How to Unlock Cloudstrike in Destiny 2 (Exotic Sniper Rifle)

Since the Deep Space Crypt raid ended in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, three new Exotic Weapons have dropped. These new Exotics, including The Lament and The Eyes of Tomorrow, have excellent boss-fighting potential and can clear an entire team of opponents. The main campaign of Destiny 2: Beyond Light takes place primarily on Jupiter’s icy Europa moon. After the end of the main campaign, players can continue to uncover secrets on Europa through Variks’ Sabotage and Empire Hunt quests. Players will need to access and farm Empire Hunts to receive one new Exotic Weapon, the Cloudstrike Exotic Rifle, as a random drop.

The Cloudstrike shoots enemies with a powerful bolt of lightning and can wipe out an entire team of opponents in the Crucible or PvE scenarios. Unlike most rifles, it is good for crowd control. Unlike most of the other Exotic Weapons, it can only be obtained as a random drop and is quite rare, so players should prepare to unlock and grind Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts to find it. Here’s how to unlock Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts and earn the Cloudstrike Exotic Rifle in Destiny 2: Beyond Light.

How to Unlock Cloudstrike in Destiny 2

Players can start the process of unlocking Cloudstrike by finishing the main campaign and picking up the Old Secrets, New Challenges quest from Variks. This will lead to an Exo Challenge players need to complete. When they finish this, players should then find the Exo Stranger and pick up the A Hard Rain Falls quest in the weekly Eclipsed Zones. Completing this quest efficiently involves participating in a Heroic Public Event and a few Patrols. Finally, players will need to complete the Europan Explorer 1 and 2 Sabotages from Variks. This will unlock the Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts, which can be purchased and repeated using Herealways Pieces.

The Empire Hunts are small adventure missions that lead up to intimate boss fights against Phylaks, Kridis, or Praksis, all followers of Eramis, The Kell of Darkness. Completing Empire Hunts can be difficult without a team, so it might be a good idea for players to assemble a team of at least three to help them clear each run. This way, players can farm Empire Hunts until every member of the team has obtained the weapon. Players should note it will drop on the mission complete screen but not the bosses.

It’s best to play the Hunts on a lower difficulty setting, as Cloudstrike can drop any time and regardless of difficulty. Keeping difficulty at 1180 will let players fight the boss and complete multiple runs more quickly, often in 5 to 10 minutes. During a run, players can skip many of the larger battles against enemies by running past them. They should make a point to only do the fights they have to, including the boss fights, to make it easy and more efficient..

The process of getting the Exotic Weapon to drop is long and will likely take several hours, but it is worth completing. Players can also keep working on the quest to reach The Lament Exotic Sword to continue building their personal arsenal.

Destiny 2 is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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