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 four 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.

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, it has been revealed that 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

 * Arcus Regime†
 * Carte Blanche S.1
 * Cydonia-AR2
 * Doctor Nope
 * Galahad-B
 * Galahad-E
 * Hardlight (exotic)
 * Khostov 7G-02
 * Marshal-A
 * Marshal-A1
 * Monte Carlo (exotic)
 * Sanctuary No. 2
 * Sahara-AR2
 * Sahara-AR3
 * Shingen - B
 * Suros ADM-40 (rare)
 * Suros Regime(exotic)
 * Unwilling Soul-09
 * Vanquisher VIII

Pulse rifles

 * Bad Juju (exotic)
 * PSI Umbra I
 * PSI Umbra III
 * PSI Volo II (basic)
 * Pulsar MSC
 * Pulsar MSE
 * Pulsar MSM
 * Red Death (exotic) †
 * Suros JSP-32
 * Trifecta S.2
 * Viper P3

Scout rifles

 * Acheron SR5
 * Azreal AR3
 * The Calling
 * Crusader I
 * Crypt Dweller SR1
 * 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

Hand cannons

 * Duke MK. 10
 * Duke MK. 21
 * Duke MK.44 (superior) †
 * Hawkmoon (exotic)
 * Hoss Mk. 37
 * The Last Word
 * 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
 * Thorn (exotic)
 * Timur's Lash

Shotguns

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

Sniper rifles

 * 13098V Incognito
 * Calcutta-LR2A
 * Closing Time (exotic) †
 * Gozen-C
 * Hieracon-LR2
 * 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
 * Pocket Infinity (exotic)
 * Prost FR2
 * SK5 Type-Null
 * Solas FR2
 * Solas FR3
 * Tengoku FR2A

Machineguns

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

Rail guns

 * TBA

Rocket launchers

 * Breaker SA/5
 * Butcher SA/3
 * Deacon RS/2
 * Despot SA/5
 * Gjallarhorn (exotic) †
 * Jester SA/3
 * Harbinger
 * Sultan SA/5

Miscellaneous
Melee weapons and grenades fall under Guardian abilities, rather than collectible weapons.

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

Fallen

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

Hive

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

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