‘Destiny’: How To Get The Black Spindle, The Black Hammer Exotic Replacement For Year Two

Destiny players discovered a hidden weapon added with The Taken King on Wednesday, and it serves as the Year Two replacement for the infamous Black Hammer Sniper Rifle. There are some fairly difficult conditions that have to be fulfilled to receive the weapon on top of finding out where to go to get it.

The secret area to get to receive the Black Spindle was discovered by Reddit user TackiestTaco‘s friend who went exploring. Goofing around paid off the two and Tackiest Taco shared their find on Reddit.

The Conditions

The Black Spindle can only be found as part of the Daily Heroic Mission, “Lost to Light.” It’s been confirmed by Bungie’s Rob Engeln via Twitter that these secret areas only open up as part of the Daily Heroic.

@JMarsTweets Only when it’s the daily, but it’ll be in the rotation often.

— Rob Engeln (@RobEngeln) September 23, 2015

The first condition that you must fulfill is to not die. If your entire Fireteam wipes at least once, you will not gain access to the area that starts the secret mission. Additionally, it is recommended that you do this as part of a team of three. There is a 10-minute time limit and the enemies are all level 41 with a recommended 240 Light level.

The Run for the Black Spindle

Start the “Lost to Light” mission and proceed to the part of the mission with the third locked door that requires relics to be placed before continuing. Instead of placing the relics, go up the stairs the same way that you go during “The Shadow Thief” Strike to fight Tankis and then go to the Dusk Warrens and up the Gravity lift to the Traitor’s Ketch.

Again, it is important that your Fireteam does not wipe leading up to this part. The door leading to the Dusk Warren will be locked if you do. You can restart the mission, however.

A timed event will be triggered once your Fireteam enters the Ketch and the fight against the Taken begins. You will need to clear three room of Taken and you will not be able to continue, or finish, until every single Taken is killed.

The first room will have a mix of Taken Knights, Thrall, and Centurions. The Blights, the large black orbs, are your high priority target. These spawn more Taken so taking them out sooner will prevent fighting more enemies. Just be aware that the Blights will respawn if you take too long to clear out the rest of the enemies.

Taken Vandals and a Captain will appear in the hallway to the second room and will attempt to attack your Fireteam from both sides. Retreat as needed and fight your way to the room where the Fallen Walker spawns during the Strike.

The Walker room features Taken Wizards, Acolytes, Vandals, and Shadow Thrall. The Wizards should be the top priority here to prevent them from spawning the Shadow Thrall and making life difficult followed by the Blights. Don’t forget about the Vandal snipers on the top ledge in the rear of the room though.

The final room has Taken Psions, Knights, Centurions, and an Ultra Captain named Driviks. This is a wild and wooly fight in a relatively small contained space. Everything has to die here before the mission is complete and it has to be done within the ten minute time limit that started when your Fireteam first entered the Ketch.

Three Blights will spawn in the room (one on each side and one on the opposite side of the center platform) and should be your top priority. Two more waves of Blights will spawn as Driviks’ health is brought down. The basic pattern is to kill the Blights, kill the minions, and then target Driviks. Repeat as necessary unless you are high enough level to destroy Driviks immediately.

The Rewards

Once you have cleared out all of the Taken from this secret part of the “Lost to Light” mission, you will receive the Black Spindle with a 310 Light Level. You also have the chance of earning the Vienna Singer ship.

It is worth noting that the Black Spindle is placed in your Exotic Collection. However, it is at a 300 Light Level when retrieved through Exotic Blueprints and not 310. Getting extra Black Spindles through Exotic Blueprints may be an excellent way to infuse weapons to higher Light Levels though.

Update: Bungie just announced that the Black Spindle’s 310 Light Level is higher than intended. A nerf is on the way to bring it to 290.

[Images via Destiny, Reddit]

[Edit: Added note that this can only be obtained when “Lost to Light” is a Daily Heroic Mission.]