How to get the best weapons and rolls in Vex Offensive - guide - Destiny Tracker

Now that Vex Offensive has been unlocked using our previous guide it’s time to take the fight to the Vex on their own turf, The Black Garden. The matchmaking node for Vex Offensive is found on the Moon Destination map in the lower left corner, look for the glowing blue Vex head.

Before proceeding into The Black Garden it's a good idea to head to Ikora in The Tower to pick up some Vex Offensive bounties to progress while in the Vex Offensive mode. The bounties reward XP, Glimmer and ‘Vex Mind Components’. These Vex Mind Components are used to purchase Vex Offensive Weapon bounties from Ikora which require 50 kills with the respective weapon type and a completion of the Vex Offensive mode to obtain a guaranteed ‘Subjunctive’ Submachine Gun, ‘Adhortative’ Pulse Rifle, ‘Imperative’ Scout Rifle, or ‘Optative’ Hand Cannon depending on which weapon bounty is completed.

Vex Offensive Guide

Before diving into Vex Offensive it is important to note that this new mode contains both Barrier and Overload champions. Be sure to have the right mods attached to at least 1 or 2 different weapons in your inventory to shut down these tough enemy combatants. The Anti-Barrier and Overload Rounds mods are obtained through the Seasonal Artifact.

Once loaded into Vex Offensive you will find yourself in The Black Garden with 5 other Guardians. Follow the objective marker up the hill and use your ghost to hack the glowing Vex node. After a short time numerous Vex will spawn and the Guardians will need to destroy them all to progress the ‘Vex Dismantled’ objective. Once this is done another wave of Vex will spawn along with 6 stationary Oracles in the sky. Glowing major Vex Minotaurs will also spawn who once defeated will drop a Vex Cranium which can be picked up as a weapon and fired at the Oracles to destroy them. To complete this stage of this encounter the Guardians must destroy all 6 of the Oracles using the Vex Craniums.

After this objective has been completed a marker will point you towards the next area along with a rewards chest that gives out an assortment of blue gear and a random Vex Offensive weapon or armor piece.

Once the next area has been reached the following encounter will play out in a similar way to the previous encounter. Kill Vex enemies until the progress reaches 100% and then the Oracles will spawn again only this time there will be 12 to take care of instead of 6 like before. Proceed again to the rewards chest after the encounter to collect your new loot.

The third and final encounter for the current Vex Offensive is the boss encounter where you will face a massive Vex Minotaur known as ‘Crotheon, Gatekeeper’.

To start the encounter use your ghost to hack the glowing Vex node in front of the large portal and soon Crotheon will appear. In the arena there are 3 large Vex plates which Crotheon will move between after each damage phase. Once the fight starts Crotheon will summon and immunity shield around itself and move towards the front right plate. Crotheon will stand here attacking the Guardians while numerous Vex spawn around the area.

After a short time the glowing Vex Minotaurs from the previous encounters will start to spawn and will again drop Vex Craniums once defeated. Pick up and fire these Vex Craniums at Crotheons immunity shield to damage it with each Cranium taking away approximately one fifth of the shield. Immediately after the shield is broken Crotheon will be vulnerable to all damage dealt by the Guardians so be sure to hit him as hard as you can with Heavy weapons and Supers. After around 30 seconds of being vulnerable, Crotheon will summon another immunity shield and proceed to the next Vex plate where the process of destroying the shield will need to be completed to be able to start another damage phase

Once Crotheon has been defeated, return to where the encounter was started to receive more rewards from yet another chest. After obtaining your rewards the activity if over and you can safely return to Orbit.

Vex Offensive Weapons Guide

Within the Vex Offensive there are 4 new rustic weapons to obtain, each powerful weapons in their own right if you have the right traits. Below is a guide to each weapon with what traits to look for in both PvP and PvE to ensure the weapon is performing at its highest level.

Imperative Scout Rifle

Imperative sits within the High Impact archetype of Scout Rifles meaning it has outstanding range and impact but lacks in fire rate, handling and stability. Imperative is a Kinetic weapon.

PvE

Barrel Perk - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Full Bore, Extended Barrel
Magazine Perk - Accurized Rounds, Any perk that increases magazine size
Trait 1 - Outlaw, Triple Tap, Subsistence
Trait 2 - Rampage, Multikill Clip
Masterwork - Range, Stability

PvP

Barrel Perk - Fluted Barrel, Polygonal Rifling, Corkscrew Rifling
Magazine Perk - Flared Magwell, Drop Mag, Tactical Mag
Trait 1 - No Distractions, Outlaw
Trait 2 - Explosive Payload, Snapshot Sights, Opening Shot, Rangefinder, Multikill Clip, Rampage (An argument can be made for all the perks that can roll in this slot being good with possibly Opening Shot and Rangefinder being slight redundant on a Scout Rifle)
Masterwork - Range, Stability

Subjunctive Submachine Gun

Subjunctive is a Lightweight Frame Submachine Gun that deals Arc damage and fires at 900 rounds per minute. This class of submachine gun can suffer from high recoil due to the high rate of fire but can deal an obscene amount of damage in a short amount of time if all rounds are on target. Submachine guns benefit greatly from perks that increase their range and stability as these are the greatest weaknesses of this class of gun

PvE

Barrel Perk - Extended Barrel, Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake
Magazine Perk - Armor-Piercing Rounds, High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
Trait 1 - Outlaw, Threat Detector, Genesis
Trait 2 - Swashbuckler, Multikill Clip, Rampage
Masterwork - Range, Stability

PvP

Barrel Park - Extended Barrel, Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake
Magazine Perk - Armor-Piercing Rounds, High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
Trait 1 - Quickdraw, Outlaw, Threat Detector
Trait 2 - Swashbuckler, Multikill Clip, Rampage
Masterwork - Range, Stability

Adhortative Pulse Rifle

Adhortative is an Adaptive Frame Pulse Rifle that deals Solar damage and fires at 390 rounds per minute. All Pulse Rifles got hit with a small range reduction with the release of Shadowkeep so its ideal to aim for perks that can bump this value back up.

PvE

Barrel Perk - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake
Magazine Perk - Armor-Piercing Rounds, High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
Trait 1 - Feeding Frenzy
Trait 2 - Rampage, Multikill Clip, Dragonfly
Masterwork - Range

PvP

Barrel Perk - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake
Magazine Perk - Armor-Piercing Rounds, High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
Trait 1 - Feeding Frenzy
Trait 2 - Rampage, Multikill Clip, Rangefinder
Masterwork - Range

Optative Hand Cannon

Optative is a Precision Frame Hand Cannon that deals Void damage and fires at 180 rounds per minute. Optative is one of the few Precision Frame Legendary Hand Cannons within the Energy slot that can have randomly rolled perks along with the Trust from Gambit. Many Hand Cannons can struggle with hitting shots outside of medium range engagements, and even if the shot does connect it suffers significant damage falloff, so it’s best to choose perks that can increase this value, especially for PvP.

PvE