Introduced in Seasons of Arrivals, Exotic Ciphers are a rare currency type that allows players to purchase Exotics from previous years in Destiny 2’s lifespan. They can also be used to purchase an additional Fated Engram from Xur every week and, starting in The Final Shape, add Artifice sockets to Exotic armor.
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Calling Exotic Ciphers important would be an understatement. Newer Guardians will spend these Ciphers as often as possible to stock up on Exotic weapons. Unfortunately, you can only carry a few at a time, so be sure to spend your Ciphers wisely. Let’s go over every way that you can earn Exotic Ciphers in Destiny 2 and how best to spend them.
Updated January 17, 2025, by Charles Burgar: An additional Exotic Cipher may now be obtained from the episodic season pass. We’ve updated this guide to reflect this change and added tooltips to some of our weapon recommendations.
How To Obtain Exotic Ciphers
There are three sources of Exotic Ciphers in Destiny 2:
- The Season Pass.
- Xur’s Xenology Quest.
- Certain DLC Packs.
The most common source is the Season Pass, providing a total of three Exotic Ciphers to those who complete the entire pass. Once you’ve earned those, you’ll be able to earn one Exotic Cipher each week through Xur’s Xenology quest. Some seasonal quests and events might also award Exotic Ciphers, but these aren’t evergreen rewards.
Additionally, some older DLC packs might offer Exotic Ciphers that may be redeemed on Exotic goods from that DLC only. For example, you gain three Forsaken Ciphers immediately upon purchasing the Forsaken Bundle, which lets you acquire any three Exotic weapons from the Forasken DLC right away. These ciphers may not be spent on other goods.
Season Pass
The most common source of Exotic Ciphers is the Season Pass. Every season/episode comes with a season pass that awards two Exotic Ciphers, one at Rank 60 (free) and another at Rank 101 (paid). at Rank 55. The first Exotic Cipher may be claimed by all players, while the second cipher requires ownership of the current episode.
If you have been playing Destiny 2 for multiple content cycles, there’s a good chance you have a few Exotic Ciphers from previous seasons you never claimed. You can install the “Season Pass Pass” browser extension for Chrome and Firefox to claim previous season pass rewards from the Bungie.net website. Click on the extension, select any previous season, reload the page, and claim your previous rewards.
Xur
You may only complete this quest once per week.
Xur will have one quest every week named “Xenology.” This quest tasks you with playing ritual activities in Destiny 2—Vanguard Ops, Crucible, and Gambit. Exotic missions complete Xenology the fastest, including The Whisper and Zero Hour. Complete the quest, speak to Xur, and you’ll earn one Exotic Cipher.
Forsaken Ciphers
You will earn Forsaken Ciphers from this, not Exotic Ciphers. These may only be used to purchase Forsaken Exotics.
Purchasing the Forsaken Pack DLC for Destiny 2 will grant three Forsaken Ciphers. These Ciphers differ in that you can only use them on Exotics from the Forsaken expansion (labeled as “Year 2” in the Exotic Kiosk). Raid Exotics from that expansion will still require Spoils of Conquest. Once purchased, head to the Exotic Kiosk at the Tower to claim your Ciphers.
Should you own all Exotics from Forsaken, you can also convert these three Ciphers into Ascendant Shards at the Exotic Kiosk. You can purchase the following Exotics:
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Xenology Quest
Xur’s Exotic Cipher quest, Xenology, only has one objective you need to complete:
- A Question: Complete strikes or win matches in Crucible or Gambit. Extra progress is awarded for more challenging activities and for succeeding with clanmates.
A Question
This objective requires 21 strike completions, Crucible wins, or Gambit wins. Playing with clanmates or completing tougher activities (Trials of Osiris or Nightfalls) will grant additional progress. Exotic missions also grant substantially more progress. We suggest farming the Exotic playlist to get this done as quickly as possible. Missions like The Whisper, Presage, and Opeartion: Seraph’s Shield are the easiest to farm.
An Answer
When you’ve completed the quest objective, speak to Xur to obtain your Exotic Cipher. Be sure you aren’t full on Exotic Ciphers. If you are, the quest won’t grant an Exotic Cipher. Once you turn in the quest, swing by the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower to grab an Exotic you don’t currently own.
What To Spend Exotic Ciphers On
Exotic Ciphers are hard to earn and can’t be held in vast quantities. As a result, you’ll want to spend them carefully whenever you get your hands on one. There are three ways to spend your Ciphers:
- Exotics from the Exotic Kiosk.
- Fated Engrams from Xur.
- Adding an Artifice socket to Exotic armor (starting in Final Shape).
You can purchase one Fated Engram from Xur for some Legendary Shards, but you’ll need an Exotic Cipher to purchase a second one. You can only do this once per week.
As for the Kiosk, there are quite a few Exotics to choose from. We’ll give our recommendations for which Exotics are worth getting immediately:
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