Some Destiny 2 lore theorists say a weapon’s recently-gained sentience should now be construed as cannon in the game world. Telesto recently began shooting out starburst patterns before seemingly taking over the game’s official Twitter account. Though Bungie developers say the issues with Telesto have now “been resolved,” the weapon itself should now be canonically known to be capable of sentience and may be something the space game‘s narrative team chooses to reference in the future.
Destiny 2 has a strong narrative team, managed by a loremaster whose job it is to manage massive projects documenting the in-game world and its history. Earlier this year, Savathûn took over Destiny 2’s Twitter account, which was also considered canon via a hidden dossier that complemented The Witch Queen expansion.
“I think she got a glimpse into a world above our own. Maybe even a kind of influence,” an excerpt in the dossier notes.
The Grimoire card for the Super Good Advice notes Destiny 2 weapons can, in fact, spontaneously develop sentience.
“Engineers decry the idea that all smart systems spontaneously develop personalities and awareness…but it seems undeniable that Super Good Advice manifests personality, memory, and a certain sass,” it reads.
Telesto adds to several sentient weapons in the Destiny 2 world. The fact that the game’s developers wrote its sentience into the game plays on the idea that Telesto has a mind of its own, as the game has been a frequent source of headache for the development team, requiring frequent fixes and updates.
Telesto’s recent sentience adds to the list of possibly sentient weapons in the game. Presently, there appear to be at least ten such weapons.
Pahanin, a Hunter mentioned several times throughout Destiny history, developed Super Good Advice with intelligence because he was scared to travel alone after losing two fellow fireteam members in the Vault of Glass. Whisper of the Worm is implied to be a form Xol, who took on the sniper rifle’s form on to feed on Guardians. Xol is a worm god, who are second only to Darkness itself in the Hive hierarchy.
D.A.R.C.I. appears to be sentient and even seems to speak directly to the Guardian in the weapon’s lore tab. Xenophage contains a bug that’s actually Omar Agah, a Hunter member of the first Crota fireteam. After the Hive stole his light, he reawakened as an insect-like creature, which Eris Morn put into his prize machine gun to create the Xenophage. Thousand Voices, made from Ahamkara bone, is implied to be sentient because Ahamkara exist in realms beyond the physical.
Merciless is also sentient, as it was given a sense of its purpose and appears to understand it was programmed to kill. Lore tabs suggest the MIDA Mini-Tool can follow its user’s directives, implying sentience, and the MIDA Multi-Tool’s compass that seems to be speaking to the user also means it may be sentient. The Colony may also be a primitive AI, and Eyes of Tomorrow may contain some version of Clovis Bray. Osteo Striga fires sentient rounds that track the targeted enemy, though it’s unclear whether the weapon itself is sentient.
Telesto appears to have suddenly gained sentience, which aligns with the Super Good Advice lore entry. However, a weapon’s sentience doesn’t inherently make it any more powerful, and Destiny 2 has plenty of solid weapons, both sentient and not. For example, players can grind for solid rolls on several recently-introduced weapons that are part of the King’s Fall loot table in the King’s Fall raid, which you can complete with the guns on our list of King’s Fall weapons. You can also check out our list of the best Destiny 2 Exotics to see which weapons will be best for your Guardian.