Warlord's Ruin is a jagged, frozen nightmare. You’re climbing the Dark Age ruins of a snowy mountain in the EDZ, dodging Taken blasts, and trying not to get trapped in a cage. But let’s be real. You aren’t here for the scenery or the lore of Hefnd’s Vengeance. You want the loot. Specifically, you’re probably hunting that elusive Buried Bloodline sidearm or trying to figure out which encounter finally drops the Indebted Kindness sidearm that everyone on Reddit won't stop talking about.
The Warlord's Ruin loot table is actually pretty generous compared to older dungeons like Duality or Spire of the Watcher, but it still has its quirks. If you’re farming for a specific roll, you need to know exactly where to spend your time. There is nothing worse than running the first boss ten times only to realize the item you want only drops from the final stand.
Rathil and the First Boss Hustle
Rathil, First Broken Knight of Fikrul, is basically a warm-up. He’s the first major roadblock you hit after the initial climbing section. Honestly, he’s one of the easiest bosses to farm in the entire game right now. Most groups can one-phase him without even breaking a sweat.
If you are looking for the Indebted Kindness Rocket-Assisted Sidearm, this is your first chance. This gun changed the meta. It’s an Arc sidearm that shoots literal rockets. It hits like a truck and uses special ammo, making it feel more like a sniper-lite than a sidearm. In the first encounter, you can also snag the Dragoncult Sickle (the Strand sword) and the Dark Conviction Stasis Sidearm.
For the armor junkies, the Dark Age set starts dropping here. You’re looking at the Helmet, Legs, and Class Item. If you’re trying to complete the look for your Titan to look like a mountain climber from the 1920s, Rathil is your best friend.
Why the First Encounter is the Best Farm
Efficiency is everything in Destiny 2. Because Rathil dies so fast, many players just reset the checkpoint here. You get a drop every five to seven minutes if your team is coordinated. You don't have to deal with the jail cell puzzle or the long jumping puzzle to get to the giant ogre. It's pure, unfiltered loot per hour.
The Locus of Wailing Grief
Once you survive the prison cells—which, let’s be honest, we’ve all failed at least once because someone forgot to hit their skeleton key—you face the Locus of Wailing Grief. It’s a giant Taken Ogre in a blizzard. It sucks. The visibility is terrible, and the torches are a pain.
But the Warlord's Ruin loot table gets more interesting here. This is where the Vengeful Whisper Bow lives. This is a Strand bow with a Precise archetype, and it can roll with some spicy perks like Archer's Tempo and Successful Warm-up.
The loot pool shifts slightly here:
- Vengeful Whisper (Strand Bow)
- Indebted Kindness (Arc Sidearm)
- Dragoncult Sickle (Strand Sword)
Wait, did you notice that? The Indebted Kindness and the Sword are also in the first encounter. This means if you specifically want the Sidearm, you have two chances before you even reach the end. For armor, the Ogre drops the Gloves and the Chest piece. So, if you’ve been stuck with a low-stat chest piece, this is the encounter you need to grind.
The mechanics here are a bit more "Destiny." You have to bank totems, hide from the cold, and then pray your Well of Radiance doesn't get stomped into oblivion by a giant ogre toe. It's a longer fight than Rathil, so it's less popular for farming, but necessary if you're missing those specific armor pieces.
The Final Climb: Hefnd’s Vengeance
The final boss is a massive Taken Chimera. It’s a multi-stage fight that takes you higher and higher up the castle. It’s chaotic. It’s loud. There are eyes everywhere.
The final boss is the only place you can get everything. It pulls from the entire Warlord's Ruin loot table. If you finish this fight, you can get any weapon or any piece of armor from the previous encounters. However, it also introduces the sniper rifle: Naeem’s Lance.
Naeem’s Lance is a Strand Sniper. Snipers aren't exactly dominating the meta right now, but this one has some interesting rolls for high-end PvE if you're into that sort of thing.
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The Buried Bloodline Factor
We have to talk about the Exotic. Buried Bloodline. It’s a Void Sidearm that sits in your special slot. It looks like a crossbow, feels like a hand cannon, and grants Devour on kills. It is arguably one of the best Exotics Bungie has released in years.
You only get three chances a week for this (one per character). You cannot farm the final boss for the Exotic unless Warlord's Ruin is the "Featured Dungeon" of the week. This is a huge point of confusion for new players. If it's not the featured week, running the boss 50 times on your Warlock won't give you the gun. It’ll just give you a headache.
Drop Rates and Triumphs
Bungie actually added a way to "buff" your drop rate for the Exotic. If you go into your Triumphs tab under the Warlord's Ruin section, you'll see specific challenges that say they increase the drop rate of Buried Bloodline.
Doing the dungeon on Master difficulty is the biggest boost. Completing it solo is another. Finding all the hidden bones (Heghnd's bones) throughout the dungeon is a massive help too. If you're serious about getting that sidearm, don't just mindlessly run the boss. Go do the collectibles. It actually matters.
Master difficulty also drops Artifice Armor. If you are a min-maxer looking for that +3 stat boost to hit Triple 100s, Master Warlord's Ruin is where you want to be. The armor is high-stat and the extra slot is a game-changer for builds.
Clearing Up the Farming Confusion
There’s a lot of misinformation about how farming works in Destiny 2 dungeons. Here is the reality.
When Warlord's Ruin is the "newest" dungeon (which it was for months), you can farm the encounters for legendary loot as much as you want. You get a drop every single time. But the Exotic? That’s once per character, per week.
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Once a newer dungeon releases and Warlord's Ruin enters the "Rotator," you can only farm it when it's the weekly featured dungeon. When it’s the featured one, the sky is the limit. You can farm the Exotic until your eyes bleed. If it’s not the featured week, you only get that one shot per character.
Weapons to Watch Out For
Let's break down the "God Rolls" you should be looking for while sifting through the Warlord's Ruin loot table.
- Indebted Kindness: You want Voltshot. Period. Combining the rocket-assisted frame with Voltshot makes it an ad-clearing machine. Lead from Gold is also incredible in the first column because it's a special ammo weapon that eats through reserves.
- Vengeful Whisper: Look for Archer’s Tempo and Hatchling. If you’re running a Strand Warlock (Broodweaver), this thing is a monster.
- Dragoncult Sickle: Slice and Surrounded. Since it's a Strand sword, applying Slice to a boss reduces their damage output, which is huge for survivability in GMs or Master Raids.
How to Handle the Jail
If you're farming this, the jail is the "time tax" between encounter one and two. It’s not hard, but people overcomplicate it.
Look at the skeleton. Look at the dials. One person usually stays in the middle to call out the numbers. It’s basically a game of "telephone" where the prize is not dying. Just remember that the white lights mean clockwise and the orange-ish lights mean counter-clockwise. Or is it the other way around? (It's white for clockwise, orange for counter).
Actionable Strategy for Loot
If you want to maximize your time, don't just "play" the dungeon. Have a plan.
- Target Farming: If you only want Indebted Kindness, find a group doing "Rathil CP" (Checkpoint) on Discord or the LFG app. It's the fastest way.
- Exotic Hunting: Complete the "In the Shadow of the Mountain" quest. It's long, but the drop rate boosts are real. Don't ignore the bones.
- Armor Sets: Run the full dungeon. The armor is spread out evenly, so full runs are the only way to guarantee a chance at every slot.
- Master Runs: Only do these if you are at the power cap and have a solid team. The surge in difficulty is significant, but the Artifice armor is the best in the game.
The Warlord's Ruin loot table is one of the most rewarding in the current state of Destiny. Even the "bad" weapons are actually pretty decent compared to the filler we usually get in seasonal content. Just keep an eye on the weekly rotation and make sure you aren't wasting your time farming for an Exotic when the game won't let it drop.
Good luck with the RNG. You're going to need it for that sidearm.