How to earn foreign ciphers in Destiny 2

Introduced in Season of Arrivals, Exotic Ciphers are a rare currency type that allows players to purchase exotics from previous years. Destiny 2 lifetime They can be used to purchase additional Fated Engrams from Xur each week and, starting at the final size, add Artifact Sockets to exotic armor.

To call exotic ciphers important would be an understatement. New 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 take a look at every way you can earn Exotic Ciphers in Destiny 2 and how to spend them.

Updated January 17, 2025 by Charles Berger: Additional Alien Cyphers can now be obtained from the Episodic Season Pass. We've updated this guide to reflect this change and added equipment tips to some of our weapon recommendations.

How to get foreign ciphers

There are three sources of alien ciphers in Destiny 2:

1. Season pass.

2. Xur's Xenology Quest.

3. Certain DLC packs.

The most common source is the Season Pass, which grants a total of three exotic ciphers to those who complete the entire pass. Once you've earned them, you'll be able to earn one exotic cypher each week through Xur's Xenology quest. Some seasonal quests and events may also reward exotic cyphers, but these are not evergreen rewards.

In addition, some older DLC packs may offer foreign ciphers that can only be redeemed for foreign goods from that DLC. For example, you instantly get three Forsaken Cyphers when you buy the Forsaken Bundle, which lets you instantly get any three exotic weapons from the Forsaken DLC. These can be ciphers no It is spent on other goods.

Season pass

The most common source of foreign ciphers is the season pass. Each season/episode comes with a season pass that awards two exotic ciphers, one at rank 60 (free) and the other at rank 101 (paid). In category 55. The first foreign cipher can be claimed by all players, while the second cipher requires ownership of the current episode.

If you've been playing Destiny 2 for several content cycles, chances are you have some exotic ciphers from previous seasons that 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 can only complete this quest once per week.

Xur will have a quest called “Xenology” every week. This quest lets you play ritual activities in Destiny 2—Vanguard Ops, Crucible, and Gambit. Alien missions complete Xenology the fastestIncluding The Whisper and Zero Hour. Complete the quest, talk to Xur, and you'll earn an exotic cypher.

Abandoned Ciphers

You will earn Forsaken Ciphers from this, no Foreign Ciphers. It can 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 from the Forsaken expansion in Exotics (labeled as “Year 2” at the Exotics kiosk). RAID Exotics from that expansion still need the spoils of victory. Once purchased, visit the exotic kiosk in the tower to claim your ciphers.

If you have all the Exotics from Forsaken, you can convert these three ciphers into Ascendant Shards at the Exotic Kiosk. You can purchase the following Exotics:

Xenology Quest

Xur's alien cipher quest, Xenology, has only one objective you need to complete:

• A question: Complete strikes or win matches in Crucible or Gambit. Additional 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 hard activities (Trials of Osiris or Nightfalls) will provide additional progress. Foreign missions also provide substantial progress. We suggest cultivating an exotic playlist to complete this as soon as possible. Missions like The Whisper, Presage, and Operation: Seraph's Shield are the easiest to farm.

an answer

When you complete the quest objective, talk to Xur to get your Exotic Cipher. Be sure that you are not perfect in foreign ciphers. If you are, Quest does not provide foreign ciphers. Once you're done with the quest, swing by the exotic kiosk in the tower to grab an exotic you don't currently own.

What to spend foreign ciphers on

Foreign ciphers are hard to earn and cannot be held in large quantities. As a result, you'll want to spend them carefully when you get your hands on one. There are three ways to spend your ciphers:

1. Exotics from the Exotic Kiosk.

2. Lucky Engrams from Xur.

3. Adding artifice sockets to exotic armor (starting at final size).

You can buy a Fated Engram from Xur for some legendary shards, but you'll need an exotic cypher to buy a second one. You can only do this once a week.

As for the kiosk, there are many Exotics to choose from. We'll give our recommendations for which Exotics are worth getting right away: