How to Find the Exotic Cloudstrike Sniper Rifle in Destiny 2

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Discover how to add the powerful Cloudstrike to your personal arsenal

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: November 13, 2023 References

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• Getting the Cloudstrike Rifle
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• Cloudstrike Perks
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• Acquiring the Cloudstrike Catalyst

|Show more |Show less

Destiny 2’s Exotic weapons are also among the strongest in the game—and Cloudstrike, an Exotic rifle, has some impressively effective perks. So, how can you hunt down Cloudstrike and its formidable abilities yourself? We have the answer. Introduced as part of the Beyond Light campaign, you’ll need to finish Beyond Light and complete a shorter mini-campaign from Variks the Loyal to unlock this potent weapon. Read on for a complete guide to getting Cloudstrike in Destiny 2, plus an overview of Cloudstrike’s stats and abilities.

Things You Should Know

• Finish the Beyond Light campaign, then speak to Variks. Do all of his quests: “Reclaiming Europa,” “Empire’s Fall,” and “The Dark Priestess Empire Hunt.”
• Complete “A Hard Rain Falls” (from the Exo Stranger) to unlock the last level of Sabotage quests, then finish “Europan Explorer II” from Variks.
• Farm Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts until you get Cloudstrike. Each Hunt has a chance of dropping the rifle as loot.

Steps

Section 1 of 3:

Getting the Cloudstrike Rifle

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1. 
   1
   Complete the Beyond Light campaign. To unlock Cloudstrike, you’ll need to own and play through the Beyond Light campaign, which sees the return of the Exo Stranger (a character from the first Destiny game) and takes place on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Overall, the main campaign takes roughly 7-8 hours to finish—but there are additional quests to complete after the campaign as well.

   • To start the campaign, make sure you have the Beyond Light DLC installed. Then, visit Europa and talk to Variks; there’ll be a quest marker on Europa showing you where to go.
   • The final Beyond missing is “Old Secrets, New Challenges.” When you wrap that quest up, you should be ready to proceed to the next step.
2. 
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   Finish Variks’ mini-campaign against the new Fallen empire. Following the completion of the main Beyond Light campaign, you’ll be able to complete a shorter series of 3 quests: “Reclaiming Europa,” “Empire’s Fall,” and “The Dark Priestess Empire Hunt.” Do all these quests to complete the mini-campaign and unlock a quest from the Exo Stranger called “A Hard Rain Falls.”

   • Reclaiming Europa: Talk to Zavala (at the Tower) to get this quest, then head back to Europa and talk to Variks. From there, you’ll just need to complete the “Sabotaging Salvation” mission (in the north of Europa, near the Rils-Reborn Approach).
   • Empire’s Fall: To finish this quest, go to the Sabotage tab and complete 2 challenges. Then, complete “The Aftermath” mission in which you investigate Vex activity and fight the Fallen.
   • The Dark Priestess Empire Hunt: Defeat 10 Fallen in Cadmus Ridge to collect Flecks of Dark. Then, defend the fleeing Fallen Skiff in the Eventide Ruins. Finally, to complete the quest, track down and defeat Kridis (near Eramis’ frozen body).
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3. 
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   Do the Exo Stranger’s “A Hard Rain Falls” quest. To do “A Hard Rain Falls,” talk to the Exo Stranger at Europa’s Campsite. Then, complete Patrols and public events in the currently Eclipsed time zone. The game will alert you when you’ve made the required amount of progress, and from there, simply return to the Exo Stranger to finish the quest and get a reward.

   • Finishing “A Hard Rain Falls” along with the mini-campaign quests above will also unlock the last set of sabotage quests from Variks—which is what you’ll need to find Cloudstrike.
4. 
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   Accept the “Europan Explorer II” quest from Variks. “Europan Explorer II” requires you to defeat 30 powerful enemies in Empire Hunts—which you can also get from Variks. Keep an eye out for orange and yellow bar tier combatants as you complete each Hunt; they count toward the “Europan Explorer II” quest as powerful enemies that must be vanquished.

   • Completing this quest will unlock Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts, which essentially lets you choose different difficulty levels for your Hunts.
5. 
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   Farm Empire Hunt missions from Variks until you find Cloudstrike. The Cloudstrike rifle can only drop in Elective Difficulty Empire Hunts! However, the rifle isn’t guaranteed to drop during any given mission, so keep grinding Hunts until you get it. Its chances of dropping also don’t increase if you play on higher difficulty—so, depending on your playstyle, it may be best to simply choose the easiest Hunts and play them so you can find the rifle faster.

   • Each Empire Hunt costs 40 Herealways Pieces to launch. If you’re short, you can farm them by completing bounties on Europa.
   • When you set the difficulty of your Empire Hunt mission, you’ll be able to see Cloudstrike drop chances in the mission’s description.
   • Having friends participate in your Hunts may also help the process go faster since it might be easier to work with friends than randomly selected strangers.
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Section 2 of 3:

Cloudstrike Perks

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1. 
   Cloudstrike is an Exotic rifle capable of dealing AoE damage to enemies. It comes with the Mortal Polarity buff, which sends a bold of lightning to strike whenever you make a precision final blow to an enemy. The bolt will hit wherever you fired the final blow—and because of the rifle’s Stormbringer buff, successive precision shows can summon a lightning storm at the target location, giving the gun its AoE (area of effect) damage. Cloudstrike’s other stats and perks include:

   • Impact: 55
   • Handling: 51
   • Reload Speed: 46
   • Magazine: 7
   • Range: 64
   • Stability: 54
   • Fluted Barrel: Increases the rifle’s handling speed and slightly improves its stability.
   • Alloy Magazine: You get faster reloads when the magazine is empty.
   • Hand-Laid Stock: Increases the rifle’s stability.

Section 3 of 3:

Acquiring the Cloudstrike Catalyst

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1. 
   The rifle’s Catalyst turns it into a Masterwork item, giving it more abilities. Luckily, the path to unlocking Cloudstrike’s Catalyst upgrade is fairly straightforward: after you rack up 400 kills with the rifle, the Catalyst will complete and become available to equip. Once the Catalyst is equipped, Cloudstrike gains the Triple Tap perk, which returns a round to the magazine when you make a precision strike.

   • To find the Catalyst, simply complete strikes, Gambit, and Crucible matches. You’ll receive it as a random drop.
     • Completing matches comes with other benefits too; for example, Gambit matches are part of completing the Darkness in the Light quest.
     • Many important items drop as loot in Destiny 2, including entire sets of armor; for example, you’ll get Artifice Armor as loot when completing dungeons in the game.
   • Unlocking and equipping Cloudstrike’s Catalyst also increases its handling by +25.
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