How to Get the Exotic Sword in Destiny: The Taken King

After you receive the Legendary Sword in Destiny: The Taken King, you have the chance to find an Exotic Sword.  In order to achieve this, you need to level up your Legendary Sword’s attack value to the minimum of 280. Upon doing that, Lord Shaxx will have another quest to complete called A Sword Reforged. A word of warning, this will take hours to finish, but the reward of either the Raze-Lighter, Dark-Drinker or Bolt-Caster Exotic Sword will be well worth the time invested. You will hold a blade with an attack value of 310, with a special maneuver capable of destroying opponents in Destiny with minimal effort. You need this in your life. 

For more Destiny tips, visit Prima’s Walkthrough and Guide for The Taken King.

Step 1: Essential Elements

• Obtain 10 Rare Planetary Materials
• Obtain 500 Ability Kills 

This should take roughly an hour to finish and the resource depends on the sword you currently hold.  A Void Sword needs Relic Iron, a Solar Sword requires Spinmetal and finally, an Arc Sword needs Helium Filaments. Unfortunately you’re on the lookout for a random drop from the resource. Confused? We’ll break it down. 

We use a Void Sword in Destiny and had to visit Mars to find Relic Iron. We did this by going on Patrol, relying on Nightstalker’s radar to track down Relic Iron. After picking up roughly 10 Relic Iron, we received a rare and random drop containing special material. Now we had one of the 10. Basically, you need to farm anywhere from 100-150 pieces of the resource until you score 10 rare planetary materials. We strongly suggest tracking the quest so you can view your progress. 

When this is finally over, proceed with ability kills. Admittedly, you probably slaughtered plenty of enemies while farming, provided you relied on your Guardian’s super ability, melee or grenade attack; kills with the sword and other weapons don’t count. Since we are a Hunter Nightstalker, we imbued our Shadowshot with a Quiver modifier. This gave us three bolts per super; we also tossed some grenades for good measure. 

This section of the quest is time consuming, but you have until the upcoming Armsday to complete it. If Armsday (Wednesday) is close, patrol the Steppes on Earth to move things along at a quicker pace. 

Step 2: In Good Temper 

• Speak to Lord Shaxx 

Step 3: Armsday Alloys

• Hang out until the next Armsday arrives. 

Step 4: Take Up Arms

• Chat with Lord Shaxx again. 

Step 5: Sealing the Blade 

• You must kill the Warden of Oryx and then Alak-Hul in 30 seconds. 

There’s a big difficulty spike with this step, so reach Light 30 and head into the Sunless Cell Strike. Make sure you have a total of three Guardians for this, with each player harnessing a different type of elemental damage to deal with the wealth of shielded enemies. 

When you get to the boss, you will see Alak-Hul and three Knights, otherwise known as the Warden of Oryx; these creatures have unique names and shield types. Go after the creature with the similar shield type as your sword. Since we carry the Void Sword, we targeted Heolstor, Warden of Oryx. 

Attack Darkblade until its health is five to 10 percent; do the same with your specific Warden of Oryx. You want both as close to death as possible. When they get there, call upon your fire team and prepare to unleash those super abilities.

Slay the Warden of Oryx and this kicks off a 30 second timer. Now’s your chance to kill Alak-Hul in the allotted time. 

Step 6: A Blade Reborn 

• Speak to Lord Shaxx 

Head to Orbit and then the Tower. Approach Lord Shaxx and he will have a 310 Exotic Sword. Gladly accept this weapon and level it up to access its special attack; use Motes of Light to do this. Now you will have little trouble demolishing enemies with yellow health bars. You can also hang onto your Legendary Sword. No dual wielding, sad to say. 

Your new Exotic Sword will have the same damage type as your Legendary Sword. In other words, Solar for Solar (Phoenix Uppercut), Void for Void (Supermassive Vortex) and Arc for Arc (Sword of Thunder).