Destiny 2: The Black Armory (opens in new tab) challenges players to reclaim the finest weapons ever crafted, including plenty of new Exotics. You’ll have help from Exo gunsmith Ada-1, but the heavy lifting will fall to you. Luckily, the rewards look oh so worth it. Bungie recently shared three new Exotics coming in The Black Armory, and on top of looking just plain cool, these guns do a good job showcasing the three cultures represented in The Black Armory – Norse, Japanese, and French gunsmiths.
Let’s start with a Norse-made Exotic, the Anarchy grenade launcher:
Grenade launchers have never been top-tier in Destiny 2, and now they’ve got heavy machine guns to compete with as well, but Bungie has been getting creative with launchers lately. For starters, the new Crucible pinnacle weapon (opens in new tab) in the Season of the Forge is a grenade launcher that basically shoots missiles. Now we’ve got Anarchy, which fires lighting mines that sync up to form what are essentially electric fences. This could be a potent weapon for controlling groups in PvE and denying territory in PvP. It also has maxed velocity, which is great for grenade launchers.
Next we have the French-forged Exotic bow Le Monarque:
Bungie described Le Monarque as a bow inspired by the Thorn handcannon from the original Destiny. Like Thorn, Le Monarque’s unique perk causes damage over time, albeit only on perfectly drawn (read: well-time and max power) arrows. Unlike Thorn, it also triggers AoE explosions on perfectly drawn headshots, creating void clouds which deal yet more damage to all nearby enemies. Damage over time should not be underestimated, and Le Monarque’s unique perk could make up for the main weakness of bows, which is their inability to deal with groups of enemies.
Finally, there’s Izanagi’s Burdern, the Japanese-made hot rod of The Black Armory:
Izanagi’s Burden is, for all intents and purposes, a freakin’ railgun. Its unique perk condenses its four-round magazine into a single powerful shot. According to Bungie, this super-shot can one-hit-kill in PvP on a body shot. Not only that, Bungie says Izanagi’s Burden will “totally compete with [Whisper of the Worm] and [Sleeper Simulant],” the current top-dogs of DPS. If those claims hold up, Izanagi’s Burden is going to be a monster.
These Exotics should come in handy in The Black Armory’s new raid, Scourge of the Past, (opens in new tab)which is apparently “much larger” than a raid lair, albeit smaller than Last Wish.