Hello Guardians, time for the last part of our equipment guide – what everyone was waiting for – EXOTICS!

What it is all about?

Exotic is the highest rarity type (technically it would be masterwork exotic for weapons and armors). Exotics gear have some special traits that can add some mechanic or change the behavior of others. Sometimes they change the weapon “type” in some way.

Exotic Catalysts are special items that give challenges, which after completion change your exotic gear to masterwork exotic (more on them later).

Exotic cosmetics are just the rarest type of them.

How to get exotics?

There are few ways to obtain exotics.

• Exotic quests – missions available for a limited time, they are not obtainable in any other way till the mission is available,
• Exotic engrams – drops from the world,
• Xur, Trader of the Nine – special vendor that appears on Fridays and disappears on Tuesdays, his location is “random” (few known places). Every week he sells one weapon and one part of armor for every class. What is more, he can sell you one exotic engram that will give you exotic you don’t have (if any not-obtained is available in his list), he can give you a special quest for obtaining exotic cipher which can be exchanged with him or in Monument to Lost Lights
• Monument to Lost Lights – Place where you can unlock old exotics, that are no longer available to purchase. You will need exotic cipher(s), glimmer, planetary materials, ascendant shards, and sometimes spoils of conquest (raid material).
• Season Pass/Pre-Order – parts that are available in season pass after achieving high enough rank, the pay part of the pass usually contains one faster, and have some exotic cosmetics.

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What are exotic weapons catalysts?

Exotic catalysts are special items, that give you a special challenge to upgrade your exotic to masterwork level. Masterwork exotics may have additional bonuses to those presented in the previous article. List of all catalysts (up to season 13) below.

Weapon	Catalyst Effect	Where to find Catalyst	How to upgrade Masterwork
Ace of Spades	Firefly does more damage while Memento Mori is active.	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	500 kills
Anarchy	N/A	N/A	N/A
Arbalest	N/A	N/A	N/A
Bad Juju	Unending Curse (Extends the duration of String of Curses)	45 Tributes in the Tribute Hall	500 kills
Bastion	N/A	N/A	N/A
Black Talon	Blocking attacks increases damage of Crow’s Wings	Heroic Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible matches	500 kills
Borealis	+20 Reload Speed	Kill PVE enemies	150 Arc, Solar, and Void kills
Cerberus+1	Hold reload to swap to a tighter, close-ranged spread.	Kill PVE enemies	500 kills
The Chaperone	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cloudstrike	N/A	N/A	N/A
Coldheart	+20 Stability	Heroic Strike & Nightfall bosses	300 kills
	+20 Reload Speed
The Colony	+10 Magazine	Complete Crucible matches	500 kills
	Deeper Pockets (Increased ammo reserves)
Crimson	+20 Range	Kill PVE enemies	300 precision kills
D.A.R.C.I.	+20 Stability	Kill PVE enemies	300 precision kills
Deathbringer	N/A	N/A	N/A
Devil’s Ruin	N/A	N/A	N/A
Divinity	N/A	N/A	N/A
Duality	+2 Magazine	Complete Walk the Line quest	400 kills
	+20 Range
Eriana’s Vow	+9 Magazine	Collected from Banshee-44 after completing a bounty or recieving a rank-up package.	Complete Gambit matches, Crucible, Vex Offensive, and Strikes while using Eriana’s Vow
	Auto-Loading Holster		700 kills
Eyes of Tomorrow	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fighting Lion	+30 Reload Speed	Rewarded during the Festival of the Lost OR killing PVE enemies	1000 kills and bounties
	Chimera (After this weapon fires, equipped Kinetic and Power weapons gain a brief period of increased handling and precision damage)
The Fourth Horseman	Adds an additional round to the magazine and increases reload speed	Legendary Lost Sectors and Seraph Tower Public Events	400 kills
Graviton Lance	+20 Range	Heroic Strikes & Crucible matches	500 kills and 1,000 kills with the Cosmology perk
	+15 Aim Assist
	Hidden Hand (Better target acquisition)
Hard Light	+25 Stability	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	1,000 kills
Hawkmoon	Hunter’s Trance (Increased magazine size. Grants increased handling, reload speed, and weapon range based on number of stacks of Paracausal Charge)	Complete the Harbinger mission	700 kills
Heir Apparent	N/A	N/A	N/A
The Huckleberry	Kills with this weapon now reload the entire magazine.	Heroic Adventures	500 kills
Izanagi’s Burden	Damage bonus with 4x Honed Edge	Heroic Menagerie with Masterwork Chalice of Opulence	500 kills
The Jade Rabbit	+30 Stability	Crucible wins	250 kills in Crucible
Jötunn	N/A	N/A	N/A
The Lament	N/A	N/A	N/A
The Last Word	N/A	N/A	N/A
Legend of Acrius	+40 Reload Speed	Prestige Leviathan raid	500 kills
	Deeper Pockets (Increased ammo reserves)
Leviathan’s Breath	+5 Reserve ammo	Kills with Leviathan’s Breath	1500 kills
			Defeating high-tier Wrathborn increases completion rate
Lord of Wolves	Increases reload speed while Release the Wolves is active, and increases stability when it is not.	Complete Crucible matches	500 kills
Lumina	Resonant Virtue (2 Nobel rounds per kill)	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	Heal 250 allies with Noble rounds
Malfeasance	N/A	N/A	N/A
Merciless	+40 Range	Heroic Strike & Nightfall bosses	500 kills
	+40 Stability
MIDA Multi-Tool	Outlaw (Precision kills greatly increase reload speed)	Competitive Crucible wins at Fabled Glory Rank. Guaranteed after Legend Glory Rank.	Defeat Crucible enemies with precision damage (with MIDA Multi-Tool)
Monte Carlo	N/A	N/A	N/A
Le Monarque	N/A	N/A	N/A
No Time to Explain	Projectiles from Time-Slip shoot more frequently.	Complete Soon quest	700 kills
One Thousand Voices	N/A	N/A	N/A
Outbreak Perfected	Increases nanite damage. Enemies that die with nanites attached to them generate additional nanites.	Complete Zero Hour Heroic	Complete Zero Hour Heroic mission to get SIVA particulates. Use Void, Arc, and Solar configuration for bonus points.
			500 Precision kills
Polaris Lance	Dragonfly (Precision kills create an elemental damage explosion)	Complete Nascent Dawn quest line	500 kills and 50 kills with the Perfect Fifth perk
Prometheus Lens	+20 Stability	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	300 kills
	+20 Handling
The Prospector	+40 Blast Radius	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	500 kills
	Deeper Pockets (Increased ammo reserves)
The Queenbreaker	N/A	N/A	N/A
Rat King	+20 Aim Assist	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	500 PVE kills with Fireteam using Rat King
	+20 Recoil Direction
	Infestation (Improved aim assist and recoil direction. Refreshes health on Vermin invisibility trigger)
Riskrunner	+30 Range	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses and the Pain and Gain Exotic quest	300 kills and 300 lightning chain kills
Ruinous Effigy	Ruinous Effigy deals more damage against enemies damaged by Transmutation spheres	Unlocked after completing Ruinous Effigy’s Growth questline	Kills with Transmutation spheres or destroy all Savathun’s Eyes
Salvation’s Grip	N/A	N/A	N/A
Skyburner’s Oath	+30 Range	Leviathan raid completions	1,000 Cabal kills
Sleeper Simulant	+75 Charge Time	Prestige Spire of Stars raid	Kills with each Escalation Protocol weapon: 1,000 Sniper Rifle kills, 1,000 Shotgun kills, 2,000 Submachine Gun kills
	Accelerated Coils (Speeds up weapon charge time)		Open the Oracle chest in The Whisper
			500 kills with Sleeper Simulant
Sturm	+20 Range	Defeat enemies on Nessus	500 kills with Sturm and 500 kills with Drang (Both guns equipped)
	+40 Handling
Sunshot	+20 Range	Heroic Strikes & Crucible matches	500 kills and 1,000 kills with Sun Blast perk
	+20 Stability
SUROS Regime	+50 Recoil Direction	Crucible wins	300 Crucible kills
	SUROS Ascendance (Increased chance for kills to regen health)
Sweet Business	Serious Busness (When this weapon is fully spun up, the flinch from incoming damage is greatly reduced)	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	250 multi-kills
Symmetry	Increases the maximum number of Dynamic Charge stacks.	Picked up from Banshee-44 as part of the quest, Symmetry Remastered	Complete the Symmetry Remastered quest
			700 kills
Tarrabah	N/A	N/A	N/A
Telesto	+60 Magazine	Prestige Eater of Worlds raid	Complete all Lost Prophecy Verses for Brother Vance in the Lighthouse on Mercury
	Deeper Pockets (Increased ammo reserves)
Thorn	N/A	N/A	N/A
Thunderlord	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tommy’s Matchbook	While Ignition Trigger is active, your health recovers much faster.	Complete A Good Match quest	700 kills
Tractor Cannon	+70 Magazine	Kill PVE enemies	300 kills
	Deeper Pockets (Increased ammo reserves)
Traveler’s Chosen	N/A	N/A	N/A
Trinity Ghoul	Lightning Rod perk activates on all Arc kills	Heroic Strikes & Nightfall bosses	400 kills
Truth	N/A	N/A	N/A
Two-Tailed Fox	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vigilance Wing	Full Auto Trigger System (Holding down the trigger will fire this weapon in full auto)	Crucible wins	250 PVP kills and 5 Blood for Blood medals (avenge teammates)
The Wardcliff Coil	Pinpoint Guidance Module (Improved tracking on projectiles)	Heroic Strike & Nightfall bosses	500 kills
Wavesplitter	N/A	N/A	N/A
Whisper of the Worm	+30 Reload Speed	Awarded after clearing The Whisper for the first time	Complete The Whisper and open chests in The Whisper to collect Blighted Essence
	Whispered Breathing (Aiming this weapon without firing for a brief moment grants bonus range and precision damage while it remains zoomed)
Wish-Ender	N/A	N/A	N/A
Witherhoard	Increased handling and Auto-Loading Holster	Picked up from Banshee-44 during Season of Arrivals.	Complete the quest, The Bank Job.
Worldline Zero	Another Dimension (Reduces the activision time of Tesseract)	Kills in PVE with a sword	Hit each Level 7 Escalation Protocol boss with Worldline Zero
Xenophage	N/A	N/A	N/A

Some exotics worth looking for (all of them may be fun, but there are some considered S-tiers in some activities)

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, those sweet exotics should match your playstyle and give you fun. Though some of them are considered exceptional in some kind of activities. Let’s have a brief look at the most used/considered best exotics for both end-game PvE and PvP. I will use data from light.gg and destinytracker.com.

PvE – Weapons

• Anarchy – for some, the best weapon in the game, Heavy weapon that does massive DoT damage
• Xenophage – “Boss killer”, (Heavy Machine Gun + Rocket launcher = Xenophage), Heavy Machine gun made to wreck strong enemies (and titans)
• The Lament – one of the best, if not the best Sword in the game (btw it has a chainsaw! ), pierces barriers and shields
• Divinity – some say it’s an easy mode for raids when shot creates a bubble that will make you and all allies critical strike when shooting at this!
• Hawkmoon – Hand Cannon that stacks with precision hits, last bullet got dmg multiplied by your stacks, and it’s made out of the Traveler itself!
• Eyes of tomorrow – imagine rocket launcher with LOCK-ON-TARGET! (up to 4 targets! )
• Cloudstrike – Sniper rifle that on precision hit strikes with AoE Lightning!
• Trinity Ghoul(/w catalyst!) – Bow. 3 arrows per shot. Lightning on kills (w catalyst!). GOD in mob clearing.
• Witherhoard – called “mini Anarchy”, deals DoT dmg.

PvP – Weapons

• Hawkmoon – as above, last hit vs guardians can be epic,
• Cloudstrike – as above, can kill few people with one headshot,
• Xenophage – as above, really imagine machine rocket launcher ;),
• Black Talon – sword that can shoot… and mostly one hit every guardian,
• Ace of Spades – hand cannon that got 3 massive bonuses – 1st – you see radar when aiming, 2nd – you got 6 higher dmg bullets when you reload after a kill, 3rd – it was Cayde-6 weapon…

For armors, they usually change mechanic really much, or are S-tiers when combined with a specific type of weapons or subclass, they are really situational and depending on your playstyle. Here you can check all available armors, their stats, and traits.

 

That concludes our beginner/returner guide to equipment. See you in-game guardians!

Ryu