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Bungie finally unlocks one of Destiny's most elusive guns

Sleeper Simulant awoken.

Destiny: The Taken King owners can now finally get their hands on Sleeper Simulant, the much-teased exotic fusion rifle that has - until today - been unavailable.

Dormant no longer.

Yesterday, developer Bungie unlocked a new quest for players to home in on the weapon by completing a series of missions and public events.

But the questline then came to an abrupt end, and the hunt for Sleeper Simulant trailed off once again.

Destiny players have been trying to work out the rifle's unlock conditions since The Taken King expansion launched last month.

Sleeper Simulant's design and manufacture has links to Destiny's mysterious Rasputin warmind - a defense AI designed to protect Earth that has popped up in a number of story missions.

There's a whole subreddit devoted to discussing the various in-game clues that point towards the gun, although many of the final clues were puzzled out by the main Destiny reddit itself.

Speculation has surrounded the special versions of missions that have been discovered over time. The powerful sniper rifle Black Spindle was discovered in this manner a few weeks ago, hidden in a daily story mission but with a devilish set of unlock conditions for players to work out and complete.

Some reasoned that the Sleeper Simulant was tied to another one of these. But yesterday, and again today, it seems as if Bungie has instead just flipped a switch to finally set the weapon's unlock quests in action.

Yesterday's quest to begin the unlock process, The First Firewall, is reportedly no longer available - it is likely to return at a later date. If you completed it yesterday, another mission is available today that asks you to run the Shank S.A.B.R.E. strike at 280 Light. The Sleeper Simulant is your reward.