Every Friday is a holiday when you're a Destiny fan.
That's when Xur, Agent of the Nine, appears in a random part of the game's social spaces to peddle his rare weapons and armor. As long as you have enough Strange Coins, a rare currency that can be picked up from random loot drops, Xur has the goods for you.
Xur deals in Destiny's so-called "exotic" gear. In a game ruled by random loot drops, exotics are the most sought-after of them all. They're also the only class of gear in the game with usage restrictions; namely, you can only have one exotic armor piece and one exotic weapon equipped at any given moment.
Xur's in the Tower or the Vestian Outpost from 4 a.m. ET on Friday to 4 a.m. ET on Sunday. He's in the Tower this week. Turn left when you first spawn, then follow the hallway in front of you toward the Speaker's Chamber section of the Tower. Xur is directly across from the Chamber, standing right in front of the giant set of doors.
An Insurmountable Skullfort (Titan helmet)
IMAGE: BUNGIE/ACTIVISION
Welcome to Year Two, An Insurmountable Skullfort. You're going to see a lot more use now than you ever did before.
On the surface, Skullfort is a Titan Strikers-only situation. The signature upgrade, Improved Transfusion, gives you the ability to have up to two melee charges stored and triggers health regen with every Storm Fist kill (the Striker's melee). That's supported by Invigoration, which grants bonus melee energy when you pick up an Orb of Light, and a one-or-the-other upgrade: Hands-On, which gives you bonus Super energy for melee kills in PvE, and Heavy Lifting, which does the same for heavy weapon kills.
Strikers definitely enjoy the added benefit of health regen from Storm Fist kills with An Insurmountable Skullfort, but Sunbreakers and Defenders shouldn't overlook it. The extra melee charge, which is a new feature for the Year Two version of this helmet, benefits both of the other subclasses enough that the Storm Fist-centric nature of the signature upgrade is easily overlooked.
Cost: 13 Strange Coins
Young Ahamkara's Spine (Hunter gauntlets)
IMAGE: BUNGIE/ACTIVISION
Another Year Two upgrade. This one doesn't change a whole lot, so it's capabilities and uses are still the same. The signature upgrade for Young Ahamkara's Spine specifically benefits Hunter Gunslingers, providing an additional Tripmine Grenade charge and extending the amount of time a Tripmine remains active.
Gunslingers tend to be more common in PvP or lower-level PvE activities, since both the Bladedancer's stealth and the Nightstalker's support abilities are hard to pass up for tougher challenges. And that works just fine for these gauntlets. Having two Tripmines that last longer is useful for area control and denial, which is a particular concern in PvP. If you can lock down a couple of doorways with explosives, that's two less flanking routes to worry about.
Young Ahamkara's Spine also comes with two different pairs of upgrades where only one of each can be equipped at a time. There's Hand Cannon Loader and Sniper Rifle Loader, which gives you the choice between boosting the reload speed for either of those weapon classes. Then there's Fastball and Momentum Transfer; the former increases grenade throwing distance and the latter gives you bonus melee energy when your grenade deals damage.
Cost: 13 Strange Coins
The Impossible Machines (Warlock gauntlets)
IMAGE: BUNGIE/ACTIVISION
Warlock Stormcallers, you lucky rascals. You get the only actual "new" exotic (as in brand new and not just a Year Two upgrade) that's for sale this week.
The signature upgrade gives Stormcallers the Landfall perk, which delivers a bonus shockwave attack at the moment the Stormtrance Super ability is activated. So if you're surrounded and you pop your Super, Landfall immediately zaps everything around you.
The armor also serves up two either/or upgrade trees, just like Young Ahamkara's Spine. Pulse Rifle Loader or Fusion Rifle Loader boosts the reload speed of the referenced weapon class. Then there's Snap Discharge, which increases melee attack speed, versus Impact Induction, which gives you bonus grenade energy for every melee hit.
If you're using The Impossible Machines, look at pairing the free Landfall with Superconductor, which improves the effectiveness of Stormtrance's chain lightning, in PvE activities. Ionic Blink, which lets you teleport around while the Super is active, could be more helpful in PvP since most of the Crucible arenas are so tight and teams tend to cluster together already.
Cost: 13 Strange Coins
Random Engrams
Year Two brings an end to Xur's guaranteed weekly weapon offering, as many of the new exotic weapons have shifted to quest rewards. Now he'll bring along either a weapon or a random exotic engram (it costs 19 Strange Coins) that hasn't yet been decoded, meaning you've got to visit the Cryptarch to see what it is. The new engrams always roll with a Light Level of 290.
For this first week of Year Two, you can grab an exotic helmet engram. Due to the way engrams now work post-The Taken King, every one the Cryptarch decodes has an increased chance of turning into an exotic you didn't have in your inventory yet. So if you've been saving up those Strange Coins, you can spend a bunch this week to get yourself some fancy, new helmets.
Year Two Xur will also be selling a Legacy Engram (31 Strange Coins) every week. This is specifically aimed at collectors that want to possess every single exotic in the game. The engram only spits out Year One gear, but it's essential for filling any holes you might have in your arsenal. This first week's Legacy Engram is for heavy weapons.
Consumables
The Xur inventory tweaks don't stop there. Xur's selection of consumables — which used to include weapon telemetries — is smaller now. You can still buy rare Sparrow upgrades: this week's options include a Plasma Drive that boosts the speed and durability of rare (blue) Sparrows and adds a blue contrail and an Emerald Coil, which works the same as a Plasma Drive but gives the Sparrow a green contrail. They cost 23 Strange Coins apiece.
Xur also still sells bundles of Heavy Ammo Synthesis, which refills your supply of heavy shots when used. The bundles are smaller now, however. You get three synths for every one Strange Coin you spend (it used to be five-for-one).
Finally, we have something completely new: Three of Coins. Sold in stacks of five for 7 Strange Coins a bundle, Three of Coins is a consumable that boosts your chances of scoring an exotic drop from the next Ultra-class enemy you face.
We're not clear on how the actual numbers shake out just yet, but if you've got a bunch of Strange Coins lying around, there's no harm in buying a few stacks of these. Xur's weekly exotic offering is steady and reliable, but Three of Coins plays into the thrill of Destiny's inherent randomness. It makes those end-of-Strike boss fights that much more exciting.
If you want to dive even deeper on the relative value of Xur's offering this week, head over to the Destiny subreddit. User aWrySharK (he's on Twitter now, too) is back this week withanalysis of each armor offering's stat rolls. Join the discussion for this week right here.
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