How to get and use Le Monarque

Getting the bow is easy compared to unlocking the forge

Le Monarque is one of the four new Exotic weapons in Black Armory, and one of only two that we currently know the source of. This is Destiny 2’s third Exotic bow since the weapon type was first introduced in Forsaken. but Le Monarque brings back poison, a fan-favorite/despised mechanic from Destiny’s Thorn Hand Cannon.

While Le Monarque can be a little random to get, we’ll give you some tips on where to find it, how to grind it and how to use it once you have it.

Where Can You Get Le Monarque?

Unfortunately, it seems like Le Monarque is a completely random drop from two specific Black Armory forges: Gofannon and Izanami. Both of these forges are unlocked through a long and arduous quest line, and you’ll need to complete the quests for both before you can grab Le Monarque. Completing these forges with our without a weapon frame in your inventory has a small chance to award you the new bow — basically you can do these over and over again regardless of if you’re working on a weapon or not.

While this is random, there are fast ways to get runs in. We recommend grabbing two friends and heading into the Izanami forge — it’s far faster than Gofannon in our opinion. Leave one player next to the forge and have the other two hang out on the islands. The island players should kill glowing enemies, grab the orbs and chuck them up to the forge player who should then shuttle them into the forge.

With this strategy, you should be able to get through multiple Izanami forges in a relatively short period of time. You can also take either the bow or pulse rifle frame in here to grind frames as you try for Le Monarque.

How Does it Work?

Le Monarque has a pretty weird perk attached to it called Poison Arrows. While the effect is straightforward — poison your targets when you hit them with arrows — actually getting it to work is a little tougher. The perk only works when you achieve a perfect draw, a technique that isn’t necessarily well explained in Destiny 2.

The goal here is to essentially pull back your bow and release it at the moment it becomes fully drawn. There are a few ways to watch for this. Le Monarque’s sights glow very bright when it’s in the perfect draw animation, so it’s tough to miss. Also, as soon as you’re out of the perfect draw, your aim will start to wiggle a bit and the circle around the reticle will expand.

Perfect draws are easy to execute once you get used to them, but can be pretty tricky at first. Practice by shooting a wall or running around in Lost Sectors. As soon as the arrow snaps into place, release and you’ll get a great poison arrow out of it. If you’re a Hunter, the Oathkeeper Exotic makes it so every draw is perfect, no matter how long you hold it.

How is Le Monarque?

The short answer here is, we don’t really know yet — not in our own experience at least since we’ve yet to get it. Early reports say that the bow is fairly strong in both PvE and PvP.

Once we get it to drop for us and can seriously test it, we’ll update this guide with our review. For now, check out this nice critique from Drewsky.