How to get the Barrow-Dyad Catalyst in Destiny 2

Bungie and Destiny 2 can and should be criticized for a wide variety of things, but weapon design is absolutely not one of them. The Barrow-Dyad SMG, for example, is an absolute triumph as far as guns go, and it gets pretty darn powerful with the Catalyst applied in particular.

The Barrow-Dyad is a close-quarters crowd-control Strand SMG that will easily deal with hordes of enemies if push comes to shove. Sure, there’s a bit of work involved in actually unlocking the darned thing, but the juice is absolutely worth the squeeze if you’re in the market for a fancy new Exotic SMG.

Once you’ve got the Barrow-Dyad in your inventory, though, odds are you’ll want to get its unique Catalyst as well. After all, there’s no reason not to make the gun even more powerful. On that front, there are multiple versions of the Catalyst for Barrow-Dyad, and not all of them are accessible as of Act 2.

Unlocking the Barrow-Dyad Catalyst in Destiny 2

There’s a grand total of four unique Barrow-Dyad Catalysts in Destiny 2, each allowing you to fine-tune your weapon in a slightly different way:

• High-Impact Reserves
• Hatchling
• Target Lock
• One-For-All

While having Perks as Catalysts is indeed not quite as fun as having bespoke Exotic Perks, there’s something to be said about the sheer flexibility of switching between several unique Catalysts at your behest. So, I’m not complaining at all. The thing to keep in mind is that only the High-Impact Reserves Catalyst is available for Barrow-Dyad as of Act 2 of the Heresy Episode, and the three remaining Catalysts are seemingly gate-kept for Act 3 progression.

Back on track, to actually unlock the Barrow-Dyad Catalyst, you’ll need to first complete the entire Dyadic Ascension Exotic Quest. This Quest basically upgrades your Barrow-Dyad to its most potent form before applying the Catalyst to it, so it’s a handy thing to go through no matter what. Once you’re done with that, complete an Expert run of the Court of Blades activity with the Barrow-Dyad SMG equipped.

Doing so will kickstart an entirely new “A Needle’s Path” Exotic Quest, which eventually tells you to play Court of Blades with a set of precision-focused weapons and the Barrow-Dyad equipped. You’ll need to set up a loadout featuring only the Barrow-Dyad and Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles, and Scout Rifles for this to work. Do note that, if you haven’t yet fully ranked up your Path of Resolve and completed the Dyadic Ascension Exotic Quest, you will need to do so as part of A Needle’s Path. It’s a short process if you’ve sorted all of that out beforehand, however.

Completing a run of the Court of Blades while appropriately kitted out will drop the High-Impact Reserves Catalyst for Barrow-Dyad via the final activity reward chest. From that point, go back to the Enclave on Mars to re-craft your Barrow-Dyad with High-Impact Reserves applied.

As for the three remaining Catalysts, add those to the growing list of exciting things included as part of Heresy Act 3, which is due to kick off on April 1st.