Sleeper Simulant

"Subroutine IKELOS: Status=complete. MIDNIGHT EXIGENT: Status=still in progress."

- Weapon Description

Sleeper Simulant is an exotic Heavy-slot Fusion Rifle acquired in The Taken King. The weapon is based on a Dark Age weapon, the DVALIN FORGE Fusion Rifles, but with much more power behind it, and was forged by Rasputin to give directly to the Guardians as a result of the IKELOS subroutine. The weapon's lasers over-penetrate enemies and bounce off walls.

Acquisition
To trigger the quest to obtain the Sleeper Simulant, players need to collect four "Dark Age Relics" that randomly drop from Major and Ultra enemies; the relics appear as Legendary Fusion Rifles (labeled "DVALIN-RAS8711-FR00x", with the "x" being a number between 1 and 4) that are added to the Mission items section of the player's inventory. These items must be turned into Banshee-44. Handing them over to Banshee-44 will also grant 200 Gunsmith reputation.

Once all four relics have been turned in, logging in to the game will trigger a new mission: The First Firewall. Upon reaching the heart of Rasputin's bunker, several waves of Hive Knights and Taken Knights will appear. The order in which they appear relates to codes that will be needed after the mission. At the final wave, an Ultra Hive Knight named Kandorak will appear. Kill him to obtain the Curious Transceiver. To activate it, input the correct codes based on the order that the Knights appeared (Hive representing the top row, and Taken representing the bottom row). The codes are as follows, with "1" signifying the top row and "2" signifying the bottom row:

1 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1

After correctly entering all four codes, the next mission, Shadow Call, becomes available. The player has four minutes to reach the top of the Devil's Spire, open a chest, and kill the three Taken Wizards there. They will drop the IKELOS Fusion Core. To repair the core, the player needs to dismantle a legendary heavy weapon, complete The Archive on any difficulty, and complete a Warsat event on Earth, the Moon, and Mars, then select the corresponding nodes on the Core. Turn the Core in to Banshee, and wait until the next daily reset. The final stage of the quest requires completing a matchmade 280 Light version of Fallen S.A.B.E.R. to obtain a weapon frame. Give the frame to Banshee and he will reward the completed Sleeper Simulant, which comes in at 290 Attack.

Gameplay
Compared to a standard Fusion Rifle, the Sleeper Simulant has much more range and accuracy. Instead of firing seven individual rounds per burst, it only fires one. It has the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper rifle (though it uses a low-zoom sight), which is something most heavy weapons lack, and is capable of precision damage. Its ricochet feature is best used in confined spaces, where the beam can bounce in a close enough space to hit multiple targets reliably. Each beam fired has virtually unlimited range as well as no damage falloff, meaning that the damage inflicted, either at close or long range, will be all the same. On the subject matter of damage, the Sleeper Simulant inflicts extremely high damage per shot, making it a devastating weapon to use against bosses, and can even penetrate closed Shriekers. In the Crucible, it will kill any Guardian in one shot, even if that opponent has a damage-reducing Super active, such as Hammer of Sol (an Arc or Void Sword block, however, will keep a player alive).

Intrinsic properties:

 * Sleeper Simulant: Projectile over-penetrates enemies and ricochets once on hard surfaces. Projectile capable of dealing precision damage.

Barrel Upgrades

 * CQB Ballistics - Greatly reduced recoil. Significant penalty to range.
 * Smooth Ballistics - Increased recoil. Boost to range.

Support Perk:

 * Hip Fire - This weapon gains bonus accuracy while firing from the hip.

Stat Modifiers:

 * Speed Reload - Reload this weapon quickly.
 * Custom Optics - Precision glass for better zoom.
 * Injection Mold - Increased stability, faster handling. Reduced range.

Exotic Perk:

 * Activate IKELOS - Increases bounce count of projectile to 5.

Trivia

 * The weapon's magazine bears the same symbol used on Rasputin's Grimoire card.
 * The inspiration behind the weapon was the F117 Nighthawk, both visually and symbolically, as an advanced technological prototype with a rough, geometric appearance.

List of appearances

 * The Taken King