Story remains a big question for fans leading up to the Witch Queen expansion. While Bungie will likely keep most, if not all, story elements a secret, fans have had no trouble speculating at what could be coming. Everything from potential character deaths, Uldren Sov officially becoming a member of the Vanguard, to the role Savathun may have after the events of the expansion have been discussed.
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Until then, Destiny 2 players can stop by and visit the exotic merchant Xur, who has once again returned with new gear for purchase. As always, follow this guide for his most current weekend location, news on his exotic cipher quest, as well as a review of all the exotic gear he’s brought for the weekend of January 28, 2022.
Where is Xur?
This weekend, players can find Xur back inside the Tower Hangar.
From the default landing zone, immediately head to the left and following the path down into the Hangar. After entering the hangar, head left again past Arach Jalaal and his Dead Orbit crew and up a metal staircase. Xur is standing on a metal platform at the back of this room overlooking the mountain ranges below.
Class Armor and Exotic Cipher
In Season of the Lost, Xur’s role has expanded as the exotic merchant has weekly quests, exotics, and legendary gear. Not only are these quests required to purchase a second fated engram, but they’re necessary to acquire legacy exotic gear from the Tower kiosk. Players can earn a new cipher by completing strikes and winning crucible or gambit matches. Gain bonus points for playing with clanmates or finishing more challenging activities.
With Season 15, Xur is now selling even more gear outside his usual content. In addition to his normal exotic gear, Xur now has Legendary Weapons and Armor for sale in exchange for Legendary Shards and Glimmer. Better yet, the stat rolls are pretty solid on the Black Armor gear for this week.
Exotic Armor
Karnstein Armlets - Warlock gauntlets
These are a strong Warlock exotic item, that gives the player added survivability thanks to its exotic perk. Upon a melee kill, Vampire’s Caress restores a large portion of health while also continuing to restore health for a short duration afterward.
This is an item that all Warlocks should have as it’s a very strong item in PvE situations and activities like Gambit, Escalation Protocol, or Blind Well where there are large groups of enemies to overcome. There are much better options for PvP players, but it’s a fun exotic to play around with otherwise. The stat roll is fairly solid this week, still better than the Collections version.
Void Enhanced. Stat Values:
Mobility +13 Resilience +9 Recovery +11 Discipline +14 Intellect +2 Strength +14
Shards of Galanor - Hunter gauntlets
Seemingly on sale every few months, the mid-tree Gunslinger exotic Shards of Galanor is available at Xur once more. Sharp Edges is the exotic perk on these and it returns super energy for hits and kills with Blade Barrage once the super ends up to a point.
While not nearly as effective as they once were, the Shards are still a viable option for Hunters of like to run Blade Barrage and Way of a Thousand Cuts. It’s not going to give back an entire super meter like it used to thanks to a recent Season 15 nerf by Bungie, but it will still help get players back there faster than normal. While not what they once were, the roll this week is pretty solid. Worth a look for that fact alone.
Solar Enhanced. Stat Values:
Mobility +13 Resilience +3 Recovery +16 Discipline +7 Intellect +14 Strength +12
Lion Rampant - Titan leg armor
Titans who need a bit of mobility and stability when making tricky jumps will want these rocket boots. Similar to the St0mp-EEZ for Hunters, Lion Rampant’s come with the perk Jump Jets which provides added maneuverability in the air and enables accurate hipfire while players are in the air during Lift. Basically, these boosts will help make Lift Titans jump for twice as long.
Naturally, these boots are great for more platforming based activities typically involved in Dungeons, Raids, or missions like Harbinger to name a few. Outside of that, a player’s mileage will vary as they don’t offer a significant boost to combat boost like other Titan exotics.
Arc Enhanced. Stat Values:
Mobility +9 Resilience +13 Recovery +10 Discipline +2 Intellect +10 Strength +20
Exotic Weapon
Originally introduced inside of the Forsaken expansion, Bungie went ahead and made this item a pre-order bonus for those who pre-ordered Shadowkeep before it launched. The Two-Tailed fox is a rocket launcher that fires two elemental rockets, one void and one solar. Better yet, these rockets can track the same target. The void rocket also suppresses the target while the solar one does damage over time.
While this is a fun weapon to use, rocket launchers just are not exactly top of the heavy meta at the moment especially for Crucible users who tend to stick to machine guns or grenade launchers. It certainly has its uses in certain game modes, but isn’t a required purchase this week.
Additional perks:
Confined Launch High Velocity Rounds Composite Stock
Here’s the complete rundown of Xur’s exotic stock in Destiny 2 for January 21, 2022:
Karnstein Armlets (Warlock gauntlets) – 23 Legendary Shards Shards of Galanor (Hunter gauntlets) – 23 Legendary Shards Lion Rampant (Titan leg armor) – 23 Legendary Shards Two Tailed Fox (Rocket Launcher) - 29 Legendary Shards Exotic Engram - 97 Legendary Shards/1 Exotic Cipher A Question - Exotic Cipher Quest
Legendary Gear
As previously mentioned, Xur now sells Legendary Armor and Weapons. All gear costs 50 Legendary Shards and 1000 Glimmer.
Night Watch (Primary Scout Rifle) First In, Last Out (Primary Shotgun) Nature of the Beast (Energy Hand Cannon) Seventh Seraph SI-2 (Energy Sidearm) Wishbringer (Energy Shotgun) The Third Axiom (Energy Pulse Rifle) Falling Guillotine (Heavy Grenade Launcher) Righteous Armor Set
Destiny 2 is now available PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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