Destiny: Xur weapons, gear, and location, August 26 - 28. Empyrean Bellicose!

Xur, Destiny’s weekend Exotic trader, passionate political philosopher, and purveyor of a great Bruce Campbell impression, is back. This week he’s in the Tower, opposite the Speaker, obnoxiously touting the quality of his ‘Boomsticks’. The Speaker is getting pissed off, but he’s trying to restrain himself. But anyway! What’s Xur actually selling? 

The bag, my friends, it is mixed.

• Universal Remote (Exotic Primary Shotgun) - 23 Strange Coins
• Empyrean Bellicose (Exotic Titan Helmet) - 13 SC
• Graviton Forfeit (Exotic Hunter Helmet) - 13 SC
• Nothing Manacles (Exotic Warlock Gauntlets) - 13 SC
• Legacy Exotic Engram (Chest Armour) - 29 SC

Titans do pretty well out of this week’s selection, the Empyrean Bellicose helmet furnishing the ability to float in mid-air when aiming, in the same manner as the Warlock Sunsinger’s Angel of Light perk. It’s a great one for gaining tricky firing angles during PvE play, and is a brilliant way of faking out Crucible opponents during pitched aerial battles. Hunters get a pretty good Crucible toy too, in the shape of the Graviton Forfeit. That helmet grants you the bastard-teleport trick of Shadestep for free, meaning that you can equip Keen Scout at the same time, allowing you to warp, about and boost your radar clarity and gain the ability to mark targets. 

Warlocks miss out this week, with the Nothing Manacles gauntlets proving rather unspectacular. They just give you an extra Scatter Grenade for every charge, and enable increased tracking – though the latter buff has been nerfed for the Year Two version. Fun, but certainly not essential enough to take up an Exotic slot. As for weapons, the Universal Remote initially seems promising, but isn’t that great when taken in its overall context – ironic given Xur’s rambunctious claims this week. It’s a decent shotgun which hits hard despite an unspectacular Impact rating, has pleasing stability, and can be buffed out to have excellent range. The problem is that it equips to your Primary slot rather than your secondary, severely limiting your options for ranged combat. It’s a decent gun on its own terms, but you probably don’t want to give up a Scout or Pulse Rifle for it. 

As ever, Xur is around until 2am PT / 10am UK on Sunday. After that, he’ll whisk himself away for another week. 

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.