Destiny 2: Xur Exotic Armor, Weapon, and Recommendations for Aug 16

Even with the recent delay to Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and the free-to-play version New Light, Bungie hasn't remained silent. In fact, the company has provided fans with a ton of new information about the franchise and what's coming down the road thanks to Luke Smith, who began posting his multi-part Director's Cut blog. Part one took a look back on the past 6 months of the Annual Pass, while Part 2 focused on upcoming changes to things like Power Levels, Prime Engrams, and player agency.

In addition to the detailed and informative blog posts, the studio also held its first Shadowkeep livestream, showing off more of the Armor 2.0 changes and how players will be able to interact with it once October 1 arrives. The system is intended to be more flexible in letting players customize their gear with the mods they want, rather than have to decide between looking cool or being functional.

While fans continue to wait for more livestreams from Bungie, the weekend exotic merchant Xur has finally returned to the game world with a new stock of items for Destiny 2 players to pick through. Here's where players can find Xur, and check out what exotic gear is in his inventory, for the weekend of August 16, 2019.

Where is Xur?

This weekend, players need to travel to Saturn's moon Titan to find the odd merchant. Fast travel to The Rig to get started.

Once loaded in, start heading to the other side of the zone towards the ramp that leads to the Solarium. Before reaching that ramp, Xur can be found inside one of the nearby houses, typically on the left side if the player is facing the Solarium ramp.

Class Armor

While Warlock and Hunters may not be thrilled about their options this week, Xur has brought a fairly recent exotic from the Annual Pass for Titans. As always , players can purchase one Fated Engram each week which has a chance to unlock an exotic from the Forsaken expansion.

Here are Xur's three gear pieces for this weekend:

Verity's Brow - Warlock helmet

This Warmind exotic hasn't been seen in quite a while, since the start of the year in fact. Not much has changed since then, unfortunately, as this is still an exotic item that is rewarded to Warlock players for finishing the Warmind campaign.

Its exotic perk is called The Fourth Magic, which causes energy weapon kills to boost grenade energy for the player and any nearby enemies. It's certainly not a bad perk and many players have found a lot of success with certain guns like Riskrunner or Wavesplitter. Still, there are other exotic synergies (such as Nezarec's Sin and Recluse) that are much better, so this item can be safely avoided.

Random Gear Rolls:

Mobility OR Restorative
Scout Rifle Targeting, Heavy Lifting, Energy Weapon Targeting
Fusion Rifle Reserves OR Grenade Launcher Reserves

destiny 2 exclusive fashion emblem in shadowkeep

Aeon Swift - Hunter gauntlets

Unfortunately for Hunters, the Aeon Swift gauntlets are back on sale again. For those who don't know, this gear piece is part of the Aeon Cult set introduced inside of Curse of Osiris. The Swift variant grants Grenade energy to Warlocks, Barricade energy to Titans, and Dodge energy to Hunters, once the player wearing the gear dodges. Players not part of the Aeon Cult (wearing their Aeon gear), only receive a fraction of the shared energy.

To be most effective, this set of armor needs other players to be wearing it as well, a fact that doesn't really apply these days in Destiny 2. The Hunter has way better options available to them at this point, so the Aeon Swift gauntlets should be completely ignored outside of those who are looking to complete their Year 1 collections.

Random Gear Rolls:

Mobility OR Resilience
Machine Gun Loader, Impact Induction, Enhanced Hand Cannon Loader
Rocket Launcher Scavenger OR Sniper Rifle Scavenger

Stronghold - Titan gauntlets

This unique looking exotic is actually fairly recent, having been added to the game during the Annual Pass era. It's intrinsic perk is called Clenched Fist which relates directly to swords. When guarding, the player's move speed is increased and ammo isn't drained. In addition, any shots that are blocked heals the player immediately after guarding.

Considering that these exotics require a Sword to be useful, they're not for every player. For those who enjoy using swords, these can be a powerful exotic, but for everyone else they can be avoided.

Random Gear Rolls:

Restorative OR Resilience
Light Arms Loader, Sidearm Loader, Rifle Loader
Linear Fusion Rifle Scavenger OR Shotgun Scavenger

Exotic Weapon

Another item that hasn't been in stock for quite some time is the exotic fusion rifle, Telesto. This weapons was once a guardian favorite, especially for those looking to cheese the Blind Well event when it first arrived in the Forsaken expansion. While that loophole has been closed for a while, many would argue that remains an underrated and undervalued weapon. It's intrinsic perk is called Unplanned Reprieve which causes fusion projectiles to attach and detonate with a delayed void blast.

The perk is paired with the Harbinger's Pulse perk which instantly reloads equipped primary and energy weapons after multi-kills with the Telesto. Naturally, it's a great PvE weapon as its sticky explosives cover a wide area and can clear adds very fast. It's a solid PvP weapon as well, though it really shines once the Masterwork catalyst has been applied to increase the ammo reserves. Unfortunately, this option won't be available to everyone as to earn it, players are required to prestige the Eater of Worlds Raid.

Additional perks for this weapon are: