As you advance in the Destiny 2: Shadowkeep story, you’ll come across a mysterious artifact for Eris. It’s called the the Lectern of Enchantment, and you can use it to create powerful Moon weapons.
Once you’ve built your first version of each weapon, it’s easy to farm multiple guns. All you need is the currency and the time. But the first build isn’t so simple. If you want to build your first Loud Lullaby or Tranquility, you’ll need to find its correlated weapon piece somewhere on or in the Moon. That’s where we come in.
In this guide, we’ll show you all of the Moon weapons we’ve found so far and teach you how to find their hidden weapon parts.
Table of contents
- Finding new Essences
- Weapon part locations
- Love and Death grenade launcher – Bound Manacle, Essence of Insanity
- A Fine Memorial machine gun – Ethereal Charms, Essence of Greed
- Every Waking Moment submachine gun – Withered Plumes, Essence of Obscurity
- Tranquility sniper rifle – Horned Wreath, Essence of Vanity
- Loud Lullaby hand cannon – Necromantic Strand, Essence of Brutality
- Night Terror sword – Ralniks’ Hatchet, Essence of Jealousy
- Arc Logic auto rifle – Captive Cord, Essence of Failure
- One Small Step shotgun – Fangs of Shun’Gath, Essence of Rage
- Dream Breaker solar fusion rifle – Ehrath’Ur’s Horned Wreath, Essence of Servitude
Finding new Essences
The Essences to build weapons come from different locations, but most are randomly found on the Moon. If you’re looking for a specific weapon Essence, you can grind for them by completing the same Nightmare hunt as the Essence name. For examples, the Essence of Rage comes from fighting Ghaul in Nightmare Hunt: Rage.
Once you’ve unlocked an Essence, you won’t need to unlock it again, but you will need to buy it with the limited Phantasmal Core item. You can circumvent this by running the weekly rotating Nightmare Hunts. Higher difficulty hunts seem to have a higher Essence drop rate.
Weapon part locations
Each new Essence you get requires a weapon part. You only need to find each once, but some of them can be tricky to find if you’re just wandering the Moon.
Love and Death grenade launcher – Bound Manacle, Essence of Insanity
To earn the Bound Manacle for the Love and Death grenade launcher, you need to travel into the Gatehouse. To get there, go to the Hellmouth and look for the long, black building on the lunar surface. There’s a green glow coming from a doorway in the hall. Enter it, and follow the path down until you reach the Gatehouse.
You’ll find a big Hive Knight in the middle of the arena. Kill it, and it’ll drop the Bound Manacle.
A Fine Memorial machine gun – Ethereal Charms, Essence of Greed
The Ethereal Charms are in the Temple of Crota. Go to the Anchor of Light and take the right path down to a large door — on the map, it looks like you’re running toward The Scarlet Keep Strike icon. Kill enemies and go down into the Moon. You’ll eventually enter the Temple of Crota.
When you enter a large room with a lantern sunk into the floor — not the spiral staircase, but the room after that — walk around until you find what looks like a broken platform. You’ll see a pile of trash behind the platform. Sift through it to find the Ethereal Charms.
Every Waking Moment submachine gun – Withered Plumes, Essence of Obscurity
For the Withered Plumes, head into the Circle of Bones. Take any entrance into the Moon’s underground. The Circle of Bones is the central nexus connecting all of the tunnels. When you get into the Circle of Bones, look into the pit in front of you. Take the path right along the railway.
There are some Hive here — namely a shield champion. Use a weapon that can pierce their shield, like the new Eriana’s Vow hand cannon, and defeat them. On the ledge, you’ll find the Withered Plumes.
Tranquility sniper rifle – Horned Wreath, Essence of Vanity
The Horned Wreath isn’t easy to get to inside the Moon. Move into the Circle of Bones, the nexus that connects all of the inner tunnels together. Look to the center pit, and turn to your right. Enter the door and follow the path.
When you reach the room split into thirds, look for the dark steps leading further into the Moon. Follow this long path until you run into aa Unstoppable Ogre. Use aa Unstoppable weapon to take it down. The weapon part is at the back of the cave.
Loud Lullaby hand cannon – Necromantic Strand, Essence of Brutality
The Necromantic Strand is easy to find. Take the path into the Moon from the doorway in the Archer’s Line. Follow the path until you reach a small, circular area with a Wizard in it. Look for a spiked piece of cover sticking out of the ground. Grab the Necromantic Strand at its base.
Night Terror sword – Ralniks’ Hatchet, Essence of Jealousy
Ralniks’ Hatchet is easy to get to. Go to the Anchor of Light and enter the giant Fallen ship to the east. Follow the linear path until you run into a big Fallen Captain. Kill him, and he’ll drop Ralniks’ Hatchet.
Arc Logic auto rifle – Captive Cord, Essence of Failure
The Captive Cord is far away but easy to find if you know where to look. Land in Sorrow’s Harbor and make your way to the southeast exit. It’s a large, crimson bridge — hard to miss. Proceed through the battleground from the expansion’s first mission and into the first Moon area.
To your right is a tall building. Jump up, and you’ll find the Captive Cord sitting next to a wall.
One Small Step shotgun – Fangs of Shun’Gath, Essence of Rage
The Fangs of Shun’Gath aren’t just lying around somewhere on the Moon. Like the Love and Death grenade launcher, you need to kill something to get this piece. Go to the Circle of Bones through any outlet on the Moon. Look into the Hellmouth and turn right. Take the door on the corner — not the hole in the wall that leads to the Catacombs.
Follow the path until you find the circular room where you fought the Nightmare of Omnigul during the campaign, the World’s Grave. Look for a Thrall with a yellow health bar. This is Shun’Gath, and you need its teeth. Take the Thrall out and you’ll receive the Fangs of Shun’Gath.
Dream Breaker solar fusion rifle – Ehrath’Ur’s Horned Wreath, Essence of Servitude
Like a few of the other Essences, you’ll need to kill an enemy to pick up Ehrath’Ur’s Horned Wreath. Go to the Circle of Bones through any of the outlets on the lunar surface. Stand on the balcony, look into the Hellmouth, and head right. Instead of going down the corner door, take your first left and walk through a hole in the wall.
You’re now in the Catacombs. Go down the long stairs and into the dark room. There’s a yellow-bar Wizard floating around in here — Ehrath’Ur in the flesh. Kill her and she’ll drop her Horned Wreath.
There’s only one lunar essence left to find: the Essence of the void energy pulse rifle, Premonition. We won’t see this pulse rifle until the Shadowkeep dungeon’s launch, on Oct. 29.