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The Best Exotic Weapons in Destiny 2 Beyond Light
Which weapons are best for taking on the fresh challenges in Destiny 2’s latest expansion?
With Destiny 2 now moving into its fourth year, the number of exotic weapons available is significant – and choosing one to perfect your loadout can be difficult. Though Bungie has set about sunsetting some of the old classics, you'll find you can still access some of the heavy hitters of yesteryear if you know where to look.
With Beyond Light, the meta has changed again, and certain arms have gotten more powerful as old classics have lost their shine a little. Have a look through this list and pick out the tool you want to use to fight the forces of Darkness – and maybe even take on the Deep Stone Crypt.
Izanagi’s Burden
This high-power sniper rifle can be acquired from the Monument to Lost Lights in the Tower. It costs an Exotic Cypher to unlock, so it is not cheap. But if you want a boss-crushing weapon in your Kinetic slot then this is absolutely your best choice. While the big cull of content at the start of Beyond Light may have removed its catalyst from the game, it still is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to boss damage.
What makes this rifle so good is its intrinsic perk: Honed Edge. If you hold the reload button then the weapon loads every round from the magazine into one super bullet with improved range and damage. A short series of these rounds can cut a boss’s health down to nothing in just a couple of shots. It does take some practice to be able to reload from one Honed Edge shot into another without stumbling, but once you get it down you can slice through anything in your way.
Anarchy
Anarchy can be a very deadly weapon in the right circumstances
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Anarchy is a powerful grenade launcher for the Heavy weapon slot, and it was previously earned from the Scourge of the Past Raid – but Bungie has Vaulted the weapon. Similar to Izanagi's Burden, it can now only be acquired from the Monument to Lost Lights. This will require one of your precious Exotic Cyphers, plus a new currency called Spoils of Conquest which can be found by completing certain Raid activities. To earn these, get a group and roll into The Last Wish, Garden of Salvation, or The Deep Stone Crypt to pick up the resources you need.
The intrinsic perk of Anarchy is Arc Traps, which turns your projectiles into sticky grenades that create an arc bolt that bounces back and forth between your shots if you land them close enough together. These grenades can be placed around bosses to continually damage them, as well as in choke points or spawn doors that you know several ads are going to run through. They can even be stuck to enemies who will also take damage from the chained arc bolts. This continual damage over time can add up, both increasing your mob clearing potential, as well as increasing your boss damage.
Cloudstirke
Cloudstrike can really start piling on the damage in boss encounters
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Cloudstrike is a new sniper rifle introduced with Beyond Light. It can only be acquired from the Empire Hunts playlist and it takes some time to unlock. Every run of an Empire Hunt has a chance to drop the rifle, so get the playlist and grind through it, and – eventually – you will get this sweet arc sniper.
There are two perks at work to make this weapon so good. The first is Stormbringer, which triggers a storm of lightning after you score three rapid precision hits. This isn’t terribly useful against the run of the mill enemies, but against bosses who have larger crit spots and move much less, this can add to the damage you deal as bosses don’t tend to move out of the cloud once it is created.
Since Cloudstrike has a seven-round magazine, you can get two of these clouds onto a target before you must reload. The sniper's other perk is Mortal Polarity which creates a lightning bolt at a target's location when you get a precision final blow. This does not help at all against bosses, but keeps the weapon relevant when dealing with amassed small enemies.
The Lament
Time to get all Gears of War up in Destiny 2
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Sword + chainsaw = The Lament. This beasty slab of a blade has teeth running down one side for chewing through the forces of Darkness. This Heavy ammo weapon can be unlocked by completing a lengthy quest, but it is definitely worth the time effort. Simply speak to Banshee in the tower and follow the questline to forge the sword. Be ready for it to take some serious playtime!
The sword gets its power from the Banshee’s Wail perk. This adds a unique functionality to this sword where guarding, which will rev the blades and prime it for a special heavy attack (similarly to Nero's Red Queen sword from Devil May Cry series).
Hit the heavy attack button while holding the guard to perform the revved attack that deals massive damage to single targets. This attack also bypasses shields and allows you to defeat barrier champions. Each hit with this revved state will add a stack of Banshee’s Wail, further increasing the sword's damage. It also has a handy second perk called Revved Consumption which restores health to the wielder whilst dealing damage. This means that those enemies that can be a bit too spicy to sword charge can now be tackled if you can keep hitting and out heal the damage – it's a high-risk, high-reward play that'll make for some standout in-game moments.
Xenophage
Xenophage is a great tool in PvE and PvP
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Xenophage is an Exotic Machine Gun that only has a rate of fire of 120 rounds per minute. This would be painfully slow... if the gun did not fire explosive rounds that can shred through anything unfortunate enough to be in the way. To access this weapon, you need to own the Shadowkeep expansion (not a problem for Xbox Game Pass subscribers) after completing the campaign, you will be able to earn access to a questline that takes you to the Pit of Heresy dungeon on the Moon. Beat an optional hidden boss and the gun is yours.
Xenophage takes up your Heavy slot (like all Machine Guns) but this one fires like a combination of a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher. Each shot hits with an explosive blast that can wipe out crowds of enemies in a handful of rounds. You can use the weapon to clear mobs, or just dump the entire magazine into a boss’s crit point to drop it quickly. The heavy damage shots also excel against other guardians in Gambit, allowing you to invade and two tap every opponent as they struggle to gather motes.
With these Exotic weapons in your arsenal, you will be able to clear your way through any Strike, dungeon, or Raid with ease. Experiment with each one to find the ones that work best for you and watch those damage numbers jump up to hilarious heights. Your fireteam members will be glad to have you when they watch an enemy health bar evaporate because you fired vaguely in their direction – and they may even be inspired to join you in using these ludicrous weapons.
