rat king mission parts brands

Similar to many of Destiny 2"s Exotics, the Rat King requires you to complete a special quest, involving several steps - some of which hidden behind some pretty obscure riddles.

It"s worth it though, as the Rat King has some pretty awesome perks: an increase in damage, which stacks up to six times, depending on the number of other allies that have the weapon equipped nearby; and a second or two of invisibility, granted every time you reload immediately after getting a kill with the weapon.

Complete the quest Enemy of my Enemy - it"s a blue quest marker you"ll find in the world and on your map, which ends in you being given the option to kill or save an enemy captain. Either way, when you complete it, you"ll get the Rat King"s Crew item. The item takes up a Kinetic Weapon slot, but can"t be used as one.

On the Rat King"s Crew you"ll find a strange riddle. This is, in fact, the first of four riddles, and you"ll need to solve them, and then complete their respective tasks, one at a time to get the weapon itself. Read on for detailed solutions to these in the section below!

The main sticking point comes from figuring out what the four Rat King riddle solutions are, and then there"s the matter of actually completing the final one, which is most definitely not easy. Here"s a handy video from YouTuber KackisHD, with our full written description of how to do it, in detail, below!

The most important task for any Destiny player is raising their Power level, which is the combined level of equipped weapons and armour. There’s a sense of unspoken competition to get the rarest and finest-looking gear, with many devoting all of their time to looking the best.

The original Destiny included exotic weapons and armour that could only be obtained by fulfilling certain objectives, known to be difficult and almost impossible to complete.Destiny 2is no different and many players have already unearthed the first one – a sidearm weapon known as Rat King. Obtaining the coveted gun isn’t easy but if you’re interested in picking it up and becoming the envy of your friends, here’s how to do it.

Once you’ve beaten all of the story missions and reached the maximum level of 20, the "Enemy of the Enemy" side quest will appear on the planet Titan. Upon completion, you’ll be rewarded with the "Rat King’s Crew" item which takes up a space in your Kinetic weapon slot, although it isn’t a useable weapon just yet.

Once you view the Rat King’s Crew item in your inventory, a set of four riddles will appear, which you’ll need to solve whilst paired up with at least one other player in a Fireteam. Once all four riddles have been solved, Rat King’s Crew will morph into the coveted exotic sidearm weapon.

Riddle 1: “The Rat King’s Crew / Runs to and fro / Good girls and boys / Know where to go / Pick up your toys and darn your socks / on errands of woe, on errands we walk”

In order to solve the first of the four mind-boggling Rat King riddles, simply complete three patrols with your Fireteam. If you haven’t unlocked the ability to do them yet, travel to the European Dead Zone and complete the mission "Patrol" to gain access. Once unlocked, you can pick up patrols from flashing green beacons scattered throughout the many planets.

Riddle 2: “The Rat Kind’s Crew / Goes Arm in arm / To fight as one / To do no harm / So have your fun and run outside / Rally the flag and we’ll never die”

Riddle 3: “The Rat King’s Crew / Goes four and four / With good good fights / They learn to score /Then three as one they stand upright / Return from past the wall and wanting more”

Riddle 4: “The Rat King’s Crew / Stands three as one / They see Night’s fall / And fear it none / But watch the clock as you scale the wall / Lest five remain hope comes for none”

Riddle number four cranks up the difficulty notch and is by far the most frustrating part to solve. This time, you and your Fireteam need to successfully beat the weekly Nightfall strike with at least five minutes left on the clock. If you’ve yet to unlock Nightfalls, complete two normal strikes in the strike playlist and then level up your Power level to 240. Beating the weekly Nightfall strike is a challenge in itself so having to complete it with at least five minutes remaining is no easy task but we believe in you, Guardian.

Destiny 2’sRat King Exotic (yellow) weapon is one of the most interesting guns in the game. Getting your hands on the sidearm requires a fair bit of riddle solving and enemy slaying.

Before you start your quest to get the Rat King exotic sidearm in Destiny 2, you’ll need to handle some basic requirements. From there, you’ll unlock the starting quest for the Rat King and its subsequent quests.

Once you beat that mission, you’ll receive the Rat King’s Crew item, which appears in your kinetic weapon slot. When you hover over the item, you’ll see a small riddle and an objective that must be completed. Don’t be fooled. Even if you complete this riddle, there will still be three more to go.

Before you start working on your riddles, keep in mind that to complete them, you must either complete these riddles with a teammate who also has the Rat King’s Crew item or with a teammate who has the Rat King gun already. They must also have it equipped the entire time.

To unlock the Rat King in Destiny 2, you’ll need to solve some riddles. These riddles aren’t that hard to solve, but they require a few steps to complete them. Here are their solutions.

“The Rat King"s Crew / Runs to and fro / Good girls and boys / Know where to go / Pick up your toys and darn your socks / On errands of woe, on errands we walk.” — Old Children’s Rhyme

To solve this riddle, simply partner up with another player and complete three patrols. You can do any three you like, but the quickest way to handle this is on Titan, the same place you get the Rat King’s Crew item.

“The Rat King’s Crew / Goes arm in arm / To fight as one / To do no harm / So have your fun and run outside / Rally the flag and we’ll never die.” — Old Children’s Rhyme

“The Rat King’s Crew / Goes four and four / With good good fights / They learn to score / Then three as one they stand upright / Return from past the wall and wanting more.” — Old Children’s Rhyme

The third puzzle for the Rat King is just as straightforward as the others. Get together with a friend and dive into the Crucible. After completing two matches, this riddle will be complete.

“The Rat King’s Crew / Stands three as one / They see Night’s fall / And fear it none / But watch the clock as you scale the wall / Lest five remain hope comes for none.” — Old Children’s Rhyme

The Rat King’s final puzzle, unlike the others, is not easy. To solve this one, you must complete the Nightfall strike with five minutes left on the clock. Don’t get upset if this takes you several tries.

Like every other Destiny 2 Exotic (yellow) item, the Rat King has some unique aspects. Its most interesting is its main trait, Rat Pack, which allows the gun to become stronger when nearby allies also have it equipped. This can stack up to six times, so if you run a raid, like Destiny 2’s Leviathan and everyone is packing the Rat King, you’ll all get a boost when you’re near one another.

The Rat King, which is, if you check the lore, named after a Pied Piper-like figure who was said to have died many deaths and returned anew each time, is a pretty wonderful weapon. It"s a Kinectic Sidearm, and one of the most visually impressive weapons in the game, with a trio of rats carved into the side of it. As part of our complete Destiny 2 guide, we"ve got a comprehensive look at how to unlock this cool, unique weapon.

A Rat King, colloquially, is a pack of rats that have become tied together, their tails looping around in knots; like its namesake, you"ll need to work together both to obtain and to get the most out of this weapon. It can be upgraded with the "Rat Pack" ability, which increases its power whenever another Guardian is also using it (which stacks up to six times), and is reliant on teamwork to unlock.

There"s no other weapon ability in the game quite like it (although it"s worth noting that the power only kicks in when you and another Rat King user are near each other - you can tell because the weapon starts glowing when its power has been increased by another weapon holder). It"s going to be a very useful weapon to have for a six person Raid.

To access the post-game quest that you need to go on to find the Rat King, you first need to finish the campaign and hit your maximum level. Have a look at our tips for levelling up fast if you need any help dinging 20 as fast as you can.

Complete these missions in order - it shouldn"t take longer than two hours - and you should get the Rat King"s Crew drop at the end of the final mission.

"The Rat King"s Crew / Runs to and fro / Good girls and boys / Know where to go / Pick up your toys and darn your socks / on errands of woe, on errands we walk" - Old Children"s Rhyme

Try not to focus too much on the broken rhyme scheme, but instead look at the clues here: there"s a three-step process to "complete" this quest, and you are encouraged to "solve this riddle with other rats".

As it turns out, this is very simple. Get into a Fireteam with at least one other player (you can do this with as many friends as you want, as long as there"s at least two of you) and complete three patrol missions with the Rat King"s Crew in your inventory. It doesn"t matter which ones you do, or where you do them. Once you complete three, you"ll move to the next part of the riddle.

“The Rat Kind’s Crew / Goes Arm in arm / To fight as one / To do no harm / So have your fun and run outside / Rally the flag and we’ll never die” – Old Children’s Rhyme

“The Rat King’s Crew / Goes four and four / With good good fights / They learn to score /Then three as one they stand upright / Return from past the wall and wanting more” – Old Children’s Rhyme

“The Rat King’s Crew / Stands three as one / They see Night’s fall / And fear it none / But watch the clock as you scale the wall / Lest five remain hope comes for none” – Old Children’s Rhyme

This step is a lot trickier. You need to complete the Nightfall Strike. Make sure you get your light up a bit before entering. You need at least 240, but realistically you probably want to go in with at least 260 light if you don"t want to struggle too hard, because to get the Rat"s King you need to do more than just complete the Nightfall.

"Let five remain" is referring to how many minutes need to be left on the clock when you finish. You need to finish the Nightfall Strike with a full five minutes left on the clock to complete this step. In Destiny 2 Strikes you start missions with eleven minutes and gain time for kills, so you can"t afford to dawdle if you want to get this gun.

The Nightfall, of course, changes every week - some weeks finishing with five minutes spare may be more difficult than others. Pay attention to whichever modifiers are active that week and strategise towards getting through the mission as quickly as possible. Also, make sure you have a fireteam of three people for this - it"s going to be a whole lot harder with two. Try to make sure that, between you, you have a good mix of elements covered in your abilities and repeat the Strike a few times to improve.

Do this and you"ll be granted the Exotic Rat King, and so will your fireteam if they completed all the other steps with you. Remember that the weapon"s real strength lies in the power increase it gets when multiple players carry them together, so don"t expect amazing results out of it without teamwork.

This is Rat King, of course, the Exotic sidearm in question. You could argue that Rat Pack is nothing more than a novelty perk, since it would be silly to force everyone on the team to use Rat King for maximum benefit.

With that in mind, it was still worth testing it out to see if the numbers tell a different story. In his video below, Arekkz and five of his teammates equipped Rat King and went into the Leviathan raid to check the numbers.

In case you missed it, our Destiny 2 guide has similar min-maxing strategies, such as this article about combining the abilities and skills of the three classes for maximum damage.

Back to the topic at hand, the Rat Pack"s description mentions that the weapon becomes "stronger," and that it stacks up to six times. Naturally, you"d want to test it out in the raid, seeing as it"s the only six-player PvE activity and would theoretically provide the best way for Rat King to shine.

As Arekkz points out, there"s a reason the description didn"t just say "more damage," because the per-bullet damage isn"t technically getting a buff. What increases, though, is the weapon"s rate of fire and magazine size, which means higher damage potential. You"ll notice the increase to the rate of fire when you have four people wielding it.

The magazine size, which starts at 15 bullets, increases to 16 when you have two other players around. Four players using Rat King means 17 bullets, five ups it to 18 bullets, and a maximum of 20 bullets when everyone in the fireteam is using it.

If you liked this analysis but don"t think the buff is worth it, check out our list of the top Exotic weapons in Destiny 2, we guarantee many of these would go well with your play style. You should know, though, that finishing the Rat King Exotic Quest is one of the best ways to level up fast in Destiny 2, particularly past 265 Power.

I had to apologize to the four other people in my house this morning, because at midnight, I was straight-up yelling. After two hours of trying, we finally did it. We got Rat King.

These are mild post-game spoilers, sort of, but these are the basics: Rat King is an Exotic sidearm that gets more powerful the more people in your Fireteam are using it. To get it, you have to complete a series of quest steps that culminate in completing the week"s timed Nightfall Strike with five minutes or more remaining. It"s not particularly easy.

Those are the kinds of moments that are going to keep me coming back to Destiny 2. The story might be basic and uninteresting, and certain characters" "witty" dialogue might be a bit much at times, but I (and most people I know) don"t play Destiny for a spectacular narrative. I"m happy to have a more fleshed-out world and actual context this time around, since it"s just enough to prop up the things about Destiny 2 that work well.

This will be my last entry before the final review, since I"m now making the final preparations before heading into the belly of the beast tomorrow. Expect the full review later in the week, once I"ve made it through the Raid. (Also, wish me luck.)

We broke for dinner after two failed attempts only to realize we"d missed a key modifier that would have made the Strike a breeze. (I won"t spoil it here if you haven"t done it, but it involves a bit of reading and strong team communication as you go.) But the process of collectively understanding a strategy in a group, and the excited yelling that went with it, was the most fun I"ve had in Destiny 2 so far.

My first impression of Destiny 2 was that it was just more Destiny, and that"s technically true to a point. But in nearly every aspect of the game I"ve seen so far, something is different enough to dramatically change how accessible and engaging the "same" formula can be. There are certainly moments and missions that you have to just get through, like a couple Strikes with uninspired objectives, but they"re not so obtrusive that they leave a bitter taste going into the endgame stuff.

I"m signing off for the weekend as I dive completely into Destiny 2, but check back Monday for more updates. Clans just launched, so I"ll be checking that out along with more Strikes and some general Raid prep. We also have tons of guides and the latest news, including how to get certain Exotics, in our Destiny 2 hub, plus a new weekly Let"s Play, Destiny"s Children.

I finished the last story mission this morning. Overall, it"s a pretty standard save-the-world story with some cheesy moments, but it capitalizes on Destiny"s most interesting narrative trait: its lore. I won"t spoil anything, but I was satisfied and maybe even a bit emotional about the ending. A little worldbuilding goes a long way.

My review in progress is based on my experience at a Bungie event a few weeks ago, where I"d played Destiny 2 on a dummy account. My first day with the game at launch--with my own account and character--has mostly just been replaying the story missions and side activities I"ve already completed. It"s… actually kind of nice.

Part of that is due to using my own character and knowing that the loot and gear I get is mine to keep. But for the first time in my history with Destiny, I"m also properly invested in the story and characters. The dialogue can be a bit cheesy at times, but the characters are more three-dimensional and have more personality. There"s also plenty of lore peppered in thanks to quips from your Ghost and items you can scan in the environment. Because the story missions (and in many cases, the side Adventure missions) give the proper background to contextualize your actions, it feels like you"re doing something of substance, rather than running through missions as a means to an end.

The coolest thing that came of of co-op, though, was the discovery that dialogue does indeed change if you import a Destiny 1 character rather than making a new one. My friend had imported his character (we"re both Hunters), and certain conversations were slightly different between the two of us. Where my Ghost gave me a basic introduction to the Taken, for example, his reminded him of the time they beat Oryx and questioned why the Taken would have returned.

Though I"ve only replayed things I"ve already done, I"m still excited about Destiny 2. I can"t wait to find my next exotic weapon, but I"m also looking forward to completing more Adventure missions and learning more about the world. My next step is to finish the story, reach level 20, and run some Strikes, so check back soon for more impressions.

Origin & Description: Do you know what a rat king is? The answer is: gross! A semi-mythical animal, rat kings are supposedly created when a lot of rats are crammed into a small, filthy space such that their tails become permanently knotted or stuck together. There are a few alleged examples of this freak phenomenon in museums around the world, but it’s still highly debated whether any of them are real* since rats are fastidious creatures who keep their nests clean but also do huddle together in the winter for warmth and like maybe could get tree sap on their tails or something? Point is: gross.

* (Weirdly, this phenomenon is proven to happen with squirrels. But “squirrel king” sounds less like a creepy freak of nature and more like a Magic card, so it never caught on.)

Rat kings occasionally turn up in fiction, especially supernatural fiction, where the linked rats’ brains are often depicted as fused into a creepy rat hive-mind. Rat King (the gun) works like that except it’s only gross in the “dealing disgusting amounts of damage” sort of way. Its gimmick is that when you use it, its perk amplifies for everyone nearby who is also using it, and vice versa - the more rats, the stronger it gets. The hammer end of the barrel has a rat skull mounted on it whose eyes glow as more rats come in range. With five other fireteam members packing the same gun the skull will blaze and Rat King will chew through whatever you point it at that’s not a raid boss with a particularly steep DPS check (pro tip: does not work for Riven cheese.) It’s also a quest exotic guaranteed to drop at the end of a series of missions that start after the base story campaign, so nearly all Guardians have access to it.

All in all, it’s a neat idea for a weapon. But in practice it’s not useful without at least one other Rat-King-wielding ally in range, and since it’s not a common choice of exotic you won’t be near another user unless you’re deliberately coordinating. The surprisingly short range on the Rat Pack effect doesn’t help either; in a large enough encounter space you might not proc the buff even with allies. Rat King is further hindered by being a sidearm, a weapon class that currently refuses to be useful no matter how much Bungie buffs it because of its scattershot recoil and very limited range. Rat King’s catalyst can help a lot, but that requires both getting the catalyst and caring enough to complete it - especially tricky since it only progresses when you do activities with, you guessed it, other people also using Rat King.

Despite all these drawbacks many players still enjoy Rat King. It explores a unique area of playspace and forming up a six-Rat-King fireteam for a jank-ass meme raid is legit a great time. The ornament “Black Plague” darkens the weapon and makes the rats’ eyes glow; “Catacombs” gives it a dingy bone look; and “Climate Change” frosts it over and turns the skull’s eyes an icy blue. Don’t know how the ideas of “rat king” and “climate change” collided in some Bungie artist’s head, but the result is pretty sweet so I’m not gonna ask.

Destiny 2 may not be cranking out Exotic weapons to the tune that its predecessor did, but getting your hands on them isn’t tootough. Whether it’s by luck, timing or perseverance, grabbing a Sunshot or some Sweet Business isn’t toot axing. Then there are those guns which require a bit more legwork. MIDA Multi-Tool can be grabbed within a day once you’ve done the setup for it, Sturm and Drang isn’t too daunting and chances are that by now you’ve already earned an Exotic engram or two that has unlocked further beasts within your arsenal.

Then there are those guns which require you to experience Destiny 2 to its full. The Rat King is one such gun, a sidearm whose power grows exponentially when paired with other Guardians who also wield it. Getting your hands on the Rat King first requires a trip to Titan to complete some world quests, at which point you’ll get the quest at the end of “Enemy Of My Enemy”.

The catch here, is that you need to do all this with at least one other person in your fireteam. Not only that, but said person needs to also be busy with the Rat King quest. Alright, not toobad if you’re in a clan and happen to be in regular contact with your fellow Guardians. The first three parts of the quest can be clocked in an easy 30-45 minute window, leaving you time to plan your assault on the deadly Nightfall strike.

Worrabastard of a mission. Alessandro “Five More Minutes Turkish” Barbossa and I had spent our Saturday doing our prep work for the Rat King, with Sunday being our day for the Nightfall. I’d specifically avoided the first Nightfall for this quest, as the Arms Dealer strike even without Nightfall modifiers can still be a bit of a bastard to undertake.

The Inverted Spire Strike was perhaps the best for the challenge ahead. Thanks to clanmate (and the living physical embodiment of Vanguard leader Zavala) Nikola who had done the Nightfall strike already, we had a guide. Remember, the Nightfall this week meant that ahead of us were tougher enemies, longer respawn times and the constant ticking of the clock. We had our work cut out for us.

Factor in the Prism modifier, and the mission got even harder. That requires the three of us to constantly keep track of which element was in play, as Prism cycles in one useful energy-type and nerfs the other two. That resulted in the team shouting out Solar, Arc and Void during the Strike, even resulting in Alessandro “I’m only 67 minutes late” Barbossa yelling back that he was doing his best to avoidthe Cabal.

We had to restart twice, and then the old adage proved itself: The third time was the charm indeed. The three of us operated as a well-oiled machine, leveraging the prism effect with our supers and weapons to maximum effect while Sparrow-racing past every obstacle that we could. We reached the Vex temple, tackled the Modular Mind and with six minutes and ten seconds left on the clock:

Rat King was ours. The preparation had paid off, the hard work shined through and the Modular Mind had its health bar depleted within two minutes by a well co-ordinated attack of Sunshot hand cannon rounds and Void RPG blasts, while the Warlock’s Arc Soul rift bonus proved to be particularly devastating when the Prism modifier for that element kicked in.

This was Destiny 2 at its finest for me. A few friends, facing the impossible and overcoming it together. Also, getting rewarded with a neat sidearm isn’t too shabby either. Rat King is a handy Kinetic pistol with some perks that’ll most likely come in real handy for the Leviathan raid. But the real treasure was friendship all along.

I"m getting the impression that several of the tactics suggested here are based on exploiting the speed bug to construct things faster. I was able to finish this mission with the exploit (built guard towers next to the sewers), but as near as I can tell, there"s no way you could do that at normal speed; even if you have the peasants concentrate on one building at a time, guard towers are so slow to build that you"re unlikely to get even one up before the rats swarm in and kill the peasants. The best I could do at normal speed was two rangers" guilds, but six rangers weren"t enough to kill the rats quickly enough to prevent them from killing my workers and destroying buildings before they were ready.

Although I got through this mission, I feel a little unhappy about having to resort to what practically amounts to a cheat. Since I assume that the speed bug will be fixed in a patch sooner or later, this tactic probably won"t work in the long term, anyway. Is there another tactic that I just couldn"t think of, or do we just have to hope that this mission will be tweaked in a patch to give the player a little more time to prepare?

The first known sighting of a Rat King dates back to 1576(opens in new tab), when "servants in Antwerp, Belgium discovered seven rats with knotted tails tied together". Now an established phenomenon with multiple cases recorded across the world, but no verified explanation for the cause, Rat Kings have become a staple of folklore horror, inspiring countless storytellers from Stephen King to Alan Moore.

It was thus only a matter of time before Rat Kings started to show up in video games, as most recently exemplified by The Last of Us Part 2, where it became the basis for Naughty Dog"s next evolution of its Cordyceps virus. This eldritch abomination of synthesised infected encouraged the studio to push the limits of its body horror further than ever before and, according to those most closely involved with its creation, marked the fruition of a dream (or nightmare) that had been years in the making.

Naughty Dog had actually been in possession of its Rat King for some time before The Last of Us 2. The problem was that it had nowhere to put it. "Even during development of the first game, we were thinking about what two infected stuck together would look like," says Anthony Newman, co-director of The Last of Us 2. "Visually, it was just a really exciting idea."

A few pieces of concept art for the Rat King were sketched during development of The Last of Us, but the beast was eventually sent into dormancy as Naughty Dog struggled to find it a suitable scene within Joel and Ellie"s original journey. The Rat King wouldn"t re-emerge until several years later, when the studio found itself storyboarding a trial by fire sequence for Abby, The Last of Us 2"s second protagonist.

"We wanted Abby to have this really intense thing that she overcomes, because she"s kind of on this redemption mission to get the supplies for Yara"s arm," explains co-director Kurt Margenau, "and so it seemed like the perfect place for the Rat King. She"s gone through all of these trials: Overcoming her fear of heights climbing to the sky bridge, fighting through hordes of infected on the way down, and coming out the other side thinking the worst was over – only to be thrown right into this nightmare boss fight."

"The only information I had at first was concept art, design prototypes, blockmesh level art, and prototype motion-capture animations," says Jimenez. "It seemed like an exciting but daunting task, requiring a lot of high-level conceptual work and sound design. I knew that if I finished all the other infected sound design first, I could use those assets as layers in my final vocal designs of the Rat King. It wasn"t until quite late in production where I went all-out on fleshing it out and finalizing its sound."

Similarly, animation director Jeremy Yates had to consider how such an unholy matrimony of flesh and fungus would behave, studying preserved Rat King specimens to conceptualise one in motion: "While we"ve never seen one alive, I imagine it"s a coordinated chaos of movements. Similar to conjoined twins, they"re independent but must learn to coordinate their movement and work together."

With the bones of the Rat King encounter in place, Naughty Dog could begin thinking about how it would introduce this new infected boss to the player, and the best way it could ramp up the fear factor while staying true to The Last of Us" firmly grounded sense of authenticity. That meant Abby"s descent into Ground Zero needed to feel organic, not mechanical, and for Jimenez in particular, it demanded a preamble that would continue to mess with player expectations right up to the Rat King"s full reveal.

"Initially, the introduction was a jump scare," he says, reflecting on the earliest days of development. "That didn"t excite me, because I felt it wasn"t enough time to tell the sonic story of the Rat King. I fell in love with this idea that you start to hear something coming in the distance, and that your preconceptions of infected sounds will try to fill in the gaps as to what exactly was approaching."

Jimenez pitched the idea to creative director Neil Druckmann, who naturally approved, before taking it to Yates and his team of character animators, which now had the daunting task of rigging the Rat King"s initial assault on Abby in the ambulance. The solution was to get physical, tying three actors together(opens in new tab) to capture the kinesthetics of the multi-limbed monster.

"Jesse has incredible upper body strength from his parkour athleticism and was able to build in the ravaged dog movement we were looking for. These two actors were joined at the hips again, but the cage held Jesse in somewhat of a hammock that kept most of his body weight off of his arm. This gave him explosive speed with his left arm and allowed Chris, and a number of assistants, to move and swing the cage around very quickly."

The gambit paid off, providing the animation team with the perfect reference point for detailing the creature"s every motion. From there, all that was left was making sure this King looked the part for his small screen debut...

"One big reference point for us was Neill Blomkamp"s short film, Zygote(opens in new tab). If you look at that video, you can see that there"s a lot of inspiration there. Inside is another one; the way the monster"s arms touch a lot of stuff is just this inherently creepy thing. So we"re aware of things like that, but we had to make it our own and do all the extra work that"s needed to make it feel real."

"Ironically, Stranger Things Season 3 also dropped in the middle of development and featured a large creature formed from rats, which chased characters around a hospital. We were already pretty far along in production, so it didn"t change much, but it did have a very similar vibe," says Yates. "It was at least interesting to see what our finished version could look like."

Jimenez"s references, on the other hand, weren"t so much drawn from pop culture as they were the animal kingdom. Layering in distorted big cat roars with avian squawks and snake hisses, the unholy mix was concocted to evoke the Medusa-like nature of the Rat King"s many infected parts.

What little remains of the Rat King"s humanity is buried beneath layers of congealed infected protoplasm, and Jimenez made sure to reflect that in the monster"s sound design, too: "I would layer in gargles, gags, and sloppy wet gore sounds to add a sickening realism to the vocal effects. It needed to sound part of the universe, and part of the established infected family."

Anyone who"s had the misfortune of fighting the Rat King will tell you that its chosen arena is not a pleasant place to be. A series of dark, narrow corridors that make up just one section of Seattle"s "Ground Zero", the stage for Abby"s face-off represents the iterative culmination of a dozen ditched concepts.

With these established, in addition to several environmental "shortcuts" that allowed both Abby or the Rat King to slip around each other, Naughty Dog realised it had an arena that felt intensely claustrophobic – encouraging players to think on their feet with a heightened awareness of their own vulnerability.

"The challenge was less about making the fight fair and more about making it interesting," admits Newman. "We have all kinds of characters that will fuck you up if they touch you. One of our bread and butter enemies, the clicker, kills you in one hit. So we had to think about what would make this creature something more than just a really tanky clicker that soaks up a lot of bullets?"

The answer, of course, was the split. Halfway through the fight, a "super stalker" attached to the Rat King will splinter off from its host, in a subversive spin on the boss fight trope of a "second stage".

Thankfully, Yates" approach to mo-capping the Rat King with three stunt actors had allowed his team to give "each of the fused bodies their own movement", thus making it easier to animate one tearing apart from the other in a plausible fashion. Meanwhile, Jiminez characterised the super stalker"s screams with samples of "slowed down falcon and vulture cries to give it a gritty, terrifying tone that sounded almost like a tortured human".

With both the Rat King and super stalker slain, Abby emerges from the other side of the hospital a changed person. She mentions the creature to no one, despite its potential importance for humanity"s understanding of the infected. Perhaps she"s shellshocked. Perhaps she"s worried no one would believe her. Or perhaps she doesn"t want to consider the possibility that the Rat King she killed wasn"t just an anomalous exception to the rule.

When pressed for more pieces of Rat King lore, Margenau and Newman are hesitant to explain the minutiae beyond what"s revealed in the game itself. "There was at some point gonna be a note somewhere that would hint that there were actually more elsewhere," Newman teases, "but that didn"t make it in, which leaves it in this weird like pseudo-canon state."

"Even the name, "Rat King", is not really canon," Margenau adds. "No one ever refers to it as that in the game itself. We debated whether there should be something that names what it is…"

It"s here where Newman chimes in, grinning: "But don"t you remember, Kurt? There"s that line that Abby was going to say as she first starts running away from it; "Fuck this... Rat... King?!" We had to cut that one for time."

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This Exotic Sniper rifle can be obtained as a random drop/reward when completing Empire Hunts, new to Destiny 2: Beyond Light. There are a few steps you’ll have to take before unlocking the ability to go on said hunts. Play through Beyond Light‘s story until the Exo Stranger gives you a quest called, ‘A Hard Rain Falls.’ Once finished, head over to Variks and begin grinding away at his Sabotage Quests. It will cost Herealways pieces, Beyond Light’s new in-game currency, to go on Empire Hunts. However, you can reduce the cost by purchasing Empire Hunt Perks from Variks.

Cloudstrike shines in PvE as consecutive headshots will generate a lightning storm at the point of impact, dealing AoE damage to any enemies in range. This is a great strategy for taking down elites with focused sniper fire. It can deal with mobs of weaker enemies with one well-placed shot. While the lightning storm is deadly in PvP, the odds of killing multiple enemies with it is low. Cloudstrike is much better used on PvE missions.

You can unlock this Legendary Sub-Machine gun by completing Wrathborn hunts for Crow. Do this by charging your Cryptolith Lure and customizing it in the menu. Select the hunt you wish to go on to see what rewards may await you. Depending on the hunt, you’ll want to select whichever Lure mod/buff will help. Once prepared, you’ll receive a mission icon on The Tangled Shore (Fallen hunt) or in The Dreaming City (Hive hunt). You can also unlock Friction Fire by leveling up Crow’s faction. Completing Wrathborn Hunts will also reward you with Recon Data to be turned into Crow.

Friction Fire has a high rate of fire with little-to-no recoil. The precision frame makes the recoil pattern more predictably vertical which can be easily compensated for. Friction Fire puts out high DPS against elite enemies and is deadly when paired with a shotgun or sniper rifle in the Crucible (depending on your personal playstyle.)

You’ll find this Destiny gun after completing the Exotic quest you pick up in Earth’s EDZ, once you’ve completed the series of Quest missions that unlock after the main story campaign is complete. A scout rifle designed for quick movement and quicker reactions, it does serious damage when you ping headshots, whether you’re running around various planets or aiming at other players in the Crucible.

This Exotic weapon can be a handful to unlock, mostly because you need a pal who is also either doing the Rat King quest or has already unlocked the gun in order to receive it. You’ll receive the quest when you complete the Questline on Titan after the story unlocks. It’s presented as a series of riddles, but the gist is, you need to complete Patrols, Public Events, Crucible matches, and the Nightfall with another player using Rat King. For the Nightfall, you need to finish it with five minutes or more on the timer.

Rat King is a pretty killer sidearm, with a quick firing rate and decent stability. Notch a kill with it and hit the reload button, and it’ll make you temporarily invisible, which is great for emergencies — especially in the Leviathan raid, which is full of swarms of tough enemies. But the best perk is that the more people on your team with Rat King, the stronger it becomes when you’re together. That means if you can get three (or even six in the raid) Fireteam members all equipped with Rat King, you increase its effectiveness significantly. Needless to say, it’s worth the struggle to unlock it.

Hidden among regular auto rifles in Destiny 2 are firearms that are basically miniguns, and Sweet Business is one of the coolest. Sporting a magazine of 100 rounds, it’s great for melting big enemies by dumping a ton of ammo into them. You’ll also want to deploy it on tough missions with lots of enemies, such as Nightfalls, because it’s great for firing into a crowd and leaving nothing behind.

The Fireteam perks that come with Vigilance Wing are pretty cool as well. When a team member is killed, Vigilance Wing’s Harsh Truths perk restarts your health regeneration immediately and increases your movement speed, making it great for running to get resurrect teammates. You’ll also receive increased weapon performance when your teammates are all dead with the Last Stand perk, giving you more chances to make a comeback.

This Exotic hand cannon comes from a quest you’ll earn after completing the three Quest missions that unlock on Nessus after finishing the main story campaign. On its own, Sturm is a bit of a letdown. It fires high-damage, high-impact rounds at good range, but its slow fire rate means you need to hang back to use it effectively.

This Legendary auto rifle might pop up when you turn in Reputation tokens in the Tower, and it’s a pretty great gun to have around, especially when you need something solid to free up an Exotic slot for one of your other weapons. The Vanguard weapon is a reliable auto rifle with low recoil and good range, making it a great middle-of-the-road option for both the Crucible and fighting enemies around Destiny 2.

The first gun to come out of Curse of Osiris‘ lengthy series of Prophecy Tablet quests, which are only available once you’ve cleared most of the content in the expansion, is actually pretty good. Garden Progeny 1 is a weird-looking scout rifle that fires slowly, but hits very hard, and doesn’t have a ton of kickback. That makes it great for landing headshots from well out of the fight.

Garden Progeny 1 is pretty effective both in the course of story missions and in the Crucible. It makes for a great long-range alternative to an auto rifle, and while it might not be quite as effective as MIDA Multi-Tool, it’s a more versatile option that makes you effective at multiple ranges. You’ll get it from your first Lost Prophecy tablet — here’s a full guide on how to unlock it and the rest of the Lost Prophecy weapons.

Crimson is one of those truly unique exotic guns, with all kinds of perks that set it apart from anything else. Banned Weapon gives Crimson, a hand cannon, a three-round burst rather than the weapon class’s standard, slow-firing shot. Cruel Remedy heals you every time Crimson bags a kill. If it’s a precision kill, you get more ammo in the magazine. That’s kind of ridiculous.

Speaking of auto rifles, there’s another great one hidden in Warmind. The Braytech Winter Wolf is notable because it’s just so damn easy to use. A very stable, long-range auto rifle, the Winter Wolf comes with a precision frame that makes the kind of gun that lets you put bullet after bullet into the enemy’s head without having to struggle to stay on target. It’s also geared to dish out a lot of damage over time, with perks including Armor Piercing Rounds and High-Impact Reserves, making the gun great against shields and especially effective toward the end of the clip. In general, the Winter Wolf is effective from far away, packs a lot of damage, and doesn’t kick around a lot, making it a great primary weapon both out in the world and in the Crucible.

You can find the Winter Wolf after unlocking the encrypted nodes scattered around Hellas Basin, which you can open once you gather up Resonant Stems. Those nodes have a chance to send you back to Ana Bray with an item you can trade in for one of her winter-themed weapons, and there’s a one-in-five chance it’ll be the Winter Wolf.

Complete the three post-story campaign Quest missions in the EDZ to receive MIDA Mini-Tool, as well as the quest to unlock MIDA Multi-Tool. This is a great combo weapon if you’re using the Exotic. It’s a submachine gun that dumps Energy ammo fast, which is perfect when you get into close-quarters fights where the Multi-Tool isn’t as useful. The Mini-Tool also has a super-fast reload thanks to its Lightweight Frame, so it’ll get you out of a lot of scrapes when you’re in trouble.

An Exotic hand cannon you might grab as you make your way through the main story campaign, Sunshot is a phenomenal weapon to have in your back pocket when paired with something like an auto rifle. It’s a slow-firing Energy weapon with explosive rounds, one that turns enemies killed with critical hits into Solar bombs that damage those around them. Those explosions have been greatly increased in the Warmind expansion, making Sunshot a great gun to have with you in a variety of circumstances.

If you like lightning, you’ll love Riskrunner, which comes from random Exotic drops. The submachine gun fires fast and is great against enemies that wield arc weapons like the Fallen. Its Arc Conductor perk absorbs incoming fire from Arc weapons and uses it to overcharge the gun, thus making you resistant to Arc damage. As you rack up kills, you’ll extend this protection even longer.

You might get this trace rifle (read: Laser beam) while making your way through the main story campaign, but it’s a great gun to keep with you and one that will get a lot of use in Crucible. Coldheart fires a single, continuous laser beam that increases damage the longer you hold it on a target. In the Crucible, this means Coldheart eats people alive if you can catch them in the open without cover because even as they run away, you should be able to hold the beam on them. It’s actually really frustrating when you run up against it.

This Exotic, anti-Cabal Energy scout rifle comes out of random drops and is handy for Strikes and the raid especially, and although its slow firing rate reduces its effectiveness to some degree, it’s been tweaked in the Warmind expansion to give its rounds a slight bit of homing that makes it great for firing from behind cover. It also has good range and good handling, and its Slug Rifle perk increases damage when aiming down sights, making it ideal for people who stay back and fire away from a distance.

The big benefit of Skyburner’s Oath is that it does increased damage against Cabal targets in general, meaning you might want to bring it along on the Leviathan raid. It also can automatically penetrate Cabal Phalanx riot shields, which are annoying to deal with during Leviathan, especially in its final battle. Full-auto firing also means you can lay into enemies without having to let up on the trigger, while the extended magazine ensures you’ll take down what you’re aiming at, ideally from the safety of cover.

An Energy pulse rifle you’ll get from random Exotic drops, Graviton Lance has good range and extremely good stability, making it great for zapping people and aliens at a distance. The three-shot burst gets a big damage boost with its final round thanks to the Black Hole perk, too, so if you can consistently catch headshots with it, you’ll wreck whatever you’re shooting at. The gun has been significantly beefed up in the Warmind expansion, so expect to find it in the Crucible quite a bit.

The other handy thing about Graviton Lance is that taking advantage of its headshot damage gives you an added bonus: Exploding enemies. Its Cosmology perk turns enemies killed with precision hits into bombs that’ll damage anyone close by. If you can stay out of the fight and use range to plug away at baddies or other players, Graviton Lance can be highly effective.

You can choose between Seven-Six-Five’s Accurized Rounds perk for a range increase or Armor-Piercing Rounds that do more damage and are better at knocking out enemy shields. The gun also sports a Lightweight Frame, so it handles fast and increases your movement speed when you’re wielding it.

The fact that this gun’s initials are the letters O and P might have been deliberate on Bungie’s part. Positive Outlook is a phenomenal, devastating energy auto rifle you can get as a quest reward in the Curse of Osiris story, or as a Vanguard reward. Against both aliens and other players, Positive Outlook ravages your enemies and is probably the best expansion gun we’ve used so far.

There’s a key combination that makes Positive Outlook so powerful: It has a very low recoil and a large, 33-round magazine. once you’ve got it trained on somebody’s head, it stays there for the duration. Perks that add to Positive Outlook’s range, like “Accurized Rounds,” make it deadly from clear across a Crucible map and its Kill Clip perk adds bonus damage on those occasions when you have to bother to stop and reload. You’ll see this gun a lot in Destiny 2 player vs. player because it’s reliably lethal.

Prometheus Lens’ accuracy and range make it a useful weapon, but it also has a handy perk, Flame Refraction, which returns some ammo to the magazine for every kill you nab, allowing you to fire it for longer. Basically, you can hold the trigger down and keep your beam going as long as you keep racking up the kills.

You can find the IKELOS_HC by first completing all the story missions on Mars as part of the Warmind expansion, and then returning to Ana Bray and completing the blue Quest missions that appear after you speak with her again. The IKELOS_HC is your reward for completing those missions as well.

When using the Scientific Method perk, damaging enemies also increases Tractor Cannon’s speed and handling, so once you’ve committed to an attack, you’ll benefit from keeping it up. In the Warmind expansion, the force of the Tractor Cannon has been increased enough that it sends enemies flying in most circumstances, making it not only powerful but hilarious. You can also unlock a Masterwork for the gun just by fighting enemies in the world. Look for this one from random Exotic engrams.

This random Legendary drop is a great rocket launcher that’s easy to miss. It deals heavy damage to a big area, making it great for crowds and boss enemies alike. In rocket launchers, blast radius and projectile velocity are the most important stats, and Curtain Call is strong on both fronts. It also reloads pretty fast, allowing you to get you firing as quickly as possible.

The big benefit of Curtain Call, however, is that, along with its big explosions and fast rockets, it launches cluster bombs upon impact, which fly out from the shell and explode around it. This wreaks havoc on large areas and is almost like adding a second rocket to your shot. Curtain Call is great for taking down scores of enemies or making an entire team of Guardians very sad in the Crucible, especially in game modes like Control where teams tend to bunch up.

Another great gun for fighting in the thick of things, this Legendary shotgun will likely pop up as a reward when you turn in EDZ tokens to Devram in the EDZ. It