Is The New Nerf Desolator A Good Stryfe Replacement?
Or is the Desolator doomed to roam the land with no impact on the Nerf zone whatsoever?

Hey, guys! This is Blee from NerfGunAttachments Bleenga.com. Here today, we will be doing a full review, including an unboxing and firing test, of the new Nerf Doomlands Impact Zone Desolator. That’s a cool name and all, but I’m going to just stick to calling it the Nerf Desolator.

The Nerf Desolator Review.:

The Desolator is a semi-automatic flywheel blaster, just like the old Nerf Elite Stryfe. They operate the same exact way and off of the same power source, too (4 x 1.5v AA alkaline batteries). But the aesthetics of the two Nerf blasters are wildly different. They are both fairly compact, although the Desolator has an integrated shoulder stock and no barrel attachment nozzle. But, enough of me babbling about it here, I’ll do a separate article comparing the two blasters directly soon, so stay tuned!

Impact-ful Aesthetics

The Nerf Desolator is a pretty rad looking Nerf blaster. The Impact Zone lineup is a subseries of the Nerf Doomlands line of blasters and its aesthetics couldn’t be more different. Sporting a clean “sci-fi white,” the Desolator stands out from the deep orangish-yellow of the rest of the Doomland blasters, like the Nerf Double Dealer.

Desolator Features

Starting at the front of the blaster, we’ll go over the muzzle area. That’s the tip of the barrel, where the darts come out when you pull the trigger. There is no N-Strike attachment nozzle. You cannot attach any kind of barrel to this thing, whatsoever. No tacti-coolness up front, save for a sling mount under the muzzle.

Moving back from that, there’s a small tactical rail up top. On the right side of the blaster, there’s a transparent-orange windowed area where you can see the internals of the blaster as it functions. On the opposite side, though? There’s only hard opaque orange plastic, which is disappointing.

Right below that is your mag and your mag-well. The Nerf Desolator comes with a custom 10 round banana style magazine.

Behind that, you have your trigger assembly area. You’ll find the trigger here inside the trigger guard as well as the acceleration trigger and mag release button underneath that. The pistol grip is a nice good size and it’s comfortable for all hand sizes. Underneath that is the second sling mount.

For the back portion of the blaster, you’ll find the integrated thumbhole shoulder stock. The thumbhole area is large and unrestrictive, which is a plus. On top, there’s a fairly large Nerf tacti-cool rail.

Nerf Desolator Ergonomics

The hand rest area towards the front of the blaster is quite comfortable. Nice, comfortable, smooth, and very intuitive, along with pushing your shoulder into the blaster. Resting your hand here also helps with quicker mag removal. You can slide your hand down straight onto the mag to swap out mags when you’re empty. Very smooth.

How-To Operate the Nerf Desolator

Operating the blaster is simple, just like any flywheel blaster before it. It has an acceleration or “rev” trigger below the main firing trigger, and you hold that down to power up the flywheels. Next, while still holding down the acceleration trigger, just pull the trigger whenever you want to shoot a dart. Each trigger pull shoots another dart. Semi-auto.

So let’s load this up with darts and batteries. Because if you don’t have batteries, none of that is going to work. The battery compartment is on the side of the shoulder stock. This location helps keep the blaster slim and it adds a good weight distribution and balance to the Nerf Desolator.

Unscrew the battery compartment and add your 4 AA batteries. Load up your mag with the 10 included white and black Impact Zone Elite Darts. Now that you’re locked and loaded, you should hear the signature purr of a flywheel blaster. Hold down the acceleration trigger to hear that sweet sound. Yeah, baby!

Nerf Desolator Performance

I ran a bunch of darts through the Desolator, mostly reusing the included 10 dart banana mag. You can see a snippet from my firing test in the video up above, starting at the 4:03 minute mark. I didn’t encounter any jams, although at one point in the video you can see a dart actually get stuck up above where the mag feeds in and the pusher couldn’t reach it to push it into the flywheels. That problem was easily cleared though.

The Bottom Line: Desolator Conclusions

Alright, that’s about it, guys. So what do I think about the Nerf Desolator? I like it, I like it a lot. The whole blaster is super thin and lightweight. It is the new age, futuristic Stryfe. The Desolator came out amidst a shortage of Nerf Stryfe blasters and constant rumors of the Stryfe getting phased out or discontinued. It was really looking like the Desolator would be the full replacement for the Stryfe. And I wasn’t really too mad about that.

I know some people will hate that it has an integrated stock and no barrel attachment point, but I’m okay with it. Obviously, you know me, I’d love to throw a Raider stock on there and call it a day. The stock on here comes in a tad bit short for me, like a Raider stock on the middle extension. Not fully extended like I like, but not terrible.

If you’re a younger Nerfer, this will be right up your alley. Smaller Nerfers may find that the Nerf Desolator is perfectly sized for them. As for the barrel attachment, “hardcore Nerfers” are probably not going to want to attach a barrel anyway, as most barrels degrade performance.

Speaking of performance, the performance of the Nerf Desolator is right on par with a stock Stryfe. It’s a Stryfe.

Now the look and feel of the Nerf Desolator is pretty great. New paintjob with a cool stock integrated and clear paneling? It looks extremely nice. That’s obviously going to be debatable, as it’s pure opinion and your opinion may differ from mine. But I think it looks great.

But that’s about it. It looks really cool, functions nice (just like a Stryfe) and I LOVE those new custom magazines. The Doomlands Double Dealer and now this? The custom mags and clear paneling seems to be the Doomlands trademark.

The Competition

Back when I reviewed this blaster, there wasn’t much competition. The Stryfe was very often sold out and hard to find. The Desolator was looking like it was going to be our new Stryfe. But as we all know, Nerf is in a very different space today. The Stryfe came back in its original form and was widely available for a while, then they introduced the new Nerf Modulus Stryfe. Since then, there have been a whole bunch of blasters that are basically re-shelled Stryfe’s. Right now, off the top of my head, you can get the Nerf Modulus Demolisher, the Fortnite SMG Stryfe, or the DinoSquad Stryfe.

There are so many viable options if you want a semi-auto flywheel powered blaster these days.

Should I Buy?

Yes, the Nerf Desolator has my full purchase recommendation. If you can get this thing, get this thing! It’s a Stryfe, baby!

Last update on 2025-06-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API