The Polaris Lance is an interesting weapon in Destiny 2. Introduced way back in the Warmind expansion it came with a controversial perk that made it a strong weapon on paper, but annoying in practice. While the weapon itself can no longer be obtained, for now, its Catalyst can still be acquired.
The Polaris Lance Catalyst makes the weapon a bit more bearable to use and gives it a little more punch in combat. Whether or not it's worth tracking down and upgrading is for the player to decide. For players who already have the Polaris Lance and are thinking about getting the Catalyst here’s what it does and how to find it.
What It Does
The Polaris Lance Catalyst provides the weapon with a single, but interesting perk:
- Dragonfly – Precision kills create an elemental damage explosion
The Intrinsic perk The Perfect Fifth requires players to get four precision shots in order to trigger a Solar explosive round for the next shot. The issue for many players was getting four precision shots in a row without missing.
The Dragonfly perk from the Polaris Lance Catalyst causes each precision hit to do extra damage. In the best-case scenario, the player gets four powerful precision hits with elemental damage explosions on each with the final solar blast on the fifth shot from the Perfect Fifth perk. Worst case scenario a single precision shot now deals more damage than usual.
How To Get It
The Polaris Lance Catalyst is obtained via random drop during Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit rounds. There’s no way to increase the odds of it dropping and it seems to be a rather rare drop in line with other Catalysts.
Strikes are probably the easiest and most efficient way of grinding for this Catalyst. In reality, players should go with whatever they’re most comfortable with and be patient. The Polaris Lance Catalyst could drop in a few matches or take several weeks to appear.
Upgrading
Once the Polaris Lance Catalyst is in the player’s possession they’ll want to upgrade it. To do this players need to do two things:
- Kill 500 enemies with the Polaris Lance
- Kill 50 enemies specifically with the Perfect Fifth solar explosive shot
The first component is rather simple and retroactive. Any kills performed by the Polaris Lance to get the Catalyst will count. The second aspect can be annoying as getting four precision hits followed by a kill with the fifth shot can be tricky.
Tips
In all honesty, the player needs to seriously consider if this Catalyst is worth pursuing. The Polaris Lance isn’t exactly the best Scout Rifle out there and others are certainly easier to wield. The Catalyst also takes a bit of a grind and the 50 Perfect Fifth kills can be a problem.
The player will likely want to live in PVE mode if they commit to this process. It makes it easier to grind for the Catalyst and get the 500 kills. The 50 Perfect Fifth kills are also easier to obtain when dealing with a group of low-level enemies as opposed to other players in Crucible.