Whisper of the Worm

Whisper of the Worm
Production overview
Manufacturer:	Xol, Will of the Thousands
Style:	Taken; Black Hammer; Black Spindle
Rarity class:	Exotic
Weapon type:	Heavy Sniper Rifle
Is craftable:	Yes
Patterns needed:	1
Min-max impact:	100
Min-max stability:	15
Min-max handling:	28
Min-max reload speed:	36; 66 (Catalyst)
Min-max magazine:	3
Specifications
Feed system:	Box Magazine
Ammunition type:	Heavy
Fire mode:	Semi-auto
Rate of fire:	72 RPM
Damage:	Solar
Effective range:	75
Hidden stats
Aim assistance:	39
Inventory size:	50
Zoom:	40
Recoil:	74
Bounce intensity:	6
Bounce direction:	Center
Airborne effectiveness:	80
Service history
In service:	Guardians
Affiliation:	Worms ; Hive ; Xol, Will of the Thousands ; Taken

"A Guardian's power makes a rich feeding ground. Do not be revolted. There are parasites that may benefit the host... teeth sharper than your own."

— Weapon description.

Whisper of the Worm is an Exotic Heavy Sniper Rifle introduced in Destiny 2: Warmind with an update on July 17th, 2018. It is the successor to the Black Spindle, and by extension, the Black Hammer. It is the form that Xol took to feed upon the Guardian.

Gameplay

Whisper of the Worm is a Heavy sniper rifle, unlike its predecessors Black Hammer and Black Spindle. The weapon shares the White Nail perk of the Spindle as it functioned after the release of The Taken King, pulling ammo from reserves. It focuses on sustained boss DPS without reloading, heavily competing with Sleeper Simulant. The Catalyst obtained by running core playlist activities grants Whispered Breathing, which, after aiming down sights for three seconds, will increase precision damage and range until de-scoped.

Perks

Warmind

Intrinsic Trait	Intrinsic Frame	Barrel	Bowstring	Blade	Haft	Sight	Magazine	Arrow	Guard	Perk 1	Perk 2	Stock	Grip	Origin	Catalyst
White Nail: Higher base precision damage. Rapidly landing three precision hits will refill the magazine.		Polygonal Rifling: Barrel optimized for recoil reduction. Increases stability.					Accurized Rounds: This weapon can fire longer distances. Increases range.			Mulligan: Missing a shot has a chance to return ammo directly to the magazine.		Fitted Stock: This stock makes the weapon stable but heavy. Increases stability. Moderately controls recoil. Slightly decreases handling speed.

Into the Light

Intrinsic Trait	Barrel	Magazine	Perk 1	Stock
White Nail: Higher base precision damage. Rapidly landing three precision hits will refill the magazine.	Polygonal Rifling	Accurized Rounds	Mulligan	Fitted Stock
White Nail II	Arrowhead Brake	Flared Magwell	Field Prep	Short-Action Stock
White Nail III	Corkscrew Rifling	Alloy Magazine	No Distractions	Composite Stock
White Nail IV	Chambered Compensator	Steady Rounds	Enlightened Action	Hand-Laid Stock
	Smallbore
	Full Bore
	Extended Barrel
	Fluted Barrel
	Hammer-Forged Rifling

Catalyst

Players can unlock the Exotic Catalyst upon completion of The Whisper on Legend difficulty. To fully Masterwork the catalyst, players must kill 500 enemies using Whisper of the Worm. Only then can the catalyst unlock the following perks:

Intrinsic Trait	Intrinsic Frame	Barrel	Bowstring	Blade	Haft	Sight	Magazine	Arrow	Guard	Perk 1	Perk 2	Stock	Grip	Origin	Catalyst
															Whispered Breathing: Aiming this weapon without firing for a brief moment grants bonus range and precision damage while it remains zoomed.
															+30 Reload Speed

Acquisition

Originally, to obtain the Whisper of the Worm, one had to complete a secret mission called The Whisper. As of January 29, 2019, the mission could be started on any day of the week, with any Public Event in the Lost Oasis on Io, by killing one of three Taken lieutenants. These lieutenants were called Drevis, Aspect of Darkness, Urzok, Aspect of Hate, and Ta'aurc, Aspect of War. Upon entering the anomaly, the player was taken to the Grove of Ulan-Tan Lost Sector location and would have to navigate through mazes and dark caverns, as well as fight through hordes of Taken that spawn through numerous blights. The player would eventually arrive in a large boss encounter featuring the lieutenants from before. If participants cleared these encounters within the twenty-minute time limit, they would be rewarded with the Whisper of the Worm.

After the removal of Io at the end of the Season of Arrivals, Whisper of the Worm was moved to the Monument To Lost Lights, where it can be purchased for 150,000 Glimmer, 250 Baryon Bough, 2 Ascendant Shards, and an Exotic Cipher.

It has since been removed from the Monument To Lost Light, and is back in the reprised Whisper mission, which returned in Into the Light.

Lore

"And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going."The following is a verbatim transcription of an official document for archival reasons. As the original content is transcribed word-for-word, any possible discrepancies and/or errors are included.

Xol, the Will of Thousands, perished but was not destroyed. Death is a road, death is metamorphosis, the unsacred union between destroyer and destroyed. The might which defeats a god is also the ambrosia that god craves, the meat-sweet logic of Existence-Asserted-By-Violence, the binomial decision between two ways of being which deny each other. In dying, Xol fed richly.

Now came Xol unto the Taken upon Io, who fed Xol with plunder and tried to make of it an idol and a commanding will. Yet Xol was bound joyously to the very logic that sustained it in its death. It wanted the sword proof, the single proof. It wanted to become a rule which divided the mighty living from the mighty dead. So it whispered the Anthem Anatheme, the temptation to dominate the objective universe with the subjective will. It said, I shall be an engine to make your desire hegemon over your conditions. It said, WIELD ME, AND USE ME TO TEST YOUR FOE. This was its worship, Aiat.

Trivia

Whisper of the Worm is the third gun to naturally have a Taken appearance and the fourth weapon overall to appear as a Taken beside Stolen Will, the Cold Between Stars ornament for Black Spindle, and Dreadfang.
The three Taken Ultras you fight within the final area of "The Whisper" mission are Taken variants of three enemies encountered within Destiny:
- Valus Ta'aurc from the Cerberus Vae III strike. Now known as "Ta'aurc, Aspect of War" in "The Whisper" mission.
- Urzok, the Hated from public events in Skywatch. Now known as "Urzok, Aspect of Hate" in "The Whisper" mission.
- Drevis, Wolf Baroness from a bounty obtained during the Queen's Wrath event, or from Petra Venj in the Vestian Outpost. Now known as "Drevis, Aspect of Darkness" in "The Whisper" mission.
Whisper of the Worm appears to be heavily based upon two similar weapons from Destiny, Black Hammer and Black Spindle. All three weapons have the "White Nail" perk, and all are closely connected to the Hive.
- Commonly seen as its third iteration, it is technically the weakest when compared to the other three. Even in its original state with the infinite ammo version of the "White Nail" perk, it was in the Power Weapon slot. Thus, compared to both Black Hammer and Black Spindle less combinations of weapon loadouts could be used.
Upon its initial release, the original Exotic catalyst could previously be obtained by running through the Heroic version of the Whisper mission. In order to fully unlock the catalyst, players needed to open six secret chests hidden throughout the mission, including one that involved shooting Oracles not unlike those from Vault of Glass. The order for the Oracles, from left to right, was 1-3-5, 4-6-7-3-1, and finally, 7-3-1-6-4-2-5. Chests awarded 2% catalyst completion, while completing the mission rewarded 24% for a total of 36% per week. After the exotic mission was sunset between Beyond Light and Into the Light, the catalyst could only be obtained by completing playlist activities such as Strikes, Crucible and Gambit.

Gallery

Whisper of the Worm's lore tab.
Whisper of the Worm overlay and perks.
Whisper of the Worm's Bound Hammer ornament.
Whisper of the Worm's Between Breaths ornament.
Whisper of the Worm's Roar of the Wyrm ornament.
Whisper of the Worm's Gilded Cage ornament.

List of appearances

Destiny 2: Warmind (First appearance)
- Season of Arrivals (Mentioned only)
- Into the Light

References