How to Get Hawkmoon: As the Crow Flies and Let Loose the Talons Quest Guide

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived! The Hawkmoon quest is finally out, and we’re here to coach you through getting this incredible exotic hand cannon.

Speak to Spider

The first thing you need to do is go talk to Spider to start the quest. He’ll have it underneath all the normal shop items he has available. Once you pick it up, the quest will start

Step 1: The First Feather

The game doesn’t tell you where to find these feathers, but there’s hints in the lore section of the quest if you want to figure it out for yourself. If you do, move on to Step 6. If not, here’s how to find it.

This feather is right outside of Spider’s Lair, and is hard to miss. It’s placed right before the point where you can summon your sparrow. Look on top of the Fallen box next to the wall, and you’ll find the glowing feather.

Step 2: The Second Feather

The location of the second feather is on the EDZ. Travel to the Sludge in the northeast portion of the map, and drive forward to the warehouses. When you get there, you should see a broken walkway with a triangular roof. The second feather is located at the end of the pathway.

Step 3: The Third Feather

This one is easy to find. Load into the steps in the Cosmodrome, and jump up on the concrete pillar right in front of you. The feather will be right there.

Step 4: The Fourth Feather

This feather is in the Dreaming City. Load into the Divilian Mists landing zone and drive towards the entrance to the Blind Well. The feather will be on top of a short wall to your left right by the entrance to the Blind Well. Grab it.

Step 5: The Final Feather

The final feather is a bit harder to find than the rest. The actual location is the Temple of Crota on the moon, but you don’t want to try and get there from the Hellmouth. Load into the Moon by Eris and drive to Archer’s line. Take a right and go down towards the entrance to the Hive Temple. Just follow the path until you reach the Temple of Crota, the same path as the initial mission of Season of the Hunt.

On the far side of the room next to the stairs, you’ll find the final feather.

Step 6: Speak to Crow

Just head back to Crow and listen to him talk for a bit. This will start the next part of the quest, Let Loose Thy Talons.

Step 1: Cry From Beyond

The Crow will give you a new mission to go complete in the EDZ. It’s fairly easy, just follow through till the end where you will find an effigy of Hawkmoon. Pick it up to complete the mission. 

Step 2: Return to Crow

Return to Crow and listen to what he has to say. He’ll advance the quest by another step.

Step 3: Generate/Collect 50 Orbs of Power

Crow needs us to power up the Effigy of Hawkmoon by generating or collecting 50 Orbs of Power. The easiest way I found was to take a Masterworked primary weapon into the Kingship Dock lost sector on the Tangled Shore, and kill all the adds. Three runs of this lost sector finished the step. 

Step 4: Talk to Crow

Return to Crow (again), and this time he’ll send us to the EDZ (again) for another adventure.

Step 5: Investigate the Coordinates

Head back to the EDZ, and the next part is marked on your map. It’s right over by the church where Devrim hangs out in Trostland. Commune with the bird to go to the next step.

Step 6: Collect Feathers

For this step, you just need to follow the path and collect the feathers along the way. It’s a fairly straightforward and linear path, plus the feathers are marked, making them extra easy to find. After a small boss battle and one final feather, the step will complete.

Step 7: Speak to Crow

This is the last time you have to go talk to Crow, I promise. And we’re almost done. This is the longest step you’ll have to do, so let’s get to it.

Step 8: Kill Champions or Guardians

This is the worst step of the quest. You either have to kill Champions in any activity that has them, or kill Guardians in Gambit or the Crucible. If you love to do PvP, just go have a nice time in the Crucible and grind out this step. If you’re anything like me though, or just want it done fast, Champions are the path.

The best way I found is to do the Hero difficulty Nightfall: The Ordeal for the week. I found that, if you get Platinum rewards, you’ll get around 30% completion on this step.

Step 9 and 10: Hawkmoon Reforged

Head back to the Sludge on the EDZ, and start this final mission. It’s very similar to the other adventures from this questline. Once you get to the final boss, use the glowing balls to break their shield, then do damage until they’re dead. With that, you finally get Hawkmoon!

How Does Hawkmoon Work?

Hawkmoon’s exotic perk is called Paracausal Shot. As you get precision hits and final blows, this will stack up to a maximum of x7. The final bullet consumes all stacks of Paracausal Shot, giving a nice damage increase. This turns Hawkmoon into a real heavy hitter of a weapon. 

You’ll notice that the third perk is a little odd. It’s called Transformative, and the official description is “Future drops of this weapon will have random rolls”. We’re not sure on how to GET random rolls on Hawkmoon yet, but the API has all of the possible perks, and we’re very excited to share that with you when it becomes possible!