Linear Fusion Rifle

"One charge, one bolt, lotta destruction. Most of 'em have pretty good kick, too. Don't break your face."

- Banshee-44

Linear fusion rifles are a high-powered branch of Fusion rifles that fire a single, precise beam of energy across a long distance, rather than a mid-range burst of multiple bolts, making them more similar to Sniper rifles. They are classified as Power/Heavy weapons, and can be infused with both other linear fusion rifles or regular fusion rifles. Kills made by linear fusion rifles may even count as progress for certain quest steps or missions that require defeating enemies with fusion rifles.

The concept of a sniper-fusion rifle hybrid may interest some players because of the skills involved to make them viable; the fusion rifle-half means there is a charge rate and bullet travel time, two mechanics snipers don't have to deal with. Fusions have an effective range; the farther the wielder is from his/her target, the less damage the projectiles will be able to inflict and the harder it will be to hit said target if it is moving about. In contrast, sniper rounds travel the distance instantaneously and will always deliver the same damage amount regardless of distance travelled (assuming no lag). They do not share the same precision damage multiplier, so linear fusions will always fall short in raw precision damage to snipers. On the other hand, linear fusions tend to have better utility with faster handling, reload times, and rates-of-fire. They are reasonably accurate when hip-firing (though nowhere near that of regular fusions), and they don't suffer from severe aim flinching while under fire. Hip-fire accuracy is something that is non-existent for sniper rifles.

Rare

 * King Cobra-4fr

Legendary

 * Man o' War
 * Tarantula
 * Crooked Fang-4fr -
 * Dead-Ender -
 * Komodo-4FR -
 * Line in the Sand -

Exotic

 * Sleeper Simulant -

Exotic

 * One Thousand Voices - Acquired from the Last Wish raid.
 * The Queenbreaker - Acquired from bounties given by The Spider.
 * Arbalest - Acquired from Exotic Engrams.

Trivia

 * The entire classification is an extrapolation of the Sleeper Simulant introduced in The Taken King, a unique fusion rifle that was classified as a Heavy weapon and also fired a single, long range shot.
 * This is semi-confirmed by the return of Sleeper Simulant in the Warmind DLC, which has been re-classified as a Linear fusion rifle in Destiny 2.
 * Another similarity is to that of the Queenbreakers' Bow, an exotic fusion rifle introduced in House of Wolves that was the first weapon to be commonly described as a "fusion-sniper hybrid". It also fired a single bolt across long distances, albeit with a scope instead of the reticle that accompanies linear fusion rifles.
 * The Arbalest is currently the only linear fusion rifle that is not equipped in the heavy slot; rather, it is in the primary slot and inflicts Kinetic damage.
 * The operation of a Linear fusion rifle mimics that of the Spartan Laser, a heavy weapon found in Bungie's Halo series.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2