modified by their own. The special weapon is a Legendary one, named by the gunsmith who made it. It's really strong, and can be bought using Crucible or Vanguard points. For example the Crucible type of the Shingen Auto-Rifle version is the Grim Citizen III

Weapon upgrades
Weapons in Destiny are capable of being upgraded by Guardians. Each weapon has an upgrade path that allows certain capabilities and improvements to be applied to the weapon, at the cost of a certain amount of Glimmer along with a pre-determined number of weapon kits and the application of one or more talent points. Additionally, while certain weapons will have a more or less "linear" upgrade tree, some weapon trees will diverge into different "branches", allowing for certain weapons to have more specialized applications as well as making it impossible to obtain all upgrades for that particular weapon.

Auto rifles

 * Atheon's Epilogue (Raid loot)
 * Carte Blanche S.1
 * Cydonia-AR2
 * Cydonia-AR3
 * Doctor Nope (legendary)
 * Galahad-B
 * Galahad-E (Rare)
 * Hardlight (exotic)
 * Hex Caster Arc (legendary)
 * Khostov 7G-02
 * Marshal-A
 * Marshal-A1
 * Monte Carlo (exotic)
 * Sanctuary No. 2
 * Sahara-AR2
 * Sahara-AR3
 * Shadow Price (legendary)
 * Shingen-B
 * Shingen-E
 * Painted Suros CGB-47 (rare)
 * Suros ADM-40 (rare)
 * Suros Regime (exotic)
 * Unwilling Soul-09
 * Vanquisher VIII

Pulse rifles

 * Bad Juju (Exotic)
 * Bad Seed Down (Legendary)
 * PSI Umbra I
 * PSI Umbra III
 * PSI Volo II (basic)
 * Pulsar MSC
 * Pulsar MSE
 * Pulsar MSM
 * Red Death (Exotic) †
 * The Stranger's Rifle
 * Suros JSP-32
 * Trifecta S.2
 * Viper P3
 * Strange Suspect

Scout rifles

 * Acheron SR5
 * Azreal AR3
 * The Calling
 * Crusader I
 * Crypt Dweller SR1
 * Cryptic Dragon
 * Fate of All Fools (exotic)
 * Jigoku SR3
 * Mitternacht SR3
 * Monitor S11
 * Naraka SR4
 * Pompeii-LR2
 * Singularity S.3
 * Thanatos SR4 (rare)
 * Trax Callum I
 * Trax Callum II-A
 * Trax Mallus III
 * Valka SR3
 * Vision of Confluence

Hand cannons

 * Duke MK. 10
 * Duke MK. 21
 * Duke MK.44 (superior) †
 * Hawkmoon (exotic)
 * Hoss Mk. 37
 * Last Word (exotic)
 * Lord High Fixer (legendary)
 * Maverick Mk. 32
 * Mos Ardus IV
 * Mos Ganon III
 * Peccadillo's Grace
 * Rambler MK.33
 * Red Bandit Mk. 36
 * Regulator Mk. 43
 * Searcher MK. 20
 * Silvered Maverick MK.41
 * The Devil You Know (legendary)
 * Thorn (exotic)
 * Timur's Lash

Shotguns

 * The Crash (legendary)
 * Copperhead Mk. 32
 * Graviton ESC
 * Graviton ESE
 * Hide and Seek-42 (legendary)
 * Invective (exotic)
 * Judgement IV
 * Outlander Mk. 26
 * Outlander Mk. 38
 * Preacher MK.22
 * SG-Scattercast
 * Silver Dollar MK.35†
 * Suros MKB-21
 * Suros MKB-51
 * The Comedian (legendary)

Sniper rifles

 * 13098V Incognito
 * Calcutta-LR2A
 * Closing Time (exotic) †
 * Final Boss (legendary)
 * Gozen-C
 * Hieracon-LR2
 * Ice Breaker (exotic)
 * Patience and Time (exotic)
 * Pompeii-LR2
 * Saigon-LR4
 * Trajan-B

Fusion rifles

 * Conduit F3†
 * Dammerung FR5
 * Helios FR5
 * Nox Cantor II
 * Nox Fury IV
 * Nox Revus II
 * Nox Revus III
 * Plan C (exotic)
 * Pocket Infinity (exotic)
 * Prost FR2
 * SK5 Type-Null
 * Solas FR2
 * Solas FR3
 * Tengoku FR2A
 * Vex Mythoclast (exotic fusion rifle)

Machine guns

 * BTRD-345
 * The Culling (legendary)
 * Darius-B
 * Defiant Gravity-A
 * Gravesend MK.28
 * Prestige IV (legendary)
 * Red River Mk. 40
 * Sargon-B2 Slate
 * Genghis-E (rare)
 * Hannibal-E (rare)
 * Prestige IV (legendary)
 * SudaZomba-3 (rare)
 * Super Good Advice (exotic)
 * Tamerlane-C3
 * Thunderlord (exotic)†
 * The Swarm (legendary)
 * Xerxes-C

Rocket launchers

 * Breaker SA/5
 * Butcher SA/3
 * Deacon RS/2
 * Exodus RS/1 (legendary)
 * Sultan SA/5
 * Despot SA/5
 * Gjallarhorn (exotic) †
 * Jester SA/3
 * Harbinger
 * The Cure (exotic)
 * Truth (exotic)

Miscellaneous
Melee weapons and grenades fall under Guardian abilities, rather than collectible weapons.
 * Hunter's knife (Throwing knife (Gunslinger), Blink Strike (Bladedancer))
 * Warlock Melee (Scorch (Sunsinger), Energy Drain (Voidwalker))
 * Titan Melee (Storm Fist (Striker), Disintegrate (Defender))

† - Shown in the Destiny Drawing Board, and thereby subject to being changed or removed in the final game.

Fallen

 * Shock Pistol
 * Shock Dagger
 * Shock Blades
 * Shock Rifle
 * Shrapnel Launcher
 * Wire Rifle

Hive

 * Arc Rifle
 * Hive Shredder
 * Hive Boomer
 * Knight's Sword

Vex

 * Slap Rifle
 * Torch Hammer
 * Line Rifle

Cabal

 * Slug Rifle
 * Projection Rifle
 * Heavy Slug Thrower

Trivia
A "Cudgel of Xanthor" has been referred to as an example of an incredibly powerful weapon within Destiny, but does not appear in the actual game. It appears as a weapon in the novel The Cudgel of Xanthor by Jeff Green.

List of appearances

 * The Law Of The Jungle
 * Destiny