Exo Stranger

"I don’t even have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain."

The Exo Stranger is an mysterious Exo that roams the wild without a Ghost, but hails from a future where the Darkness won. Her purpose and intentions are unknown, but she has taken an interest in The Guardian's activities and keeps tabs on them while also providing guidance to them against major threats to humanity.

She re-emerges on Europa aiming to help the Guardians understand the Dark power of Stasis.

A Strange Visitor
"I've followed this Light as far back as it goes."

- RECORD 472 - BRIDGE - 2.1

At an unknown time the Exo Stranger encountered Rasputin, who recognized her but did not understand her purpose. He thus asked her how he could imitate her ability to step between timelines so he could achieve his own goals. This meeting may have occurred during one her numerous reappearances to stave off an unknown future, as in another point in time—or times—she observes the Traveler and the Last City falling to numerous unknown enemies, and among the dead sees herself appearing occasionally. Her appearances across the timeline caught the attention of some within the Last City, who began to research and develop theories about her origins and purpose. Some speculated she was a member of a Exo squad who was continuing her mission from a long-forgotten war, although others dismissed her as a hallucination caused by Vex technology. Many of those who had the rare encounters with her insisted that she had saved their lives and prevented numerous catastrophic events.

A Strange Observer


Although the Exo Stranger's primary concern was the Vex, her the Hive infesting Earth's moon Luna caught her attention after she accidently transmitted herself to the moon and noticed their presence. She risked several more visits to Luna to observe them, once inadvertently arriving within their tunnels and being forced to fight to the surface, and deduced that although they seemed feral in many aspects they had a keen intelligence and complex intentions. The Stranger speculated that the Hive and Vex had common enemies and a connection to the Darkness. This belief was reinforced when a Fireteam of Guardians halted a Hive ritual she had planned to observe, which she learned was in fact ripping the Light away from the Traveler, similar to the Black Garden. After confirming this by traveling back to before the ritual was halted, a new figure caught her interest: a new Guardian and their Ghost who helped halt the ritual and mentioned Venus. The Stranger traveled back once more to watch as they discovered the reemergence of the Hive on the Moon outside the Temple of Crota, but noted no indication of Vex presence or activity to warrant the mention of Venus.

Returning to her observations of the Hive, she concluded that the conflicts between the Guardians and Hive indicated the aliens were planning on an invasion of Earth. The Stranger concluded that Luna was the Hive's "black heart" and primary breeding ground in the system and that they needed to be stopped to prevent them from bringing about the same dark end the Vex were working towards. Some time later, the Stranger traveled back further to observe the Ghost find the Guardian and resurrect them and subsequent acquisition of a Jumpship in the Cosmodrome of Old Russia. She became interested in the presence of the Fallen within the region as well, wondering what they sought to find in its broken tech and landscape. With her observations complete, the Stranger traveled back to when she had first observed the Guardian, only this time allowing them to notice her presence, as she believed them to be interesting and unlikely to fail where others had and wished to recruit them against the Hive, Vex, and Darkness.

The Stranger Appears
"It's not every day you get a transmission from a mysterious Exo who claims to know us and wants us to go to Venus and…things are getting weird, aren't they?"

- Ghost

When the player is about to enter the Chamber of Night to save the Traveler from a Hive ritual, she is able to send a transmission to them telling them they need to see her on Venus.

Following the Stranger's coordinates, the Guardian travels to the Ishtar Sink on Venus, where they are ambushed by alien cyborgs known as the Vex. After reactivating an extensive series of sensors established by other Guardians to track these machines, the Guardian meets with the Exo Stranger in the Ishtar Academy. There, she informs them of the Black Garden, the birthplace of the Vex, and a powerful entity responsible for keeping the Traveler in a state of catatonia. She explains to them that the only way to heal the Traveler is to destroy the heart in the Black Garden.

Before the Guardian could ask any more questions however, the Stranger suddenly vanishes following a mysterious conversation with an unknown individual. Ghost suggests they go to the Awoken in order to find the Garden's location. Wistfully he wonders if they could stay with the Vex, as the idea of traveling far into danger was not something he liked, and the Guardian jokingly calls him "little light" after the Stranger's remark.

The Stranger Returns
"Inside us all is the strength to control Darkness. Now is our chance to seize it. We can all use it for good, to save humanity. I wield it now with intent to stop our enemies whether light cannot."

- Exo Stranger character spotlight

Six years after her last appearance, the Stranger reemerged on Europa shortly after a Pyramid had arrived there, along with Eramis and her House of Salvation. She allied with The Drifter and Eris Morn after the two were also drawn to the moon.

At some point the Exo Stranger can be seen near Variks, Kell of Kells who sends out a distress call to the Guardians asking for help.

Personality and Traits


The Stranger appears to be working for an unknown faction who know more about the war against the Darkness than Guardians do. She possesses much technology that even Ghosts don't fully understand; she is capable of appearing and disappearing out of reality, and her weapon has parts that "shouldn't yet exist."

Gameplay
The Stranger appears in the following missions during cutscenes:
 * "A Guardian Rises"
 * "The Dark Beyond"
 * "Chamber of Night"
 * "A Stranger's Call"
 * "The Black Garden"

In the mission A Stranger's Call, she was talking to an unknown person or group of persons, whose identity has yet to be revealed. Additionally, according to the flavor text of the last quest step in the "Not Forged From the Light" quest, Praedyth or his Ghost may have seen her at some point. This is implied to have been a recurring occurrence. While she is completely absent in the Taken King campaign, she plays a pivotal role in investigating the odd fate of Praedyth and the effects Oryx brought to the Vex. Eventually her rifle, not worn but enhanced by time itself, surfaces in the hands of the Future War Cult researchers as No Time to Explain, who give it to the Guardian. With contradictory clues on the rifle's origin, the truth behind it may never be known.

Quotes

 * "Well fought… Many Guardians fell… … Strong ones… … But you made it here… … Don't let them find you…"
 * "I wasn't talking to you, little Light" (speaking to the player's Ghost)
 * "I believe where our paths cross, ground... could break."
 * "It doesn't matter who you were, only what you will become."
 * "Ah yes. The Awoken. Out there, wavering between the Light and the Dark. A side should always be taken, little Light... Even if it's the wrong side."
 * "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."
 * "It's a day for pretty speeches and medals. But we know the real fight takes place out there. There's so much more, Guardian. I've seen terrible things born out in the Darkness. Every moment brings them closer. All ends and beginnings... Our fight is far from over."
 * "This....is what I brought you here to see"

Trivia

 * The Exo Stranger is voiced by Lauren Cohan.
 * The Stranger appeared in the original storyline of Destiny. In this version, she was the assistant of Osiris.
 * Interestingly, both have been known to refer to ghosts as "little light."
 * The Stranger's line "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain" has become a meme in the Destiny community as a symbol of the base game's lack of coherent story.
 * Information released in and around Warmind hint the stranger's original identity to be Elsie Bray, adoptive sister to Ana Bray.
 * She will play a large role in the campaign of Beyond Light.
 * Between her first appearance in the original Destiny game to her reappearance in Beyond Light, the Exo Stranger had been physically absent for six years.
 * The Exo Stranger is also accompanied by an unusual companion, similar to that of a Ghost, although not a ghost, as confirmed by Destiny’s game director Luke Smith.
 * The Stranger has only ever appeared five times in the flesh since day one of Destiny.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Beyond Light