Destiny 2: Xur Exotic Armor, Weapon, and Recommendations for April 8

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Where is Xur?

Class Armor and Exotic Cipher

Exotic Armor

Exotic Weapon

Hawkmoon and Dead Man's Tale Rolls

Legendary Gear

This week has seen an influx of new content to help break up the current Destiny 2 season. For those looking for a massive challenge, Bungie has brought back the Grandmaster Nightfalls though added a few tricks including adding Acute elemental burns to replace the traditional strike modifiers. Intended to be incredibly challenging, overcoming Grandmaster content also leads to better rewards such as adept weapons like Palindrome and Plug One.1.

Gambit has also been placed into the Lab by introducing a new variant mode called Invasion Swap. For those who want a slightly different experience, the invasion mechanic has been completely upended as the team that banks 25 and 75 motes will actually open up an invasion portal for the enemy team instead. So far, it seems that most players are a fan of the new mechanics as it not only reinforces stronger team play, but introduces new strategies that Gambit hasn't seen before.

To help with this new content, players may want a new exotic or two. Thankfully, the exotic merchant Xur has arrived to Destiny 2 with his usual wares and better yet, the weird low stat roll bug for Xur has been resolved through a recent hotfix. Regardless, follow this guide for his most current weekend location, news on his exotic cipher quest, as well as a review of all the exotic and legendary gear he's brought for the weekend of April 8, 2022.

Where is Xur?

This weekend, players should head to will need to head to the Winding Cove in the European Dead Zone.

Fast travel to the Winding Cove zone and immediately head towards the back where the Fallen typically patrol. Climb the cliffs back here to find Xur standing on a ledge not too far from a crashed ship.

Class Armor and Exotic Cipher

Xur's role continues to offer the usual 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.

Xur continues to sell 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.

Exotic Armor

Sunbracers - Warlock gauntlets

Ultimately intended for Dawnblade Warlocks, the Sunbracers increase the duration of all solar grenades, while also granting unlimited solar grenade energy for a brief time after a solar melee kill is performed. The grenade cooldown time is cut way down following a solar melee kill, allowing the player to toss out nearly unlimited amounts of grenades until the effect wears off.

With the focus on grenades, this gear is great for clearing encounters with plenty of enemies and maybe not as effective in smaller modes like the Crucible. Overall, this item is fine but not going to be anything that is a must-buy for Warlocks, even with an improved roll this week.

Solar Enhanced. Stat Values:

Mobility +8
Resilience +21
Recovery +3
Discipline +8
Intellect +9
Strength +12

Aeon Swift - Hunter gauntlets

While these would have been a pass in the past, the Aeon Cult set of exotics deserve another look. Bungie reworked the Aeon set of exotics to make them more valuable and giving each one more of a role-based mechanic. While they're still not top tier gear, they're infinitely more useful than they were, even being valuable on difficult activities like Nightfalls.

Instead of a unique perk, this armor now has specific Aeon mods that can be equipped. Sect of Force is for damage dealers, temporarily increasing player reload speed and weapon swap speed after rapid precision hits. Taking down a champion or boss also gives nearby fireteam members a burst of grenade and melee energy. Sect of Vigor gives the player class energy when teammates die, then gaining full class energy after reviving. When nearby players cast their super, allies gain a burst of healing. Finally, Sect of Insight has a chance to drop an orb of power after precision weapon takedowns. When using a finisher on an elite enemy, special ammo is dropped. Using a finisher on a boss or miniboss, heavy ammo drops instead.

Arc Enhanced. Stat Values:

Mobility +3
Resilience +7
Recovery +20
Discipline +6
Intellect +17
Strength +10

Ursa Furiosa - Titan gauntlets

At one point, these were the go-to exotic for Sentinel Titans, though things have changed over the past year or so. Ultimately, these were heavily impactedd by Bungie's decision to nerf super generating exotics that arrived alongside Season of the Lost.

Regardless, Ursine Guard is the intrinsic perk which enables the player to move faster when guarding with Sentinel Shield. However, the best part of this perk is that blocked damage will convert into additional super energy once the super ends, similar to other class exotics like the Shards of Galanor for Hunters. As previously mentioned, the returned energy has a cap now, so it's not nearly as useful as it was previously. While the stat roll is very impressive this week, these exotics have incredibly high mobility, which again, isn't always the best stat for Titan players.

Void Enhanced. Stat Values:

Mobility +25
Resilience +8
Recovery +2
Discipline +2
Intellect +6
Strength +23

Exotic Weapon

Not seen in quite a while, Xur has brought back the burst-fire hand cannon, Crimson. Styled after the Destiny 1 exotic Red Death, the Crimson hand cannon is unique compared to other weapons in this class. The reason is due to its intrinsic perk known as Banned Weapon as it gives the gun a three round burst. It's unique perk, Cruel Remedy, heals the player after killing an enemy while a precision kill refills the magazine.

Hand cannons remain a very strong weapon type in Destiny 2, even if there are better options currently available outside of Crimson. Still, the healing effect alone makes this gun worth it, especially in modes with lots of enemies to help trigger the effect. The weapon only gets better with the catalyst so for those who do not yet have this, pick it up.

Additional perks:

Smallbore
Accurized Rounds
Heavy Grip

Hawkmoon and Dead Man's Tale Rolls

Since Season 16 removed the Presage and Harbinger exotic missions, Xur is also selling both Hawkmoon and Dead Man's Tale with randomized rolls. Players should visit him each weekend as he'll be carrying different rolls.

Hawkmoon Rolls:

Chambered Compensator
Alloy Magazine
Quickdraw
Heavy Grip

Dead Man's Tale

Hammer-Forged Rifling
Armor Piercing Rounds
Killing Wind
Fitted Stock

Here's the complete rundown of Xur's exotic stock in Destiny 2 for April 8, 2022:

Sunbracers (Warlock gauntlet) – 23 Legendary Shards
Aeon Swift (Hunter gauntlet) – 23 Legendary Shards
Ursa Furiosa (Titan gauntlet) – 23 Legendary Shards
Crimson (Hand Cannon) - 29 Legendary Shards
Hawkmoon (Hand Cannon) - 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards, 1 Exotic Cipher, 1 Ascendant Shard
Dead Man's Tale (Scout Rifle) - 125,000 Glimmer, 200 Legendary Shards, 1 Exotic Cipher, 1 Ascendant Shard
Exotic Engram - 97 Legendary Shards/1 Exotic Cipher
A Question - Exotic Cipher Quest