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Before it was a rocket launcher with target tracking and devastating cluster rounds, Gjallarhorn - from the Old Norse "yelling horn" - was the instrument sounded by the herald god, Heimdall, to signal Ragnorok. The noise of Gjallarhorn, in other words, meant the end of the world - which, in a way, is just as true of its deadly, wolf-headed descendant in Destiny, a gun which proved so powerful it called down an armageddon on itself.It's hard to remember exactly when Gjallarhorn became the essential destructive accessory in Bungie's RPG-ing online shooter. As players hit the level cap and explored the endgame and metagame beyond, exotic weapons were earned and upgraded, perks were tried and tiered, and certain guns and gear - outliers and exceptions within Destiny's carefully balanced economy of violence - became highly prized.
Gjallarhorn was the top prize. A combination of functionality perks and brute-force damage-dealing made it a monster. A fully-levelled Gjallarhorn fired rockets that homed in on their targets, then exploded on impact and released a devastating secondary wave of Wolfpack rounds that also homed. It was beautiful to watch, and always made me think of the Japanese word for fireworks - hana-bi, literally "fire flower" - with its twinkling incendiary packets pluming away before arcing murderously back onto their victim. It also held two rounds in the clip and, as a consequence, delivered precise and overwhelming damage to anything players decided to point it at in a very condensed pocket of time. It was bullying, and extravagant. And it was so good.
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