With a new expansion and season, new Exotic weapons and gear are guaranteed to make their way into Destiny 2. And despite the rocky release of Lightfall that hasn't changed for players in Destiny 2 with Season of Defiance starting off another year with some interesting Exotics.
The expansion season will typically introduce two Exotic gear per character class, as well as a handful of Exotic weapons from Exotic quests and endgame activities like raids. While not all Exotics that came out for Season of Defiance were great, there are several fantastic Lightfall Exotics that players should focus on adding to their collections.
7 Ballidorse Wrathweavers
- How To Get: End of Lightfall campaign or complete Legend/Master Lost Sectors solo
Warlocks gained a new powerful Stasis Exotic this season, which brings interesting buffs to Winter's Wrath. While these Stasis gauntlets are equipped, players deal additional damage when sending out a shockwave. In fact, according to stats, the damage increase is 100% more shatter damage, which is an impressive number.
On top of this, allies within the vicinity of the shockwave gain a Stasis overshield, and their Stasis weapons are granted a 15% damage boost. This is a great step towards making Stasis Warlock feel a bit more supportive and a team player, without having to resort to the healing that the Solar subclass provides.
6 Quicksilver Storm
- How To Get: Buy Lightfall Annual Pass or wait until later in the year to buy it from the Lightfall Exotic tab at the Monument to Lost Lights
Quicksilver Storm wasn't initially that impressive when it was introduced as a pre-order bonus for players, but once it was clarified that it would go from being simply Kinetic to Strand after a Catalyst was fully upgraded, its popularity greatly increased.
As of writing this list, Quicksilver Storm still suffers from a bug where it doesn't benefit from its 40% bonus against red-bar enemies. Once this is mended, it will likely become the favorite for many players once again, thanks to its ability to double as a grenade launcher once enough damage is done to charge a maximum of three grenades. Hitting targets multiple times also turns some of Quicksilver Storm's shots into tiny rockets, which just goes to show it's one of those powerhouse Exotics perfect for PVE enthusiasts.
5 Abeyant Leap
- How To Get: End of Lightfall campaign or complete Legend/Master Lost Sectors solo
One of the two Titan Exotic pieces introduced was Abeyant Leap boots, which buffs Drengr's Lash. With these equipped, players gain two additional projectiles that not only track targets better but also move further.
That's not the best part, however. When Titans suspend enemies, they also gain Woven Mail, which is fantastic in PVE for that extra bit of damage resistance against hordes of enemies. Since Strand Titans are so suspend-focused overall, this Exotic armor should be a go-to for most Titan mains.
4 Swarmers
- How To Get: End of Lightfall campaign or complete Legend/Master Lost Sectors solo
Not quite as incredible as Abeyant Leap but still remarkable compared to the rather underwhelming Hunter Exotcs that came out this season, Swarmers are a staple for any Warlock looking to build around Threadlings.
With these equipped, shooting at a Tangle will spawn Threadlings for the Warlock, which are homing Strand creatures that travel across the ground towards enemies and can perch on a Warlock when not aggressive. Swarmers also allow Threadlings to unravel any enemies that they damage, which adds to the sheer chaos that Strand Warlock can wreak.
3 Vexcalibur
- How To Get: Complete the Node Override Avalon Exotic quest for the first time in the EDZ
The seasonal Exotic quest takes players deep inside the Vex network, where they can discover the newest Exotic glaive, which can be reshaped at the Enclave: Vexcalibur. And here's the good news: unlike the Exotic glaives introduced in The Witch Queen expansion, Vexcalibur isn't completely useless, at least once players unlock the good perks from its Exotic mission.
Not only does it interact nicely with the puzzles and secrets in the Exotic quest, blocking with it gives a Void overshield to the player and their allies nearby. This alone makes it a viable option for Void builds, considering the changes to Resilience and the increased difficulty in most in-game activities. It may not be the meta, but since DPS weapons don't need to be Exotic ones and there are some solid Legendary primaries out this season, Vexcalibur is a good contender for that energy slot for Void players.
2 Conditional Finality
- How To Get: Final chest in the Root of Nightmares raid on Neomuna (certain Triumphs increase drop chance)
Lightfall's raid Root of Nightmares pits players against Nezarec, the Final God of Pain. After defeating him in the terraformed pyramid of the Witness, players have a chance of getting Conditional Finality, the Exotic shotgun that is showing quite a bit of promise in PVE.
This weapon has two barrels: Solar and Stasis, a nice little nod of the head to the Light and Dark theme of the raid itself. If players hit all the Stasis pellets on a target, it will be frozen, while hitting all the Solar pellets will ignite it. For a shotgun, it shows a lot of promise.
1 Winterbite
- How To Get: Complete the Exotic quest Strider on Neomuna by speaking to Quinn, the archivist after finishing the Lightfall campaign
Winterbite is yet another Exotic glaive, which goes to show Bungie is committed to making glaives a staple in players' arsenal. And it's not all bad either, given that it was disabled for some time due to the incredible DPS it was able to dish out on bosses—and still can, as of the time of writing this list. Likely, this bug will be fixed in the future, so players shouldn't rely too hard on its impressive damage feature.
Winterbite's melee not only does solid damage so long as players have ammo but also slows enemies when they are hit. The main event is the actual Stasis projectile it shoots, a slow-moving crystal which freezes enemies it comes in contact with. The main downside is how slow the Stasis projectile ball is, but given how powerful its effects are, it's a necessary side effect to balance this powerhouse of a glaive.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.