Coldheart is a new exotic weapon in Destiny 2 and a new weapon category. Bungie lets us be part of its creation.
Last night, we showed the trailer for “Coldheart”. Bungie includes the exotic Trace Rifle as a bonus for all pre-orders of Destiny 2. Starting December 5, all players will be able to obtain it.
In collaboration with IGN, Bungie now shows how the exotic item was developed.

Appearance, Function, and History
The interesting thing is: You can see how each of the professionals at Bungie approaches the weapon in their own way.
- The weapon designer Jon Weisnewski handles the function of the weapon, what role it will play in the balance of Destiny 2. He says: “We wanted a weapon that serves a clear function. It should fire a beam, and the longer it is on a target, the more damage the beam does.”
- The artist Jesse van Dijk is responsible for the appearance of Coldheart. He says they based the idea on the notion that the weapon has this “cold heart” as a central element around which everything revolves. Everything else about the weapon is minimalistic – Coldheart is the focus. He looks to the weapons manufacturer Omolon for design inspiration and aligns with their philosophy.
- Jill Shar, who is responsible for the text and lore of the weapon, says: The weapon comes from Omolon, the experimental and futuristic weapons company. They found a way to create a weapon that uses liquid ammunition, which also provides cooling. The name “Coldheart” was clear when they saw the design. For the flavor texts, Bungie draws inspiration from short stories like “Sell baby shoes. Never worn. “

More Trace Rifles Could Come to the Game, But Currently There’s Only One
The interesting thing is: The origin of Coldheart seems to lie elsewhere. Bungie has developed a new gameplay technology to generate the beams that Coldheart fires. Developing a technique that creates a persistent laser beam that behaves “correctly” in the world is extremely complicated in a game like Destiny. But they managed to do it.
Bungie wanted to find a weapon to then apply this technique and introduce it into the game.
Coldheart is supposed to be the first and only Trace Rifle in Destiny 2. It represents this new technology that Bungie has been working on to generate such beams. Coldheart has the potential to become an archetype of a new weapon category.
For more details on Coldheart, check out this article:
Destiny 2: Coldheart is the new Gjallarhorn – Preorder Exotic