In this guide, we explain how to get Cloudstrike in Destiny 2, how Empire Hunts work, and what steps you need before the weapon can drop. You will also learn why the Beyond Light campaign matters, how Variks’ upgrades fit into the farm, and which Empire Hunt difficulty makes the most sense for repeated runs.
Cloudstrike Exotic Sniper Rifle Key Takeaways:
- Cloudstrike drops from Empire Hunts on Europa after you unlock selectable Empire Hunt difficulties.
- You need access to the Beyond Light campaign and must complete it before farming Cloudstrike.
- After the campaign, continue Variks’ post-campaign quests to unlock repeatable Empire Hunts.
- You also need to complete the Europan Explorer I and Europan Explorer II Sabotage upgrades.
- Cloudstrike has a random drop chance, so expect several Empire Hunt runs before it drops.
- Difficulty does not make the farm feel worth slowing down, so most players farm the fastest available version.
4.9Cloudstrike Exotic Sniper Rifle
Alongside the content to explore, The Beyond Light brought us a new exotic weapon.
Cloudstrike is an exotic sniper rifle that creates devastating storms on rapid precision hits and invokes lightning strikes on precision final blows. In addition to being a powerful single-target weapon, the Cloudstrike perks provide sufficient area-of-effect damage that wipes out Guardians in the crucible matches and enemies in PvE activities, which allows you to focus on high-priority targets and save valuable ammo. Also, the Cloudstrike has a Rapid-Fire Frame that offers both high magazine capacity and a high rate of fire, which perfectly suits the current PvE meta and allows the Cloudstrike to compete with other popular exotic sniper rifles such as Izanagi’s Burden or Whisper of the Worm.
To get Cloudstrike, you need access to the Beyond Light campaign and must complete it fully on Europa. After the campaign, Variks opens his post-campaign progression, including Empire Hunts and Sabotage upgrades. From there, complete the required Variks steps and unlock Europan Explorer I and Europan Explorer II to make selectable Empire Hunts available on the Europa map.
Once selectable Empire Hunts are unlocked, Cloudstrike can drop randomly from completed runs. Since the drop is RNG-based, you may get it quickly or need many attempts. The cleanest method is to farm at the fastest Empire Hunt difficulty you can consistently clear.
If you are determined and ready to farm, here is a step-by-step guide on how to get the Cloudstrike.
Empire Hunts
The Empire hunts are a part of the Variks’ post-campaign that becomes available after the Beyond Light main story has been done. Its purpose is to deal with the remaining Eramis lieutenants and put an end to the House Salvation.
Unlock repeatable Empire Hunts and complete the Variks’ sabotage missions
Once you finish the post-campaign, you can purchase repeatable Empire Hunts and sabotage missions from Variks’ sabotage menu, but you are not able to purchase the ones you need yet. We strongly recommend you consider purchasing the missions in the first column, so you will have enough Herealways Pieces in the future. From here, you have to complete two quests: “Old Secrets, New Challenges” from Variks and “A Hard Rain Falls” from Exo-Stranger.
Old Secrets, New Challenges
Variks will task you to visit the Braytech Exoscience Facility and complete a short mission. After that, you will get permanent access to the Exo Challenge — a new activity that rotates weekly and offers a powerful gear reward for the first completion each week.
A Hard Rain Falls
If you succeed with the Exo Challenge, it’s time to visit the Exo-Stranger and pick up a quest. A quest goal is to fill up the progress bar by doing various activities in the Eclipsed Zones. The Eclipsed Zones are changing each week, so you can check a current one by opening the Europa map and reading the caption in the bottom right.
The fastest way to finish the quest is to do the patrol missions and participate at public events.
Variks’ Sabotage
With both quests completed, you have to return to Variks. Now, you’re able to get the Europan Explorer I. If you lack the Herealways Pieces, focus on completing the quests from the first column or participate at public events.
Europan Explorer I
To complete the quest you have to slay enemies with the different weapon types:
- Power weapon: 25 enemies
- Energy weapon: 50 enemies
- Kinetic weapon: 50 enemies
Return to Variks once the quest is done.
Europan Explorer II
The last step to unlock the Elective Hunts is at hand.
Your objective is to kill 30 powerful enemies in the Empire Hunts. Don’t be scared, you can do it in a single — but specific — empire hunt run. Get the Dark Priestess Empire Hunt from Variks. After a small random attunement task —like gathering 20 resources in a specific area and freeing the Ketch in the Eventide Ruins — a banner to start the mission will appear.
Launch the mission and slay everyone on your way. Normally, you reach the quest goal before the 3rd stage of Kridis’ encounter, but if you don’t, you have to abandon an activity and relaunch it with the enemies respawned, and replay it. Return to Variks once the quest goal is completed.
Farm the Elective Empire Hunts
If you’ve got Europan Explorer II you’re now able to launch the Elective Empire Hunts from the map of Europa. There are 4 difficulties of the Empire Hunts. As was mentioned above, the Cloudstrike drops randomly with a low chance, and, sadly, a difficulty does not affect this chance in any way, thus we recommend you to team up with the fellow Guardians and farm the Empire Hunts at the lowest difficulty. Best of luck, Guardian, the Cloudstrike awaits!
How To Acquire The Adored Sniper Rifle In Destiny 2
Another decent sniper rifle introduced in the Beyond Light release is Adored.
As it should be with pinnacle weapons, you have to complete one of three challenging quests on your choice, which we can help you with here.
Visit Banshee-44 in the tower, and check up the quests under the Materials Exchange menu, and choose one that determines the way you’re going to acquire the weapon, there’s three of them:
Strikes in Your Sights:
Step 1 – Strikes and Strife
- Earn 300 points by defeating combatants in Strikes while using Sniper Rifles
- Defeat 40 bosses in Strikes while using Sniper Rifles
- Defeat 1000 combatants in Strikes while using Sniper Rifles
Step 2 – Eyes of the Enemies
- Defeat 20 enemies in Strikes with Sniper Rifle precision final blows
- Defeat 35 enemies in Strikes without dying
Step 3 – One Way, Many Paths
- Speak with Banshee-44 to get the Adored
Gambit in Your Sights:
Step 1 – Infamy and Invasions
- Earn 3 Infamy ranks
- Defeat 300 enemies in Gambit with Sniper Rifle precision final blows
- Earn 250 points with Sniper Rifles
Step 2 – Eyes of the Bank
- Defeat 20 Blockers with Sniper Rifle
- Defeat 5 Guardians with Sniper Rifle
Step 3 – One Way, Many Paths
- Speak with Banshee-44 to get the Adored
Crucible in Your Sights:
Step 1 – Valor and Victory
- Earn 3 Valor ranks
- Defeat 500 Guardians
- Earn 200 points with Sniper Rifles
Step 2 – Eyes Downrange
- Defeat 5 Guardians with Long-range Sniper Rifle final blows
- Defeat 5 Guardians with Sniper Rifle precision final blows
Step 3 – One Way, Many Paths
- Speak with Banshee-44 to get the Adored
After you have completed any of these quests and acquired your new masterworked sniper rifle, you can get additional activity-themed ornaments for it by picking up a quest from respective activity vendors.
4.9Cloudstrike is worth the grind if you enjoy precision weapons with strong payoff. Its lightning strikes can punish grouped enemies in PvE and clustered players in PvP, which gives the rifle a fun niche even outside Europa content. Pick the fastest Empire Hunt you can clear comfortably, keep your runs clean, and sooner or later the drop will come.
