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If you played Destiny, you may be familiar with Xur, the weekly exotic item merchant. In Destiny 2, he’s back, and he can now appear all over the map. This week, he’s in the hangar of the Tower, and there’s a helpful icon on the planet map to show you where he is. You can find Xur hiding out on the stairs behind Dead Orbit.
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Xur’s inventory this week consists of the following:
- Tractor Cannon, Exotic shotgun: 29 Legendary Shards
- Knucklehead Radar, Hunter helmet: 23 Legendary Shards
- Actium War Rig, Titan chest piece: 23 Legendary Shards
- Transversive Steps, Warlock boots: 23 Legendary Shards
- Fated Engram: 97 Legendary Shards
- Three of Coins: 31 Legendary Shards
Each of the items comes at a maximum power level of 305 — a base power of 300, plus a Legendary (purple) mod that raises the value by five. This scales to your character’s power level, so make sure you’re buying Xur exotics on your highest level character.
Tractor Cannon
Tractor Cannon is an exotic shotgun. Its exotic perk, Repulsor Force, causes the weapon to fire powerful impulses that push enemies away from the user. Its secondary perk, The Scientific Method, makes damaging opponents temporarily increase the weapon’s stats.
Tractor Cannon is a cool looking gun that’s fairly fun to use. However, it isn’t particularly lethal. When you equip a weapon in your heavy slot, you usually hope that it could at least one-shot a Vex Goblin. The Tractor Cannon can’t do that, but it can push them far away. This is fun for launching things off ledges. The Tractor Cannon is especially fun in PvP if you really feel like ruining someone’s day. If you want a challenge, pick this up. If you’re looking for a powerful shotgun, skip it.
Knucklehead Radar
Knucklehead Radar is a powerful PvP, Hunter helmet. Its exotic perk, Upgraded Sensor Pack, will constantly provide you with a radar, even while aiming down sites. This is a great helmet in PvP or Trials, where your radar is extremely important. However, the MIDA Multi-Tool has this same perk, which could make the helmet redundant. For that reason, it’s not as powerful as something like Foetracer. If you don’t have this helmet yet, pick it up and keep it with you for PvP emergencies.
Actium War Rig
The Actium War Rig is an extremely powerful Titan chest piece. Its exotic perk, Auto-loading Link, will constantly reload your auto rifles as you fire them. If you’re a fan of auto rifles — especially ones with larger than average magazines — this is an incredible exotic. When pairing Actium War Rig with the Sweet Business exotic auto rifle, the clip will refill with 10 rounds every few seconds, allowing the minigun to truly feel unique. If you ever use auto rifles, this chest piece is an absolute must have.
Transversive Steps
Transversive Steps are the Warlock speedy boots, and they’re a very good catch-all exotic. Their exotic perk, Strange Protractor, increases your sprint speed and automatically reloads your energy weapons. The reloading is secondary to just how powerful movement speed is in Destiny 2. Make sure to pick them up if you don’t have them yet.
Fated Engram
The Fated Engram is new as of the Dec. 12 update. Buying one may be expensive, but it guarantees you an exotic that you don’t have. If you find yourself drowning in Legendary Shards and missing a few key Exotics, this is a pretty great way to spend your Shards. You can only get one per account, once a week. However, some players are reporting that the Fated Engram is failing to give them new exotics. Buyer beware.
Three of Coins
This old farming buff has returned from the Destiny graveyard to help you farm exotics. Also new as of Dec. 12, Three of Coins is a four-hour buff that increases the odds of Exotic engrams dropping in the wild. Bungie clarified their effectiveness, and they don’t seem particularly worth the steep Legendary Shard cost at the moment.