Destiny 2’s Arc Week is live at reset today, and while it’s essentially not much more than a big patch, it arrives with a lot of significant changes. There are tons of buffs to underused Arc subclasses, there are changes to Gambit Prime to make it less of a slog, and there’s my favorite addition, the arrival of the final four Year 1 exotic weapon catalysts which have been hiding for months. God only knows why.
So, what are they and where do you get them and what do they do? Nothing crazy complicated here, and nothing that requires you to own any Year 2 or 3 content, from what I can tell. The catalysts are:
The Prospector
Found in: Strikes and Nightfalls
Rat King
Found in: Strikes and Nightfalls
Hard Light
Found in: Strikes and Nightfalls
SUROS Regime
Found in: Crucible
As for how you unlock the catalyst and what they do, that’s where things get a little bit tricky. The only information we have about these catalysts ahead of their launch here is from a 10 month old datamine that tied their release to the aborted event known as “Armsweek.” Their requirements ranged from killing 500-1000 enemies (Fighting Lion’s catalysts was also included in this list) and then beating a specific Nightfall. Given that Armsweek is no more, I am guessing the requirements have changed just like how you find them, and we will know that soon enough.
As for their bonuses? Those…could be the same. The ones listed from the last datamine were:
The Prospector – Larger blast radius, more ammo reserves
Rat King – Increased aim assist, reduced recoil (Update: also, “Refreshes health on Vermin invisibility trigger,” You need 500 PvE kills by fireteam members with Rat King in order to unlock the catalyst. Blegh)
Hard Light – Increased stability
SUROS Regime – Improved recoil and automatic heath on kill (Update: the catalyst reads “increased chance for kills to regen health,” so not a full guarantee, it seems)
It’s that last one that caught people’s eye previously, as it essentially turns SUROS into an auto rifle version of Crimson, which would be very useful indeed. The Prospector is actually in a surprisingly good place right now after recent grenade launcher buffs, so don’t count that one out.
Sadly, I deleted all my Rat King quests shortly after I got them because I figured I’d never complete it with a group. People keep telling me Sloane has the quest, but she doesn’t for me, and another theory is that you can get it to drop again if you just run a few activities with someone else who is using Rat King, though how I’m going to set that up, I have no idea. I wish Bungie would just add it to the loot pool.
Previously, Destiny’s strike catalysts were by far the hardest to get as you could run hundreds of strikes and barely see any. But Bungie ended up buffing the drop rates and I got them all eventually, so hopefully those rates stay buffed and this isn’t as much of a maddening hunt this time. SUROS being in Crucible is kind of a bummer, but I suppose Bungie had to throw that crowd a bone. A significant one, if the catalyst ends up being that health on kill perk.
I will update this article once the new catalysts are found and this info can be confirmed or changed. I know some lucky folks will see them drop today out of the millions of Destiny players, so this should be done in short order. Reminder you do NOT have to get them all during Arc Week, they’re just being added starting today, and will be available indefinitely thereafter.
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