The King’s Fall Raid has returned to Destiny 2, and with it comes the Touch of Malice Exotic Scout Rifle, reborn for a new sandbox. Somehow, Bungie managed to make it relevant seven years after it was first introduced in a game so wildly different from its source material. The one big change is how you get it.
This guide will tell you how to get your hands on this coveted rifle, as well as how to use it and its exotic trait: Charged with Blight.
How to Get Touch of Malice in Destiny 2’s King’s Fall Raid
There is only one way to get Touch of Malice in Destiny 2: as a random drop from the Oryx chest following the completion of the final encounter of the King’s Fall Raid. You have three chances to get it per week, provided you have three characters that can run the Raid at all.
Sadly, there is no way to increase your drop chance, and there is no bad luck protection. Everything comes down to your RNG. Some players will get Touch of Malice on their first or second completion; some players will take dozens or more. With King’s Fall taking a little more than an hour for most casual fireteams, that could mean hundreds of hours of Raiding or just a few before you get the Exotic to drop.
Once you have it in your hands, you might find it was well worth the effort.
How Touch of Malice and Charged With Blight Work
Veterans of Destiny 1 will be happy to hear Touch of Malice functions effectively the same as the original version. You can shoot normally 10 times, but when the weapon has only one bullet left in the magazine, it will begin drawing on your health and shields to fuel additional shots. You can kill yourself with the self-inflicted damage, but the final round deals double damage as long as you don’t reload.
The real kicker is the new Exotic Trait: Charged with Blight. Every precision hit adds Blight stacks. When you hit 10 stacks, you can hold Reload to charge Touch of Malice with that energy. Firing once the weapon is charged — your character will physically stop the turning rings in the weapon’s middle — sends out a blight projectile.
Touch of Malice in PvE
There are two hidden perks, as well. Any enemy hit by the Blight projectile gets poisoned and takes DOT damage for about 10 seconds. Enemies take an additional 50% damage for around two and a half seconds after they take damage from the Blight. This can be on top of the 100% increase from using the final bullet over and over, making a total of 150% PvE damage.
Better still, the Blight debuff doesn’t need to come from your Touch of Malice. Any player in your instance with the weapon equipped who hits an enemy with the Blight triggers the debuff. Coordinating with your fireteam to keep yourselves healed and debuffing enemies means you can keep 150% damage going indefinitely.
Touch of Malice also benefits the other Weapons of Sorrow — Thorn and Osteo Striga — adding a few additional points of damage atop what’s already present. Sadly, neither of those weapons is prime DPS material, but it’s a nice touch.
Touch of Malice in PvP
All these effects are all diminished in PvP, where the main damage increase is only 30% instead of 100%. The Blight debuff adds only 15% rather than 50%, but the Touch of Malice in PvP fully revved takes a little more than a half second to kill.
With all those mechanics combined, and in the right circumstances, Touch of Malice is a terror no matter where you use it. It won’t replace Gjallarhorn and five other well-rolled Rocket Launchers for DPS, but it doesn’t have to. An Exotic primary weapon like this doesn’t come along often, so run King’s Fall as often as it takes to get your hands on one. Check out our other Destiny 2 content while you’re here, including a full walkthrough of both the Duality and Grasp of Avarice Dungeons and god roll guides for the Stormchaser and Eyasluna. Our guides hub has plenty more.
