If you’re like me, you will agree that one of the best parts of Destiny 2’s recent Warmind expansion has been the rework of exotic weapons, and the new exotic masterwork system which has you farming for cataylsts to drop, and then working to unlock them.
It’s something fans have suggested for ages now, and honestly, I’ve been having a blast with the masterwork hunt. But it can be a bit confusing. There are loads of different places catalysts drop, and some of the descriptors are cryptic for both where they drop and how to unlock them. And some exotics don’t have catalysts yet at all, or if they do, no one knows how to find them.
So, I’m going to go through and make a master list about all of this. Some of this info is datamined, some is live in game, but hopefully it helps you on your hunt.
Where To Find Catalyst: Anywhere you can kill enemies
Borealis (Unlock with 150 void/solar/arc kills, Reward: +20 reload speed)
Crimson (Unlock with 300 precision kills, Reward: +20 range)
DARCI (Unlock with 300 precision kills, Reward: +20 stability)
Tractor Cannon (Unlock with 300 kills, Reward: +70 magazine, +50 ammo size, new perk for deeper ammo reserves)
Where To Find Catalyst: Crucible victories (can include kills, not just wins)
The Colony (Unlock with 500 killls, Reward: +10 magazine, +30 ammo size, new perk for deeper ammo reserves)
Jade Rabbit (Unlock with 250 Crucible kills, Reward: +30 stability)
Vigilance Wing (Unlock with 250 Crucible kills and 5 avenge your teammate medals, Reward: full auto perk)
Where To Find Catalyst: Competitive Crucible victories (again, should include kills not just wins)
MIDA Multi-Tool (??? Unknown, this catalyst may not be live in the game yet, Reward: Outlaw perk, rapid reload on headshot kill)
Where To Find Catalyst: Heroic/Nightfall Strike boss kills
Coldheart (Unlock with 300 kills, Reward: +20 stability, +20 reload speed)
Merciless (Unlock with 500 kills, Reward: +40 range, +40 stability)
Wardcliff Coil (Unlock with 500 kills, Reward: perk for better tracking on projectiles)
Riskrunner (Unlock with 300 kills/300 chain lightning kills, Reward: +30 range)
Where To Find Catalyst: Leviathan Raid section completions
Skyburner’s Oath (Unlock with 1,000 Cabal kills, Reward: +30 range)
Where To Find Catalyst: Heroic Adventures
The Huckleberry (Unlock with 500 kills, Reward: perk that overflows magazine based on rapid kills)
Where To Find Catalyst: Faction pledging
Graviton Lance (Unlock by reaching rank 50 in Dead Orbit, Reward: +20 range, +15 aim assist with hidden hand perk)
Sunshot (Unlock by reaching rank 50 with FWC, Reward: +30 range, +20 stability)
Sweet Business (Unlock by reaching rank 50 with New Monarchy, Reward: perk that reduces flinch from damage when gun is spun up)
Where To Find Catalyst: Sword PvE kills
Wordline Zero (Unlock by hitting all 5 level 7 Escalation Protocol bosses at least once when they’re unshielded, Reward: reduces activation time of Tesseract)
Where To Find Catalyst: Ana Bray mission
Polaris Lance (Unlock is unknown until next week, but reward is dragonfly perk for explosive damage on headshots)
Where To Find Catalyst: ???
These all have not been found yet. They might be super secret, or just not in the game yet, but their rewards have been datamined:
Fighting Lion (+30 reload speed, after firing, kinectic and power weapons gain a period of increased damage)
Hard Light (+25 stability)
Legend of Acrius (+40 reload speed, +40 magazine size, deeper ammo reserves)
The Prospector (+40 blast radius, +70 ammo size, deeper ammo reserves)
Rat King (improved aim assist and recoil control, regens health on invisibility trigger)
Sleeper Simulant (+75 charge time)
Sturm (+20 range/+40 handling)
Telesto (+60 magazine size, +40 ammo size, deeper ammo reserves)
So even with eight or nine you can’t find yet, clearly there are a lot of others that you can hunt down already. Unlike masterwork legendaries, the difference between a regular exotic and its masterwork version can be significant, so these are worthwhile rewards to chase. I’m looking forward to when I can start finding them for armor as well, but that may not be until fall.
Stay tuned, and return to this list as more catalysts are found.
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