‘Destiny’: How To Get An Exotic Sword – Bolt Caster, Dark Drinker, And Raze Lighter

One of the smartest things Bungie did with Destiny: The Taken King was make swords an obtainable weapon that players can earn and equip versus a drop from a special event or Raid. It’s added a new dynamic for the PlayStation and Xbox shooter and the quest to earn an Exotic Sword is perhaps one of the more arduous, yet rewarding, quests currently in the game.

Picking up a Legendary Sword in Destiny is the starting point for the Exotic Sword quest and players should feel immediately satisfied when getting one. They are extremely powerful with enjoyable benefits despite being somewhat risky to use.

Step 1 – Obtain Legendary Sword

A Legendary Sword can be obtained after completing the main story quest for The Taken King and then the “Dread Patrol” Quest. Another option is to find the first Calcified Fragment during the “The Coming War” story mission. This unlocks the quest for the “A Broken Will” Quest that features the following steps.

1. Go to the Tower and speak to Eris Morn, who will provide you with the quest.

2. Speak to Lord Shaxx

3. Acquire 25 Hadium Flakes and 10 Motes of Light and give them to Lord Shaxx.

Hadium Flakes can be found in chests in the Dreadnaught Patrol. The Mausoleum provides perhaps the best farming spot.

4. Choose one of three swords as your reward:

The sword will cost materials obtained from Patrols. The type of material depends on the element of the sword desired.

Arc Edge – 25 Spinmetal

Sol Edge – 25 Helium Filaments

Void Edge – 25 Relic Iron

Note that the element type of the Legendary Sword you pick will determine the element type of the Exotic Sword.

Step 2 – Upgrade the Legendary Sword

Players will need to fully upgrade the Legendary Sword and raise its attack rating to at least 280 to unlock the quest for the Exotic Sword.

Step 3 – Complete “A Sword Reforged” Quest

1. Kill 50 Majors and 25 players in the Crucible with your sword.

The 50 Majors are, of course, those enemies with yellow bars. Load up a Strike playlist and go to town.

The 25 Crucible kills are best earned on tight maps, since players will need to get up close and personal with the sword.

2. Return to Shaxx

3. Kill Ecthar, Sword of Oryx in Dreadnaught Patrol

Echtar is a level 42 Hive Ultra located in the Founts area of the Dreadnaught. First, you’ll need to kill the three Warden Knights within a few seconds of each other. They each have shields of different element types, so it’s probably best to do this with a Fireteam.

Afterward, Ecthar will emerge carrying a big sword and a white shield. The shield can only be broken using the Legendary Sword. Continue attacking Ecthar with the sword. Once the shield is down, use the left trigger to block the Knight’s attack.

4. Return to Lord Shaxx in the Tower

5. Get 500 ability kills based on the element type of the Legendary Sword and gather 10 rare materials.

Load up your favorite Strike playlist and go to town with your super ability, grenade, and melee. This is perhaps the toughest steps for Titans with the Void Edge Legendary Sword because only grenade and melee kills will count for the Defender sub-class. Titans should avoid the Void Edge for this reason and attempt to get the blade with an alternate character.

The rare materials must be gathered by harvesting the material nodes that match the sword’s element on Patrol, as they will not drop from loot chests. The drop rate for rare materials is only around 10 percent, so expect to spend time hunting down up to 100 material nodes.

6. Return to Lord Shaxx in the Tower

7. Wait for Armsday to arrive on Wednesday and return to Lord Shaxx in the Tower

8. Complete Special Sunless Cell Strike

This special version of the Sunless Cell Strike is a Light Level 300 Strike with an Epic modifier and matchmaking. Players must kill one of three Wardens that match the element type of the Legendary Sword followed by Alak-Hul within 30 seconds.

Waves of Thrall will spawn as Alak-Hul’s health drops. The best way to tackle this part of the Strike is to focus on dropping the Darkblade’s health to about a quarter full, then kill the Warden, and then Alak-Hul.

9. Return to Lord Shaxx in the Tower to receive the new Exotic Sword – Bolt Caster, Dark Drinker, or Raze Lighter

The new Exotic sword starts with a 310 Attack rating and a special attack that costs five energy from Heavy Weapon ammo. The Bolt Caster special attack will create a wave of Arc energy that will strike a target and linger, causing additional damage. The Dark Drinker special attack will cause the Guardian to spin around quickly while swing the sword, causing large area of effect damage against groups of enemies. Finally, Raze Lighter dishes out massive amounts of Solar damage to a single target with an uppercut attack that’s best reserved for a single target.

Players will get to keep the Legendary Sword they already have.

[Images via Bungie, Planet Destiny]