Catalysts in Destiny 2 are one of the many things devoted players will spend some time collecting during their journey. It's likely one of the most time-consuming endeavors in the game, given that most of the time it takes a bit of luck or good RNG for players to get what they want.
Previously not included in the game, the Whisper of the Worm catalyst has returned in season 16, following Bungie's decision to bring back catalysts for a few older Exotic weapons in Destiny 2. Completionists and those who love this Heavy weapon sniper rifle will want to know what the catalyst does and how to get it fast in The Witch Queen expansion era.
How To Get The Whisper Of The Worm Sniper Rifle In Season 16
First and foremost, to take advantage of the catalyst, players should actually get their hands on the Whisper of the Worm. This is a sniper rifle found in the Heavy weapon slot and is easily identified by its impressive Taken-themed aesthetic appearance.
The sniper rifle can be purchased at the Monument to Lost Lights at the Tower, under the Red War Exotics tab. Here's what players will need in terms of resources and Glimmer to afford it:
- 1 Exotic Cipher
- 150,000 Glimmer
- 250 Baryon Bough
- 2 Ascendant Shards
What The Catalyst Does
- Whispered Breathing: Aiming down the weapon without firing for a few seconds boosts range and damage so long as the player remains scoped in.
Once players have received the catalyst, they can apply it to the Whisper of the Worm. However, the catalyst will not be active until it's upgraded, more on that below. This catalyst provides a significant improvement of the range and damage for an already high-damage weapon, making the Whisper of the Worm's damage output even more devastating than before.
Pair this up with its already Intrinsic perk, White Nail, which boosts its precision damage by default and refills the magazine after three precision shots, and players have quite the damage weapon on their hands. The gun also has a more niche Mulligan perk, which has the chance to return ammo to the weapon when players miss a shot.
How To Get It
- The Whisper of the Worm catalyst drops from playlist activities, such as Vanguard Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit.
It's going to take quite a bit of time for players to get their hands on the catalyst for The Whisper of the Worm. Ever since the beginning of season 16, its catalyst has been available as a general drop from any playlist activities. This means that players will just need to persist and grind these activities until they get lucky enough.
That said, there does seem to be a slight preference in the game to grant players some of the "newer" catalysts that were introduced this season, so it's likely that some players will receive the catalyst after just a few strikes or Crucible matches. The best way to approach this grind is to work on upgrading another weapon catalyst the player already has or just complete the standard Pinnacle activities each week for playlist activities.
- To upgrade the catalyst, players will need to score kills with the Whisper of the Worm.
Upgrading the catalyst is another ordeal that will be somewhat time-consuming. The main gripe is that the Whisper of the Worm is a Heavy weapon, and so players will need a practically endless supply of Heavy ammo. This means that regular PVP or PVE activities will take far too long to farm it efficiently.
The best approach is to load up the Shuro-Chi encounter in the Last Wish raid using the Wish Wall, and purchase a bunch of rally banners from Hawthorne from the Tower. Rally up, start the encounter and kill as many Taken enemies as possible with single hits. Make sure to put on ammo finder mods to take full advantage of the time that Shuro-Chi provides when the encounter first starts so that players can save up on rally banners, though the Mulligan perk is a nice security blanket if players miss their shots on enemies while farming.
It's unclear how many kills will be needed, but previously during its own catalyst mission, players had to score 500 kills in total, which is no small feat.
Is The Catalyst Worth Grinding For?
Some players might be wondering whether getting the catalyst and upgrading it is really worth their time. The answer depends entirely on the player's preferences. The Whisper of the Worm is by no means a DPS king, given how powerful the combination of Izanagi's Burden and rocket launchers are this season, paired with Void debuffs.
That being said, completionists will still want this catalyst in their arsenal, and who knows what the future seasons will hold in terms of meta. It's very likely that sniper rifles will make a comeback, so grinding for this on the side whenever players have nothing to do might be a decent idea, but definitely not a top priority compared to some other weapons that are good in the current season of Season of the Risen.
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.