How does the Black Armour work?

[Malidictus]

I've asked this question throughout several threads and gotten SOME answers which pointed me in the right direction. However, I've yet to make heads or tails of anything surrounding the Black Armour, so I wanted to ask them directl:

1. Where do I find a "forge?" Everything the Black Armoury "requires access to a forge," but the game doesn't tell me what that is or where to find one. A comment from another thread pointed me to a couple of points in the EDZ where Forge Saboteurs spawn. I successfully found one of those and killed him but he dropped nothing. I identified a black box with the Black Armoury logo on it but was unable to interact with it. OK, now what?

2. Can I craft gear/weapons in the Black Armoury? Can I craft weapons/gear ANYWHERE in the game? I assume so since I keep getting weapon and gear components on item disassembly, but I have so far not been able to find anything that allows me to do so, in the Black Armoury or otherwise.

3. Is the Black Armoury locked in some way? Do I need to be of a certain Light Level? Do I need to finish a quest of some sort to access it? All of the tutorial videos I've seen on the matter are from 2018 and talk about "the new quests" with the "new Black Armoury" DLC, which I assume doesn't apply to the Steam/Shadowkeep re-release of the game. Specifically, all of the videos talk about following the "quest line" to get to a forge - a quest line which doesn't seem to exist any more.

I have honestly had an IMMENSELY frustrating time dealing with Destiny 2 so far, and The New Light quest doesn't help. The game dumped me in The Tower and told me to speak with a bunch of people I didn't know, take tasks from them with requirements I don't understand and reach a higher light level without giving me any clue as to HOW to achieve that. The Black Armoury is probably the most confusing so far, which annoys me because I'm told it's a good way to get SOME kind of LMG.

[Space Fart]

Yeah I'm not trying to get a god roll yet and while I'm at it I'm not even going for THE best weapons in the game either. My Subtle Calamity was low power score and I didn't really bother with it cause the arc damage bow that I forgot the name of is faster. Thanks for the drop pool info, I didn't realize why I sometimes got more than 1 weapon. Are they tied to Bounties or are they just random for finishing a forge ignition?

[Maskerader]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Veshter:

Thanks for the drop pool info, I didn't realize why I sometimes got more than 1 weapon. Are they tied to Bounties or are they just random for finishing a forge ignition?

To me, it always looked like they are totally random and nothing affects their drop.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Veshter:

My Subtle Calamity was low power score and I didn't really bother with it cause the arc damage bow that I forgot the name of is faster.

With the right perks Subtle Calamity (which has precision frame) can be almost as fast as lightweight-frame bows. I've got one that has below-600 ms draw time after a bit of masterworking. And several others that are a slightly above 600.

On top of that, it hits harder, can have better accuracy than a lightweight bow and can drop with Dragonfly+Explosive arrows which is one of the best PVE rolls for a bow.

[Space Fart]

Nice, I'll see if I can get that! Thanks for the help

[Malidictus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Weaselly:

So far, the only exceptional frame is the MG; Hammerhead is a scout rifle in disguise.

Wait, how is the Hammerhead a Scout Rifle AKA DMR in disguise? It works almost exacyly like the Halfan-D Assault Rifle, to the point where I often forget which one I have equppped. It'sa slow rate of fire automatic with heavy damage. Yes, it has decent range but again - so does the Halfan. Most rifles seem to have good range, in fact.

[Space Fart]

Good range and damage, you are better off using is as a scout rifle than an MG cause of ammo economy.

[Malidictus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Veshter:

Good range and damage, you are better off using is as a scout rifle than an MG cause of ammo economy.

Do any of the other LMGs in the game behave differently? I asked earlier in the thread and was told most of them had high damage, small magazines and limited ammo. I was specifically looking for something along the lines of Payday 2's KSP, with a 200 round magazine and 900 RPM, though obviously that would hit a lot less hard per individual shot. I may have misunderstood, but there were no such LMGs.

I personally tend to use the Hammerhead like a cannon, usually to burn down large targets with weakpoint hits or clear out groups of soft targets if I'm being swamped. Maybe it's because I have a Halfan as a Primary, but I don't see the merit of trying to snipe with it.

[EckyThump]

They don't really. There aren't that many in the game.
'Thunderlord', and 'Avalanche', feel very similar in terms of magazine size and fire rate. Thunderlord's rate of fire increases the longer it fires, which was great while effects that could auto-reload it existed (both nerfed to just 'faster reload' in season 8). Thunderlord is an exotic that may randomly drop for you, Avalanche was only available during last year's Christmas event. I never liked how it felt, very wobbly.
Fixed Odds (which you can get from the Menagerie activity) has a slower rate of fire (meaning slightly more damage per hit) and a similar magazine.

The season 8 season pass has one called 'Temporal Clause', I don't know if it's obtainable on F2P. I'm three levels away from it so can report back when I get hold of it. What I do know is that it does have a generous magazine size of 200. Season 8 will also be introducing one with a very slow rate of fire, and explosive shots, which sounds more like a heavy sniper rifle.

[Malidictus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

The season 8 season pass has one called 'Temporal Clause', I don't know if it's obtainable on F2P. I'm three levels away from it so can report back when I get hold of it. What I do know is that it does have a generous magazine size of 200. Season 8 will also be introducing one with a very slow rate of fire, and explosive shots, which sounds more like a heavy sniper rifle.

I honestly haven't looked at the Seasons much yet (I REALLY hate the "Season Pass" mechanic), but I'm not opposed to dropping money on a video game as long as what I get back is deterministic. I already dropped money on the Cade-6 campaign and I've been eyeing up the Moon campaign for a while. I think the bundle that that's in has a bunch of Season Passes in it, might grab that. "There's no such thing as a free lunch." All F2P games are designed to best experienced with some payment, so I come into these prepared to pay if I'm enjoying myself.

The Temporal Clause LMG that Google is showing me seems to have a 90-round magazine with the option of +20. However, it doesn't look like ass and has 900 RPM, so that's probably worth dropping Season Pass money on, provided I get up to that point. My progress is slow because I haven't even looked at what it takes to progress.

I'll definitely look around for more LMGs, though. Any with a deterministic method for earning them would be quite welcome.

[EckyThump]

Exactly. Destiny 2 wasn't built to be a F2P game, it's a paid game with yearly paid DLC, and now the base is free. F2P are effectively getting a demo version, which hopefully they enjoy enough to consider purchasing additional content.

Hmm, maybe I misread the magazine size. I'll check again what my pass shows.

Fixed Odds is another guaranteed drop, but you'll have to do some prep work first. I don't particularly like the feel of it, just saying. In the same way as unlocking the forges, you need to unlock the Menagerie with the 'Imperial Invitation' quest and obtain the 'Chalice of Opulence' in your Quest list. I would say that the existing guides on how to upgrade that, how to obtain the runes for it, and which runes are used in it to guarantee specific drops at the end of the run, are still accurate for New Light.

[Maskerader]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Malidictus:

Do any of the other LMGs in the game behave differently? I asked earlier in the thread and was told most of them had high damage, small magazines and limited ammo. I was specifically looking for something along the lines of Payday 2's KSP, with a 200 round magazine and 900 RPM, though obviously that would hit a lot less hard per individual shot. I may have misunderstood, but there were no such LMGs.

Machineguns in this game are different, most of them have slower rate of fire and can only fire for a few seconds until your magazine's empty. 200 ammo at 900 rpm means 13+ seconds of continuous fire, that's something you shoudn't expect to see in Destiny 2 on a regular basis, at the very best it will be a rare exception.

Anyway, there are several websites that allow you to search through all of the items that exist in this game, like these:
https://destinytracker.com
https://light.gg

Their interface are usually pretty confusing, that's a common thing for Destiny fansites...

[Malidictus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

Hmm, maybe I misread the magazine size. I'll check again what my pass shows.

Keep me posted. What you quoted initially definitely got my intertest :)

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

Fixed Odds is another guaranteed drop, but you'll have to do some prep work first. I don't particularly like the feel of it, just saying. In the same way as unlocking the forges, you need to unlock the Menagerie with the 'Imperial Invitation' quest and obtain the 'Chalice of Opulence' in your Quest list. I would say that the existing guides on how to upgrade that, how to obtain the runes for it, and which runes are used in it to guarantee specific drops at the end of the run, are still accurate for New Light.

Oh, gods... The "Chalice of Opulence" is another one of those quests I was planning to make a thread about because hell if I can figure out how it works. What is it with Destiny 2 and not explaining anything? I'm sitting on a Rat King quest that's riddles and a bunch of boxes boxes which don't tell me how to open them... I did have a brief look at the Chalice online, but most of the guides seemed to explain how to craft specific weapons... Not how to upgrade the Chalice or get the components, or anything that would get me TO the point of crafting weapons through it. They also didn't explain what a "Menagerie" is or where to find one, but a friend of mine pointed me in the right direction earlier today.

Seriously, Destiny 2 gives Warframe a run for its money in the category of aggressively hostile new player experience...

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Maskerader:

Machineguns in this game are different, most of them have slower rate of fire and can only fire for a few seconds until your magazine's empty. 200 ammo at 900 rpm means 13+ seconds of continuous fire, that's something you shoudn't expect to see in Destiny 2 on a regular basis, at the very best it will be a rare exception.

Yeah, I'm aware. Payday LMGs have a... Weird history. When they were introduced, they had nothing for ammo pick-up, did less damage than rifles and slowed down your movement speed. Then - on insistence from myself and others - they got rebalanced to be real guns with real pick-up, trading massive recoil and poor accuracy for ammo economy. Then "something" happened and LMGs got their damage tripled (~40 to 80-120 per shot, no joke) while also being given better accuracy and in some cases even better ammo pick-up. I think making them blatantly overpowered was the only way to get people to play them...

Point being, sure - I don't expect that kind of firepower in Destiny :) I was still hoping, though, that them being in the special Heavy weapon slot would allow them a bit more leeway for volume of fire. Instead, Destiny seems to have interpreted them as HEAVY machineguns. Which is fine, honestly. I'm loving my Hammerhead to bits and wasting massive amounts of resources trying to make it a Masterwork, probably against everyone's advise. I'll look into other LMGs as opportunity permits.

[EckyThump]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Malidictus:

Not how to upgrade the Chalice or get the components, or anything that would get me TO the point of crafting weapons through it. They also didn't explain what a "Menagerie" is or where to find one, but a friend of mine pointed me in the right direction earlier today.

The Chalice uses a special upgrade material called Imperials, of which there are several sources.

1 - Rewards from completing Triumphs

If you look at your Triumphs list, 'Destinations' icon, 'Minor' tab, there is one for Menagerie. Many of the triumphs here give you 500 imperials on completion. Of these, about half are for progress within the Menagerie itself, completing the objectives within the time limit, or doing something special within one of the sections. The other half are for completing Benedict 99-44's bounties.

2 - Benedict 99-44's bounties

Benedict 99-44 at the Tower (and another vendor on Nessus, on the floating barge in the Watcher's Grave area) sell weekly bounties. Meet whatever requirements they ask for, and you'll be given the locatiuon of a chest, open the chest to get a small amount of Imperials. There are 16 different bounties in total, rotating weekly in groups of four. For each specific bounty, completing it for the first time gives you one of the above triumphs with a 500 Imperial reward.

3 - Chests on the Nessus Barge

There are a number of golden chests on the barge, which can be opened for 5,000 Glimmer each. I think there are 15 of them. You get 150 Imperials each which is not much, but it's progress. These refresh weekly. You also get runes from these.

4 - Random drops from events

When you open the Chalice menu, and see the different unlocks, look for the unlock that says 'Imperials rarely drop from completing activities' - strikes, crucible, gambit and menagerie runs will then have a chance to drop 500 Imperials on completion. I'd recommend working towards this one first.
Benedict 99-44 sells a buff item that greatly increases the drop from these events, wearing off when the Imperials do drop. You can buy 3x of these per week.


So, upgrade the chalice, unlock the two rune slots on the chalice itself as well as the one that lets higher level runes drop. Using the combination of runes that you already found, you can guarantee a specific item from the Menagerie chest at the end.

[Space Fart]

The Misfit is an Arc damage Auto Rifle that you should probably try. It has very high fire rate and my drop had 57 bullets and it can shoot for a while. In therms of what you're looking for the Misfit is a better option that an MG. Although there should be similar fire rate auto rifles out there but I haven't checked. The Misfit is currently my fav AR, even tho I have the Black Armory ARs already.

As for a few comments above, there are an AR, MG and a Revolver that are available to F2P players without the season pass if I saw correctly. You can check that by pressing U and going to Season on the top right. Then scroll to the right until you come across them. If they are on the top row they are free, if they are on the bottom you need the pass.

[Malidictus]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

There are a number of golden chests on the barge, which can be opened for 5,000 Glimmer each. I think there are 15 of them. You get 150 Imperials each which is not much, but it's progress. These refresh weekly. You also get runes from these.

Wait,15 chests on the Nessus barge? But that thing's barely enough to house the dude inside. Where does it store 15 chests? I'll have to have another look :)

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

So, upgrade the chalice, unlock the two rune slots on the chalice itself as well as the one that lets higher level runes drop. Using the combination of runes that you already found, you can guarantee a specific item from the Menagerie chest at the end.

What do the Runes themselves drop from, though? I've only seen one random one that my quests forced me to slot into the chalice. I don't know if I need the other slots unlocked first before I can craft it, but I'm assuming that'll come up in due time?

[EckyThump]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Malidictus:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

There are a number of golden chests on the barge, which can be opened for 5,000 Glimmer each. I think there are 15 of them. You get 150 Imperials each which is not much, but it's progress. These refresh weekly. You also get runes from these.

Wait,15 chests on the Nessus barge? But that thing's barely enough to house the dude inside. Where does it store 15 chests? I'll have to have another look :)

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย EckyThump:

So, upgrade the chalice, unlock the two rune slots on the chalice itself as well as the one that lets higher level runes drop. Using the combination of runes that you already found, you can guarantee a specific item from the Menagerie chest at the end.

What do the Runes themselves drop from, though? I've only seen one random one that my quests forced me to slot into the chalice. I don't know if I need the other slots unlocked first before I can craft it, but I'm assuming that'll come up in due time?

When you speak to the guy on the barge, turn left or right through the doorway. Some passive Cabal guards are stood there, the chests are at the back.

As far as obtaining runes, you get them from Benedict's weekly bounties, and some of the Chalice's upgrades can add them to other loot sources. They come from the barge chests also. I mentioned Benedict's imperials buff items, there is one that can cause runes to drop too, and that lasts for 4 hours after you activate it.

You don't need to unlock all three slots in the chalice to craft an item but you'll at least need to unlock the second slot, and do the upgrade that allows 'blue runes' to drop, if you are specifically going for 'Fixed Odds'.