How To Unlock Destiny 2: Beyond Light's Exotic Cloudstrike Sniper Rifle
The first completion of the Destiny 2: Beyond Light new Deep Stone Crypt raid has unlocked a bevy of new weapons, and you are in luck if you are a big fan of sniper rifles. Here is how to acquire the new exotic sniper rifle Cloudstrike.
What is Cloudstrike?
Cloudstrike is an arc exotic sniper rifle. It features the following perks:
- Fluted Barrel: greatly increases handling speed, slightly increases stability.
- Alloy Magazine: faster reloads when the magazine is empty.
- Hand-Laid Stock: increases stability.
- Stormbringer: rapid precision hits create a lightning storm at the point of impact.
Its intrinsic perk is “Mortal Polarity.” Precision final blows will generate a lightning storm at the target’s location. This should be an especially useful weapon when dealing with bosses, especially in PVE (player v. environment) activities like Gambit.
Players will need to have finished the Destiny 2: Beyond Light campaign to acquire this weapon. Empire Hunts, the “Hard Rain Falls” quest, and other aspects of this weapon’s quest requirements can only be done if the campaign is complete.
Speak to the Exo Stranger and Acquire the “A Hard Rain Falls” Quest
Guardians will first want to speak to the Exo Stranger who will give them the “A Hard Rain Falls” Quest. This quest requires Guardians to “subdue the plans of House Salvation” by killing enemies and completing public events and patrols in the current Eclipsed Zone. You will need to reach 1000 points to complete the quest. Here are a few things to note:
- The location of the Eclipsed Zone will change every week. This week the Eclipsed Zone is the Asterion Abyss, but last week it was in the Eventide Ruins. We would imagine the Cadmus Ridge is likely next. The location of the current Eclipsed Zone should appear on your map. You will know you are in the right location when you see debris raining down upon the ground.
- Heroic events and powerful combatants will grant Guardians the most progress. The three public events on Europa are Crux Convergence, Glimmer Extraction, and Spire Integration. Crux Convergence is the only new public event. It is not terribly difficult to make any of these public events heroic, especially if you are with a fellow clan member.
- Powerful enemies spawn pretty frequently throughout Europa. We would recommend chasing them down to advance the quest more quickly.
Unlock Europa Explorer I and Europa Explorer II
Guardians should speak to Variks to unlock the Europa Explorer I and Europa Explorer II tiers. The Europa Explorer I tier will make Europa’s weapon quests available. Guardians will need to kill 50 enemies with kinetic weapons, 50 enemies with energy weapons, and 25 enemies with power weapons to fully unlock this tier. We would recommend grabbing additional bounties from Variks and Banshee-44 while completing this quest to further gain XP.
The Europa Explorer II tier will unlock various difficult levels (Adept, Hero, Legend, Master) for Empire Hunts. These levels of difficulty are like the ones that already exist for Nightfall Strike and Nightmare Hunts on the Moon. Guardians will need to kill 30 powerful or “yellow bar” enemies in Empire Hunts. We would recommend trying to get all your kills within one Empire Hunt or you will otherwise need more Herealways pieces.
If you do need to complete additional Empire Hunts to finish off this tier, we would suggest having unlocked Empire Hunt I, Europan Protector II, and/or Europan Protector III. Empire Hunt I will make Empire Hunts cost less Herealways pieces. Europan Protector II and III will make it easier to acquire Herealways pieces.
The Europa Explorer II tier will unlock various difficult levels (Adept, Hero, Legend, Master) for Empire Hunts. These levels of difficulty are like the ones that already exist for Nightfall Strike and Nightmare Hunts on the Moon. Guardians will need to kill 30 powerful or “yellow bar” enemies in Empire Hunts. We would recommend trying to get all your kills within one Empire Hunt or you will otherwise need more Herealways pieces.
If you do need to complete additional Empire Hunts to finish off this tier, we would suggest having unlocked Empire Hunt I, Europan Protector II, and/or Europan Protector III. Empire Hunt I will make Empire Hunts cost less Herealways pieces. Europan Protector II and III will make it easier to acquire Herealways pieces.
Farm Empire Hunts
Guardians will find an icon for Empire Hunts on the Europa map once they have unlocked Europa Explorer II. This is where Guardians will finally be able to acquire Cloudstrike. The exotic sniper rifle is truly a random drop. The difficulty level does not appear to impact how frequently Cloudstrike will drop and there does not seem to be a specific enemy that, if killed, would grant you the weapon. We would recommend selecting the difficulty level you are most comfortable with.
Are you more interested in swords than in sniper rifles? You can check out our guide for acquiring the new exotic sword The Lament here. This weapon can do massive amounts of damage to bosses and is a must-have for raids.
Images courtesy of Bungie.
Are you more interested in swords than in sniper rifles? You can check out our guide for acquiring the new exotic sword The Lament here. This weapon can do massive amounts of damage to bosses and is a must-have for raids.
Images courtesy of Bungie.
