It seems like the tweaks being made by Bungie are helping players to finally get gear that is specific to certain activities. I recently wrote about finally getting the Ikelos shotgun which was still a farm or grind but has paid off. Now, I can add the DFA Hand Cannon to my collection after completing a Nightfall. It was interesting that I was the only person on my fireteam to get it despite us running the Nightfall to surpass the 100,000 score to get our powerful gear drop for the week. So while it seems that it is more likely to get given the higher score, it is still not a guaranteed drop.
I think the weapon is pretty good considering the buff that Hand Cannon received when Forsaken was released. However, given the amount of great weapons now available given the random rolls offered, I have found it difficult to prefer over some others. However, it is great to finally get it as part of my collection. It also incentivizes me and my team to go for the 100,000 score challenge every week for get some exclusive Nightfall drops. I guess I have to put a list together of those gear drops that are best to grind for as the opportunity seems to be now as Bungie seems to want us to go for them.
Just in case you are wondering, the DFA is the exclusive drop from the Tree of Probabilities Nightfall Strike. The higher the score, the higher probability of the drop. You can leverage the use of the Five of Cards Inventory Item to create an attractive setup via modifiers and multiplier to make it easier to achieve. My teams multiplier was a 3.5x which made it pretty easy to complete even going slightly over the 15 minutes time.
Thanks!