Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep update dropped on May 23, and with it came brand new activities, the long-awaited return of Titan from the Destiny Content Vault, and even a spot of fishing if that’s your thing.
But one addition, which the Destiny community has been begging for since a certain weapon’s introduction in Forsaken, has guardians excited beyond belief. Finally, Malfeasance has gotten a Catalyst.
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Fans have long speculated when Bungie would add the Catalyst enhancement, and what exactly the Catalyst would do for the gun. While some suggestions were outlandish, others were a little tame compared to what Bungie has now decided.
How do you get the Malfeasance Catalyst in Destiny 2?
Veterans of the franchise may remember the long grind to originally unlock the Hand Cannon—fear not, you won’t need to play a million games of Gambit like I did to obtain Malfeasance the first time. Like a number of other Exotic Catalysts, the Malfeasance Catalyst can drop from ritual world activities, specifically Gambit, Vanguard Ops, or the Crucible.
It’s a totally random drop, similar to last season’s Two-Tailed Fox Catalyst. You may acquire it on your first run, or on your hundredth, but there’s no other way to obtain it and no way to boost your chances of it dropping.
Once you’ve acquired the Catalyst, there’s no other requirement needed to obtain it. Like other Exotic Catalysts, to fully unlock its benefits, you’ll need a few kills with Malfeasance.
What does the Malfeasance Catalyst do?
After finding the Catalyst, to unlock its benefits you’ll need to kill 700 enemies with Malfeasance. Unfortunately, the Season Pass Catalyst Boosts you unlock will not give bonus progression when you kill enemies with the Hand Cannon, so you’ll need to farm up.
Fortunately, between the weapon’s Explosive Shadow effect and finding a great spot with red bar enemies—I personally head to the Shuro Chi checkpoint in the Last Wish raid—completing this Catalyst shouldn’t take you too long.
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Once fully unlocked, the Malfeasance Catalyst grants plus 20 to range and gives the weapon Vorpal Rounds, dealing extra damage against bosses and vehicles. This damage applies both to the Malfeasance bullet damage and its explosions caused by stacking up the slugs.
A full fireteam decked out with Malfeasance was pretty potent before this change, but the explosions caused by continually proccing the Exotic’s intrinsic ability (plus Vorpal Weapon dealing extra damage to bosses) could mean this Hand Cannon finally returns to players’ inventories again in Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep.
