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Barrow-Dyad is a craftable Exotic SMG you can earn inDestiny 2’sHeresy season. It’s a Taken-themed SMG that fires Blighted projectiles as you damage targets. It hits incredibly hard, fills a similar niche to Quicksilver Storm, and has a ton of customization options.
Some of those options come in the form of catalysts, additional perks you can forge onto the weapon to improve its performance. There are four catalysts in total for Barrow-Dyad, some of which drastically improve its damage output or general utility. Today, we’ll be going over how to unlock every Exotic catalyst for the Barrow-Dyad SMG.
Updated July 27, 2025, by Charles Burgar:The last two Catalysts for Barrow-Dyad are now live, granting access to One for All and Target Lock. We’ve updated this guide to include some general directions on how to start each Catalyst quest. For more specific instructions, we’ve linked to our respective Catalyst quest guides.
Perk
High-Impact Reserves
The first catalyst for Barrow-Dyad is unlocked bycompleting an ExpertCourt of Bladesrun with Barrow-Dyad equipped.You’ll gain access to this activity at the start of Act 2 of Heresy’s seasonal storyline. We also believe you need to be atRank 12 of the Shaping Slabwhile on thePath of Resolveto get this quest to drop, but we can’t confirm this for certain.
If you meet these conditions, then completing the Court of Blades run will drop “A Needle’s Path,” a quest that will award High-Impact Reserves as a craftable trait for Barrow-Dyad. You’ll need tocomplete another Expert Court of Blades run with a long-range loadout—Scout Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles, and Sniper Rifles. Barrow-Dyad must also be equipped to complete this step.
You can wait for the timer to expire in your Court of Blades run to spawn the final boss. Melt the boss with your Heavy weapon or Super to unlock your new catalyst trait.
Hatchling
Barrow-Dyad’s second catalyst isfound inthe Nether activity, located inside The Tenchway tileset.Once you load into the tileset, run inside the Dreadnaught and head towards the cluster of spores in the corner of one of the platforms. Once there, pull out your Ghost to reveal a series of hidden platforms. Hop across the platforms until you reach the gap in the wall.
Found Lacking Bug
Some players are unable to interact with the device that activates the catalyst portal. If this is impacting you, join a fireteam with someone who can open the portal for you.
Interact with a device on the left wall to summon a portal to a series of chests. This will give you the quest forBarrow-Dyad’s Hatchling Catalyst. You’ll need to complete two steps:
One for All
Once you reach the third Act of Heresy, you will unlock the Sunless Cell strike and be required to clear it to progress the story.Complete the Sunless Cell strike with Barrow-Dyad equipped to start this quest chain.To learn how to complete it, check out ourOne for All Catalyst guide.
Target Lock
Unlocking the Target Lock Catalyst is surprisingly tricky.You must first get three Coalescence of the Knife consumables, two of which are tied to hidden chests.They drop from the following sources:
Once you get all three, you can open the portal in the Hull Breach area to start the quest. For exact locations, check out ourTarget Lock Catalyst guide.
