Destiny 2 Touch of Malice + Catalyst: How to get them

On top of offering a great raiding experience and top-tier legendary weapons, King’s Fall also (re)introduced the Touch of Malice Exotic scout to Destiny 2. 

This quick guide will tell you everything there is to know about it: How to get it? How to unlock it? Is it even worth it?

Name: Touch of Malice

Type: Scout Rifle Archetype: Exotic

Ammo: Primary Element: Kinetic

Craftable: No Released: Season 18

Source: King's Fall Raid Requires: Free-to-Play

How to get the Touch of Malice Catalyst

The Catalyst for Touch of Malice can only be acquired within the King’s Fall raid. The Catalyst “quest” starts at the beginning of the raid:

1. Split the team to cover roughly the four quarters of the entire area
2. A Fireteam member with a Touch of Malice equipped will need to head over to a plate.
3. Relics will then spawn in the arena
4. Pick all relics simultaneously and head towards the middle of the Dreadnaught, where the statues lie.
5. Dunk the relics before the timer runs out

This video gives a perfect summary of exactly how to proceed.

Touch of Malice Scout Rifle, Destiny 2

The Catalyst (only) adds the Rapit Hit Perk.

Once you have obtained the catalyst, you’ll need 700 weapon kills to unlock it. Using typical farming methods such as the Shuro Chi Wish or the opening section of Grasp of Avarice will speed things along.

Catalyst: Touch of Malice

Ammo: Primary Element: Kinetic

Source: King's Fall Raid Requires: Free-to-Play

How to Unlock: ► 700 kills Released: Season 18

How to get the Touch of Malice Exotic

Touch of Malice can only be acquired by defeating the final boss, Oryx. Unlike in Destiny 1, Touch of Malice is not connected to a lengthy quest and drops randomly when defeating Oryx.

You can find the entire King’s Fall loot table here.

How to get Touch of Malice, Destiny 2

Touch of Malice drop rate

Touch of Malice is estimated to have a base drop rate of around 5%, based on community-driven data. Note that actual drop rates are unknown, as Bungie has never shared that information.

Albeit drop rates for Raid and Dungeon exotics are abysmally low, completing Triumphs will increase raid exotic drop rates. In this case:

How good is Touch of Malice Raid Exotic?

Touch of Malice features the following Exotic perks:

• Touch of Malice: The final round in the magazine deals bonus damage, drawing from the wielder’s life force, and then regenerates itself. Rapidly defeating 3 targets restores health. Guardians and powerful combatants count as more than one defeated target.
• Charged with Blight: Precision hits drain combatants’ life force and charge up a ball of Darkness. [Alternate Weapon Action] and then fire to unleash the blight projectile, shrouding combatants in Darkness and temporarily blinding them.

With the release of Special weapons that excellently fill the backup DPS role, such as the Supremacy, Touch of Malice has fallen in ranking. It also hogs your exotic slot, which could be better used on another weapon. That being said, it is still a very easy-to-use and powerful backup DPS option.

Touch of Malice definitely excels in PvE. We consider it A-Tier for PvE (and C-tier for PvP).

Before you go…

Are you looking for top-tier Raid/Dungeon  Exotics worth chasing? We cover How to get Buried Bloodline here. If you’re interested in other weapons from King’s Fall, we cover the top Zaouli’s Bane God Rolls here.