How Exotic armor works
Last updated: August 14, 2025
Exotic armor stats
In contrast to Exotic weapons, which have set perks, Exotic armor has randomized stats. This means there is plenty of reason to grind for repeated rolls of Exotic armor.
On the plus side, unlike Legendary armor in Armor 3.0, Exotic armor is tierless, which and seems to always roll with 59-63 or so points. This is negative in that that’s a low stat total, but positive in that you don’t have to try to grind Exotic armor from specific high-tier sources.
You can try to roll a specific Exotic at the Cryptarch. The Precision Decryption screen allows you to reroll a specific Exotic you already own with 1 unopened Exotic engram, 60k Glimmer, and 2 Ascendant Shards. That’s expensive, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it unless you are seriously fiending for a very specific piece.
Acquiring Exotic armor
The following tables use abbreviations for the DLC:
| Abbreviation | DLC |
|---|---|
| 30th | 30th Anniversary Pack |
| FO | Forsaken Pack |
| SK | Shadowkeep Pack |
| BL | Beyond Light Pack |
| WQ | The Witch Queen |
| LF | Lightfall |
| TFS | The Final Shape |
| EOF | Edge of Fate |
World pool Exotic armor
Like Exotic weapons, a subset of Exotic armor is available in the “world pool” of Exotic items that can drop from any activity, including engrams decoded at the Cryptarch.
The world pool works on a “knockout” system - you won’t start getting duplicate Exotic armor until you’ve gotten all Exotic armor available in the world pool.
You can also get any of these items with an Exotic Cipher at the Cryptarch (see below). However, I wouldn’t recommend burning a Cipher on one of these - just do free Engram decodes until you’ve unlocked everything for your class. Save the Ciphers for the many Exotics you can only get from focusing.
| Name | DLC | |
|---|---|---|
| An Insurmountable Skullfort Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| Eternal Warrior Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| Helm of Saint-14 Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| Khepri's Horn Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| Mask of the Quiet One Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| One-Eyed Mask Titan Helmet | F2P | |
| ACD/0 Feedback Fence Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Aeon Safe Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Ashen Wake Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Citan's Ramparts Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Doom Fang Pauldron Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Stronghold Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Synthoceps Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Ursa Furiosa Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Wormgod Caress Titan Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Actium War Rig Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Armamentarium Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Crest of Alpha Lupi Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Hallowfire Heart Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Heart of Inmost Light Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Severance Enclosure Titan Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Antaeus Wards Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Dunemarchers Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Lion Rampant Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Mk. 44 Stand Asides Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Peacekeepers Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Peregrine Greaves Titan Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Celestial Nighthawk Hunter Helmet | F2P | |
| Foetracer Hunter Helmet | F2P | |
| Graviton Forfeit Hunter Helmet | F2P | |
| Knucklehead Radar Hunter Helmet | F2P | |
| Wormhusk Crown Hunter Helmet | F2P | |
| Aeon Swift Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Khepri's Sting Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Liar's Handshake Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Mechaneer's Tricksleeves Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Oathkeeper Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Sealed Ahamkara Grasps Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Shards of Galanor Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Shinobu's Vow Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Young Ahamkara's Spine Hunter Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Gwisin Vest Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Lucky Raspberry Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Ophidia Spathe Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Raiden Flux Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Raiju's Harness Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| The Dragon's Shadow Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| The Sixth Coyote Hunter Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Fr0st-EE5 Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Gemini Jester Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Lucky Pants Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Orpheus Rig Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| St0mp-EE5 Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| The Bombardiers Hunter Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Apotheosis Veil Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Astrocyte Verse Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Crown of Tempests Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Eye of Another World Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Felwinter's Helm Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Nezarec's Sin Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Skull of Dire Ahamkara Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| The Stag Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Verity's Brow Warlock Helmet | F2P | |
| Aeon Soul Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Claws of Ahamkara Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Contraverse Hold Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Getaway Artist Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Karnstein Armlets Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Ophidian Aspect Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Sunbracers Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Winter's Guile Warlock Gauntlets | F2P | |
| Chromatic Fire Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Phoenix Protocol Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Sanguine Alchemy Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Starfire Protocol Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Vesper of Radius Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Wings of Sacred Dawn Warlock Chest Armor | F2P | |
| Geomag Stabilizers Warlock Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Lunafaction Boots Warlock Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Promethium Spur Warlock Leg Armor | F2P | |
| Transversive Steps Warlock Leg Armor | F2P | |
Novel decryption armor
Exotic armor since Beyond Light is available in a system called novel decryption. This is an important, but rather hidden, system: you can access it at the Cryptarch at the Tower, but you have to know to how to find it:
- When/if the first “decode your engrams” screen pops up, close it - you’ll need unopened Exotic engrams for decryption
- Click “Focused Decoding”
- Go to the second screen, labeled “Novel Decryption”
Novel decryption requires one unopened Exotic engram and one Exotic Cipher. Exotic Ciphers can be earned from the Reward Pass and Weekly Rewards tracks.
| Name | DLC | |
|---|---|---|
| Cadmus Ridge Lancecap Titan Helmet | LF | |
| Loreley Splendor Helm Titan Helmet | WQ | |
| Precious Scars Titan Helmet | BL | |
| Icefall Mantle Titan Gauntlets | BL | |
| No Backup Plans Titan Gauntlets | BL | |
| Point-Contact Cannon Brace Titan Gauntlets | WQ | |
| Pyrogale Gauntlets Titan Gauntlets | LF | |
| Second Chance Titan Gauntlets | WQ | |
| Wishful Ignorance Titan Gauntlets | TFS | |
| Arbor Warden Titan Chest Armor | LF | |
| Cuirass of the Falling Star Titan Chest Armor | BL | |
| Hazardous Propulsion Titan Chest Armor | TFS | |
| Hoarfrost-Z Titan Chest Armor | WQ | |
| Abeyant Leap Titan Leg Armor | LF | |
| Blastwave Striders Titan Leg Armor | TFS | |
| The Path of Burning Steps Titan Leg Armor | BL | |
| Blight Ranger Hunter Helmet | WQ | |
| Cyrtarachne's Facade Hunter Helmet | LF | |
| Mask of Bakris Hunter Helmet | BL | |
| Mask of Fealty Hunter Helmet | TFS | |
| Athrys's Embrace Hunter Gauntlets | BL | |
| Caliban's Hand Hunter Gauntlets | WQ | |
| Mothkeeper's Wraps Hunter Gauntlets | LF | |
| Renewal Grasps Hunter Gauntlets | WQ | |
| Triton Vice Hunter Gauntlets | LF | |
| Gifted Conviction Hunter Chest Armor | TFS | |
| Gyrfalcon's Hauberk Hunter Chest Armor | WQ | |
| Omnioculus Hunter Chest Armor | BL | |
| Balance of Power Hunter Leg Armor | TFS | |
| Radiant Dance Machines Hunter Leg Armor | BL | |
| Speedloader Slacks Hunter Leg Armor | LF | |
| Star-Eater Scales Hunter Leg Armor | BL | |
| Cenotaph Mask Warlock Helmet | LF | |
| Dawn Chorus Warlock Helmet | BL | |
| Fallen Sunstar Warlock Helmet | WQ | |
| Speaker's Sight Warlock Helmet | TFS | |
| Ballidorse Wrathweavers Warlock Gauntlets | LF | |
| Briarbinds Warlock Gauntlets | LF | |
| Necrotic Grip Warlock Gauntlets | BL | |
| Nothing Manacles Warlock Gauntlets | BL | |
| Osmiomancy Gloves Warlock Gauntlets | WQ | |
| Mantle of Battle Harmony Warlock Chest Armor | BL | |
| Mataiodoxía Warlock Chest Armor | TFS | |
| Rime-coat Raiment Warlock Chest Armor | TFS | |
| Boots of the Assembler Warlock Leg Armor | BL | |
| Rain of Fire Warlock Leg Armor | WQ | |
| Secant Filaments Warlock Leg Armor | WQ | |
| Swarmers Warlock Leg Armor | LF | |
Xur
Every week, Xur sells six pieces of armor - two for Titans, two for Hunters, and two for Warlocks. These cost Strange Coins, which you get from a variety of sources (Portal activities, Reward Pass, weekly rewards, etc.).
You can buy new world pool Exotics you don’t own from Xur. However, you can’t buy any other Exotics you don’t already own one of from him.
Xur seels Exotics with “set rolls,” though this has changed recently. It used to be an arbitrary roll every player would get, but now, Xur’s set rolls are based on your currently equipped Ghost Mod’s armor archetype focus.
TODO: I’m still gathering data on how exactly this works, not sure if it’s as simple as “Brawler focus = Xur has Brawler rolls” (that would be nice, though.)
Xur also lets you buy an extra Exotic engram every week, which can help you unlock your world pool.
Special Exotic amor rewards
Certain Exotic armor drops from specific activities in the game:
| Name | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Melas Panoplia Titan Gauntlets | The Sieve bonus chest (EOF) | |
| Phoenix Cradle Titan Leg Armor | Complete Shadowkeep campaign (SK) Complete the Shadowkeep campaign. May require additional Novel Decryption at Rahool. | |
| Stoicism Titan Mark | Dual Destiny mission (TFS) Kill all three Secret-Keeper bosses after defeating Overthrow bosses in each area. Complete a secret mission in The Blooming (follow the green beam) to unlock the Dual Destiny co-op mission. | |
| Assassin's Cowl Hunter Helmet | Complete Shadowkeep campaign (SK) Complete the Shadowkeep campaign. May require additional Novel Decryption at Rahool. | |
| Moirai Hunter Chest Armor | The Sieve bonus chest (EOF) Unlock the bonus chest in The Sieve, or complete the Edge of Fate campaign on Legendary. | |
| Relativism Hunter Cloak | Dual Destiny mission (TFS) Kill all three Secret-Keeper bosses after defeating Overthrow bosses in each area. Complete a secret mission in The Blooming (follow the green beam) to unlock the Dual Destiny co-op mission. | |
| Eunoia Warlock Gauntlets | The Sieve bonus chest (EOF) | |
| Stormdancer's Brace Warlock Chest Armor | Complete Shadowkeep campaign (SK) Complete the Shadowkeep campaign. May require additional Novel Decryption at Rahool. | |
| Solipsism Warlock Bond | Dual Destiny mission (TFS) Kill all three Secret-Keeper bosses after defeating Overthrow bosses in each area. Complete a secret mission in The Blooming (follow the green beam) to unlock the Dual Destiny co-op mission. | |
Note that the class item Exotics - Stoicism, Relativism, and Solipism - have random perks. You can get additional rolls by purchasing from Xur or opening Pale Heart chests.