Destiny 2's newest expansion, Lightfall, has almost arrived. Ahead of its February 28 launch, though, developer Bungie has made The Witch Queen — the game's previous DLC — completely free-to-play until February 26.
This means that through the rest of this week and most of this upcoming weekend, you can access and complete The Witch Queen campaign, all of its quests, its Wellspring activity, and its raid. Additionally, you can also acquire all of the expansion's Exotic weapons and armor pieces that aren't tied to any of Destiny 2 Year 5's seasons or Season Passes.
While some of this gear (such as The Witch Queen's Exotic Glaives) is ultimately lackluster and not worth spending your limited free-to-play time on, this expansion does offer some truly excellent Exotics that you should absolutely pick up before the free weekend ends on Sunday. We've listed the best The Witch Queen Exotics that you should try to get your hands on in the table below, along with details on how they work and what you'll have to do to unlock them.
| Exotic | Type | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osteo Striga | Kinetic SMG | Fires a stream of sentient, toxic projectiles that track the targeted enemy. Landing a final blow or multiple precision hits triggers a burst that poisons nearby targets. | Craftable at the Enclave after completing The Witch Queen campaign. |
| Parasite | Solar Heavy Grenade Launcher | This weapon fires Hive worms which explode on impact. The size and damage of the explosion scales with the number of enemies you've defeated just before firing this weapon. Taking damage from your own worm projectile detonation empowers your weapons for a short time. | Complete the Of Queens And Worms quest and the Parasitic Pilgrimage mission after finishing The Witch Queen campaign. |
| Collective Obligation | Void Pulse Rifle | This weapon leeches Void debuffs when damaging targets that are suppressed, weakened, or volatile. Once charged, [Alternate Weapon Action] to swap firing modes. In this mode, damage from this weapon applies the same Void debuffs that were leeched. This weapon's magazine is automatically reloaded when you gain Devour, a Void overshield, or become invisible. | May drop from looted clears of the final encounter in the Vow of the Disciple raid. |
| Loreley Splendor Helm | Titan Helmet | When you are critically wounded with full class ability energy or when you cast a Barricade, create a Sunspot at your location that has improved restoration effects. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Hoarfrost-Z | Titan Chest | When using the Stasis subclass, your Barricade becomes a wall of Stasis crystals that slows nearby targets when created. Standing behind this barricade will grant you and your allies increased weapon reload speed, stability, and range. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Secant Filaments | Warlock Legs | Casting an empowering rift will grant you Devour. Damage dealt by you and your allies from within your empowering rift will disrupt combatants. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Osmiomancy Gauntlets | Warlock Gauntlets | Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from Coldsnap grenades travels further. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Fallen Sunstar | Warlock Helmet | Ionic traces you create move faster and grant you additional ability energy. Nearby allies also gain ability energy when you collect an ionic trace. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Caliban's Hand | Hunter Gauntlets | Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on final blow. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
| Gyrfalcon's Hauberk | Hunter Chest | Your Void weapons gain volatile rounds after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant while using a finisher, all of your weapons gain bonus damage; you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regeneration. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability. | Solo Lost Sector completions (Platinum) |
Osteo Striga and Parasite are both phenomenal weapons, and thankfully, earning them doesn't take too long after you finish The Witch Queen's 6-8 hour campaign (for the sake of making the most of your free-to-play time, I recommend playing through it on normal difficulty instead of Legendary). Collective Obligation is fantastic, too, though it's unlikely that you'll be lucky enough to get it to drop from just a few completions of the Vow of the Disciple raid. Still, it's worth a shot if you've got the time, especially if you have multiple characters you can beat the raid with.
As far as armor goes, all of the above pieces can be earned by playing through Legend or Master Lost Sectors and killing all the Champions within before killing the boss and opening the final chest. Note that the slot Lost Sectors drop Exotic armor for rotates daily, so make sure you keep an eye on what's available each day from now until February 26 (Blueberries.gg is a good resource).
If you end up falling in love with The Witch Queen's content, now is a great time to buy the expansion in full. Ironically, the Deluxe Edition of the DLC that includes all of Year 5's seasonal content is $19.99 right now — a full $20 cheaper than the full-priced Standard Edition. You won't be able to actually engage with this content much since it's going away when Destiny 2: Lightfall arrives on February 28, but you may as well take advantage of the lower cost to get access to The Witch Queen content that is staying, such as its campaign, quests, and raid.
