Exotic weapons are one of Destiny 2’s biggest pulls. Not only do they look amazing, they perform a variety of interesting tricks, too. The majority of these desirable guns can only be found if you get luck with the RNG, but there are four that can be guaranteed: the Rat King, MIDA Multi Tool, Sturm, and Legend of Acrius. Want to get your hands on them? Our guide will show you the way.
Like your guns shiny and rare? Check out our Destiny 2 exotics guide.
Rat King
The Rat King is an exceptionally desirable exotic sidearm; not only can it make you invisible, it also becomes more powerful for every person in your fireteam using it. As you’d expect, acquiring such a powerful weapon is no easy task.
To get started, hit the level 20 cap and finish the campaign. Then head to Titan and pick up the ‘Enemy of My Enemy’ quest (indicated by a blue logo with a white crown). This will set you on a multi-mission questline to find a methane reactor, with the final reward being an artefact called ‘The Rat King’s Crew’. Follow its instructions and you’ll be rewarded with the Rat King.
The instructions are riddles, though, and require a bit of decoding. The first one is:
The Rat King’s Crew
Runs to and fro
Good girls and boys
Know where to go
Pick up your toys and darn your socks
On errands of woe, on errands we walk
To complete this first step you’ll need to be part of a fireteam and complete three patrol missions on any planet. You don’t need a full fireteam, just one extra person will be fine. However, everyone in the team must have The Rat King’s Crew in their inventory.When you’ve completed this, stay with your buddy; you’ll need them for riddle number two.
The Rat King’s Crew
Goes arm in arm
To fight as one
To do no harm
So have your fun and run outside
Rally the flag and we’ll never die
This riddle asks you to complete two public events which, like the first riddle, can be done on any planet. After doing any two public events, The Rat King’s Crew will display the next clue.
The Rat King’s Crew
Goes four and four
With good good fights
They learn to score
Then three as one they stand upright
Return from past the wall and wanting more
This one requires your fireteam to play two matches of PvP in the Crucible. Don’t worry if you’re not great at competitive play, you don’t actually need to win the matches. Finish your games and the final riddle will be revealed.
The Rat King’s Crew
Stands three as one
They see Night’s fall
And fear it none
But watch the clock as you scale the wall
Lest five remain hope comes for none
So far, so easy, but the final step is the really difficult bit. You’ll need to complete a Nightfall with five minutes remaining on the clock. Nightfalls are one of Destiny 2’s hardest challenges; a strike with a variety of difficulty modifiers. They’re timed, with ten minutes on the clock, although certain acts – depending on the modifier – will provide you with precious extra seconds. It’s really, really tough to finish with more than five minutes remaining, so you’ll probably need to attempt it several times. During your attempts, try and work out ways to save time. Are there any areas you could try to bypass?
Once again, you’ll need to be part of a fireteam, but a Nightfall requires three players, so you’ll need a full trio to play. Complete this stage, though, and the beautifully ornate Rat King sidearm will be yours.
MIDA Multi Tool
One of the more popular scout rifles from the first game is the MIDA Multi Tool, and it returns as a lovely exotic weapon in Destiny 2. If you want this gun, you’ll need to head to the EDZ after finishing the campaign and collect the ‘Enhance’ quest. Complete this set of missions and Devrim Kay will reward you with the MIDA Mini Tool submachine gun.
Now head to the Tower and chat with Banshee-44 the gunsmith to grab the ‘Sight, Shoot, Repeat’ quest. To complete this, you’ll need to use a scout rifle to score 50 precision kills (shooting the weak spot so yellow damage numbers appear), and 25 kills without reloading. That second step isn’t as hard as it sounds; you need to kill multiple enemies without a reload, but not all 25 with the same magazine. Groups of two or three enemies will count.
You can complete this stage using any enemy type on any planet, so consider finding some Vex. They tend to approach you in straight lines rather than dancing around, making it easier to score those precision shots. Alternatively, the Witches’ Ritual public event on Titan involves Hive enemies swarming you from a portal, and the guaranteed spawn area makes it easy to line up shots.
After finishing Sight, Shoot, Repeat, return to the gunsmith. He’ll provide you with ‘Under The Hood’, which demands you dismantle five rare or legendary scout rifles. Pretty easy if you have them in stock. Do this and revisit the gunsmith for the final stage: ‘The Fall Will Kill You’.
This last step requires you to kill 50 enemies using a submachine gun… while airborne. Thankfully, Destiny 2 is a game in which you’ll spend a lot of time jumping, so this shouldn’t be too challenging. The MIDA Mini Tool that you were rewarded earlier should come in handy here, too. Complete this, and you’ll pick up the coveted MIDA Multi Tool.
Sturm
Sturm is going to be a pretty popular hand cannon, due in no small part to it looking like Han Solo’s DL-44 blaster pistol. To start your journey, grab the ‘O Captain My Captain’ quest from Nessus. After a couple of missions you’ll be rewarded with Drang, a legendary sidearm, and instructions to speak to Master Rahool at The Tower.
Chat with Rahool and he’ll give you three objectives: decrypt five legendary engrams, one exotic engram, and kill ten Fallen enemies on Nessus with Drang. Aside from finding an exotic engram to decode, this is all easily achievable.
Talk to Rahool after finishing these tasks and he’ll send you to talk to Tyra Karn on The Farm. She’ll ask you head to Nessus to kill ten Fallen enemies without reloading. Thankfully, as with the MIDA Multi Tool challenge, this doesn’t mean ten kills with a single magazine; groups of two or three kills will count. You’ll also need to kill ten powerful Fallen (yellow health bar enemies, such as captains) on Nessus using Drang. The Exodus Black area is a useful location for this.
Return to Tyra and she’ll give you the final step: play the Exodus strike on Nessus and kill the Servitor Kendricks-7. Take down this floating robot ball and Sturm will be yours.
Legend of Acrius
The Legend of Acrius is a beastly Exotic shotgun that’s notable for its massive range and impact, but also, sadly, for its miserable handling, reload speed, magazine size, and reserve ammo. It’s a beast in the Crucible, but a poor pick for the raid.
After you’ve finished the campaign and attained level 20, Cabal troops can drop an item that appears in your power weapon slot. It tasks you with collecting intel from Cabal troops on Nessus; simply go there and play a few public events and you’ll get all five in no time.
The next step requires you to complete the Leviathan raid. Once that’s done, your final task is to complete what’s basically a Prestige version of the Arms Dealer strike: recommended power is 300 and there will be modifiers. After that, you’re rewarded with Legend of Acrius, but there is one more step that asks you to kill more Cabal. It’s not clear what this actually gives you, since you’ve already got the weapon. Very odd.
How many exotics have you managed to get? Let us know which ones you picked up in the comments.