Destiny 2: The Revelry guide: how to get Arbalest, the Exotic kinetic linear fusion rifle

The Exotic Kinetic linear fusion rifle, Arbalest, is the first of its kind in Destiny 2. Not only are linear fusions usually reserved for the Heavy slot, but fusion rifles always dealt elemental damage. This new Exotic breaks all those limitations for fusion rifles. You can earn it from The Revelry, a spring holiday event which runs from now until May 7. After that, the Arbalest will likely be added to the Exotic loot pool as a random drop.

Here’s a rundown of the perks for Arbalest and what you’ll need to do to unlock it.

Arbalest perks

Arbalest’s intrinsic perk is Compounding Force. This causes Arbalest to fire physical slugs instead of energy bolts. These slugs deal high damage to enemy shields — a perk usually reserved for elemental weapons.

Arbalest also comes with the Disruption Break perk, which increases Kinetic damage against enemies after breaking their shields. In most cases, Disruption Break is useful for switching weapons to whatever your Kinetic is after popping a shield. In Arbalest’s case, it actually buffs its own damage after taking down a shield.

How to unlock Arbalest

Bungie via Polygon

For The Revelry event, Eva Levante is selling Arbalest for 300 Reveler's Essence. But Eva won’t sell it to you until you earn the Party Hard Triumph. For Party Hard, you’ll need to complete seven of 10 event triumphs:

• Spring Cleaning: Clear 50 Verdant Forest branches
• Verdant Light: Competitive: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in Gambit or Crucible
• Verdant Light: Cooperative: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in Strikes or raids
• Verdant Light: Events: Generate 200 Orbs of Light in the Verdant Forest or any Black Armory forge
• Spring Hunt: Defeat at least three bosses in a single run of the Verdant Forest
• Budding Fashion: Defeat 20 bosses while wearing at least four pieces of Revelry armor
• Super Celebratory: Defeat 150 enemies with Supers
• Fireworks!: Get 100 grenade kills in Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes
• Melee Mayhem: Get 100 melee kills in Crucible, Gambit, and Strikes
• A Bountiful Spring: Complete 50 daily and weekly bounties for Eva

Complete seven Triumphs and you’ll earn Party Hard. This will unlock the ability to purchase Arbalest. If you’re looking to grab Arbalest as quickly as possible, we recommend skipping Verdant Light: Competitive, Budding Fashion, and Bountiful Spring. You can quickly knock out the other seven Triumphs by running Strikes and Verdant Forest on repeat. Starting from scratch, it only took us about four hours to earn Arbalest.

Completing all ten Triumphs will unlock Party Harder, which earns you an exclusive emblem.

Best ways to farm Reveler’s Essence

Reveler’s Essence come from most activities during The Revelry. We earned around 17 for completing a single Strike, and six for a public event. But the fastest way to collect Essence seems to be running the Verdant Forest and collecting chests along the way. The chests have a random chance to give five or 15 each. For completing over 20 Branches of the Verdant Forest and killing all five bosses, we’d regularly earn 50 Reveler’s Essence or more. Bounties from Eva also grant Essence when you complete them.

If you don’t buy many Tonic buffs or Reveler’s Assortments from Eva, you’ll have the 300 Reveler’s Essence you need for Arbalest by the time you’ve completed the seven Triumphs. After you have Arbalest, you can keep earning Essence to buy Reveler’s Assortments or refresh your Tonic buff.

Is Arbalest worth it?

Unlike Exotics that are good everywhere like Ace of Spades, Arbalest is a specific tool for a specific purpose. If you try attacking an enemy without a shield, Arbalest will disappoint. There are better Kinetic Special weapons to pick from. However, Arbalest shreds through shields and then buffs itself for the rest of the enemy’s health bar. This is a perfect tool for missions that have plenty of Fallen Captains or Hive Wizards, like Nightfalls.

Buying Arbalest from Eva is also an easy and guaranteed way to get the gun. History suggests it will enter the Exotic loot pool when The Revelry ends. Even if Arbalest doesn’t seem like something you’ll use every time you log into Destiny 2, it’s certainly worth the time it takes to farm during this event.