Arms Week is back in Destiny 2 for the first time since the Renegades expansion launched, and bows are taking center stage. The event brings two new weapons (including the first Glaive since Episode: Heresy), three Exotic Weapon Mods that dramatically change how bows play, and a community challenge with an exclusive emblem reward. The event runs until February 3, so here's everything worth knowing.
Event Overview
Arms Week: Bows went live with the January 27 weekly reset and runs until February 3 at 9:59 AM PT. You'll find a dedicated Arms Week tab on the Portal interface containing daily challenges, a weekly challenge, and a reward track. Completing challenges earns event tokens and bumps up your event rank, unlocking track rewards as you go.
New Weapons
King Orfeo
King Orfeo is a Legendary Arc Precision Frame Combat Bow with 76 impact and 667 draw time. It's the featured tiered weapon this week.
Bowstrings: For PvE, Elastic String gives you the fastest draw time so you can pump out arrows quickly. PvP players might prefer handling-focused options for snappier weapon feel.
Arrows: Compact Arrow Shaft works well for the handling and reload speed bonuses. Stability options help with flinch resistance if that's a concern for you.
First Perk Column: Explosive Head stands out here. The payload deals 30% more damage in PvE and staggers enemies harder. Total damage goes up by roughly 15% on body shots and 10% on precision hits, plus you get some AoE that can take out multiple weak enemies with one arrow. Archer's Tempo and Successful Warm-Up both speed up your draw time significantly after meeting their conditions. Impulse Amplifier improves velocity and reload, while Shoot to Loot adds utility for ammo collection.
Second Perk Column: Jolting Feedback stands out here. Bows need 3 hits to activate jolt (or 2 while Amplified), but the Shattershafts mod creates a powerful workaround. Since the three split arrows each count as separate hits, you can proc jolt in a single shot. Meganeura functions like Dragonfly but scales up based on prior hits, giving it higher potential against tanky targets. Precision Instrument boosts damage on precision hits. Dragonfly offers consistent explosion damage on precision kills. Rangefinder adds +10 range.
Recommended PvE Roll: Explosive Head paired with Jolting Feedback or Meganeura/Dragonfly.
The Heron
The Heron is a Legendary Void Aggressive Frame Glaive with 95 impact. This is the first new Glaive since Episode: Heresy dropped months before the Edge of Fate expansion, so Glaive mains have been waiting a while.
Haft Options: Your choice here depends on playstyle. Shield duration for defensive play, charge time reduction for more frequent blocking, or range and reload if you're playing aggressively.
Magazine Options: Appended Mag gives +1 magazine without penalties. Extended Mag also adds +1 but tanks your reload speed. Swap Mag improves ready and stow speed. Alloy Mag boosts reload when empty.
First Perk Column: Repulsor Brace grants an overshield when you kill void-debuffed targets, and it pairs beautifully with a second column option we'll get to in a moment. Proximity Power deserves special attention. When targets are nearby, final blows grant improved melee stat bonuses. This matters because Glaives got reworked with the Edge of Fate launch, and Glaive melee attacks now count as actual melees. They benefit from melee damage increases, including the melee stat. The Heron is the first Glaive ever to roll with Proximity Power, and the synergy potential is huge. Envious Assassin and Overflow work for big magazine builds. Disruption Break has situational uses. Replenishing Aegis boosts your blocking capability.
Second Perk Column: Destabilizing Rounds causes volatile explosions on kills and spreads volatility to nearby enemies. Pair this with Repulsor Brace and you've got a loop where you spread volatility, trigger explosions, and gain overshields constantly. Sword Logic increases damage with final blows. Unstoppable Force buffs damage after blocking. Binary Orbit offers another damage increase option. Unrelenting gives health regen on rapid kills. Redirection rewards you with bonus damage against majors and bosses after killing red bar enemies.
Recommended PvE Combo: Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds creates one of the strongest synergies on this weapon.
Build Synergy: Proximity Power works exceptionally well with Warlock builds running Winter's Guile. Glaive melee kills now generate stacks of Warlord's Sigil for the exotic's damage buff.
Origin Trait
Both weapons share the Nail, Meet Hammer origin trait. It makes your weapon more effective against combatant shields, and destroying a shield grants bonus Special ammo progress (for Primary or Heavy weapons) or Heavy ammo progress (for Special weapons). The Heron will feed you extra heavy ammo whenever you're busting shields.
Exotic Weapon Mods
Three new Exotic Weapon Mods are available exclusively during Arms Week. You can only equip them on Legendary bows (with one exception), and they're usable in the Hardware playlists.
Shattershafts
Arrows split into several projectiles after traveling a short distance. It basically turns your bow into a shotgun.
Each split projectile deals less damage than a single arrow individually, but the total output beats a single shot when multiple projectiles connect. You're doing more than double damage at close range. The catch is range dropoff: damage decreases at longer distances as projectiles spread and miss their mark. At extreme range, a single non-split arrow actually performs better.
You can't equip this on Heavy Combat Bows (crossbows), and hitting precision shots gets tricky at medium-to-long range because of the spread.
Jolting Feedback Combo: The three split arrows from Shattershafts let Jolting Feedback trigger jolt in a single shot since the perk counts each projectile separately. This combo shreds Overload Champions.
Tungsten Bowstring
This mod increases damage at the cost of draw time and handling. Fully drawn shots release an elemental explosion matching your weapon's element (or your super element for Kinetic weapons).
The numbers here are wild. Heavy Combat Bows get roughly 75% more damage. Standard bows see approximately 235% more damage, though the draw time penalty is brutal. Even a barely-drawn "weak shot" with Tungsten Bowstring outdamages a fully drawn normal shot without the mod.
Heavy Combat Bows work differently though. Since crossbows don't have a draw time mechanic, the penalty converts to a reload speed reduction instead. That's way more manageable. If you stack reload perks or armor mods, you can mostly offset the downside while keeping the massive damage boost.
Standard bow users will feel that draw time increase, but the damage spike plus explosion makes it worthwhile if you can adapt.
Jumpshot
Drawing while airborne triggers increased damage, faster draw time, better target acquisition, and dramatically faster movement speed until you land.
You're looking at roughly 90% more damage (testing showed headshots jumping from 149 to 280). All the bonuses stay active while you're airborne and drawing.
The movement speed boost enables "bow skating." Jump in a direction, start drawing, and you'll rocket forward. Combine this with Icarus Dash, Eager Edge sword skating, or Wings of Sacred Dawn for extended hang time, and you can pull off some ridiculous movement tech.
Obtaining Exotic Mods
Starting the Quest Chain
Head to Ada-1 in the Tower's shooting range. She'll give you a free King Orfeo with a random roll (the two options she shows are identical, so just pick one). Accept the Initial Calibration Quest, which requires completing two Prototype Tuning quests.
Known Bug: The quest text incorrectly says you need to complete "Prototype Tuning: Magazine." Bows don't have magazines. The actual requirement is "Prototype Tuning: Bowstring." It's a visual bug only; finishing the bowstring quest properly completes the objective.
Prototype Tuning Quests
PvP Quest: Complete Crucible matches. Hardware playlists give more progress, with each completion granting 60% (two runs finish it). Private matches don't count.
PvE Quest: Defeat combatants in Portal activities. Bow kills give extra progress. You can knock this out quickly in Solo Ops on Creation since the opening section spawns tons of enemies. Exotic bows like Trinity Ghoul work fine here. One important note: bow kills in the Medieval Hardware playlist don't count toward this quest even though it's technically a Portal activity.
Fast Farming Spot: Load into Pinnacle Ops: Whisper and head to the "green room" (named for its green-tinted lighting). Infinite Thrall spawn there, making it perfect for any bow kill requirements. This spot also works for the Praxic Blade quest and similar objectives.
Unlocking the Other Mods
After finishing both Prototype Tuning quests and returning to Ada-1, you'll receive Shattershafts. Equip it to a bow to progress. Two more quests then unlock:
In-Flight Benefits: Earn points through multi-kills in Portal Ops. Weapons with Exotic Weapon Mods equipped grant bonus points. Pretty easy with Shattershafts since the split projectiles mow down groups.
Tungsten Bowstring Quest: Earn points through precision final blows in Portal activities. Exotic Weapon Mods give extra progress. This one's rough with Shattershafts equipped because the projectile spread makes precision hits inconsistent. Your best bet is to finish the multi-kill quest first, then either remove the mod or switch to something like a sniper rifle for your precision kills.
Each completed quest unlocks one of the remaining mods.
Farming Guide
Telemetry
You earn Telemetry by completing any Portal activity. Spend it at Ada-1 for Tier 5 Arms Week Engrams (containing random-rolled King Orfeo or The Heron) and legacy bows for pattern completion or god roll hunting.
A UI bug may show your Telemetry as zero even when you have some. The currency still earns correctly.
Direct Weapon Drops
Hardware playlists in Crucible drop Arms Week weapons directly on completion. You can get King Orfeo or The Heron straight from the activity, making Hardware the fastest farming method if you want multiple rolls.
Visual Bug: Quick Play Portal activities show Arms Week Engram icons suggesting bonus drops ("3 Arms Week Engrams"), but testing confirms these don't actually drop Arms Week gear. The icons appear on Quick Play, Fireteam Ops, and Arena Ops, but only Hardware playlists give guaranteed drops.
Event Track Rewards
The track now gives random rolls on Holofoil variants (a change from The Dawning that continues here):
- Rank 10: Random-rolled Holofoil The Heron
- Rank 15: Random-rolled Holofoil King Orfeo
Previous events had fixed rolls that were often disappointing, so the random Tier 5 rolls mean you might pull a god roll Holofoil directly from the track.
Legacy Bows
Ada-1 stocks legacy bows that were previously available. You can chase better rolls on older bows like Lethophobia, work toward Deepsight patterns for craftable versions, or use Deepsight Harmonizers to unlock crafting.
Hardware Playlists
Two Hardware playlists run during Arms Week:
Rumble Hardware: Free-for-all with no abilities allowed. Weapons only.
Medieval Hardware: Team versus team. Only Glaives, Bows, and Swords allowed. Exotic Weapon Mods work here and give significant advantages.
Finish the Ada-1 quest chain before jumping into Hardware seriously. Players without the mods will have a rough time against those running them.
Dark Age Hunt Challenge
Bungie announced a community challenge running alongside Arms Week:
Dates: January 27 (after reset) through February 3 (before reset)
Goal: Solo complete Warlord's Ruin using only Bows, Glaives, and Swords
Rules:
- Solo only
- Bows, Glaives, and Swords exclusively (you can swap between different weapons in these categories)
- Complete the dungeon in one session without returning to orbit
- Flawless not required
- Abilities allowed
- Eager Edge skating and general skating permitted
- No out-of-bounds exploits or encounter skips
Rewards:
- Fallen Torches emblem (tracked internally by Bungie, no submission needed)
- Movie of the Week emblem potential for recorded runs shared on social media with #DarkAgeHunt
This aligns with the existing triumph "Cut with Dark Age Steel, O Vengeance Mine" but adds the solo requirement.
Loadout Recommendations
General PvE:
- Primary: King Orfeo with Explosive Head + Jolting Feedback/Meganeura, running Shattershafts
- Special: The Heron with Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds for void synergy and survivability
- Heavy: Your preferred sword
Heavy Combat Bow Focus: Slap Tungsten Bowstring on any Legendary Heavy Combat Bow for 75% more damage with almost no downside. The instant-fire nature of crossbows sidesteps the draw time penalty entirely.
Champion Content: King Orfeo with Shattershafts + Jolting Feedback gives instant jolt for Overload Champions. The Heron with Unstoppable Force and Replenishing Aegis handles Unstoppable Champion stunning well.
Dark Age Hunt Prep: Practice Warlord's Ruin with bow/glaive/sword loadouts before the challenge starts. The Heron with survivability perks (Repulsor Brace, Unrelenting) helps with solo sustain. Wings of Sacred Dawn paired with Jumpshot offers aerial damage advantages and escape options.
Trials of Osiris
This weekend runs Javelin-4 with Astral Horizon (Kinetic Shotgun, recently reprised) as the featured reward.
Known Issues
Several bugs may affect Arms Week activities:
- Renegades campaign activities and Lawless Frontier Jobs default to Normal difficulty (manually set to Expert for better rewards)
- The Dawning Oven remains in some inventories after the event ended
- Exodus Garden 2A Expert Lost Sector causes endless black screen when launched from the Cosmodrome flag
Summary
Arms Week: Bows packs a lot into its seven-day window. The Shattershafts + Jolting Feedback combo on King Orfeo delivers instant jolt application. Tungsten Bowstring on Heavy Combat Bows gives massive damage with minimal drawbacks. The Heron's Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds loop creates strong void build synergy. Finish the Ada-1 quest chain early to unlock all three Exotic Weapon Mods, farm Hardware playlists for direct drops, and spend Telemetry on focused engrams. The event wraps up February 3, so get your farming done while you can.