Destiny 2 Make Bows Not War Quest Guide

The Destiny 2 Make Bows Not War quest rewards you with the exotic heavy bow, Leviathan’s Breath. Luckily, the quest to get the bow isn’t too difficult, and a dedicated Guardian can complete the quest in a little more than three hours — faster if you can speedrun some of the steps.

In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll go through everything you’ll need to do to acquire Leviathan’s Breath except finding Banshee’s Workshop. We’ve got a separate guide for that. 

Destiny 2 Make Bows Not War

How to Start the Make Bows Not War Quest

To start “Make Bows, Not War,” you need to visit Banshee-44 in the tower. He’ll give you the quest step called The Back Way, which has you venturing into his private workshop.

Check out our how to find Banshee’s Workshop in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep article for a full rundown of how to traverse the Tower to the location of the workshop. 

This quick step is easy. Visit Banshee-44 again to receive the first time-consuming step of the quest.

Intro to Safecracking 101

The first of three grindy steps, Intro to Safecracking 101 asks you to complete Strikes and play Gambit. Nightfall Strikes and Gambit Prime provide the best progress.

For our money, Strikes are the best option. Regular Vanguard strikes provide 20% completion and a 920 Nightfall: The Ordeal gives 50%. Reaching 100% through either method takes about an hour, depending on the quality of your teammates. Once you’ve filled the progress bar on Safecracking 101, you’ll unlock the next step.

Advanced Safecracking 201

For this step, your job is defeating either Vex or Cabal enemies with precision Bow shots. All told, you’ll need 100 precision final blows, and there are a couple of good ways to go about reaching that goal.

1. The Leviathan Castellum:

Load into the base Leviathan Raid and head to the central chamber. Find the currently active plate (if you don’t know how to find it, just run to each of the areas until enemies start spawning endlessly).

As the Cabal here will never stop spawning without progressing the raid, you can farm them for as long as you need.

2. Cabal/Vex Lost Sectors:

There are a number of Cabal themed Lost Sectors scattered across the system. The easiest to reach and farm are Skydock IV in the Sunken Isles of the EDZ and Ma’adim Subterrane sector in the Glacial Drift of Mars.

The Orrery on Nessus is also a good farm if you can consistently achieve Vex precision final blows. In either event, you can endlessly refill these areas by reloading the fast travel point nearby.

After 100 precision Cabal and/or Vex kills, you move onto arguably the most challenging section of the quest.

The Economics of War

If you’ve never done a Nightfall before, now’s the time to learn, because this quest step has you taking on an almost Nightfall-level Strike with some harsh modifiers.

Open your map to the EDZ and find the Strike called The Arms Dealer. 

Be aware that you need to be at least Power Level 900 to safely complete this final step.

Thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on your view), this special version of the Strike is matchmade, so you probably won’t be going it alone. There are a few variations on the regular Strike here as well:

• There are additional yellow-bar Cabal littered throughout each encounter.
• You cannot simply enter the ship without clearing the enemies in front of it. There is a shield blocking your way.
• In the final fight, Zahn will summon missile strikes that track you across the arena, dealing immense damage regardless of your Power Level

As mentioned, there are also several detrimental modifiers to the Strike:

• Harsh Elements: A non-beneficial return of Destiny 1‘s Burn mechanic, all enemy elemental damage is significantly increased. Unlike a regular Singe, which grants a 25% damage increase to one element across the board, Harsh Elements is probably a 50% increase only to damage that you take, so enemies will hit harder.
• Blackout: Melee damage is significantly increased. You won’t be one-shot by rank and file enemies, but more powerful foes and the final boss can and will send you to respawn if you stick too close.
• Iron: Enemies do not stagger and have more health. Straightforward enough, your best option here is to, well, shoot until everything dies. It’ll just take more time.

Other than those changes, take on the Strike as usual. But again, be aware that as a Nightfall-level activity, everything hits a lot harder and takes a lot more to kill.

Applied Cryptosecurity and Martial Archery 401

These two steps are nothing compared to what you just accomplished. Applied Cryptosecurity unlocks once the upgraded Arms Dealer Strike completes, and all you have to do is visit Banshee in the Tower.

To complete Martial Archery 401, head back to Banshee’s Workshop and open the safe. 

That’s it for the Destiny 2 Make Bows Not War quest. You’ve got yourself a brand new exotic heavy bow: the Leviathan’s Breath. Here are more Destiny 2 guides if you need a little help:

• How to Get the Dream Breaker Fusion Rifle in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
• How to Find the Trove Guardian in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
• Destiny 2 Shadowkeep: How to Start the Story
• How to Get Destiny 2 For Free