Destiny 2 Barrow-Dyad: God Rolls, Catalyst & Intrinsic Perks

Barrow-Dyad was surprisingly released early into Act 1 of Episode: Heresy, and as with other recent exotics, it has a full suite of selectable perks and stat-boosting traits. 

Let’s take a look at Barrow-Dyad’s best rolls, as well as its evolving potency throughout this Episode.

Name: Barrow-Dyad

Type: Submachine Gun Archetype: Exotic

Ammo: Primary Element: Strand

Craftable: No Released: Episode 3

Source: Exotic Quest Requires: Episode 3: Heretic

Chapters

How to get Barrow-Dyad

Barrow-Dyad is an exotic quest weapon for Episode: Heresy. It’s associated with the Derealize mission which can be unlocked through The Taken Path questline.

How to get the Barrow-Dyad Catalysts

After Barrow-Dyad’s initial release back in Act 1 of Episode: Heresy, many Guardians were hungry for the weapon’s various catalysts and upgrades. Finally, after weeks of waiting, Bungie silently dropped the first catalyst for Barrow-Dyad, with more likely to come very soon. 

Catalyst #1: High-Impact Reserves

Barrow-Dyad’s first catalyst requires you to step into the Expert version of Court of Blades with specific loadouts. While this may sound a bit challenging for newer players (especially given the activity doesn’t offer matchmaking), there’s a method to get it done solo in about 15 minutes.

Bungie designed the quest with the following steps:

1. Complete a run of Court of Blades on Expert difficulty with Barrow-Dyad equipped (this grants an item to unlock the quest).
2. Visit the Shaping Slab.
3. Reach Rank 12 at the Shaping Slab.
4. Complete another run of Court of Blades on Expert difficulty with only Scout Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles, and/or Barrow-Dyad equipped.

Luckily, you can kill two birds with one stone here by simply using precision weapons in your first run. That’s to say, all you need to do is complete an Expert Court of Blades run with Barrow-Dyad and Snipers, Scouts, or Linear Fusion Rifles. After doing so, speaking with the Shaping Slab will retroactively complete Step 4 listed above, allowing you to earn the catalyst in a single run.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that there’s no requirement as to how many challengers you need to defeat in the run. This means you can load into Expert mode solo, wait at the first boss for the timer to expire, and then easily defeat the boss to end the run and earn your catalyst. We highly recommend this method unless you have another reason to enter Expert Court of Blades.

Catalyst #2: Hatchling

Obtaining the Hatchling catalyst is perhaps the most difficult of the bunch. To obtain the quest, you first need 3 Coalescence of Sorrow items. These come from the following:

• Completing Step 11 of Episode: Heresy Act 2’s story.
• Completing The Ravenous secret within the Hall of Souls area of The Nether. A video guide for completing it can be found here.
• Completing the Ogre Ascendant secret within the Trenchway area of The Nether. A video guide for completing it can be found here.

As a note, these secrets won’t always be active in every run—it seems as though you just need to get lucky for them to be offered. Some players claim that being on the Path of Resolve (as opposed to Ambition) helps as well, though we aren’t sure about that claim’s validity.

After finishing the three items above, enter the Trenchway area of The Nether. You’ll want to navigate to the upper left portion of the inside area, near where the Solar crystal encounter starts. Use your Ghost to reveal invisible platforms leading upward into a room containing a terminal you should now be able to interact with. Doing this will spawn a portal, leading to a chest that offers the start of the quest for the Hatchling catalyst.

To actually complete this quest, speak with the Shaping Slab, which will first ask you to fully level the Mastery of Ambition vendor rank. After finishing this, the last portion of the quest asks you to complete an Expert run of The Nether using only close-range weapons (Shotguns, Swords, Glaives, and/or Barrow-Dyad). We recommend simply swapping to these weapon types just before the final boss dies since that still gives you credit and completes the final step of unlocking this catalyst.

Catalyst #3: One for All

One for All’s questline is very similar to High-Impact Reserves’. Obtain and complete the quest through the following steps:

• Complete The Sunless Cell strike with Barrow-Dyad equipped. You should be able to skip the final step if you equip only auto rifles, submachine guns, and/or machine guns for your other two weapons.
• Visit the Shaping Slab.
• Collect 10 Tithing Wormspawn with the Path of Ambition active. A guide to finding these can be found here.
• If not completed through step one, complete The Sunless Cell strike with only auto rifles, submachine guns, and/or machine guns equipped.

Catalyst #4: Target Lock

This catalyst quest heavily reflects that of the Hatchling one. To obtain the quest itself, you’ll need 3 Coalescence of the [Knife] items, obtained from the following:

• Progress through the Act 3 storyline and complete the Dossier missions related to it.
• Complete the two hive runes secrets found within The Founts area of The Nether. A video guide for this can be found here (Symbols Chest and Hive Run Chest sections).
• Complete the Skyburner code secret found within the Hull Breach area of The Nether. A video guide for this can be found here.

As a reminder, these secrets are not guaranteed to be active on any given run. To complete them, you’ll need to get lucky with both the area you’re sent to during the activity and whether or not the secrets themselves are active.

Once you finish these, make your way back into the Hull Breach area. If you’re looking at the region’s boss, head to the far right of the area into the dark room pictured below. There should be a terminal you can interact with, opening a portal that leads to a chest with the quest itself.

Completing the quest proper and unlocking Target Lock requires the following:

1. Speak with the Shaping Slab.
2. Find 10 Ravenous Wormspawn with the Path of Resolve active. A video covering these locations can be found here.
3. Complete the exotic mission “Derealize” with Barrow-Dyad equipped. Swapping to the exotic right before the mission ends awards progress.

Barrow-Dyad Intrinsic Perks & God Rolls

The Barrow-Dyad exotic strand submachine gun can roll with the following perks:

• Barrel: Hammer-Forged Rifling, Smallbore, Corkscrew Rifling, Fluted Barrel, Polygonal Rifling, Extended Barrel
• Magazine: Flared Magwell, Alloy Magazine, Extended Mag, Appended Mag, Accurized Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
• Exotic Trait: Taken Resolution, Taken Ambition
• Grip: Textured Grip, Smooth Grip, Polymer Grip, Heavy Grip, Combat Grip
• Catalyst: High-Impact Reserves Refit, Hatchling Refit, One for All Refit, Target Lock Refit

Barrow-Dyad God Rolls, Destiny 2

Barrow-Dyad PvE god roll

As we mentioned earlier, Barrow-Dyad is one of the most versatile primaries currently available in Destiny 2. As a result, properly building into the roll that best suits your playstyle is vital.

We’ll begin with Fluted Barrel, Appended Mag, and Polymer Grip to gain additional handling and magazine size. From there, our roll highly depends on where you’re using the weapon.

Typically, you’ll want to use the combo of Taken Ambition and Target Lock. This excels at single-target damage, which is especially important in activities of higher difficulty. If you’re instead running this in a more casual setting, Taken Resolution and One for All will do you well.

Barrow-Dyad PvP god roll

Our roll for The Crucible starts with Smallbore, Ricochet Rounds, and Smooth Grip, all of which grant some extra range and stability. From there, Taken Ambition is the best of the two exotic traits, allowing your blight seekers to be slightly more potent.

Your catalyst trait is a bit tougher of a choice. We recommend either High-Impact Reserves or Target Lock since both increase damage if you play into them. However, the choice between them is up to you.

How good is Barrow-Dyad?

Barrow-Dyad saw a lot of popularity when it was first released, likely due to how the release caught the whole community off guard. And while it hasn’t proven to be meta-defining just yet, the weapon definitely excels when used properly.

In PvE, Barrow-Dyad is inarguably one of the best strand primary weapons out right now. And while that isn’t a very high bar, it also has a niche case of high single-target damage when using Taken Ambition. This, along with Taken Resolution, effectively transform the weapon’s use case entirely, pushing it to be one of the most versatile primaries out right now.

In contrast, Barrow-Dyad doesn’t offer much in The Crucible. While its newer perks and catalysts have helped it out a bit, it still simply isn’t that potent in PvP. Barrow-Dyad is A-Tier for PvE and B-tier for PvP.

Best Alternatives:

	Quicksilver Storm	Auto Rifle	Primary	Strand	Exotic Kiosk
	Imminence	Submachine Gun	Primary	Strand	Salvation's Edge Raid	Chaos Reshaped
	The Immortal	Submachine Gun	Primary	Strand	Trials of Osiris

Before you go…

Are you looking for other top-tier Exotics worth chasing? We cover the Finality’s Auger Exotic + Catalyst here.