Where should I use the exotic cipher?

[Mister Shan]

It says to use it at the archive or Xur. Is there a difference? What is Xur? Is he that merchant that keeps moving? Should I make sure to use this before the season ends?

[Nakos]

The Kiosk is in the Tower. Xûr is the traveling vendor, his location shifts between three spots. Check the front page of Light.gg to see where he is this week (note that he doesn't show up until Friday afternoon).

The difference between the two is the stock.

The Kiosk has a huge collection of Exotic weapons from bygone seasons (and quest based Exotics that no longer have a quest system).

Xûr on the other hand has only two weapons that require a Cipher: Hawkmoon (an Exotic hand cannon), and Dead Man's Tale (an Exotic scout rifle), the reason Xûr carries these two, is because they are some of the few Exotic weapons to have variable perks. Each week, the specific roll on the perks changes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's crap. These two weapons pre-date the crafting system (that allowed crafting of a handful of specific Exotics), and will eventually be rolled into it. (Probably at the point when the release the Exotic instance rotation system, which will be at some point in S21, S22, or S23).

So ... the question is, what do you want? What kind of weapon are you looking for, and are you looking for PvP or PvE?

[Mister Shan]

Originally posted by Nakos:

The Kiosk is in the Tower. Xûr is the traveling vendor, his location shifts between three spots. Check the front page of Light.gg to see where he is this week (note that he doesn't show up until Friday afternoon).

The difference between the two is the stock.

The Kiosk has a huge collection of Exotic weapons from bygone seasons (and quest based Exotics that no longer have a quest system).

Xûr on the other hand has only two weapons that require a Cipher: Hawkmoon (an Exotic hand cannon), and Dead Man's Tale (an Exotic scout rifle), the reason Xûr carries these two, is because they are some of the few Exotic weapons to have variable perks. Each week, the specific roll on the perks changes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's crap. These two weapons pre-date the crafting system (that allowed crafting of a handful of specific Exotics), and will eventually be rolled into it. (Probably at the point when the release the Exotic instance rotation system, which will be at some point in S21, S22, or S23).

So ... the question is, what do you want? What kind of weapon are you looking for, and are you looking for PvP or PvE?

I'm not sure. I have had this game for years and it's the first time I REALLY got into it enough to complete the season pass and collect exotics. I guess I lean more PVP but idk maybe I will get into the raid stuff. I guess what is the best weapons you recommend for each? My favorite gun so far has always been Hard Light. I just find it really reliable and the bouncing off walls is fun. Is there anything like that?

[Ixamesh]

There're few sources of ciphers right now: weekly Xur quest is the main source, you can get one or two from the season pass track and an occasional cipher from a deluxe pack or some quests. Choose wisely. You can have a maximum of one cipher in your inventory although it may allow to claim more. Extra ciphers will dissapear. You'll be able to stack them up to 5 or so and use them to focus exotic armor next season, but the stack limit changes leaked early and are not working correctly.

Xur appears every Friday after daily reset (10 a.m. PDT), you can also check his location and stock on Vendors tab https://app.destinyitemmanager.com/
There's a different version for anniversary content in the Eternity. That one is a regular vendor.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Mister Shan:

I'm not sure. I have had this game for years and it's the first time I REALLY got into it enough to complete the season pass and collect exotics. I guess I lean more PVP but idk maybe I will get into the raid stuff. I guess what is the best weapons you recommend for each? My favorite gun so far has always been Hard Light. I just find it really reliable and the bouncing off walls is fun. Is there anything like that?

There are one or two other weapons with some kind of reflect, but the Hard Light is really the best at that (in my opinion). That's nice and all, but my personal favorite thing about the Hard Light is that you can swap Energy types on the fly.

Both Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon are considered fairly strong PvP weapons (again, it depends on the perk roll, I suggest check the front page of Light.gg, because that'll rate the roll each week). But that said, they're for specific purposes. Hand Cannons are fairly close range weapons, and require fairly good aim and reflexes. Scout Rifles are very long range weapons.

It depends on how you play (in PvP) do you prefer to engage over long distances? Or up close?

The Kiosk has lots of good weapons for both PvP and PvE.

The Witherhoard grenade launcher is excellent for both PvP and PvE, if you don't have one, I'd suggest putting that on your short list.
The Ace of Spades (Cayde-6's gun) is a perennial favorite.
Arbalest (linear fusion rifle), Trinity Ghoul (bow), Le Monarque (bow), Jötunn (fusion rifle).

There are other good ones, but those are all from the Kiosk.

Do note also, Xûr has a quest for an Exotic Cipher (you can only hold one at a time). The quest is to complete 21 playlist activities, it's repeatable. It resets one week after you turn it in. So if you can do it in one weekend (before reset) then it'll reset by the following Friday. Otherwise, it'll be longer.

[Mister Shan]

Originally posted by Nakos:

Originally posted by Mister Shan:

I'm not sure. I have had this game for years and it's the first time I REALLY got into it enough to complete the season pass and collect exotics. I guess I lean more PVP but idk maybe I will get into the raid stuff. I guess what is the best weapons you recommend for each? My favorite gun so far has always been Hard Light. I just find it really reliable and the bouncing off walls is fun. Is there anything like that?

There are one or two other weapons with some kind of reflect, but the Hard Light is really the best at that (in my opinion). That's nice and all, but my personal favorite thing about the Hard Light is that you can swap Energy types on the fly.

Both Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon are considered fairly strong PvP weapons (again, it depends on the perk roll, I suggest check the front page of Light.gg, because that'll rate the roll each week). But that said, they're for specific purposes. Hand Cannons are fairly close range weapons, and require fairly good aim and reflexes. Scout Rifles are very long range weapons.

It depends on how you play (in PvP) do you prefer to engage over long distances? Or up close?

The Kiosk has lots of good weapons for both PvP and PvE.

The Witherhoard grenade launcher is excellent for both PvP and PvE, if you don't have one, I'd suggest putting that on your short list.
The Ace of Spades (Cayde-6's gun) is a perennial favorite.
Arbalest (linear fusion rifle), Trinity Ghoul (bow), Le Monarque (bow), Jötunn (fusion rifle).

There are other good ones, but those are all from the Kiosk.

Do note also, Xûr has a quest for an Exotic Cipher (you can only hold one at a time). The quest is to complete 21 playlist activities, it's repeatable. It resets one week after you turn it in. So if you can do it in one weekend (before reset) then it'll reset by the following Friday. Otherwise, it'll be longer.

Wow. All these years and I had NO IDEA you could switch elements on Hard Light. That would have been so helpful when doing all those crucible dailies. How is that useful though for PVP and PVE? Is there a way to tell who has a weakness to a certain element?

I think I am going to go with the Ave Of Spades. That looks like a lot of fun. Just one chance to hit someone with Witherhoard doesn't sound too fun.

I am confused as to what you mean by checking the rolls at light.gg .... Is that for the kiosk as well? Where on the main page do they go into that?

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Mister Shan:

Wow. All these years and I had NO IDEA you could switch elements on Hard Light. That would have been so helpful when doing all those crucible dailies. How is that useful though for PVP and PVE? Is there a way to tell who has a weakness to a certain element?

Well, for me it's mostly about breaking shields, and those you can tell by the color.

There's also a race/species bias:
Fallen tend to use Arc shields
Cabal tend to use Solar shields
Vex tend to use Void shields
The Hive tend to use Solar
Scorn use all three
Taken tend to use Void

But in any grouping, you might find elites that use off-brand shields.

Originally posted by Mister Shan:

I think I am going to go with the Ave Of Spades. That looks like a lot of fun. Just one chance to hit someone with Witherhoard doesn't sound too fun.

Witherhoard is extremely powerful in PvP, I suck at PvP (seriously, I can't emphasize enough how awful I am at it), yet even I can get kills with the Witherhoard.

The Witherhoard drops a DoT. If you hit with it, it applies the DoT directly to whatever you shot at, but even if you DON'T hit with it, it still drops a fairly wide area of Witherhoard mist on a spot, and that too will kill just about anything that enters it. The Witherhoard is one of the most powerful single target weapons in the game. (It's not as good at add clearing as something like the Osteo Striga, but for bosses, or PvP, it's really strong).

Not to say that the Ace of Spades isn't fun too, that's probably one of my favorite Hand Cannons.

Originally posted by Mister Shan:

I am confused as to what you mean by checking the rolls at light.gg .... Is that for the kiosk as well? Where on the main page do they go into that?

Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon have variable perks. Each week the specific version (of those two weapons) that Xûr has in stock will be different.

The weapons in the Kiosk however have fixed perks, they never change.


The structure of Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon is similar to the Exotic Pulse Rifle Revision Zero (from S19). That too can be variable, but that's crafted, so you can choose which perks you personally like best (eventually, you have to level up crafted weapons before all the perks unlock).

As I've mentioned elsewhere, eventually Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon are supposed to be added to the craftable list, but I don't know how soon that'll be.