Destiny 2has revealed a new exotic weapon called Coldheart, which is its own unique weapon type. Coldheart will also come as a bonus to anyone who pre-ordersDestiny 2. For anyone who doesn’t pre-order, there’s still hope—it will also be available in the game for everyone at a later date.
Coldheart is a weapon that is very reminiscent of Bungie’s past, specificallythe Focus Rifle fromHalo: Reach. It is a new weapon type called a Trace Rifle, and it fires a solid beam of precision energy. The weapon will do precision damage (i.e. grants extra damage to critical areas on enemies like the head) and the longer the beam is held on a target, the more damage it will do over time.
The exotic does have recoil that players will have to fight in order to keep its precision beam pointed where they want it. Despite the weapon having an icy aesthetic by shooting a beam of cold energy, it does not introduce a new element type toDestiny 2. Bungie’s Jon Weisnewski says that Coldheart is an Arc damage weapon.
Weisnewski says that Coldheart is one good example ofwhat Bungie is doing with exoticsacross the board inDestiny 2. That is, trying to make extremely unique weapons that will give players a unique experience different from the other weapons in the game. Weisnewski says that Coldheart will be the only Trace Rifle in the game, but it definitely opens the door to the possibility of Trace Rifles becoming their own type in the future. That’s likely because Bungie invested some time into making sure Coldheart’s unique weapon qualities would work in the game:
“Building a straight projectile that is a beam that is persistent in the world and networked correctly in a game likeDestinyis extremely complicated to do. It’s something we invested some time in. So it’s new tech for the game.”
Anyone who pre-orders either the physical or digital versions ofDestiny 2, as well asevery edition of the gamefrom standard to Collector’s will receive Coldheart. To those who don’t pre-order, Coldheart will be added toDestiny 2(likely into the loot table) on July 19, 2025.
Destiny 2is set to release September 6 on PS4 and Xbox One, then on PC on October 24.
