In the run up to this Tuesday’s release of The Witch Queen, many Destiny 2 players I know were still running the Presage exotic quest mission in the hope of snagging a Dead Man’s Tale with the perk Vorpal Weapon. Previously, you only had one chance per account, per week, at a roll on the gun, and with seven possible perks in the relevant column it was, to be frank, a crapshoot. The Presage mission was vaulted with the launch of The Witch Queen, but to offset that frustration Bungie announced that Xur, the weekend vendor, would be selling one randomly rolled Dead Man’s Tale per week. And wouldn’t you know, he’s come up with the goods immediately.
If you head to the Winding Cove area of the European Dead Zone, and from spawn climb up the cliff on the left, there you will find ol’ tentacle face selling a DMT (as we shall hereafter call it), complete with Vorpal Weapon.
Why is the perk so desirable? Well, in PvE DMT’s signature Cranial Spike perk sees escalating stacks of damage awarded for successful headshots. At 5x, it’s punchy enough to do serious damage to even major enemies and bosses. Vorpal Weapon tacks on a further 20% to those enemies, making DMT very effective in endgame content such as raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls. In addition, this season there’s an Anti-Barrier scout rifle mod in the Artifact, further upping DMT’s utility. In short, it shreds Champions and also lets you pick off minor enemies from a safe distance.
Note also that all exotic primary weapons got a 40% damage against red bar enemies, plus using one will increase the rate at which Heavy Ammo drops. I used DMT for almost all of my time in the brilliant Legendary campaign this week, and it put in absolute work. The gun also slaps in PvP (to the point that it’s already eaten two nerfs and is still a terror), and because Vorpal Weapon procs it’s damage buff against enemy guardians in their supers, it really is meta in both modes.
Now the bad news. Xur isn’t going to part with DMT cheap. Buying the gun will cost you a whopping 125k glimmer, 1 Ascendant Shard, 1 Exotic Cipher (which he also sells), and 200 Legendary Shards. That’s a wallet-busting oof. But it’s definitely worth it. The other random perks on this DMT are Extended Barrel, Steady Rounds and Fitted Stock. Not quite a perfect 'god roll', as both the barrel and stock hurt handling, but given it could be a long time before he sells one with Vorpal again, you should absolutely grab it now if you can. Happy head clicking.
You have until reset at 12PM EST on Tuesday 1 March to buy this DMT.
- Where is Xur: Find Destiny 2's exotics dealer is this week.
- Destiny 2: The Witch Queen review: The best expansion yet.
