Destiny 2 Xur location and items, Aug. 13-17

The weekly Exotic item merchant, Xur, hangs out in random locations around the world of Destiny. In Destiny 2, he can appear all over the map, as well as inside the Tower. This week, you can find Xur in the EDZ, in the Winding Cove, standing on cliff by a Fallen Ketch.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Xur’s inventory this week consists of the following:

• Prometheus Lens, Solar trace rifle: 29 Legendary Shards
• Graviton Forfeit, Hunter helmet: 23 Legendary Shards
• Synthoceps, Titan arms: 23 Legendary Shards
• Vesper of Radius, Warlock chest: 23 Legendary Shards
• Exotic Engram: 97 Legendary Shards (you can now purchase a second with an Exotic Cipher)
• Exotic Cipher quest: free

Xur’s items drop at a similar power level as your character.

Prometheus Lens

Prometheus Lens is an Exotic from Curse of Osiris. It used to be one of the most powerful weapons in all of Destiny 2, when a bug (now fixed) caused it to deal ludicrous damage in PvP. Prometheus Lens is still awesome for clearing out large crowds of enemies all at once.

The main perk, Prismatic Inferno, causes Prometheus Lens’ beam to grow in size the longer you hold down the trigger. This allows the trace rifle to deal considerable damage in a large area. The gun’s secondary ability, Flame Refraction, makes the first perk even better, allowing kills to return ammo back into the magazine. The more kills you get, the longer you can hold down the trigger and increase your area of damage. It’s a fun gun and definitely worth the Legendary Shards.

Graviton Forfeit

Graviton Forfeit is a Hunter helmet from Curse of Osiris. While it looks like a returning Exotic from Destiny, its Exotic perk, Vanishing Shadow, is completely different in Destiny 2. This perk increases the length of your invisibility skills, and causes your melee ability to recharge quickly while you’re invisible.

Graviton Forfeit is actually very powerful with the new Way of the Wraith tree, and will keep you invisible for a very long time. If you like being sneaky, pick up this helmet.

It’s about to get a big buff in season 15.

Xur’s roll this week has 66 total stat points.

Synthoceps

Destiny 2 patch 1.2.1 brought changes to Exotic armor. As we wrote near the patch’s release, “Synthoceps will now buff melee damage and super damage by a flat amount for a full eight seconds after being surrounded by three or more enemies. This is potentially a very powerful Exotic now.”

The Biotic Enhancements intrinsic perk offers “increased melee lunge range” as well as “improved melee and Super damage when surrounded.” These are one of the most powerful Titan Exotics in the game, and always benefit you for wearing them. If you don’t have these, buy them!

Xur’s roll this week has 61 total stat points.

Vesper of Radius

The Vesper of Radius is a Warlock chest piece from Curse of Osiris. Its Exotic perk, Planetary Torrent, causes a shockwave to explode out from you when you place your Rift. Your Rift also recharges far faster when you’re surrounded by enemies.

All of this sounds pretty cool, but unfortunately Vesper of Radius is overshadowed by so many other Warlock Exotics that it’s very difficult to see a situation where Vesper of Radius is your best chest piece. Unless you’re a collector, skip it.

Xur’s roll this week has 63 total stat points.

Exotic Cipher quest

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Starting in Beyond Light, Xur has a new quest for an Exotic Cipher. The Exotic Cipher lets you buy old Exotics from the Monuments to Lost Light kiosk in the Tower. You’ll need these items and some other currencies to pick up Exotics like Heir Apparent and Truth.

This week, Xur wants you to complete 21 Strikes or win Crucible or Gambit matches. By finishing the quest, you’ll earn an Exotic Cipher to use however you want.