Destiny: The Taken King has been filled with surprises – an exotic weapon only accessible on a certain day, a hidden encounter in a well-known location, and an Easter Egg hidden in the new Raid. Players were surprised again today when a new mission showed up in Destiny at the daily reset, kicking off a quest the Destiny community has been feverishly seeking. The search for the Sleeper Simulant is officially on.

The Sleeper Simulant is an exotic fusion rifle that goes in the heavy weapon slot. It has been called the next Gjallarhorn, so it’s no wonder players have been clamoring for it. Here’s how to complete the first section of the quest, which is currently as far as players can progress.

Fusion Rifles for the Gunsmith

Since The Taken King has launched, players have discovered an item that drops randomly by killing enemies, DVALIN fusion rifles, that can be turned into the Gunsmith in the Tower for reputation. There are four of these Golden Age fusion rifles to find, and they are necessary to unlock the quest for the Sleeper Simulant (most players have probably already found and turned these in).

The quest officially starts on Earth with a new mission called The First Firewall, which sends players back into Rasputin’s Seraphim Vault. Four waves of Hive and Taken Knights will spawn into the room, followed by a boss. Once defeated that boss drops an item called the Curious Transceiver. In a mechanic never before seen in Destiny, the Curious Transceiver requires the player to enter four passcodes to activate it.

Codes and Nodes

The passcodes correspond to each wave of knights in The First Firewall mission and the order in which they spawn. It’s not hard to figure out once the secret is known, but to make it easy, here are the passcodes:

Passcode 1: Up Down Up Up Down Down Down Up Down

Passcode 2: Up Down Up Up Down Down Up Up

Passcode 3: Up Down Down Down Up Down Down Down Up Up

Passcode 4: Up Down Up Down Up Down Up Up

After entering the passcodes, the Curious Transceiver will begin "broadcasting," and unlock another mission called Shadow Call. If players were doing the first mission in a fireteam, they’ll have to split up and complete this one solo. Shadow Call takes place in the final areas the Cayde’s Stash mission, giving players four minutes to get to the top of the tower. With time of the essence, it's best to run past all the enemies until reaching the top, where three Taken Wizards will spawn. Defeat them in the time limit and a new item will drop, the IKELOS Fusion Core.

 

The IKELOS Fusion Core has five nodes, which will be activated by doing certain tasks in the game. Activate the top left node by completing The Archive mission on Venus (it does not matter whether it is the Heroic version or not). Next, dismantle a legendary heavy weapon (it can be a Year One or a Year Two weapon) to activate the top right node. The center and bottom nodes are activated by completing ‘Defend the Warsat’ public events on Earth, the Moon, and Mars. Use DestinyPublicEvents.com to see where and when these events are spawning next. Note that the Warsat on the Fallen S.A.B.E.R. Strike does not count.

What's Next?

Once that’s done, the IKELOS Fusion Core will be reactivated and players will take it to Banshee-44 in the Tower. Once turned in, Banshee tells players they’ll have to wait while he shows it to the City’s Foundries, an that’s it for now. The quest comes to a halt at that point.

It’s unknown how long the wait for the next quest step will be. It could be next Wednesday on Armsday, similar to the exotic sword quest. It could be a random waiting period similar to how the Elder Cipher worked in House of Wolves. No one knows for sure. We’ll update this article when the next part of the Sleeper Simulant quest becomes available.

The Next Step

After waiting through the reset, any who completed their IKELOS core were greeted by the Gunsmith with a new part of the quest. Banshe-44 requests that players visit a light level 280 version of the Fallen S.A.B.E.R. Strike and complete the mission. Once done, the boss will drop a Sleeper Simulant frame, and returning the frame to Banshee delivers a shiny new Sleeper Simulant. It appears most of the hard work came in charging up the IKELOS core, and now the reward is a light level 290 exotic fusion rifle railgun heavy weapon. That's a mouthful.

Check out the Sleeper Simulant in action below:

[HTML1]

Have you completed the first part of the Sleeper Simulant quest? Do you like this new method in Destiny of earning exotics through quests?

Destiny: The Taken King is available now for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.