Bracus Zahn

"I would think hard before wasting the time of the only real weapons supplier you've got."

- Bracus Zahn to the Consul

Bracus Zahn is the boss of the The Arms Dealer Strike in Destiny 2. He is a notorious weaponsmith having been targeted by both the Vanguard and Emperor Calus for supplying weapons to the Red Legion and the Shadow Legion.

History
At one point Bracus Zahn had dealings with Calus, whom he regarded as his best customer prior to his usurption. His successor, Dominus Ghaul, would instead summon Zahn to the Sol System and aid in arming the Red Legion with his illicit weaponry as they went to war with the Last City of Humanity; much to the latter's hatred of Ghaul for deposing Calus. Having met Ghaul aboard his ship, Zahn contemplates the weaknesses in Ghaul's ceremonial armor and that killing him could force the Cabal to abandon his foolish crusade. When the Dominus calls to question the quantity of Zahn's advanced weapons, the latter tries holding back his anger while responding with a rhetorical question having come all the way to his "throne room" without them. The Consul rebukes the Legionary for his flippant remarks, only to be silenced by Zahn as he was wasting time with the only real weapons supplier they have got. He then smiles much to the chagrin of the two as he knew they needed him.

Throughout the Red War, Zahn's weapons were used by Red Legion Cabal in the killing of hundreds of Humans in the Last City and the European Dead Zone. With the war having ended in Ghaul's death, his troops would take command of Firebase Hades while the former himself took over the Orobas Vectura after its previous commander was killed. However Commander Zavala would issue a Strike team supervised by Suraya Hawthorne and Cayde-6 to kill the arms dealer and deprive the Red Legion of his weapon supply. During the strike, the base was alerted to the Guardians' presence due to a silent alarm being tripped by Ghost hacking in their network. Zahn's lieutenants rally the Red Legion to engage the fireteam, which included the air support of Threshers and two Goliath Tanks. The Bracus himself would tactically retreat to the Firebase Airfield for one final stand against them, only to have met his end in battle for good.

After the arrival of The Witness, Bracus Zhan would resurface, taking up his old base in the Orobas Vectura, but now supplying weapons to Emperor Calus' Shadow Legion and capturing several of the Imperial Cabal's Ascendant Guards. The Vanguard would launch another operation, coordinated by both Zavala and Empress Caiatl, to free the captives and take down Zahn. They wondered what the nature of this new "Zahn" was, if he had survived his assassination years prior, or was merely an imitator, taking up the original's name and legacy. The Guardian Fireteam freed the captives, and alongside them stormed Bracus Zahn's base, ultimately putting him down again.

Personality and traits
Bracus Zahn is a Cabal officer distinguished by his unusual chartreuse-colored armor. As a skilled weaponsmith and major arms dealer of the Cabal, Zahn had connections with the likes of Emperor Calus and later the Red Legion, supplying both sides with his own experimental weaponry such as the Volcanic Scorpius. Zahn would even experiment on Sparrows by rigging them with explosives and turning them into the fastest bombs according to Amanda Holliday.

Gameplay
Upon the initial confrontation, Zahn will jump from a Cabal ship onto another platform, where he will summon Volcanic Scorpius along with other Cabal. He will be armed with a Slug Rifle for this first section. After doing some damage to him and killing all other enemies, he'll jump to a second platform and do the same thing. Once again, after doing damage to him and killing adds, he will fly upwards and into an airfield. The player must activate a lift and kill more Cabal foot soldiers to continue the fight. Once the lift has reached the top, Bracus Zahn will be waiting at the top armed with a Cabal Headhunter sniper rifle, which can punch through Guardian shields with ease at long range, and at close range, he will use his jump jets to create a shockwave that will knock players back a significant distance and into greater dangers. This shockwave will leave behind spots of fire that ignite anyone that steps in them. He will summon four Volcanic Scorpius. At this point, the player can start doing permanent damage to the boss. Every third of his health that is taken down, though, Zahn will fly onto one of two pillars and surround himself in a shield. The only way to remove the shield to continue the fight is to pick up a Flame Core (which appears after enough adds are killed and a Cabal Thresher removes a Goliath Tank on top of it) and "dunk" it into a receiver on the opposite side of the map, similar to earlier in the Strike. Throughout the encounter, smaller Cabal enemies will continue to spawn. When at 50% health, Zahn will switch his equipped weapon to a Cabal Slug Shotgun.

In the revamped Strike released with Lightfall, Zahn fights similarly, though he now summons regular Shadow Legion Scorpii. When he reaches a third of his health, he will become immune and teleport to one of the platforms instead of flying. The charge required to bring down his shield will have to be taken from a Shadow Guard Centurion who appears among the reinforcements and must be dunked in a different location. The fireteam will also be supported by a number of allied Imperial Cabal Legionaries, Incendiors and Psions, who will hold off the reinforcements.

Zahn's Cabal
As a Bracus, Zahn had his own squad of similarly-colored Cabal which appear throughout Firebase Hades and the Orobas Vectura as lieutenants to the Red Legion Cabal during the strike. They are speculated to have been either renegades or criminals based on their titles.


 * Exiled Launcher
 * Illicit Slug Shooter
 * Outlawed Sniper
 * Unsanctioned Blaster
 * Volcanic Scorpius

Trivia

 * It is possible to deal enough damage in a short enough time to force Zahn to skip going to one of his hiding spots, so players looking to complete the strike as quickly as possible are in luck.
 * The Arms Dealer Strike is Suraya Hawthorne's initiation of revenge against Zahn. His manufactured weapons have killed many of Suraya's people.
 * In the Destiny 2 official guide, Bracus Zahn is listed as a Legionary.
 * Also in the guide, Zahn bears the title of Primus. This could be a mistake or a feature altered through development.
 * This also makes Bracus Zahn one of the few known Legionaries to lead a major Cabal force, along with Commander Dracus in Season of the Chosen.
 * In the German version of the strike Bracus Zahn is called Bracus Tynoc, likely because Zahn is the German word for tooth.
 * With the revamped version of the Arms Dealer strike introduced with the release of Lightfall, it is discussed by the Vanguard members on comms that the new Zahn may possibly be the original Zahn, surviving his prior assassination, before Caiatl provides more context on Cabal behaviors. She states the name may simply have been taken up by another upstart Cabal, seeking to ride on the coattails of the original Zahn's legacy.
 * As of Lightfall, Zahn’s Cabal have been removed.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2
 * Curse of Osiris
 * Shadowkeep
 * Lightfall