At long last, this week finally saw the launch of the highly anticipatedDestiny 2expansion, The Witch Queen. Overall, fans seem to be pretty pleased with the content on offer, which is no doubt good news forBungie after it announced over 1 million players had preordered the expansionweeks before release. Fans have discovered all sorts of new revelations, from the story beats, hidden secrets in Savathun’s Throne World, weapon crafting, and plenty more.
Alongside the new expansion and Season of the Risen content are a slew of new exotic gear for players to chase. TheDeluxe Edition exclusive SMG Osteo Strigahas already proven to be a hit with players, resembling a fast firing Thorn, capable of dishing out poison damage incredibly fast. Players can also obtain a Colossus style machine gun, an elemental grenade launcher, and plenty more as well.
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Today marks the first visit of the exotic merchant Xur inside of the Season of the Risen forDestiny 2. For better or worse, not much has changed. As always, follow this guide for his most current weekend location, news on his exotic cipher quest, as well as a review of all the exotic gear he’s brought for the weekend of July 17, 2025.
Where is Xur?
For the second straight weekend, players can track Xur back inside of the European Dead Zone in his usual spot overlooking the Winding Cove.
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 toacquire 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
Skull of Dire Ahamkara - Warlock helmet
The Skull of Dire Ahamkara was once the cream of the Warlock exotic crop. Bungie felt the item was too strong, however, and a nerf has made this helm a shadow of what it once was. It’s armor perk is Actual Grandeur which not only provides additional damage resistance when casting Nova Bomb, but kills grant super energy.
Naturally, this is a Voidwalker specific armor piece, but due to recent nerfs its hard to recommend over some other choices that Warlocks have access to like Nezarec’s Sin or Contraverse Hold. While this would have been a solid recommendation this week, especially with themajor changes to Void subclasses, this one isn’t recommended due to the very poor stat roll. In fact, many players are assuming something broke with the most recent update, as all three exotics have worse rolls than the collection versions.
Arc Enhanced. Stat Values:
Lucky Pants - Hunter leg armor
The Lucky Pants are back in stock this week, an exotic that has seen an uptick in usage thanks to some of the changes made in Season 15. Its intrinsic perk, Illegally Modded Holster, loads one round into the chamber of stowed hand cannons after a precision hit. In addition, hand cannons ready faster and have a bonus to accuracy after switching to them, which make these very useful for all of theHand Cannons thatDestiny 2has.
Unfortunately, these exotics, like the others, are difficult to recommend, not because they aren’t useful, but the roll on them is quite bad at a 48 total.
Void Enhanced. Stat Values:
Doom Fang Pauldrons - Titan gauntlets
The Doom Fang Pauldrons are back in stock this week. Its exotic perk, Horns of Doom, grant super energy on void melee kills. Not only that, melee kills recharge Shield Throw when Sentinel Shield is active, also extending the super on basic hits.
As hinted at earlier, these would normally be a must-have item forSentinel Titans, though the overall roll is incredibly bad. Therefore, players should save their resources until Bungie works out what has happened to Xur’s offerings.
Exotic Weapon
While not a go-to weapon, the underrated hand cannon Sunshot is back on sale this weekend with Xur. Sunburn, the intrinsic perk, causes the weapon to fire explosive rounds and causes enemies to become highlighted after taking damage. Its other unique perk, known as Sun Blast, causes targets to explode after being killed, not requiring a headshot like the similar perk, Dragonfly.
Once viewed as a mediocre exotic weapon choice, the hand cannon has since become a solid option in either PvE or PvP content, even with a large selection available to players this season. It’s a 150RPM hand cannon with explosive rounds, capable of chaining damage to multiple enemies that are too close together. It’s also advisable to grab theSunshot catalyst from certain playlistsfor it as it increases the weapon’s range and stability even further.
Additional perks:
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:
Dead Man’s Tale
Here’s the complete rundown of Xur’s exotic stock inDestiny 2for July 16, 2025:
Legendary Gear
As previously mentioned, Xur now sells Legendary Armor and Weapons. All gear costs 50 Legendary Shards and 1000 Glimmer.
Destiny 2is now available PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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