Vesper’s Host, a dungeon included in the Episode: Revenant content release for Destiny 2, introduces a new exotic weapon that is, in fact, an old favorite: the Ice Breaker. This Exotic Solar Sniper Rifle was beloved in the original Destiny due to its ability to gradually generate its own ammo, making it ideal for inflicting significant damage and taking down bosses.
The new version of the Ice Breaker differs slightly but retains similar benefits, making it a fantastic weapon for dealing damage to pursuing bosses. Here’s everything you need to know about the Ice Breaker, including its features, how to obtain it from the Vesper’s Host dungeon, and more. Once we cover that, we’ll also explain how to enhance it with an Exotic Catalyst. Let’s wrap up the process here.
How to Get Ice Breaker
The Ice Breaker is a reward exclusive to the Vesper’s Host dungeon. To access this dungeon, you’ll need the Final Shape Dungeon Key. If you’ve purchased the latest Destiny 2 expansion and don’t already own it, you can buy the key in-game for 2,000 Silver, which is approximately $20.
Like other dungeon exotics, Ice Breaker has a chance to drop randomly from the dungeon’s final boss. Unfortunately, this means you’ll need to replay the dungeon multiple times until you obtain the Ice Breaker.
There is a guaranteed way to get the Ice Breaker: complete Vesper’s Host in Competitive Mode. This challenging mode is available only for the first 48 hours after the dungeon’s release, as part of a race among teams to be the first to finish. In Competitive Mode, players’ levels are capped below the recommended level for each encounter, making the challenge tougher for everyone. Upon completing Vesper’s Host in Competitive Mode, you will receive the Ice Breaker as a reward.
If you miss the Competitive Mode or prefer to play the regular dungeon, you might still be able to increase your chances of getting the Ice Breaker. Other dungeons feature Victory Dungeons, which enhance the drop rate of exotics, and it’s reasonable to assume that this applies here as well. We’ll update this guide with more details once the dungeons become available.
Can I Farm Ice Breaker?
In Destiny 2, some activities allow you to repeat them until you obtain the drops you want, enabling you to “farm” specific gear. However, you generally can’t farm Exotics in newly released dungeons. Instead, your chances to acquire an Exotic are limited to one per week per character. This means that if you play with all three characters, you have three opportunities each week to earn the Ice Breaker. Once you’ve completed all three attempts, you’ll need to wait for the weekly reset at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET every Tuesday to get three more chances.
How to Get the Ice Breaker Exotic Catalyst
For other dungeon exotics, acquiring the weapon is just the first step. Some Exotic Catalysts grant your weapon additional abilities and buffs. Typically, obtaining these requires tackling the dungeon at a higher Master difficulty level, completing puzzles along the way, and emerging victorious.
Check back for updates on this guide once Vesper’s Host is live, and you can take a closer look at what the dungeon has to offer.
What Does Ice Breaker Do?
The Ice Breaker is a Solar sniper rifle that uses special ammunition. Its primary function is to deal precise damage to bosses by landing powerful shots in succession on weak points during the damage phase. It can also clear out multiple targets, creating space during intense encounters.
Ice Breaker’s Exotic perk, known as No Backpack, is what makes it stand out. This perk allows the Ice Breaker to generate its own ammunition, meaning you don’t need to collect additional special ammo to keep using it. If you don’t have a backpack, you’ll have a chance to generate a round for the Ice Breaker whenever you get a kill or assist with another weapon. Killing a powerful enemy will generate multiple rounds. While this version of the weapon differs from its Destiny 1 counterpart, it still allows players to produce large amounts of ammo and deal massive damage to tougher enemies and bosses without relying on ammo drops.
Additionally, the Ice Breaker features a unique trait called Ice Breaker. When you kill a target with this sniper rifle, it explodes, dealing damage to other nearby targets. You can maximize this effect by landing precision shots or shattering frozen enemies, which creates a Solar Ignition—an explosion that applies Scorch to nearby targets and inflicts burn damage. This synergy makes the Ice Breaker a perfect fit for Solar, Stasis, and Prismatic builds, especially when freezing and scorching enemies and combining well with Stasis primary weapons for effective crowd control.