Destiny 2: How to Get Every Monument of Triumph Catalyst

Monument of Triumph changes the catalyst grind in a very specific way: most missing Exotic catalysts now come from broad reward sources such as ritual activities and Exotic Order payouts, while raid- and dungeon-linked Exotics still keep activity-specific drops. If your goal is to upgrade everything, the efficient route is not “play everything and hope.” It is to separate your missing catalysts into source buckets, clear the broad pool first, and leave the locked endgame weapons for scheduled runs. That is the difference between steady progress and wasting a week in the wrong playlist.

What Monument of Triumph actually changed

The headline number is slightly messy. Bungie publicly confirmed 25 new Exotic catalysts in its developer messaging, while multiple community summaries and internal update references point to 26 weapons. That discrepancy is worth noting because it affects list-making, but it does not change the farm plan. The practical outcome is clearer than the count dispute: Destiny 2 now has catalyst coverage for every Exotic weapon, and nine existing catalysts that previously acted mostly as stat sticks are being upgraded with active perks.

For players, this creates three distinct tasks rather than one large grind.

• Acquire catalysts that now sit in the general ritual reward pool or Exotic Order payouts.
• Acquire catalysts that remain tied to a raid or dungeon source.
• Complete each catalyst objective after the drop, because acquisition alone does not activate the perk.

If you collapse those three tasks into one mental category, you will make the common mistake: expecting a strike, Crucible match, or Gambit completion to drop a catalyst that is still locked to a specific endgame activity.

Sort your missing Exotics before you farm

Before running playlists, inspect the weapons you care about and build a short tracking list. Use Character → Inspect weapon → Catalyst or the relevant collection entry and note the source text shown in game. Do not rely entirely on circulating spreadsheets while the 25-versus-26 discrepancy is still unresolved. The in-game source string is the most useful authority because it tells you which bucket that weapon belongs to right now.

• Bucket 1: Ritual / Exotic Order pool. These are the weapons you can chase passively while clearing standard activities.
• Bucket 2: Raid or dungeon locked. These should be scheduled separately because broad playlist grinding will not help.
• Bucket 3: Already owned catalyst, not yet completed. These are often the fastest wins and should be cleaned up between drop farms.

This short prep step matters because the update widened access, but it did not standardize every source. A player with ten missing catalysts can usually reduce the immediate list to six or seven general-pool targets, then handle the locked ones later.

How to clear the ritual catalyst pool efficiently

For the broad pool, efficiency comes from repetition and low friction. The goal is not variety. The goal is the highest number of eligible completions or payouts in the least time.

Use the playlist with the most predictable completion speed

If you only care about catalyst volume, Vanguard Ops is typically the easiest place to start because the match flow is consistent and the success rate is effectively stable. Crucible and Gambit can still be valid, but only if you already need those modes for ranks, challenges, or weekly objectives. If not, they add unnecessary variability.

The important operational rule is simple: stay in one efficient queue long enough for RNG to work. Constantly swapping between activities because a catalyst did not drop after a few clears is usually a net loss. Monument of Triumph did not turn these into targeted vendor purchases for every weapon; broad-pool farming is still a numbers game.

Claim Exotic Order payouts instead of stockpiling them

Current reporting indicates that Exotic Order payouts are part of the new distribution path for many catalysts. That means idle rewards are effectively paused chances. If you are holding completed orders, claim them. If you can progress another order while running rituals, do that in parallel rather than treating it as a separate project.

Do not chase rumors about a single weapon without checking the source text

This update launched with list confusion, especially around the exact total count. As a result, some weapons are being described as ritual drops in one place and activity-locked in another. The correct response is not to trust the loudest list; it is to inspect the weapon and route your time accordingly. If the source text points to a specific activity, believe that over third-party summaries.

• If a weapon comes from the Exotic Archive or a general source, broad ritual farming is usually the correct first lane.
• If the weapon is linked to a raid or dungeon identity, assume it may keep that restriction until the game explicitly says otherwise.
• If a catalyst entry appears to already exist and only the perk changed, do not waste time farming for a second drop that may not exist.

How to handle raid- and dungeon-locked catalysts

Some catalysts did not move into the general pool. The clearest examples are raid-linked Exotics such as Collective Obligation, which current reporting still ties to its associated raid source rather than to rituals. The practical rule is that if the weapon’s identity is built around a specific endgame activity, its catalyst may still require that same ecosystem.

These catalysts should be treated as scheduled content, not passive background farming.

• Make sure you actually own the Exotic first.
• Check the catalyst or collection source text before forming a team.
• Target the relevant final encounter or stated drop source rather than full random activity hopping.
• Bundle catalyst attempts with any other reason to run the activity, such as loot clears, title progress, or teaching runs.

This matters because raid and dungeon catalysts are the worst place to improvise. If you only have limited coordinated time each week, you want every clear to count toward a weapon that is confirmed to live there. Broad ritual grinds can absorb experimentation; coordinated endgame clears should not.

Acquiring the catalyst is only half the job

Once a catalyst drops, inspect the weapon, socket the catalyst, and then read the objective carefully. Many players mentally mark a weapon as “done” at acquisition and later realize the perk is inactive. Monument of Triumph increases the number of catalysts in circulation, but it also increases the number of unfinished catalyst objectives sitting in inventories.

• Kill-count catalysts: Finish these in dense PvE content with constant adds rather than in boss-only encounters.
• Multi-kill or chaining objectives: Use wave-based activities where you can maintain tempo without long downtime.
• Ammo-sensitive weapons: Pick activities with stable heavy or special ammo flow, because low-ammo farming stretches the process unnecessarily.
• Mode-specific objectives: If the catalyst requires PvP or another specific mode, do that objective immediately instead of leaving it to rot in your inventory.

A good operational habit is to carry one primary-ammo catalyst weapon, one special/heavy catalyst weapon, and one unrelated power weapon you already trust. That lets you make progress without turning every activity into a slow, underpowered gimmick run.

Which catalysts are worth prioritizing first

When the pool becomes this large, order matters more than completeness. Start with catalysts that increase uptime, ammo economy, or boss damage. Those pay back immediately by making the next grind faster.

Prioritize DPS and ammo economy

Perks that improve reload loops, overflow behavior, ammo conversion, or burst windows have the largest practical value in PvE. Updated catalyst examples such as Parasite gaining Envious Arsenal fit this category because they can materially change how often the weapon is ready for meaningful damage.

Then take survivability and handling upgrades

Perks that stabilize your neutral game are second. Merciless gaining Heal Clip and Crimson gaining To the Pain are examples of catalyst changes that may not define a raid DPS phase but do improve overall weapon value. These are especially relevant if you rotate weapons between endgame PvE and standard ritual content.

Leave niche or novelty completions for last

If a catalyst mainly supports a very specific PvP interaction or a weapon you rarely equip, it should sit behind the broadly useful options. Monument of Triumph makes full completion possible; it does not make every completion equally urgent.

Common mistakes that waste the most time

• Grinding ritual playlists for a catalyst that remains tied to a raid or dungeon.
• Ignoring the weapon’s in-game source text because an external list looked more complete.
• Forgetting that the nine updated existing catalysts may be revisions, not wholly new re-farms.
• Starting too many catalyst objectives at once and finishing none of them.
• Prioritizing low-impact novelty perks before catalysts that improve farming speed, damage, or uptime.

The count ambiguity around 25 versus 26 new catalysts is real, but it is not the operational problem. The real problem is poor routing. Once you separate the broad pool from the locked pool and finish completed drops in batches, the update becomes manageable rather than chaotic.

The shortest workable plan

• Check each missing Exotic’s source text in game.
• Farm the ritual and Exotic Order pool in one sustained block.
• Schedule raid- and dungeon-locked catalysts as dedicated runs.
• Socket each catalyst immediately and clear objectives in batches.
• Prioritize DPS, ammo, and uptime perks before niche completions.

That is the cleanest way to turn Monument of Triumph’s catalyst expansion into actual finished weapons instead of a larger backlog.