Destiny 2: 10 Best Weapons to Buy With an Exotic Cipher

Best Weapons to Buy with an Exotic Cipher in Destiny 2

Most of these require you to have Glimmer and a Cipher. While they may be older items, some of these weapons are still incredibly useful in the current meta. Here are the best weapons you should purchase using your Exotic Cipher.

Witherhoard

Witherhoard is the best weapon in the Exotics Archive. It’s so strong that you can use it in any content and it’ll still be meta, all while not feeling broken. When you shoot Witherhoard, it makes a big pool of Taken essence that burns enemies. You can also stick the shot onto enemies, which will then drop the pool after dying. Obviously this is great for taking out waves of ads, but it’s also effective on bosses. It’s great since you can just shoot the boss, then swap to DPS weapons and lay in damage while Witherhoard ticks away at the boss’s health.

Cost: 

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 100,000 Glimmer

Izanagi’s Burden

Anything remaining from the Black Armory is worth keeping an eye out for. Izanagi’s Burden amplifies the damage output of your bullets due to the Honed Edge perk, which depletes your clip in order to amplify your DPS. It effectively shoots your entire mag in one deadly shot. No Distractions also reduces your flinch, making it far easier to land precise shots without worrying about a ton of kickback. These days, Izanagi’s Burden is incredibly meta in several raids thanks to the absurd DPS it can produce with Honed Edge.

Also keep an eye out for the Worldshaper ornament in the Bright Dust shop. It makes Izanagi’s Burden look like a sword, which fits with the Honed Edge perk. It’s one of the most unique ornaments available.

Cost: 

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 150,000 Glimmer

Leviathan’s Breath

Since it’s the only heavy ammo Bow, Leviathan’s Breath has a special place in Destiny 2. Whether you like its clunky, slow style or not, it’s worth having just so you can try it out from time to time. Firing the massive harpoon-like arrows is fun in any game mode, and it synergizes really well with Void builds. This allows it to fit into some specific builds, and since it has built-in anti-Unstoppable Champion capabilities, it’ll always be a solid pick for Nightfall Strikes and similar difficult content.

Cost: 

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 100,000 Glimmer

Ace of Spades

Ace of Spades remains one of the best PVP weapons available in Destiny 2. Oh, and it’s your last long-term memory of Cayde, other than the new memorial at the Tower. Camaraderie aside, this Hand Cannon still provides one of the most accurate and long-range firing options from this weapon class. Add in the Rampage and Dragonfly perks, along with the Memento Mori intrinsic perk for extra damage after a kill, and you can expect some crazy DPS.

This is easily one of the most iconic weapons in Destiny 2, so if you’re a PVP fan it’s definitely worth grabbing.

Cost: 

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 125,000 Glimmer

Sleeper Simulant

Sleeper Simulant was one of the best Exotics from the Red War, but over time it fell out of favor for a while. It’s been back for a while now, and even though Linears got nerfed as a whole, Sleeper remains strong. Luckily, Bungie didn’t apply the Season 20 Linear nerfs to Sleeper, so it still outputs a ton of damage. Sleeper fires a laser beam at enemies, which pierces them and can rebound around the room. This rebound effect is mostly useless (other than the times you accidentally kill yourself with it), but the on-hit damage is strong enough to counteract it. It also has one of the best sound effects in the game when fired.

Cost:

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 125,000 Glimmer

Le Monarque

Le Monarque is an Exotic bow with an intrinsic Overload Champion mod and poison capabilities. It’s strong in both PVE and PVP, and it can be really fun to use as well. To fire poison arrows with Le Monarque, just fire them as soon as the bow is fully drawn. In PVE, this helps chip away at powerful enemies, and in PVP, it can let you grab a kill you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. You can also use the poison damage ticks to see where you opponents are. This isn’t the main draw of this bow, but it’s definitely a fun strat to use in PVP.

Cost:

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 125,000 Glimmer

Eriana’s Vow

There’s just something about Exotic Hand Cannons, and Eriana’s Vow is possibly one of the most valuable. It has an intrinsic Anti-Barrier mod, which allows it to pierce enemy and Champion shields, along with its high damage output. This is always going to be enough to make a weapon usable, but Eriana’s Vow is also a Solar weapon, so it synergizes with that as well. It isn’t as consistent as Arbalest at popping shields, but for Solar builds, it’s a fantastic alternative.

Cost: 

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 100,000 Glimmer

Polaris Lance

Polaris Lance is one of my favorite primary ammo Exotics right now. While it doesn’t feel quite as incredibly powerful as it once did, its damage is still good and its ability to ignite enemies and do tons of AOE damage with the Solar explosive rounds it gets is incredible. I really love using it in Nightfall Strikes and other difficult content where patience is key. It doesn’t do a bunch of damage up-front, but over time it’s great at chipping away at high-HP enemies or Champions.

Cost:

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 125,000 Glimmer

Anarchy

Anarchy will always be one of my favorite Exotics. There are few things more satisfying to me than shooting Anarchy twice on an enemy and running around while it drains their health. While not as strong as it was during the Breach and Clear season, it’s still a fantastic weapon for several kinds of content. I like it a lot whenever there’s a good grenade launcher mod in the seasonal artifact, or during solo content where you have to focus more on survival than damage. Any content where you just need to survive is perfect for Anarchy, since you only have to shoot it twice for it to deal all of its damage.

Cost:

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 150,000 Glimmer
• 240 Spoils of Conquest

What is an Exotic Cipher?

Exotic Ciphers are a rare currency that were first introduced with Season of Arrivals. Earning an Exotic Cipher allows you to purchase specific Exotic weapons from previous expansions and seasons in Destiny 2 via the Monument to Lost Lights or Exotic armor from Master Rahool. You can also use them to upgrade your Exotic armor.

As of 2025, you’re now able to hold a maximum of five Exotic Ciphers at once. In the past this was limited to only one, which limited what you could do with them. Now that we can have five, though, it’s more feasible to spend them more liberally. However, I’d still recommend making sure you’re certain you want something before using a Cipher on it.

How to Obtain Exotic Ciphers

Exotic Ciphers are one of the most elusive and valuable currency types in Destiny 2. So, of course, that means that your methods for acquiring them are fairly limited. Here are the two ways that you can currently obtain Exotic Ciphers.

Upgrade Your Season Pass

There are a ton of rewards available in both the free and paid sides of the Season Pass, including several Exotic Ciphers. Any rewards earned will remain available as long as the season is active, so you can actually save this Cipher until you really need it. Don’t grab this one until you’re ready to use it, so you don’t hit the maximum capacity too quick.

Xur’s Weekly Xenology Quest

The most consistent method to acquire Exotic Ciphers is collecting and completing Xur’s weekly quest. The quest is called Xenology, and you can obtain it by visiting him on the weekends when he appears. Luckily, this quest is incredibly easy to complete and only requires you to play Strikes or win matches of Crucible or Gambit.

If you play with clan-mates or complete more challenging activities, like Trials of Osiris or Nightfalls, you can earn additional progress. However, you’ll likely finish this quest just by playing like you always do, giving you a guaranteed Exotic Cipher every single week. Just remember to return to Xur to pick up your Cipher, because if he leaves for the week, you’ll have to wait until next time to get it.

What Can You Spend Exotic Ciphers On?

We already briefly mentioned how you can spend these Exotic Ciphers, but let’s dig a bit deeper into what you can and should be spending them on. 

Exotics From the Monument to Lost Lights

One of the best ways to use Exotic Ciphers is to purchase Exotics from the Monument to Lost Lights (aka the Exotic Archive). This is the kiosk in the Tower, located between Banshee-44 and Lord Shaxx, right next to your Vault. This kiosk includes previous expansions’ Exotics and a handful of Legendary items that were previously only available through sunset quests or events. The quests and methods to originally get these Exotics and Legendaries have been long removed, but you can still get the weapons themselves here.

Most of these weapons cost 1 Exotic Cipher and around 100,000 Glimmer, but if the weapon you want originally came from a raid it will also cost 240 Spoils of Conquest. You can get those by completing raid encounters.

Purchasing Exotic Armor from Master Rahool

Now that Master Rahool is the main source of new Exotic armor, the Ciphers come in handy here too. Once you unlock the third page of Exotic purchases from him (for which you’ll need to fully complete and reset his levels once) you need a Cipher to purchase specific Exotics. For example, if you’re looking to farm a new helmet, there’s no easier way than just buying them directly from Rahool. The only downside is that it’s really easy to run out of Ciphers doing this, but it’s still worth doing if you need something specific.

Upgrading Exotic Armor into Artifice Armor

One of the newer things you can do with Exotic Ciphers is use them to upgrade your Exotic armor. Since Exotics used to not have the Artifice slot which gives an extra +3 stat points to any one stat, they used to feel a bit weaker than your actual Artifice armor. Now, that’s not the case. You can spend an Exotic Cipher and 10,000 Glimmer to upgrade any piece of Exotic armor to give it the Artifice stat bonus slot.