'Destiny 2' Guide: Hidden Aim Assist Stat Explained

New “Destiny 2” players may have noticed that some mods, perks or abilities refer to something called “target acquisition” or “accuracy” despite neither of these stats appearing anywhere in the game. These two actually improve a hidden aim assist stat the all players enjoy regardless of their preferred control input device.

In “Destiny 2,” aim assist actively helps players land their shots more often. For controller users, this hidden stat is easily felt in the form of aim stickiness, where the player’s camera movement would slow down and slightly track targets whenever the crosshairs are near an enemy.

However, there’s more to aim assist than this traditional method. Here’s a brief and simplified explanation of how this stat works, courtesy of u/Mercules904 from the r/DestinyTheGame subreddit.

How does aim assist work in “Destiny 2”?

Apart from the increased reticle friction for controller users, the main benefit of the aim assist stat is how much it can make bullets bend toward a target. Players on all platforms experience this effect as it is built into the game itself.

Higher aim assist values mean that players will still hit targets even if the center of their reticles are slightly off-target, as the game basically adjusts their shots for them. Shots that would normally fly past an opponent will swerve toward them, while bullets that would hit an enemy’s neck or upper chest will normally curve upward to hit their head instead.

What affects aim assist?

The effectiveness of the bullet bending effect is determined by the following factors:

• Base weapon stats
• Range and zoom
• Weapon accuracy bloom

All weapons have different base aim assist stats, which can be increased by adding mods like Targeting Adjuster or weapon-specific targeting mods.

Additionally, aim assist is affected by how far away players are from their targets. Bullets will not bend toward targets outside of this effective aim assist range (typically determined by a weapon’s range stat) and will instead fire normally. Higher zoom levels will boost a weapon’s effective range, thus boosting aim assist values.

Lastly, as players continue to fire their weapons, the effect of aim assist will gradually decrease. This effect is referred to as “accuracy blooming,” and players can best see this happen whenever they fire a fully-automatic weapon without letting go of the trigger.

Gameplay Tips

Aim assist values differ depending on what weapon and input device is being used. For example, the Last Word hand cannon is much stronger in the hands of a console player simply because of how much aim assistance the weapon has for controllers.

To maximize the benefit of aim assist, players should try to keep their engagement distances within their weapons’ range stat.