Bungie has confirmed that the gun is bugged, not just weak.
Among the many new things introduced to Destiny 2 last week for anyone playing Shadowkeep was another Exotic weapon quest, this one for the Xenophage machine gun. Starting the quest and seeing it all the way through is challenging (unless you use our guide), but that didn’t stop some players from quickly getting their hands on it–and finding themselves underwhelmed. As it turns out, the weapon isn’t just bad, it’s bugged, causing it to be less effective than intended. There’s no word on when it will be fixed, but you can rest assured that there are plans in the works to fix it.
After players began to unlock Xenophage, posts began to pop up on places like Reddit wondering if something was wrong. The weapon was not dealing precision damage and was generally not great–not exactly what you’d expect from an Exotic light machine gun.
In response to some of the feedback that’s been shared about the new gun, Bungie community manager Cozmo23 wrote on Reddit, “I checked with the team on this. The fact that Xenophage does not do precision damage is not a bug and by design. However, the weapon is unintentionally underperforming and we are currently investigating.”
Bungie’s weekly blog post reinforced that this is a bug, much to the amusement of some players due to the fact that Xenophage’s unique design is basically that of a bug gun.
There’s no word on how quickly Xenophage’s problems will be resolved, but there’s no time like the present to work on acquiring it. Alternatively, you can dive into the new dungeon or Festival of the Lost.