The final week of The Dawning seasonal event has arrived as the community races to finish the final step of the Dawning Spirits mission. With a community-wide goal of 1,000,000,000 spirits earned during the event, players fell off of the projected trajectory and fell in danger of failing the limited time mode. Thankfully,Bungie made a change to triple the amount players could earnand now the community is back on track with just days to go.
In addition to The Dawning, the Deep Stone Crypt raid continues to get new challenges for players to overcome at each reset. This raid has also proven to be incredibly popular with players and has already saw major numbers of players attempting it since it arrives. In fact, one group called The Tracker Network has been able to compile the data to determinethe most popular weapons used in the raidwith the exotic sword Lament leading all gear followed by the Heritage shotgun, Falling Guillotine sword, Xenopage, and Ikelos SMG leading the list.
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Even with a new year now here, Xur has kept his resolution to continue visitingDestiny 2each and every weekend to bring with him exotic items for purchase. Follow this guide for his location, news on his exotic cypher quest, as well as a review of what he’s currently selling for the weekend of August 08, 2025.
Where is Xur?
Over this weekend, players should head to Watcher’s Grave on Nessus to find the merchant up the massive tree towards the back of the zone.
From the Director, head to Nessus and load into Watcher’s Grave. Run towards the back of the zone where a massive tree is found. Jump up until players find the huge branch where the merchant is hanging out.
Class Armor and Exotic Cypher
While Xur’s role is essentially the same as it was prior to the Beyond Light expansion, the exotic merchant also has weekly quests that players can acquire to unlock an exotic cypher. Not only are these required to purchase a second fated engram, but they’re necessary toacquire legacy exotic gear from the new kiosk. Players can earn a new cypher by completing strikes and winning crucible or gambit matches. Gain bonus points for playing with clanmates or finishing more challenging activities.
Other than that, here are Xur’s three gear pieces this weekend:
Astrocyte Verse - Warlock helmet
The Astrocyte Verse helm is a solid movement focused exotic, similar to the St0MP-EE5 Hunter Boots or Lion Rampant Titan Boots.
It’s exotic perk is called Move to Survive and it allows Blink Warlocks to use the jumping motion more frequently and at a further distance. In addition, weapons ready quicker out of Blink and the Radar remains active. Obviously, this isn’t going to be a top tier exotic piece for warlocks as there are much better combat oriented armor. Still, for players who like using blink and need a bit of help withplatforming focused activities inDestiny 2, this one is worth a look. The stat roll is pretty interesting on these as well considering it provides a massive boost to mobility, something which Warlocks are not known for typically. However, this comes at a cost to resilience and recovery which are extremely low.
Void Enhanced. Stat Values:
The Bombardiers - Hunter leg armor
This week’s newest exotic item are The Bombardiers, originallyadded to the game during the Season of the Dawn. These exotic boots come with the perk called Parting gift which leaves behind an explosive with a short fuse after dodging.
Ultimately, The Bombardiers are not a must have. However, while there are much better class exotics out there for Hunters, these remain a fun option to play around with. Collectors will no doubt want to pick these up but for everyone else, your mileage may vary with what you get out of these.
One-Eyed Mask - Titan helmet
At one point, the One-Eyed Mask made Titan players a feared combatant in the game’s PvP modes. It was the go-to exotic thanks to the buffs it provided the wearer, thoughin 2019 the item was finally nerfedmaking Hunters and Warlocks quite happy. While it’s still a very strong PvP-oriented exotic, it’s certainly not the item it once was. Still, it’s absolutely worth a pick up for players who don’t have it or want a better roll.
The reason this item is a great Crucible item is due to its perk Vengeance. Any enemy that damages the wearer becomes highlighted and if the player can kill the marked player, they get an overshield.
Exotic Weapon
Merciless is a heavy weapon that has high damage output, especially against a single target. It’s a solid choice regardless of the mode, though Nightfalls and strikes make it a powerful choice. While it was once a sure pick from fans, players who want a little more bang for their buck may actually opt forweapons like the Jotunn, which isn’t a power weapon and has a bit of tracking as well.
Conserve Momentum continually charges the weapon faster when players get non-lethal hits, with the cycle resetting once the final kill is achieved. Pair that with its other perk, Impetus, players gain increased damage for a short time after quickly reloading following a kill.
Additional perks:
Here’s the complete rundown of Xur’s entire stock inDestiny 2for June 20, 2025:
Destiny 2: Beyond Lightis now available PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
