Exotic items are the rarest items that can be found in the game. Legendary items being the second rarest. Exotic items differ from Legendary gear mainly through their unique exotic weapon perks. Depending on your gear and how the synergy between exotic weapons and skill load outs, exotic weapons can be very useful to a Guardian's build.
Grinding for exotic weapons can be terribly hard since players will be required to perform certain missions and tasks repeatedly. However there are other means of obtaining Exotic weapons outside and within the game.
In-game rewards. During the Destiny 2 Beta, although unsure if it was done on purpose due to the testing phase, players will be able to acquire one Exotic weapon for the class they play during the Introduction mission: "Homecoming". Players may receive Exotic weapons for simply playing the campaign mode of Destiny 2.
It is also possible for players to receive Exotic weapons from playing in the Crucible. It is also currently the fastest way to obtain loot due to the shortness of matches with the new Crucible mechanics. The percentage of obtaining Exotic weapons this way is extremely low and may heavily rely on the player's performance for each match.
Players are rewarded with loot for completing the mission. However, trying to obtain an Exotic weapon through Strike missions is going to take longer than through the Crucible and may become too repetitive and boring without the competitiveness of the Crucible. In Destiny 1, players were able to receive Exotic engrams that could be turned into Exotic weapons. In Destiny 2, however, it is still unclear if they will be bringing back Strike Playlists and their engrams.
In Destiny: The Taken King, players can purchase Exotic items from Xur. He offers Exotic weapon and armor engrams as well as Legacy engrams that turn into Year One exotics and players can even buy special coins that increase the chance of an exotic item drop from a kind of boss known as "ultra".
Xur is closely connected to the Traveler which is where players may usually find him during his weekly peddling of Exotic weapons. However, In Destiny 2, we are shown that the Traveler is being taken over by Ghaul or Gary and his Red Legion. It is highly possible that Xur or a replacement for Xur will return to Destiny 2 but on a different planet. Theories point towards Titan and/or Io as possible locations for Xur's new peddling zones.
For a limited time, if players pre-ordered Destiny 2, they would receive an Exotic Weapon named the Coldheart. A Trace Rifle that shoots a linear beam that deals continuous damage over time. Bundled together with the Coldheart was a Kill tracker Ghost, and an exclusive dance emote.
In Destiny 1, Bungie and Red Bull teamed together to promote their products; offering in-game loot through redeem codes. The codes could be found underneath the tab of the Red Bull can.
In Destiny 2, Bungie paired up with Rockstar Energy to promote both products; offering in-game loot for Destiny 2, limited edition video games, Play Station 4 consoles and a Rockstar Energy themed motorcycle.
The Destiny 2 beta showed us a total of 3 Exotic weapons that were locked to each class playable. Each of these weapons could be obtained by simply playing the first mission, Homecoming. Players would simply follow the path and once they got to the refugee zone, they will go through the armory and pick up their Exotic weapon. We expect these weapons to be available to all classes when Destiny 2 launches.
The Sweet Business is an Auto Rifle designed similar to a minigun/light machine gun(LMG). It must wind up first before it can fire any bullets but when it does, it fires at rapid speed. As a kinetic weapon, using the Sweet Business was exciting to use. Bringing us back to the days of the old Doom 1 classic and the Serious Sam series.
Getting the right timing on winding up and maintaining the wind up of the auto rifle may take some getting use to but once you get the hang of it you may never want to use another rifle ever again. Delivering insanely rapid rounds per minute and decent accuracy and power for an auto rifle firing at such a speed makes the Sweet Business worthy of its name. ..."I love my job."
The Sunshot, a hand cannon, meant for burning your foes with bullets that ignite your enemies and highlight them with red flames. We had to use the Hunter for this Exotic weapon and the Sunshot was one of our favorite hand cannons in the game. Burning our enemies and setting them ablaze upon death was fun and not to mention its strangely shaped revolving chamber that resembles some tropical fruit. If an enemy dies while the Sun burn effect is active, they will explode in a caustic finale; dealing damage to nearby enemies. The sleek design will make gun enthusiasts marvel at its engineering design but we did have one small problem with it. Its low ammo capacity and underwhelming sound upon firing at your target. It didn't sound like a hand cannon nor did it feel like a hand cannon. It did the damage of a hand cannon but the handling and stability felt weird despite how easy it was to aim with very minimal recoil.
In our other article about submachine guns, we mentioned that they were in a weird position during the beta but out of all the submachine guns, the Riskrunner was the only one that functioned well. The Riskrunner has a built in Arc Conductor which occasionally releases a chain of arc lightning when it is active. Damaging enemies with a chain lightning and returning a small amount of ammo. When the Arc Conductor is active, the Riskrunner becomes more powerful when the user is taking Arc damage. Making the user more resistant to Arc Damage. In order for players to use this weapon during the beta, they had to use the Warlock class to preview it.
The Coldheart is a Trace Rifle. Similar to a fusion rifle, players must hold the trigger while firing the Coldheart. It will fire a continuous stream of white beam that can do massive amounts of damage over time. We have yet to actually test the Coldheart since players who have pre-ordered Destiny 2 will only receive it once the game has launched.
