Destiny 2: Year 3 - How To Get The Xenophage Machine Gun

Solve puzzles on the Moon to earn the new Xenophage Machine Gun, a truly massive Exotic that anyone can get in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep. Before getting started, you’ll need to reach 970 PL. Unlike some other Exotic Quests, this one is all about solving weird, unique puzzles — you’ll need to light crystals, set lanterns on fire, and complete four switch rune puzzles.

The Xenophage quest is all set on the Moon, and the maniacs over on r/raidsecrets deserve endless kudos for figuring out each puzzle. The steps don’t explain what you need to do at all, and even if you figure out what to do, each puzzle is different — and ridiculously annoying to solve. Don’t even bother, just check the solutions in the guide below.

Looking for more recent Exotic quest guides? Check out our guides to get the Leviathan’s Breath Exotic, the Wish-Ender Exotic, or the Divinity Trace Rifle Exotic.

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How To Get The Xenophage Machine Gun | Exotic Quest Guide

Before you begin, you’ll want to kit yourself for a 970 PL boss battle at the end of the quest. There are new boss mechanics and a tricky platforming section. If you’re ready to go, let’s start the quest.

How To Start The Exotic Quest: Go to the Red Keep room where you met Eris for story reasons on the Moon. You can return to this area by spawning at Sorrow’s Harbor and entering the Red Keep. Swerve left at the crystal and then go on the path to the right. Taking the ramp up, you’ll reach a room with four crystals.

To begin the quest, you need to light up all four statues to make a chest spawn. The chest contains the exotic quest item you need. To actually make the chest appear, interact with the crystals in this order.

Interact With The Crystals In Order (When Facing The Room From Entrance):
1. First Right
2. Second Left
3. Second Right
4. First Left

The chest will spawn, so go grab that exotic pursuit item to get your first step.

Step #1: Light 6 Lanterns At The Anchor Of Light

The first step is ‘Emerged from the dark‘.

Travel to the Anchor Or Light area on the Moon. At the large building that’s been occupied by Fallen, look for a lower door in the yellow structure — it’s right above the “A” in “Anchor of Light” on your map. In the back, there’s a special Orb of Flame you must collect.

With the orb, you’ll need to find and light six lanterns in order.

Lantern Locations & Light Order:
1. Right next to the spot where you collected the Orb of Flame.
2. The next brazier is to the east, on top of the building at the edge of the crevasse.
3. Inside the small yellow structure interior across the road from the large Fallen-infested building.
4. At the top of the large Fallen-infested building, there’s another plate on the metal beams, behind the large yellow front-faced façade.
5. On the small rooftop to the north, right next to the buried white section of structure.
6. On top of the large circular structure over the green pit in the center of the map.

Go to all six spots in 60 seconds, your timer will reset after each correct lantern. Go to the quest marker and insert the Orb of Flame to get the next step.

Step #2: Find All Four Path Fragments

At the end of each of the four Moon Lost Sectors, you’ll need to find a grid of 9 runs — 3 horizontal, 3 vertical. The puzzle is simple. You need to make all 9 runes match the rune at the top of the grid. Just shoot them to make them swap places. For simplicity, here’s how to solve each one.

The Path Fragment puzzles look like this.

NOTE: Shoot the runes in the order shown below for each puzzle. The runes are numbered 1-9 in order from left to right.

K1 Communion: 7, 9, 2, 2
K1 Revelation: 6, 4, 5, 5, 4, 8, 5, 2
K1 Logistics: 1, 7, 6, 5
K1 Crew Quarters: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 9, 8, 8

The puzzles are always easy to spot, located after you defeat the Lost Sector boss and take the shortcut path out of the area.

A chest will appear after you successfully complete each puzzle. Grab all four path fragments, and you’ll be able to start the final step.

Step #3: The Pit Of Heresy

There are some special activities you need to complete in the new ‘Pit of Heresy‘ dungeon. You’ll need to activate a hidden rune, light some fires, and defeat a special boss with new mechanics.

Part 1: Activate The Rune – After clearing the minibosses at the start of the dungeon, you’ll enter a chamber filled with doorways. One of these doorways won’t have a symbol above the entrance. Platform to this door and you’ll find a hidden rune inside — activate it.

Part 2: Light The Fires – In the area packed with Hive Ogres, take the left path (ignore the right path) at the fork, then drop down to a rocky ledge below. Find the spot on the ledge marked with runes and activate it. Platforms will rise up with an Orb of Flame holder. Grab the Orb, and return to the fork in the red.

Instead of going left, this time go right. In the passage, look for a sealed door with two braziers to the left and right. Use the Orb of Flame to light both and the door will open. The path inside leads to a special boss encounter.

Part 3: Defeat The Boss – The boss through this door is PL 970, so be prepared for a tough fight. To defeat the boss, you must check your current buff (you’ll receive a random buff) — your buff determines where you need to place the Orb of Light.

Placing the Orb of Light in the correct spot in the arena gives you a Vengeance buff — now you can actually hurt the boss for 25 seconds.

Abyssal (Void): Upper Arena – Far left.
Thunderous (Arc): Lower Arena – Front left.
Fiery (Solar): Lower Arena – Far right.
Neutral (Kinetic): Upper Arena – Front right.

To damage the boss, you need to check your buff, collect the Orb of Flame, deposit it in the matching location above, then shoot the boss with the matching elemental damage type while the Vengeance buff is active.

Kill the boss, and the Xenophage Machine Gun is all your’s.

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