Xur, Destiny’s weekend Exotic trader, intergalactic street art pioneer, and active disliker of stick insects (he wouldn’t kill one, but damn he finds them unnaturally creepy, which is rich for a guy with a face made of smoke and tentacles) is back, for the first time since the Rise of Iron expansion landed. This week he’s in the Reef. But what’s he selling? Has his line-up been transformed by RoI’s new array of loot? Is he vending all manner of exotic new, er, Exotics? Just the one, actually. The rest is all stuff you’ve seen before. But he is selling it at a higher Light level now (350), and hawking a couple of those new Exotic ornaments as well. I’ll get onto those in a bit, but as for the standard stuff, well…
• Monte Carlo (Exotic Auto Rifle) - 23 Strange Coins
• Transversive Steps (Exotic Warlock leg armour) - 13 SC
• Celestial Nighthawk (Exotic Hunter Helmet) - 13 SC
• Twilight Garrison (Exotic Titan Helmet) - 13 SC
• Legacy Exotic Engram (Gauntlets) - 31 SC
So what’s good? Well all the armour is decent, if not exactly super top-of-the-line. The (Rise of Iron-exclusive) Transversive Steps give faster movement speed while crouching and automatically reload any weapon upon collecting ammo for it. Obviously they’re largely untested in deeper builds at the moment, having only just arrived, but my suspicion is that these would be a decent boon to snipers, both within and without the Crucible. Combine them with something like Patience And Time, which gives active camouflage when scoped, and it’s possible you could put out huge support damage while drawing very little aggro indeed.
The Hunters’ Celestial Nighthawk converts the Golden Gun super into a single shot, which fires with six times the normal damage, and overpenetrates to hit multiple targets in a row (though there is some strategy and maths to take into account if you want to get the best out of that latter perk). It’s a handy one if you have a fast-recharging super and know you’ll be going up against tricky enemy units in need of a rapid takedown, but otherwise you might want to debate whether it’s actually better using your whole super on a single target. Though six times the damage is a fairly hefty increase from the normal total output, and it will let you drop Titans inside a Ward of Dawn.
As for the Titans themselves, Twilight Garrison adds an air-dodge move, which is great for navitgating hectic rooms of heavy mobs, and perhaps faking people out in the Crucible. There are meatier Exotic perks though. But Monte Carlo is definitely worth grabbing if you don’t already have one. And if you have a build centred around melee – say, a Sunsinging Warlock with Flame Shield attacked to punches, or a Stormcaller with grenades charged by melee via Perpetual Charge – then it’s a game-changer, speeding up your melee charge with damage dealt, and coming with a (very) high chance of a complete refill on every kill.
So those ornaments, then. They’re a new addition with Rise of Iron, allowing you to mod out the look of your Exotics in various flamboyant, classy, and downright garish ways. Weapons get two options, whereas armour gets one. This week Xur is selling Superspy for Monte Carlo – meaning that you could buy the gun and trick it out in grey and red – and Bureau of Aeronatics for the new Khvostov 7G-OX Auto Rifle. Both are selling for 25 Silver Dust, Rise of Iron’s new currency.
As ever, Xur will be around until 10 am UK / 2am PT on Sunday, at which point he’ll bugger right off to spend all of that new Dust on cigarettes and model trains, as is his wont.
