Xur, Destiny’s travelling weekend Exotic trader, painter of fine, if disturbing, Hell-themed oil paint landscapes, and all round tiling genius, is back. This week he’s in the Tower, just inside the entrance to the Hangar. Sometimes he just likes to stand, watching the ships coming in and going out, all day. He invents little stories about who’s in them, where they’ve been, and where they’re going.
Anyway, what’s he selling? Well…
• Crest of Alpha Lupi (Exotic Titan chest armour) – 13 Strange Coins
• Shinobu’s Vow (Exotic Hunter gauntlets) – 13SC
• The Ram (Exotic Warlock helmet) – 13SC
• Invective (Exotic shotgun) – 23SC
• Legacy Engram (special weapon engram) – 31 Strange Coins
• Invective and Storm's Reproach (Exotic weapon and ornament combo) - 30SC and 25 Silver Dust
• Truth and Heart of Gold (Exotic weapon and ornament combo) - 30SC and 25 Silver Dust
• Exotic Shard - 7SC
• Three of Coins – 7SC
• Glass Needle – 3SC
What’s good? Well Warlocks and Hunters get the best armour this week. The Warlocks’ Ram, while easily confused with the Stag (which is rubbish), gives you extra defence and adds Life Steal to every melee hit. That means health recovery on every slap, but it also means that you can equip the otherwise off-limits Soul Rip perk at the same time, getting Nova Bomb cooldown on each delicious hand/face impact as well. The only question, really, is whether you want to go for this over the Obsidian Mind, which allows Nova Bomb kills to recharge your Nova Bomb, and is thus also brilliant.
As for Hunters, Shinobu’s Vow is a heck of a good Blade Dancer Exotic, particularly for Crucible use. Gifting an extra Skip Grenade, while also boosting those grenades’ power and adding an extra tracker, it’s a great offensive Exotic with significant tactical power. The Titans’ Crest of Alpha Lupi, however, is merely solid. Letting you drop an extra orb when firing up your Super, and speeding up revives (both incoming and outgoing), it’s a dependable support Exotic, but hardly the most powerful or glamourous piece of armour you could be wearing.
In terms of guns though, it’s good times for all. Invective is a monster of a shotgun before you even get to the perks, packing great impact and range, and able to be modded out for increased stability as well. As for its special tricks, it regenerates ammo over time, fires in full-auto (and is really, really fast with it), and the last round in its mag (which you’ll almost always be firing at the end of a full-auto salvo) does bonus damage. Get close to a thing, point it at the thing, hold the trigger, and the thing will die.
Additionally, you can pick up Invective with the Storm’s Reproach ornament for an extra cost, as one of Xur’s new Exotic weapon combos, Or you can pick up Truth (an excellent if unsubtle rocket launcher, with tracking rockets, auto-detonation based on target proximity, and near-max blast radius) with the Heart of Gold ornament.
As ever, Xur will be around until 10am UK / 2am PT on Sunday, at which point he’ll be away for another week, possibly to ponder whether he needs a Destiny 2 pre-order if he's actually going to be in it.
