Destiny: The Taken King Guide - How to Get Touch of Malice

The Scout Rifle isn’t exactly the most popular class of guns in Destiny, and like the Handcannon, requires quite a bit of skill to use. They’re rather similar to the DMR in the Halo games. 

These semi-automatic primary weapons deal a lot of damage and are good for players who prefer long-range engagements. They aren’t recommended for players who prefer to get up close and personal.

One of The Taken King’s new Exotic weapons is a Scout Rifle called the Touch of Malice. It’s a rather bizarre looking weapon that appears to be covered in canvas. The only way to get the weapon is by completing a quest chain involving the discovery of Calcified Fragments. We’ll get to that in a bit. 

What is the Touch of Malice? 

Touch of Malice is a Scout Rifle that comes with two Exotic perks: 

• Touch of Malice – Final round of the magazine regenerates and deals bonus damage at the cost of the wielder’s life force.
• Touch of Mercy – Three rapid kills will return a portion of the wielder’s health.

The gun essentially allows you to fire an unlimited stream of bullets, provided you have the health for it. For every three rapid kills, you will regenerate your health—so aim well, and it'll serve you well. 

So how do you go about getting it? Well, thanks to gaming YouTuber DattoDoesDestiny, we now know how to get the weapon.  

Basically, you’ll need to complete Eris’s quests to find Calcified Fragments, complete the King’s Fall raid, and have on-hand a lot of Weapon Parts, Wormspore, and Hadium Flakes. 

1) Complete the “Shattered Past” quest from Eris to seek out and recover 5 Calcified Fragments.

2) When you’ve collected a total of 15 Calcified Fragments, Eris will give you a new mission “Hunger Pangs” to kill Bracus, a Taken Centurion in the Salt Mines in Bunker War-4. 

3) Enter the King’s Fall raid, exit the raid, go to Eris and get the quest “The Old Hunger,” which requires you to recover the Blade of Famine from the Warpriest, Shroud of Ir Anuk from the Deathsingers, and The Ravenous Heart from Oryx. All of them can be found in the King’s Fall raid and have a 100% drop chance. 

4) Get 25 Wormspore and 50 Hadium Flakes, both of which can be found in the Dreadnought area of the game. You’ll also need to turn in 50 Weapon Parts.

5) Once you’ve collected a total of 30 Calcified Fragments, Eris will present you the next part of the “Hunger Pangs” quest to kill Morgath, Lore-Keeper in the Undying Mind Strike who spawns during the last boss fight.

6) Collect 45 Calcified Fragments and Eris will give you the final part of the Hunger Pangs quest. This involves killing Mar-Zik, The Blightcaller. The Taken Wizard can be found in the base on Phobos. 

It sounds simple enough, but finding the Calcified Fragments is a challenge in itself. Refer to this guide to find each Calcified Fragment. 

If you aren't at work, be sure to watch his video below for a more detailed explanation on how to complete each part of the quest chain.

Be sure to check out our guides on the fastest way to earn Legendary Marks, Infusing weapons and armor, the fastest way to raise your light level, and how the Exotic Blueprint system works.