Destiny 2’s new expansion, The Witch Queen, just launched and there’s a bunch of new toys to play with. One of which is Parasite, a new exotic weapon that has a very wacky perk that involves flinging a living Hive worm into enemies and watching it explode into a fiery ball of death. There’s a few steps involved to get this weapon, so let’s break down how to do the quest to obtain it.
What is Parasite and How Does it Work?
Parasite is a new exotic heavy grenade launcher that is available in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen. Much like other heavy slot grenade launchers, this weapon fires projectiles in a large arc that explode on impact.
Its Intrinsic Trait is Worm’s Hunger, which 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. The other unique trait this weapon has is Worm Byproduct, which gives you bonus damage to all of your other weapons for several seconds after taking damage from your own worm projectile’s explosions.
Basically, the way this weapon works is two-fold. As you rack up kills with the weapon, you will gain the Worm’s Hunger buff that will stack up before launching your first round out of the weapon after swapping to it with a fresh magazine loaded. In addition, you can deal more damage with your other weapons if you are caught in the same explosion you cause from launching a worm projectile. So there is a careful line to ride between racking up kills and making sure you do not kill yourself with the worm’s explosion damage.
Parasite Exotic Weapon: Step-by-Step Guide
Players can obtain the very first step of the quest to unlock Parasite by completing The Witch Queen’s campaign on either Normal or Legendary difficulty, either one will reward players with the first step of the quest. However, it’s recommended that you have a Light level of at least 1520 to complete this quest as some steps will have very challenging enemies with high Light levels.
After completing the campaign and talking with Ikora at the Enclave on Mars for the last time, she will give you a quest titled “Of Queens and Worms.” After receiving this step, head to where the Relic is located on Mars and continue down the stairs towards the back of the room. You will see a door and a staircase leading down to a podium with a Hive worm lying on it. Interacting with this podium will trigger a cutscene where you meet Mara Sov, the Queen of the Awoken. After the scene plays out, your first step will be to complete the new strike “Birthplace of the Vile.” You can choose this strike specifically by opening your map of Savathun’s Throne World and clicking on the blue and white shield icon labeled “Birthplace of the Vile.”
Do the strike’s objectives as normal and then at the very end you will hear a unique set of dialogue over the radio and will be able to interact with a Deepsight prompt right behind the rewards chest. Interacting with this spot allows you to see a newly revealed table at the far side of the room against a wall. Walk over and interact with the table and you will hear some further dialogue. After this completes, exit the strike and return to Savathun’s Throne World via the Director and speak to Fynch by the landing zone. Your quest will be updated with the objective “Locate a Cryptoglyph rune in the Temple of the Cunning.” Open your map and you will see a golden icon appear; clicking on this icon will allow you to track the objective on your HUD making it much easier to navigate the Throne World.
When you reach the Temple of the Cunning area, you will see a large bridge you can cross on foot or on your Sparrow. Near the end of the bridge, you will see a large group of Scorn and a unique boss with them. Once it is killed, pick up the rune the boss drops and you will be prompted to kill 100 Scorn in the Throne World. These can be any Scorn enemy, large or small. The best place for getting kills quickly is in the Miasma area during a Public Event, as large waves of enemies will spawn very often.
After racking up the kills needed to power the rune, the next step will be to head to the Sepulcher Lost Sector over in the Fluorescent Canal area of Savathun’s Throne World. Again, this is clearly marked on your map by a bright yellow icon and can be easily tracked. However, when you reach the marked area on your map, it can be a little confusing as to where the Lost Sector is on the ground.
By a large fountain in a courtyard, you’ll see there’s a tiered area with a staircase. Head down those stairs and turn immediately around. The wall by the Lost Sector’s entrance is marked by a white symbol and is behind the giant fountain under an overhang. Proceed as normal through the Lost Sector and defeat the boss at the end. Interact with the Deepsight prompt in the room by the chest and then locate the podium behind the white Hive statue and you will be treated to a rather interesting bit of dialogue with the Hive worm.
The next step is simple and requires you to complete 3 Patrols in the Fluorescent Canal area of Savathun’s Throne World. Patrols, if you are not aware, are short mini-quests you can complete for XP and bounties. These are found by pulling out your Ghost and you will see grey icons marked on your HUD. Walk to where one of these icons are and you will see a blinking beacon on the ground making a beeping noise. Interact with the beacon and complete the quest’s objectives as normal. When you finish 3 Patrols, your main quest objective will be updated.
Much like the fourth step, you need to find another Cryptoglyph rune in the Queen’s Bailey area of Savathun’s Throne World. Like before, open your map and you will see a yellow icon appear in the Queen’s Bailey area. Click on it to track the quest on your HUD. Upon reaching the Queen’s Bailey, kill the unique boss and his minions and pick up the rune.
Next up, you will need to head to the Metamorphosis Lost Sector over in the Miasma area of the Throne World. Be sure to track the objective via your map so you do not get lost and complete the Lost Sector all the way to the end. After defeating the boss, interact with the Deepsight prompt in the room. You will see a pathway open along the wall where you will find another room with a podium in it. Interact with it and speak to the worm a second time.
This next step requires you to find one more Cryptoglyph rune, this time in the Alluring Curtain area of the Throne World. Interact with the Deepsight prompt marked on your HUD and follow the paths revealed to you. You’re going to need to activate 3 Deepsight prompts along this long path to keep the vision buff up, so make sure to keep interacting with the clouds you see. After reaching a courtyard full of enemies, mop up the area and you’ll find out the final rune you’re looking for has been hidden in a cache somewhere nearby.
Turn around and activate Deepsight at the cloud and follow the hidden platforms revealed while the buff is active. You will need to shoot three torches in succession to reveal the location of the hidden Deepsight Cache to collect the missing rune. Collect the rune and then proceed to the Extraction Lost Sector in the Quagmire area of the Throne World and like before, just interact with the Deepsight prompt at the end to find the hidden door behind the chest. Place the worm at the podium and get some last bits of information from it, then report back to Fynch at the landing zone.
Lastly, you will be prompted to complete a unique mission called “Parasitic Pilgrimage.” Open your map and select the icon that appears and follow the objectives through the mission. This is a little difficult, but not that hard if you are around Light level 1520 or higher when you start this part. Completing the mission will reward you with the Parasite exotic weapon.
This was a ride, wasn’t it? Hope you had fun interacting with a little worm that knows too much and now you get to throw his buddies en masse at all those enemies. This is a very unique exotic weapon and well worth the effort to get it.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X & S, and Xbox One.
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