What you should buy from Destiny’s Xur this weekend (10/16/15 – 10/17/15)

Although delayed, Trials of Osiris will soon return to Destiny. And with Iron Banner just now getting good—that is, less laggy and more rewarding—there’s Crucible in the air. What’s more, Xur’s latest batch of exotics comes on the heels of the new “twist fate” feature which, using the new “glass needle” consumable, lets player reroll the perks on their exotic armor. There are plenty of reasons to keep a close eye on Xur’s inventory this weekend. Unfortunately, there aren’t as many reasons to actually part with your strange coins.

No Backup Plans: Titans sure do like close combat. At least, Bungie seems to think so, and has consistently designed the class’ exotics for invading your enemy’s personal space. Continuing that trend are the No Backup Plans, a visually striking pair of gauntlets that augments shotgun kills with the Defender subclass’ Force Barrier melee ability. Grabbing an overshield after every shotgun kill is quite fun in PvE, if a bit foolhardy. It lets you power through groups of enemies, but doesn’t unlock many new strategies like some exotics do. Much the same is true for PvP: rare is the cluster of enemies foolish enough to let a single shotgun rip through all of them. But it does happen, and with the hotspot-filled Iron Banner Control dominating playlists at the moment, now’s arguably the best time to have no backup plan.

Don’t Touch Me: How good of Bungie to include the instruction manual for these Hunter gauntlets in their name. Don’t touch them. Don’t Touch Me has exactly one use: flying through the Thrallway at the start of the Crota’s End raid. If you really tighten your tinfoil hat, you can argue their worth for Golgoroth in the King’s Fall raid: once Taken Thrall start spawning, and subsequently hitting you in the face when you jump into the pit to damage the boss, that invisibility could come in handy. But more often than not, enemy AI is smart enough to keep attacking enemies that activate invisibility in front of them. So yeah, don’t touch them.

The Stag: I want to love The Stag, I really do. But its distinctive, Ram-inspired looks don’t make its effect any less irrelevant. Though flavorfully named, The Stag’s unique skill Doe or Die does next to nothing. The increased Super generation triggered by downed teammates is marginal at best, and limited to once-per-life to boot. The chance to spawn with an overshield is even less useful, as it does not stack with the shield granted on being revived. This makes The Stag nothing more than a fashion statement for both PvP and PvE.

Hereafter: The exotic sniper rifle to hunt is unquestionably Black Spindle, the exotic successor to the beloved Black Hammer. But Hereafter isn’t bad. Its rate of fire and impact put it in the middle tier of sniper rifles, meaning you aren’t getting quite as much damage per bullet. Notably, Hereafter also cannot kill through revive shields in the Crucible, making it a poor choice for Trials of Osiris. But because you are firing faster, and therefore getting more rapid kills, for general Clash or Control play, it’s a strong choice. The blind effect triggered by precision kills can send groups of enemies into disarray, and the option to crouch to decrease pain recoil (i.e. reticle shake when taking damage) makes long-range sniping much easier. Hereafter is also a good special weapon pickup for anyone looking for an arc burn tool for Nightfalls.