When I spoke to Arc Raiders design director Virgil Watkins, we briefly discussed the possibility of developer Embark adding legendary weapons specifically designed for PvP. Watkins said he's open to the idea, though he'd want to be cautious about the power level of such a gun. Well, thanks to the Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky update, we now know that Embark had "intended" for the famously weak Aphelion to be a PvP gun this whole time, but it was so extraordinarily cautious on balancing that nobody even noticed.
The latest Arc Raiders patch notes are full of weapon changes, including nerfs to the Venator, Kettle, and Stitcher, but the most surprising bit is hidden right at the end of the list. The Jupiter has gotten a minor zoom and equip time change to make it less unwieldy, in part to make it more usable in PvP situations, but the Aphelion has been hugely buffed specifically to juice it up in PvP. I have genuinely never seen an Aphelion used in PvP in over 300 hours, not in person or in clips online, so if it was secretly underrated, that secret was buried six feet under.
