Destiny: Xur weapons, gear, and location, February 24 - 26. Hawkmoon!

Xur, Destiny’s travelling weekend trader, registered Kabaddi referee, and owner of the most eclectic collection of vintage swanee whistles in the solar system, is back. This week he’s over in the Tower, next to the Crucible Quartermaster, in the corridor on the way down to the Vanguard Hall. What’s he selling though? This lot: 

• Twilight Garrison (Exotic Titan Chest Armour) – 13 Strange Coins
• Celestial Nighthawk (Exotic Hunter helmet) – 13SC
• Claws of Ahamkara (Exotic Warlock gauntlets) – 13SC
• Hawkmoon (Exotic hand cannon) – 23SC
• Legacy Engram (Chest helmet engram) – 31 Strange Coins
• Exotic Shard - 7SC
• Three of Coins – 7SC
• Glass Needle – 3SC 

What’s good? None of the armour really stands out as a must-buy this week, alas. The Titans’ Twilight Garrison has a neat little gimmick, wherein a quick button-press will allow you to air-dodge while jumping, but it //is// rather a gimmick. Handy for getting across busy rooms quickly, or making the occasional fake-out in the Crucible, but it’s certainly not essential. The more PvE-focused Celestial Nighthawk, on the other hand, lets Hunters condense their Golden Gun super into a single shot of six times the usual power. On paper, a handy increase in aggregate damage, given that a standard Golden Gun charge only delivers three shots (or four with certain other armour perks, such as the Archylophage Symbiote’s Last Man Standing), but you do have to consider whether you want to concentrate all of that power on one target, or whether you’d be better spreading the pain around. It’s definitely a perk of situational usefulness. 

As for the Warlocks’ Claws of Ahamkara, we’re looking at another debatably exciting one, pretty much just adding an extra melee charge and increasing melee attack speed. Handy if your build is focused around using melee energy to boost other gauges, and a fairly meaty ability to combine with the Sunsinger’s Gift of the Sun, which does the same for grenades. Though to be fair, in the latter case you’d actually be better off just using Monte Carlo as your primary weapon and equipping Heart of the Praxic fire as your Exotic armour. 

Hawkmoon though? It’s still a good, and very fun, hand cannon, not quite up to its marauding Year One standards, but certainly improved over its nerfed, Year Two version. Combining stupid Impact, great range for its class, and two different perks built around the noble art of adding extra damage to random bullets (for a total of three), it’s a pretty uncompromising weapon indeed. Fire up the Hammer Forged perk for extra range and accuracy, and you’ve got a really imposing, delightfully versatile hand cannon. 

As ever, Xur will be around until 10am UK / 2am PT on Sunday, at which point he’ll be off for another week. The big tease. Always leaves them wanting more. 

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.