Xur, Destiny’s travelling weekend Exotic trader, notoriously irascible architectural critic, and secret apothecary, is back. This week he’s in the Tower bar, over near the jukebox, drinking lethargically. He’s been pretty bored recently. Things are just getting pretty same-same, day-in, day-out. Same Tower, same Reef, same Exotics. He needs a new start. Maybe he’ll look into that. He has a bit of free time coming up in September…
Anyway, what’s he selling this week? Well this week, the things that he’s selling are these:
• Eternal Warrior (Exotic Titan helmet) – 13 Strange Coins
• Young Ahamkara’s Spine (Exotic Hunter gauntlets) – 13SC
• Ophidian Aspect (Exotic Warlock gauntlets) – 13SC
• Hawkmoon (Exotic hand cannon) – 23SC
• Legacy Engram (helmet engram) – 31 Strange Coins
• Monte Carlo and Superspy (Exotic weapon and ornament combo) - 30SC and 25 Silver Dust
• Zhalo Supercell and Not a Toy (Exotic weapon and ornament combo) - 30SC and 25 Silver Dust
• Exotic Shard - 7SC
• Three of Coins – 7SC
• Glass Needle – 3SC
What’s good? In terms of Armour, Ophidian Aspect, basically. Warlocks definitely win this week, with a set of gloves that increase reload and switch speed on all weapons, boost the speed of melee (which with Warlocks is already ridiculously over-powered), and buff the effectiveness of the grenade-cooling Energy Drain. No one, stand-out perk then, but all taken together that’s one hell of a powerful set of improvements, particularly for PvP.
Elsewhere? The Titan and Hunter Exotics are simply oooooookay, the former giving the Unstoppable perk for free (thus adding invincibility to the full duration of the Fist of Havoc super), the latter simply giving an extra charge for Tripmines. That sound you hear? That sound you hear is me yawning. Hark, as my yawns blend with Xur’s to form a warmly melodic harmony of apathy.
This week’s guns though, are good. Hawkmoon might not be as brutal as it was in its blissfully over-powered early days, but it’s still a thoroughly solid, rangey, high impact hand cannon, and its stacking perks give the facility for three powered-up bullets in every mag. The Zhalo Supercell is a bit of a monster too, delivering Arc damage (on a primary), and able to trigger chain-lightning on hit. It can also replenish ammo on double-kills (which will happen quite a bit with chain-lightning), making for a hell of a fun, and delightfully harmonious, gun of giddy, zapping silliness. And never forget about Monte Carlo. Recharging your melee gauge slightly on every kill (with a very high chance of resetting it completely), it’s invaluable if you have a melee-focused build. Hell, it’s worth creating one just to have Monte Carlo power it.
As ever, Xur will be around until 10am UK / 2am PT on Sunday, at which point he’ll shuffle off into the darkness between the stars in order to have a good think about things.
