Destiny 2: Lightfall | How to get the Winterbite exotic Glaive and catalyst
Hidden behind a few quests, this heavy exotic glaive requires a bit of legwork.
The Winterbite exotic glaive is one of the most sought-after weapons in the first week of Destiny 2: Lightfall. Not only is it hugely important lore-wise, but it’s also quite good too! As such, you’ll want to know how to get the Winterbite exotic glaive.
This guide will take you through every step you’ll need to complete in order to get your hands on the Winterbite exotic glaive, including all the quests and steps on completing them.
- How to get the Winterbite exotic glaive in Destiny 2: Lightfall
- Stargazer Destiny 2: Lightfall quest walkthrough
- Maelstrom quest walkthrough: Destiny 2: Lightfall
- Bluejay quest walkthrough : Destiny 2: Lightfall
- Strider Exotic quest walkthrough / Destiny: Lightfall
- How to unlock Winterbite exotic catalyst
How to get the Winterbite exotic glaive in Destiny 2: Lightfall
Before you even think about getting this exotic, you’ll need to complete the Lightfall. As soon as you have, you’ll be able to complete all manner of post-campaign quests. This includes the Unfinished Business quest, as well as the The Final Strand quest following a whole bunch of Strand Medallion farming.
Once you’ve finished the campaign you’ll see a quest marker in the Hall of Heroes. You’ll first have to complete an introductory quest: Welcome to the Hall of Heroes. Its steps are as follows:
- Step 1 - Interact with 8 consoles in the hall of heroes tour
- Step 2 - Visit damaged memorials
- Step 3 - Scan remaining memorials
- Step 4 - Return to the archivist
It’s basically a lore quest, taking you through a bit of history of Neomuna on a quick. It doesn’t take long to do at all: the real work comes afterwards.
Once you’ve finished that quest you’ll discover that five important memorials have been broken. To get Winterbite, you’ll have to repair them all. You’ll start with Stargazer.
Stargazer Destiny 2: Lightfall quest walkthrough
Below are the following steps in the Stargazer quest, alongside some pointers on how to complete them if you’re having issues.
For step one, you need to loot the chest at the end of a Terminal Overload event. To start it, head to the Neptune map and look for the diamond symbol. Once you queue up for it, you’ll be teleported to the event in-progress.
You’ll want to get a decent number of other players to help with this. So if you find yourself on your own, we recommend trying again later.
For step two, you have to defeat the Vex Hydra in the Esi Terminal. This part is simple, simply track the quest in the menu then follow the waypoints into the Esi Terminal. Eventually, you’ll run into the Hydra and a crowd of other enemies.
For step three, you need to obtain a Terminal Overload key from completing activities in Neomuna. This can be anything, from patrols to public events. We recommend doing a rotation around the map, completing any and all public events in progress, as well as scan patrols as they are very fast to complete.
For step four, you need to then take that key and use it to open the locked chest at the end of a Terminal Overload event. Same as last time, queue up for Terminal Overload via the Neptune map. Once you finish it, be sure to loot both chests: the free one, and the locked one.
For step five and six it’s simply a case of returning to the Hall of Heroes. First interact with the memorial to fix it, then return to the archivist. Following that, you’ll be able to accept the next quest required to earn the Winterbite Exotic: Maelstrom
Maelstrom quest walkthrough: Destiny 2: Lightfall
Step one of the Maelstrom quest requires a bit of work. You need to bond with strand sources, and participate in the defense of Neomuna via activities. Let's start with the activities since it’s the simplest half of this part. Simply do a sweep of Neomuna and take part in patrols and public events, however don’t bother with scan patrols as they won’t count.
As for bonding with strand sources, you’ll need to track them down across Neomuna city. While they spawn in set locations, they are not constantly spawned in. As such, you’ll either need to hang around the location of a strand source, or keep an eye out as your travel around Neomuna. You can identify them by the star symbol that shows up on your hud when they are in your proximity.
If you’re looking for two specific strand sources, we’ve included two images below. The first is in Liming Harbour under the L on the map, the second is in the south west corer of Liming Harbor.
For step two of the Maelstrom quest, you need to complete the Vex Incursion Zone lost sector, You can find this lost sector to the north of the Liming Harbor, on the second floor of a large yellow room. Jump through the vent and you’re good to go.
Step three and four are incredibly simple. Just go bac to the Hall of Heroes, repair the monument, then speak to the archivist.
But we’re not done yet! We have one more quest to complete before we can start the actual exotic quest for the Winterbite glaive. This one is called Bluejay, and you can finish it up by following the steps listed below.
Bluejay quest walkthrough : Destiny 2: Lightfall
Step one starts with you talking to Nimbus. Step two is where the quest actually starts taking some work. First you need to open up a locked chest after a Terminal Overload event. Same as before, make sure you have a key by completing activities in Neomuna then loot the locked chest at the end of the terminal overload event.
You also need to kill vex in the current vex incursion zone. You can tell which zone this is by the blue lines falling downwards on the map.
Part three is where things get interesting. This will be your first time doing the partition event. This is a race against the clock, where you need to defuse bombs before they explode while dodging all manner of enemies on the way. The trick is to keep running forward and not get too bogged down with killing every enemy. Pull out the heavy weapon when you need to clear the way to a bomb.
Once you’ve finished the partition event, finish part four and five by heading back to the Hall of Heroes, repair the memorial, and speak to the archivist.
Strider Exotic quest walkthrough / Destiny: Lightfall
Finally, we get our exotic quest: Strider. Once we complete this, we’ll be able get our hands on the Winterbite exotic. You pick up this quest from the Archivist, in the hall of heroes.
Step one has you visit the archivist. Step two is the big bit, requiring three days of work. You need to spend keys on a terminal overload key chest in each of the three different areas of Neomuna. This will require you to complete and open a key chest in Terminal Overload over three rotations, as the location for the event rotates to each area of Neomuna.
For step three you must kill Shadow Legion cabal for location data, then complete the Ahimsa park Lost Sector for a Data Cipher. For this, we recommend doing the Lost Sector first as it will progress both objectives at once, then jump into a few combat patrols or public events to finish up the location data.
Step four and five is simple, simply travel to the archivist in the Hall of Heroes, then interact with the memorial. Step six has you travel to Maya's Retreat. Once there, kill marked vex and interact with confluxes in the area.
Finally, with step seven, speak with the archivist in the Hall of Heroes. Once you speak to the archivist for the last time, you’ll be given the Winterbite exotic glaive! It was a long journey, but well worth the wait. The exotic is excellent. Have fun!
How to unlock Winterbite exotic catalyst
In order to unlock the Winterbite exotic catalyst, you need to continue killing enemies with the weapon. After some time, the catalyst will automatically unlock. There's no concrete number on how many you have t take out, so just keep it quipped and in-use until you finally get your prize!
For more guides, check out our pieces on how to get cloud accretions in Destiny 2: Lightfall, as well as how to unlock your strand subclass in Destiny 2: Lightfall.