Destiny 2 Dead Man's Tale god roll and drop location

How to get Dead Man's Tale in Destiny 2

Dead Man's Tale comes from the Presage exotic mission. Like Vox Obscura and Operation: Seraph's Shield, this mission is part of a weekly rotation. You'll need to complete Presage during a week in which it is featured in the rotation. Do so, and a guaranteed Dead Man's Tale will drop.

The first time you complete Presage during its featured week, it will give you a deepsight resonance version of Dead Man's Tale, allowing you to collect progress towards the crafting pattern. Every time you complete Presage while it is up will give you another Dead Man's Tale (useful for farming god rolls), but they will all have low odds of having deepsight resonance.

Once you complete the crafting pattern you can visit the Enclave and "shape" (aka craft) a Dead Man's Tale to your specification. As you level it you will be able to swap in different and improved perks, ideal for creating the exact roll you need.

Dead Man's Tale has an exotic perk called Cranial Spike. This increases range and target acquisition with consecutive critical hits. The version of the perk you can get comes in different levels, which in turn unlock additional perks for the gun.

The upgrades are straightforward to acquire. The first time you complete Presage you will get Dead Man's Tale with Cranial Spike I. Complete it a second time and this will upgrade to Cranial Spike II, then III, and finally Cranial Spike IV. You can run these weeks apart, or all back to back, and any difficulty will count.

The Catalyst is a handy additional upgrade that improves accuracy and rate of fire while firing from the hip. Cranial Spike stacks increase that rate of fire boost further.

In order to earn the Catalyst you will need to complete a Presage run at Legend difficulty. The mission is the same, however the light level is set to 1830, equipment is locked, and you will only have 30 minutes to complete your run, or you will need to start again. The Catalyst only needs to be earned once, and is permanently unlocked from then on.

Dead Man's Tale god roll recommendation in Destiny 2

Dead Man's Tale is a high impact scout Rifle. Its job is to hit individual targets hard and fast in their weak areas, and it's extremely effective if you can hip fire well with it.

The 'god roll', or ideal version of this gun, has a complimentary collection of perks that make accurate shooting easier, and maximize damage.

Here is our recommended Dead Man's Tale god roll in Destiny 2:

• Fluted Barrel
• High-Caliber Rounds
• Vorpal Weapon
• Fitted Stock

Accurate and easy firing is the name of the game for Dead Man's Tale, and Fluted Barrel is perfect for that. A significant boost to handling speed makes it easy to line up shots, and the added stability helps keep things on target.

High-Caliber Rounds add impact to an already hard hitting weapon. This doesn't change damage, but it does add flinch and stagger. Perfect for stopping a charging Knight in its tracks while you drill it repeatedly in the head.

Vorpal Weapon is what takes this weapon to the next level against tough enemies. This perk adds a full 20% buff to damage against minibosses and bosses in PVP, and 40-50% to Guardians using their Super Abilities in PVP. That's huge.

Fitted Stock has a small penalty to handling, but is a big boost to both stability and recoil. That recoil buff in particular is extremely useful when firing from the hip, and allows you to chain headshots to stack the Cranial Spike perk.

As per usual, once you have your preferred roll, be sure to upgrade it to a Masterwork to give it a stat boost, ability to generate Orbs on multi-kills, and add the option of a kill tracker!