Although Destiny 2: Beyond Light was delayed until November, developer Bungie is trying to keep with its in-game timeline as much as possible. So, this week the second part of the Evacuation Quest went live and with it the Traveler's Chosen exotic sidearm.

Bungie has designed the Evacuation quest as a sort of send-off for the destinations and content that will be entering the Destiny Content Vault in November. It sends players through some of the memorable Strikes from the various destinations, some of the cool Heroic Adventures, and on Mars, it tasks Guardians with jumping into some Escalation Protocol.

At the end of it all, Destiny 2 players will be rewarded with the Traveler's Chosen, which may be the last exotic on offer for Year 3 before Beyond Light revamps everything.

Traveler's Chosen Stats

The Traveler's Chosen is a kinetic exotic based on one of the starter weapons from the Destiny 2 campaign. Players might actually have a “broken” version of the Traveler's Chosen if they are Destiny hoarders.

The single-shot sidearm is fairly capable on its own, dealing a modest amount of damage per shot. Its magazine holds 15 bullets and can fire at a rate of 300 rounds per minute.

Traveler's Chosen comes stocked with a sight that favors stability (perfect for a sidearm), armor-piercing rounds for dealing a little extra damage through elemental shields, and a Short-Action Stock for a little extra handling.

On its own Traveler's Chosen is a fairly unremarkable sidearm that deals decent damage and is competitive within the weapon type. However, the weapon's exotic traits are what might push it over the edge for some Destiny 2 players.

Gathering Light Exotic Perk

Every kill with the Traveler's Chosen grants the player a Gathering Light charge. Each stack of Gathering Light that the sidearm has increases its handling, reload speed, and target acquisition. But even at one stack, the Traveler's Chosen starts to perform a lot better, reloading extremely fast and hitting targets from much farther away. At 10 stacks, though, the reload is almost instantaneous, and the weapon becomes great for add clear.

On top of the bonus handling, target acquisition, and reload speed, the Traveler's Chosen holds that Gathering Light as a type of energy. At any point in time, regardless of the stacks, a player can hold reload and consume the Gathering Light to replenish a percentage of their ability energy. And not just one ability or energy shared across the abilities on cooldown; every ability gets the same amount of energy.

GATHERING LIGHT - Final blows with this weapon grant stacks of Gathering Light. Hold [RELOAD] to consume stacks, granting melee, grenade, and class ability energy based on the number of stacks.

GIFT OF THE TRAVELER - Each stack of Gathering Light improves this weapon's handling, target acquisition, and reload speed.

Basically, Destiny 2 players can look at the 10 stacks of Gathering Light like a percentage of ability energy. 1 stack is 10% and 10 stacks is 100%. So, if someone throws a grenade and then consumes 10 stacks, they will have a grenade ready to throw almost immediately. Unfortunately, it's all or nothing when it comes to consuming the Gathering Light – there are no partial consumes.

PvE Performance

Depending on the type of activity and the player's build, the Traveler's Chosen can be a top tier exotic. For example, if a Devour Warlock could use the Traveler's Chosen to ensure they always have a grenade to consume and heal off of, and a back up in case things go awry. Or an Oppressive Darkness build can “pocket” a second grenade charge for higher overall DPS on a boss.

There are a lot of different ways that the Traveler's Chosen can be beneficial in PvE. Even if the player never consumes the Gathering Light, building up 10 stacks makes the weapon very strong. Of course, using an exotic primary is ill-advised in a lot of scenarios, but with how strong swords are in the current Destiny 2 meta, it's less of a loss.

PvP Performance

PvP is where Traveler's Chosen has some potential but it depends on the skill of the player. Should they be able to get just one Guardian kill – which grants 3 stacks instead of the usual 1 - then the stat bonuses are going to help snowball into more kills. That being said, against ranged primaries, snipers, and shotguns, the Traveler's Chosen is still going to lose gunfights.

Traveler's Chosen can really shine in PvP because abilities can be so lethal and useful in Crucible. Having grenades or a melee charge more often can help boost a player's stats and make gunfights a little more varied. In Iron Banner, abilities are a huge boon when it comes to controlling points on the map. Again, it depends on the skill of the player, but in the right hands, the Traveler's Chosen can do some damage.

Overall, the Traveler's Chosen is fighting an uphill battle as an exotic primary weapon. Sacrificing the exotic choice for a primary weapon that doesn't have any damage perks is always going to be a risk, but the sidearm does have some fun utility. It's not going to compete with some of the top tier choices in PvE (Outbreak Perfected) or PvP (Suros Regime), but it can work well with some cool builds. No doubt some Destiny 2 player is going to create an infinite grenade build with this weapon.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.