Destiny 2 Thunderlord Quest Takes Players to Familiar Destiny 1 Location

At the end of last month’s Festival of the Lost seasonal event, Destiny 2 players were greeted with a quest to find Master Ives’ killer. The murder of the Reef Cryptarch may have started out in a pretty disappointing way, but its conclusion is actually something pretty special. Originally leaked by a credible source—who also leaked alleged details about Destiny 3—it turns out this murder mystery is actually the Destiny 2 Thunderlord quest, giving players access to the classic Exotic machine gun ahead of the weapon type’s full introduction in Season 5, the Season of the Forge.

Thunderlord’s Exotic perk (besides being the only machine gun in Destiny 2 right now) calls down destructive bolts of lightning from the sky, making this gun a deadly spectacle to use in a number of situations.

Solving the murder of Master Ives and getting the Thunderlord isn’t just some throwaway quest either. This final quest step takes players back to the Cosmodrome in Old Russia, starting players exactly where they originally spawned in the first game and retracing the first steps of our new Guardians. The references in this quest go back further than Destiny 1 though. The original reveal for Destiny at E3 2013 saw some developers heading into the wall in Old Russia and killing a Fallen boss that emerges from a pipe before obtaining the Thunderlord, the first ever Exotic to be revealed for Destiny. While we don’t get to head to the other side of that wall again quite yet, the quest holds a lot of potential implications for future Destiny 2 content.

Amanda Holliday makes a number of references to odd things happening within Old Russia, so while we might have solved Master Ives’ murder, it looks like there are other mysteries to resolve within the Cosmodrome. If the location does come back beyond the small bubble used for the Thunderlord quest, it would be the third time Bungie has iterated on the space, the first being Destiny’s launch, and the second being the changes that were made for the Rise of Iron expansion. It would be the first time that Old Russia has appeared within Destiny 2.

In addition to the gun in-game, if you complete the quest, you can redeem a Bungie reward that allows you to purchase an exclusive Thunderlord shirt. The graphic features a robed figure carrying a bolt of lightning and the Thunderlord while riding a rearing horse. There are a number of other Bungie rewards that are currently available for players to earn right now too, including exclusive pins awarded to players that earn the difficult to earn seals in Destiny 2. Some of the rewards will go away when the Destiny 2 Season 4 end date arrives on November 27, 2018.

A recent Activision earnings call indicated that Destiny 2 didn’t meet the publisher’s expectations, however, various developers at Bungie have come out in their support of Forsaken and the future of the game. In fact, Destiny 2 was the top grossing digital console title for the month of September 2018.

Have you completed the Destiny 2 Thunderlord quest yet? What do you think of this Exotic’s triumphant return? Let us know in the comments below.