How to get Cloudstrike in Destiny 2

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With this Destiny 2 Cloudstrike guide, you can get your hands on the new exotic sniper rifle.

how to get Cloudstrike destiny 2
(Image credit: Bungie)

Want to know how to get Cloudstrike in Destiny 2? Beyond Light is the latest expansion to land in Bungie's MMO, and much of the story takes place on the icy moon of Europa. And as well as a new story campaign to get your teeth into, Beyond Light introduces various new activities as well as new weapons and exotics to amp up your arsenal.

Cloudstrike is a new exotic sniper rifle that promises to whip up a storm—quite literally—as you take out your target. So if you enjoy taking out enemies from afar and want to add it to your collection, read on to find out how to pick up the new Destiny 2 Cloudstrike sniper.

How to get Cloudstrike in Destiny 2

If you want to get Cloudstrike, you're going to need to farm the weekly Empire Hunt activity as it has a chance to drop at the end of each completed run. Fair warning though, it's a rare, random drop so you should be prepared to spend a bit of time grinding if you hope to obtain this exotic sniper rifle. You can find out how to unlock Empire Hunts in the section below. 

The good news is, the Cloudstrike seems to drop from any difficulty and this doesn't appear to affect the drop chance. Running Empire Hunt on the lowest difficulty and skipping as many enemies as possible seems to be the best way to go. Just be sure to kill the last boss to grab that shiny loot and the chance to get the Cloudstrike.

How to unlock the weekly Empire Hunt activities

Empire Hunts are a new activity introduced in Beyond Light. To unlock them you'll need to complete the majority of Beyond Light's story campaign and access the questline from Variks the Loyal and the Exo-Stranger who can be found on Europa. 

Once you've completed the quest A Hard Rain Falls quest from the Exo-Stranger, as well as Variks' quests, you'll be able to take on new Sabotages from Variks, namely Europan Explorer 1 and Europan Explorer 2. Once these have been completed, you'll be able to purchase Empire Hunts from him using Herealways Pieces, the new currency rewarded for completing various activities on Europa.

The Empire Hunts have four different difficulties and, as mentioned above, this shouldn't affect the drop rate of the Cloudstrike.

  • Adept: 1180PL
  • Hero: 1220PL
  • Legend: 1250PL
  • Master: 1280PL

So there you have it, everything you need to know to start farming Cloudstrike. On the other hand, if a pulse rifle is more your style, you can check out our handy guide on how to get No Time to Explain in Destiny 2. 

Sarah James
Sarah James
Senior Guides Writer

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.