Destiny: The Taken King Guide- How to Upgrade Your Sword From Legendary to Exotic

Credits: [Spoilers] A simple guide to the getting and upgrading of swords Guide by staffs

I thought since I'm now as far through this as anyone else at this point (for reasons that will become evident soon enough) I would put together a simple guide (with the important steps in bold) to help anyone that might be stuck on the journey from legendary sword to exotic sword. If anyone has any additions to make please put them in the comments and I'll add them to this post.

For a start you need to get your legendary sword. To do this finish the main storyline and then complete the mission where you set up patrol beacons on the Dreadnaught. At this stage you will be able to get the A Broken Will quest line from Eris, step one of which is to talk to Shaxx, who sends you off in search of 25 Hadium Flakes and 10 Motes of Light. Hadium Flakes are found in chests on the Dreadnaught (it's chest farming time, and without a sparrow too) and Motes of Light are found everywhere, constantly.

When you bring these back to Shaxx he will need planetary materials to complete a sword with the elemental burn of your choosing; Helium Filaments for solar, Spinmetal for arc, Relic Iron for void. If you are planning to upgrade all the way to exotic choose your element carefully, as the exotic quest requires you get a large number of ability kills of that element. This is harder for some subclasses than others, so it's just something to bear in mind.

Having got your legendary sword, it's infusing time! Use Legendary Marks, Motes of Light, Weapon Parts, and rare and legendary heavy weapons with higher attack to infuse your sword until it hits 280 attack. At 280 you will unlock a perk that increases the amount of heavy ammo you can carry and you can speak to Shaxx and begin the A Sword Reforged quest line through which you upgrade your legendary sword into an exotic.

Step one of this quest line is to get sword kills; 50 on majors and ultras and 25 in the Crucible. The Crucible kill count seems high however no progress is lost from deaths. You will quickly rack up sprees upon getting heavy ammo and even without heavy ammo melee hits holding the sword handle (yes, you read that right) are a two hit kill. I average around a 0.6 in the Crucible and even I was able to do it in around 5 rumble matches.

After this you will need to speak to Shaxx again, and he will instruct you to go to the Dreadnaught and kill a chap called Ecthar in an area called the Asylum. The Asylum is the area you travelled through to get the cell in the Darkblade strike. If you head to the Founts on patrol, you'll notice the door to the Asylum is closed. To open it you need to kill the three Wardens of Oryx within a few seconds of each other (there is no timer, it felt to me like around 10 to 15 seconds). They are three Knight majors with different element shields. This took me a few tries, with my eventual strategy being to whittle their health down to a sliver and then take them out with Stormcaller chain lightning. Any new subclass super should do the job.

As you make your way through the Asylum you will find Ecthar in the large room with the two batteries from the Darkblade strke, with a fair number of red and yellow bar level 41 (Bungie pls) Knights, Wizards, and Alcolytes. They will try to kill you guardian, kill them baaaaaccccccckkkkkkkkk. Once you have cleared out his entourage, you can comfortably take on Ecthar, a moderately large knight with a shield that can only be taken down by swords. You can damage him with other weapons and abilities while his shield is down, but where is the fun in that?

With Ecthar reduced to embers you return to Shaxx who gives you my least favourite part of the quest line. Material farming. You will need to collect different materials depending on the element of your sword; Helium Filaments for solar, Spinmetal for Arc, Relic Iron for Void. For every 10 or so you farm you will get a rare element you need for the next stage of the upgrade. That's more or less 100 materials you need to farm. Just be glad you're not doing it on the Dreadnaught, where you can't use your Sparrow. While doing this you also need to get a large number of kills with abilities (supers, charged melees, grenades) of the same element as your sword. The bar that counts kills is a percentage, and I didn't count them, but it felt like 100 kills. I was Stormcalling, it's hard to keep track of kills.

Having done this it's time for everyone's favourite part of the Elder Cipher bounty; waiting a while. When you hand over your 10 MacGuffins to Shaxx and tell him how you did the first part of Siege of the Warmind a dozen times, he tells you that Banshee will have some special materials for your sword upgrade on Armsday. Hey, at least you get a clear deadline now, right?

And that is as far as I've gotten so far, because there have been no Armsday deliveries yet. From the googling I've done so far I think that once Banshee gives you the goods, you pass them on to Shaxx, who opens up a special version of the Darkblade strike with an added objective, much like the special Phogoth strike in the Thorn Bounty.

Then you get your exotic sword. If you even want it, I mean, who would waste their one exotic weapon slot on a heavy weapon?

So yeah, that's my guide. If you have any suggestions or amendments let me know and I'll work them in. I'll also update this on Wednesday when I find out exactly what happens after I get my Armsday stuff.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/3ln2x2/spoilers_a_simple_guide_to_the_getting_and/

Share this post