The Heir Apparent Catalyst is finally live in Destiny 2, a year after the gun first entered the game. But there are two major downsides to the new Catalyst: It drops randomly and you can only complete it during the Guardian Games 2021 holiday event, which runs from April 20 to May 10.
In this Destiny 2 Heir Apparent Catalyst quest guide, we’ll show you the best way to pick up the Heir Apparent Catalyst and walk you though the steps for completing the quest once you have it.
How to get the Heir Apparent Catalyst
Turning in a Gold or Platinum medal to the Guardian Games podium will give you a chance at the Heir Apparent quest. It’s not guaranteed — as we’ve deposited a few Gold medals ourselves without getting it — but the drop rate seems generous based other player’s experiences.
To increase your chance at the quest, you need to deposit as many Gold or Platinum medals as you can get your hands on. There are some one-time Triumphs to get these medals, but Contender Cards and Platinum Cards are your best bet if you want to increase how many medals you have.
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Cards cost Laurels (the Guardian Games currency) — 100 for Contender Cards and 200 for Platinum Cards — and give you a random objective for your chosen activity. If you get a Strike Contender Card, you may need to defeat a certain amount of enemies using Solar or Stasis, for example. When you complete these cards, you’ll automatically deposit a Gold or Platinum medal in your Medal Case. Note that you can only hold three Gold and Platinum medals at once, so be sure to turn them in.
Keep earning and depositing Gold and Platinum medals until the “Competitive Catalyst” quest drops for you.
While we don’t have access to the quest yet, the steps have already been data-mined.
Step 1. Earn medal points
Once you’ve gotten the Heir Apparent Catalyst quest you’ll need to earn 50 medal points. Medal points come from turning in different kinds of medals to the Carpe Podium in the tower. You can also see how much your given medal is worth by hovering over the Crape Podium with your cursor:
- Bronze: 1 point
- Silver: 2 points
- Gold: 5 points
- Platinum: 15 points
You’ll need to turn in a lot of medals to move forward with this quest. If you have a group of friends, we recommend going for the Platinum medals via Platinum Cards to speed up this process. But if you’re just hanging out on your own, use Contender Cards to get Gold medals.
Step 2. Complete 3 Contender Cards
You should be familiar with Contender Cards at this point. Just grab a Contender Card for your favorite kind of activity and complete three of them to move the quest forward. Note that you can only hold one at a time.
Step 3. Competitive Spirit
Competitive Spirit is a unique currency that you can earn by defeating enemies with Machine Guns in the Daily Focus activity type. You need 90.
Grab a machine gun out of your vault or Collection — Xenophage is always a powerful option, but any should work. Keep it equipped and use it whenever you have ammo.
You’ll only gain Competitive Spirit in the Daily Focus playlist. The Daily Focus appears in your quest log on your map each day, and you’ll get bonus Laurels while in that activity type. The Daily Focus rotates between Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit each day.
Gambit and Strikes are both easy to get heavy ammo in, but the Crucible is not. We recommend waiting for a Strike or Gambit day in the Daily Focus before trying to complete this part of the quest.
The Heir Apparent Catalyst
Once you finish the quest and unlock the Catalyst, you’ll still need to get some kills with the Heir Apparent. Once you’ve finished the kill requirement, you can equip your new Catalyst.
In addition to generating Orbs of Power, like all Catalysts, the Heir Apparent Catalyst also adds the Legion’s Bulwark perk. Legion’s Bulwark improves the power of Heir Apparent’s Arc shield, and partially reloads your magazine whenever the shield breaks.