• Guide

How to farm Darkest Before - Destiny 2

Unlock the Darkest Before Pulse Rifle in Destiny 2 and enjoy dominating in Crucible.

Sam Chandler

September 16, 2021 7:50 PM

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Darkest Before is a fast-firing Pulse Rifle that has drawn a lot of attention in Destiny 2. This thing can burst down an opponent in the blink of an eye, making it a great option for competitive Crucible activities, like Trials. For those that want to create a meta loadout, farming a Darkest Before should be a top priority.

How to farm Darkest Before

Darkest Before is available as a reward drop by defeating the Kell Echo at the end of the Prophecy Dungeon. However, in order to farm Darkest Before, you must have completed all the previous encounters in the activity. This means you cannot just grab a boss checkpoint from another group of players.

To set this all up, launch into the Prophecy dungeon on the character with which you plan to farm the final boss. If it’s been a while, familiarize yourself with our Prophecy Dungeon guide so you don’t hit any snags.

Work through the dungeon until you get to the boss. At this point, quit and load in on an alternative character. This character will be the one that “saves” the checkpoint. Perform a team wipe to ensure the alt-character has the checkpoint and then load back in on your original character.

Defeat Kell Echo and claim your rewards. Now, switch to your alt-character, load into the Prophecy dungeon, get your fireteam to join you, and then switch to your primary character (the one that just cleared the dungeon). Defeat the boss, and then repeat.

Shout out to Junktown and the rest of the Destiny 2 community over on the Shacknews Chatty Discord server for pointing out this farming method. It’s worth noting that if you only get Moonfang drops, and no Darkest Before, something has gone awry during the farming process.

Darkest Before god rolls

As mentioned above, Darkest Before is seeing a surge in popularity thanks to its ability to blitz down foes in PVP. Because of this, the perks you’re chasing will look to supplement your PVP playstyle and fix any potential faults this weapon has.

A glance at Light.gg reveals that Darkest Before suffers in its range stat and, thanks to its high rate of fire, can bounce a bit. For this reason, focusing on barrel and magazine perks that tone down these negatives is a good idea.

• Barrel: Smallbore (Range +7, Stability +7), Corkscrew Rifling (Range +5, Stability +5, Handling +5), or Arrowhead Brake (Handling +10, Recoil +30)
• Magazine: Ricochet Rounds (Range +5, Stability +10), High-Caliber Rounds (Range +5), or Flare Magwell (Stability +5, Reload Speed +15)

As for the perks, Subsistence is particularly useful as it will help keep you shooting as defeats refill the mag. You might also consider Slideshot for the reload effect and the boost to range and stability. There are a lot of great options for the final perk column including Full Auto Trigger System, Rampage, and even Elemental Capacitor for the added Stability. Unrelenting (kills trigger health regen) is also a decent option, as it will keep you in the fight for longer.

The Darkest Before Pulse Rifle is growing in popularity, so it’s one you may want to consider adding to your arsenal. As a 540 RPM Arc Pulse, expect it to kick a bit, but this can be balanced out with some of its perks, of which it has a decent pool to draw from. Stop by the Shacknews Destiny 2 Guide for more weapon farming recommendations and tips.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler