Destiny 2’s Season of the Chosen is officially live, so grab your weapon of choice and get ready to face the Cabal horde. Revolving around stopping Emperor Calus’ daughter Caiatl from uniting the Cabal, players will need to take down various champions that are vying for a seat on her War Counsel. But who cares about all that, we’re here for the loot. To the surprise of some, a new secret exotic quest went live last week. Set on a derelict ghost ship, players could hunt down the exotic scout rifle, Dead Man’s Tale. Many noted that despite having a catalyst slot, it wasn’t available at launch. Thankfully, this has been remedied, as players can finally track down and earn the Dead Man’s Tale catalyst.
How to Get the Dead Man’s Tale Catalyst
Unlike the other weapons Bungie has been releasing lately, this is one catalyst that will be difficult to obtain. Rather than being a grind, the Dead Man’s Tale catalyst is more along the lines of Outbreak Prime.
To pick up the quest, visit Zavala in the Tower and he’ll give you the At Your Fingertips mission. Osiris has apparently discovered a replacement trigger for the weapon and the only way to get it is to once again dive back into the Glykon.
It won’t be easy, however. This 1320 Power Level mission has a 25-minute timer and comes with a handful of modifiers including Champions: Mob (additional champions), Equipment Locked, Match Game (energy shields are resistant to elements that don’t match), and Chaff (radar is disabled).
“Forged with some kind of strange alloy… the mechanism is smooth and weightless.” —Osiris
What Does the Catalyst Do?
The Dead Man’s Tale catalyst activates a perk called Dark-Forged Trigger which increases the hipfire rate and removes the accuracy penalty from firing in hipfire. Basically, it makes the weapon much better at hipfiring.
How to Activate The Catalyst
You’ll need to defeat a total of 800 enemies with Dead Man’s Tale to slot the catalyst. You can earn bonus progress by opening hidden caches during the Presage quest. The good news is the progress is retroactive so if you’ve been using the weapon you’re already partially there!
Does the Mission Change at All?
From what we can tell, not really. Even though the modifier says there are additional champions, there doesn’t actually appear any. In the boss room, there are currently only enemies with Solar shields and no Champions. We wouldn’t be surprised if the modifier is wrong or if the game is bugged and the Champions aren’t currently spawning. Bungie will surely address it either way which may mean now is a great time to complete the mission if you have some friends to help you.
The two major sections you’re likely to get stuck on are the hanger and the boss fight. For the hanger fight, I found that Izanagi’s Burden and Anarchy were terrific for dealing with the waves of enemies, while Well of Radiance plus Pheonix Protocol lets you keep recasting your Super. As for the boss fight, Anarchy and Xenophage are the way to go. My team ran two for the former and a single Xenophage to deal with the solar shielded Chieftains that spawn. This lets you deal a decent amount of damage to the boss while being able to clear out any mobs on the top floor. The timer will stop when the boss dies, not when you make it to the bridge.
If you need a reminder how to complete the Presage mission, make sure to check out our guide. You should have everything memorized by the time you attempt this, however. There’s not a ton of time to stop and figure things out.
