Fighting Lion

Fighting Lion is an exotic Grenade Launcher in Destiny 2. It was designed by Wei Ning.

Lore
'''"I call it the Zhang Fei. It hits almost as hard as I do." —Wei Ning'''

Wei Ning punched the mountain. It moved. A microscopic shudder, but enough to make her punch it again. “They're just angry that you keep winning without a gun.” Her Ghost danced fretfully around her fist. “That's why they say these things. Jealousy.”

“I tell you,” Ning grunted, shattering granite, “someday they'll lose their smart guns and fancy ships, and then they'll wish they'd listened! There's one weapon you can always count on, and it's your strong hand.”

“Eriana would be sad to hear you dismissing machines.” Her Ghost bobbed slyly up to her shoulder. “Eriana would ask if those mighty hands could build a machine in the image of your strength. Just like she was made in the image of a woman.”

Wei Ning tapped her fists together. “Huh,” she said.

Gameplay
Fighting Lion's most noteworthy trait is that, unlike all other Energy-slot grenade launchers, it uses Primary ammo instead of Special; given that weapons that fire Primary ammo in Destiny 2 have bottomless reserves, this gives Fighting Lion infinite ammo. To balance this out, the weapon has an extremely slow reload speed, which, due to the weapon's break-action nature, gives it a very low effective rate of fire. This delegates Fighting Lion to a backup weapon role, unless armor mods are used to compensate for these flaws. However, the weapon also has in-built mechanics to counteract this slow reload speed; hitting multiple enemies with a single grenade will increase the speed of the next reload, while killing multiple enemies with a single grenade or hitting a target previously damaged by one will instead reload the weapon instantly. Additionally, gaining the weapon's catalyst will boost its base reload speed to far more tolerable levels, in addition to granting it an additional perk, "Chimera", which briefly boosts the handling and accuracy of your other weapons after firing Fighting Lion; this effect further reinforces Fighting Lion as a secondary weapon, with its intended use being to fire the opening shot of a firefight, and then to finish it with your Kinetic or Power weapon.

In addition to the above, Fighting Lion's grenades deal increased damage to elemental energy shields. Opponents with Void shields will rarely withstand even one shot from Fighting Lion, while those with Solar or Arc shields still succumb quickly. This weapon can even be a viable choice in activities where Match Game is on thanks to this bonus damage, though other exotics such as Hard Light or Arbalest are better-suited for the task.

Otherwise, Fighting Lion functions much the same as any other "Special Grenade Launcher", being a single-shot, break-action weapon that fires bouncing grenades from a two-step trigger. Grenades are shot by holding the trigger, then detonated midair by releasing it; alternatively, they will explode on direct impact with an enemy. It serves the same purpose of a normal one, with its uptime limited by its reload speed instead of its ammunition capacity.

Fighting Lion's usage of Primary ammo instead of Special ammo means that it can be used much more liberally in the Crucible. However, keep in mind the weapon's damage is too low to kill a target in a single direct hit from full health; Fighting Lion is best used for softening up targets (or groups of targets) from a distance, or finishing off a wounded opponent from around a corner.

Weapon Mods
Jade Countenance - Equip this Weapon Ornament to change the appearance of Fighting Lion.

Fighting Lion - Equip this Weapon Ornament to change the appearance of Fighting Lion.

Weapon Perks
Delayed Gratification - Grenade projectiles will bounce off surfaces. Hold to fire, and release to detonate.

Countermass - This weapon is weighted for vertical recoil.

Implosion Rounds - This weapon's projectiles travel faster and have a controlled explosion.

Thin the Herd - Direct hits do more damage to enemy combatant shields. Rapid kills against grenade-damaged enemies refill the magazine. Kills always drop Primary ammo.

Short-action Stock - This weapon is especially easy to grip.

Catalyst
Upgrades this weapon to a Masterwork. It will generate Orbs on multikills and gains a tracker that displays the number of combatants defeated with it. The Masterworked weapon will also receive additional capabilities.
 * Chimera: After this weapon fires, equipped Kinetic and Power weapons gain a brief period of increased handling and accuracy.

Trivia

 * During Season 1, Fighting Lion was considered by the community to be the worst exotic weapon in the series due to its exotic perk having very limited use, until it’s mechanics were revised in Season 2's DLC, Curse of Osiris. Ironically, years later, the weapon would instead be briefly seen as overpowered instead of underpowered during Season 14, albeit exclusively in the Crucible, leading to the weapon gaining its infamously slow reload speed in Season 15.
 * Before Season 15 gave all Primary-ammo-firing weapons infinite reserve ammo, one of Fighting Lion's exotic perks caused enemies killed by its grenades to always drop bricks of Primary ammo. When the change was made, this effect was removed due to being redundant.
 * The quote associated with this weapon could possibly be a reference to famous Chinese folklore about the war of the three kingdoms. In the quote Wei Ning calls the weapon "Zhang Fei", the name of one of the founding leaders and most brutish generals of the faction led by Liu Bei in the tale of the three kingdoms. This reference would make sense considering the weapon's link to Asian culture and the fact Zhang Fei was known as a brutish, unintelligent but strong fighter.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2