Today's Destiny 2 update brought with it surprise new exotic quest, the reward for which is a redux version of one of the coolest weapons from the first game. As is ever the way these days, the quest was initially discovered by dataminers who posted the results to this Reddit thread, noting a new "Masterwork objective complete" icon that appeared awfully similar to Outbreak Prime. For those not familiar with the console-only original, Outbreak Prime was a pulse rifle which was only discovered after a convoluted ARG connected to the Wrath of the Machine raid had been solved. It was worth the effort, though, because the gun releases swarms of nanites on headshots. Who doesn't want that?
As confirmed by the streamer Teawrex, who was one of the first to complete the quest (Monman said they're pretty sure their team was actually world first, but we'll let the community sort that out amongst themselves), the new weapon is actually an updated take called Outbreak Perfected. It's obviously based on its D1 predecessor but it appears that the anti-Fallen damage buff is out, which might actually make it more widely useful. The gun now ramps up in damage depending on how many nanites you can stick to your target. Also note that it can be masterworked, which gives players a reason to work through the new mission more than once.
As for the quest itself, expect to plough through a bunch of lost sectors, then have to tackle a 690 power mission in the old Tower. It works a lot like the game's previous secret exotic quest, for the Whisper of the Worm sniper rifle, which is to say it's tough and you should bring friends. There's a preliminary guide here, and we'll have something more substantial for you tomorrow.
To start the quest, you'll need to find the Fallen transponder during the daily heroic adventure on Titan. It contains six "nodes" that, according to Redditor Nyxara, leads into a mission in the Old Tower called Zero Hour against enemies at power level 690. We've got a quick rundown on how to get the wheels turning that you can dive into here.
Here's a look at the weapon itself, which as is the way of things these days can be reskinned with purchasable cosmetic 'ornaments':
