Destiny 2’s Exotic Thunderlord Quest Is Back — Here’s How To Get The Gun

Back in October and November, Destiny 2‘s Festival of the Lost brought back Thunderlord, a lightning-slinging machine gun of original Destiny fame. Since the timed quest to retrieve it expired, though, any players who didn’t earn Thunderlord have been hoping it to earn it randomly from the pool of Exotics that sometimes drop as they play. As part of the festivities of its Arc Week event, though, the Thunderlord quest is back, and if you haven’t completed it, you absolutely should.

The multi-part Exotic quest to grab Thunderlord is back with Update 2.2.1, and you’ve got until April 23 to grab it. Part of the experience is the chance to revisit the Cosmodrome, a location from the original Destiny that’s not available in Destiny 2 in any other way. After the quest vanishes again, you’ll have to get your Thunderlord from the Exotics pool, which means the chances of it dropping are extremely low.

To start the Thunderlord quest and hunt down the killer of Master Ives, the Cryptarch from Destiny’s Reef area, head to Amanda Holliday in the Tower. She’ll give you Master Ives’ journal, which requires players to search for the missing pages from Ives’ diary out in the world. Here’s how to solve the mystery and get Thunderlord.

Step 1: The Crytarch’s Journal

Clearing that first step is actually pretty easy to accomplish. There are 10 pages to acquire, and players can get them either by finding Legendary engrams in various activities–including Gambit, the Crucible, Strikes, and everything else you already do in Destiny 2–or from killing tougher Fallen enemies in the EDZ on Earth.

Actually snagging all the pages is an easy feat to knock out if you head to the EDZ. You’re looking for Fallen with orange-colored health bars, which are otherwise known as Elite bad guys. You need the orange enemies in particular; you won’t get pages from Majors, who have yellow health bars, like the ones designated as high-value targets, for instance.

The quickest way to find Elite Fallen to kill in the EDZ is to find a public event and join it. The Glimmer Mining event that takes place in various places in the EDZ is a solid bet, especially if you knock it up to its Heroic level. You won’t get a page for every Elite you kill, but the drop rate is pretty high–one or two public events should do it.

If you don’t feel like messing around on Earth, you can also spend some shards at the Cryptarch in the Tower to quickly gather up the Legendary engrams you need to complete the step. That method will cost you 250 Legendary shards if you buy 10 engrams to get all 10 pages. Given how easy it is to get the pages in the EDZ or by earning Legendaries organically, though, you probably don’t need to waste the shards.

Step 2: Hunting The Fallen

The second step is almost as quick and easy as the first. It returns you to the EDZ, this time to complete four Lost Sectors. You’ll start with a batch of three that need cleaning out: Atrium, Widow’s Walk, and Terminus East. If you’re not familiar with the names, those are the three Lost Sectors located in the Trostland area of the EDZ.

You’ll find Atrium in the church where Devrim Kay hangs out, Widow’s Walk in the northwest corner of the area, and Terminus East in the northeast corner. Once you’ve wrecked the Major enemies in all three, you’ll get a new step that directs you to yet another Lost Sector, called Whispered Falls.

Jump on your Sparrow and drive west to the Outskirts area, and look for the Lost Sector up in the hills in the west end of the area. It’s north of the narrower portion of the map you drive through to access Winding Cove.

Kill the Major in Whispered Falls and you’ll need to wait for Amanda Holliday to summon you back to the Tower. She’ll eventually give you new coordinates, which will send you to the third and final stage of the quest.

Step 3: Return To The Cosmodrome

Your final step for the mission unlocks when you’re prompted to return to Amanda Holliday. She’ll identify a strange teleporter in Earth’s European Dead Zone you should go check out–it’s actually a Mission that starts you on the final step of the quest. To get there, warp into the Winding Cove location in the EDZ, then ride east toward the Outskirts. You’ll find the mission start in the northern part of the canyon in the Whispered Falls Lost Sector. Fight your way inside to reach the teleporter.

Starting the mission warps you back to the Cosmodrome, the place where Destiny players first started way back in the beginning of the original game. You’re basically following the path of the very first Destiny mission, fighting through Fallen into the Wall around the Cosmodrome. Keep following the mission markers until you get inside, where you’ll face a big battle with a Fallen Captain called Kikliss, Murderer, and a huge batch of minion enemies.

This is the toughest fight of the mission by far, so bring your best guns and try to keep moving. Smaller Fallen enemies will continually spawn into the battle, so Supers that take out lots of enemies at once or are good for crowd control will help. Once you damage Kikliss enough, a giant Servitor will join the fight, which makes it even more annoying. Try to keep space between you and Kikliss while you focus your fire on the Servitor, since it can make other enemies invincible–including the boss.

Killing the Servitor should make it a little easier to take down Kikliss, which is your main objective for the mission. Once you do, you’ll be prompted to fight your way back out the Cosmodrome. Back outside, you’ll get a message from Amanda Holliday suggesting that this could be your last time back in the Cosmodrome, and you’ll see an objective prompt reading, “Leave The Cosmodrome?” It seems Destiny 2 is suggesting there might be more secrets to find hidden in Russia, so take your time in leaving to look around. We haven’t found whatever secret the game is hinting at just yet, but we’ll update this guide when we do.

If you approach the teleporter near where you started, you’ll be sent back to orbit and prompted to return to Holliday in the Tower. When you do, she’ll wonder about what the Fallen who killed Master Ives were really after, but she’ll also thank you for avenging his death. Your final reward is a “trinket” she found in his stuff, which is none other than the sparking machine gun Thunderlord. The Exotic goes in your Heavy weapon slot, and carries the “Reign Havoc” perk, which causes lightning strikes from the sky as you rack up kills with bullets.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2s-exotic-thunderlord-quest-is-back-heres-/1100-6462886/