Destiny: The weekend vendor and pick up a sweet scout rifle

Every Friday is a holiday when you're a Destiny fan. That's when Xur, Agent of the Nine, appears in a random part of the game's Tower social hub to peddle his rare weapons and armor. As long as you have enough Strange Coins, a rare currency that can be earned by completing Weekly Heroic Strikes, Xur has the goods for you. Destiny power leveling also can help you.

Xur deals in Destiny's so-called "exotic" gear. In a game ruled by random loot drops from virtually any scenario, exotics are the most sought-after of them all. They're also the only class of gear in the game with usage restrictions; namely, you can only have one exotic armor piece and one exotic weapon equipped at any given moment.

Xur's in the Tower from 4 a.m. ET on Friday to 4 a.m. ET on Sunday. This week, he's very easy to find next to the Crucible quartermaster. When you spawn in the Tower, just run straight across the courtyard and down the stairs. Xur's on the left side of the first room that you come to, before the second set of stairs.

• Mk. 44 Stand Asides (Titan boots) - If you're a Titan that loves the Striker subclass and uses the Shoulder Charge attack, this one's for you. The key upgrade, "Be Somewhere Else," boosts the duration of Shoulder Charge by a few seconds. There's also a separate upgrade that increases the Titan's heavy ammo carry capacity. These boots require an extremely specific build, since Shoulder Charge is an optional upgrade that can only be equipped at the expense of other upgrades. For some tips on creating a Striker upgrade setup that works well with Shoulder Charge, check out this great build guide from Reddit user Eterya. Cost: 13 Strange Coins
• Skull of Dire Ahamkara (Warlock helmet) - This handy helmet for the Warlock's Voidwalker subclass comes with three key upgrades. The star is "Delusions of Grandeur," which reduces the damage take while the Voidwalker fires off a Nova Bomb super (Nova Bomb has a brief wind-up animation that leaves the Warlock vulnerable). The same upgrade also increases the efficacy of the Energy Drain melee attack's "siphon" capabilities (which reduces grenade recharge time). The two other unique upgrades are complementary; one increases the distance of grenade throws and the other replenishes extra Super energy with every grenade kill. Cost: 13 Strange Coins
• MIDA Multi-Tool (scout rifle) - Scout rifles are Destiny's most potent medium-to-long-range primary weapon, and MIDA Multi-Tool is designed to facilitate putting extra distance between players and their foes. The upgrade that the rifle is named for boosts the user's movement speed (you walk as fast as the standard sprint) and adds a hair-trigger for increased rate of fire (scout rifles are semi-automatic). MIDA Multi-Tool also comes with the "Third Eye" upgrade, which keeps the on-screen radar active when you aim down the sights. This is definitely one of the better exotic weapons in the game, even if you're generally not a fan of scout rifles. Cost: 23 Strange Coins
• Exotic chestpiece engram - Destiny's engrams are unidentified gear that spit out a random item when "decoded" by the Cryptarch vendor in the Tower. Xur occasionally sells exotic engrams in exchange for another rare currency, "Motes of Light." It's always a roll of the dice when you buy an exotic engram. Given that Destiny's next expansion, House of Wolves, is out on May 19, it's probably a good idea to hang onto your Motes and wait to see what the DLC brings. Cost: 23 Motes of Light
• Exotic Shard - This crafting material was introduced alongside Destiny's first expansion pack, The Dark Below. One is required to fully upgrade any exotic gear, weapon and armor both. You can always get a "free" exotic shard when you dismantling an exotic, but Xur sells them every week. Cost: 7 Strange Coins

In addition to the gear, Xur also peddles a rotating stock of consumables every week. For this week, he's got Auto Rifle Telemetry, Shotgun Cannon Telemetry and Machine Gun Telemetry (temporarily increases the XP gains on the designated weapon class) in bundles of five, for 1 Strange Coin apiece; a Plasma Drive that boosts the speed and durability of rare Sparrows (Destiny's speeder bikes), for 23 Strange Coins; an Emerald Coil, which works the same as a Plasma Drive but also adds a green contrail to the Sparrow, also for 23 Strange Coins; and bundles of five Heavy Ammo Synthesis (ammo packs, y'all), for 1 Strange Coin.

If you want to dive even deeper on the relative value of Xur's offering this week, head over to the Destiny subreddit. User aWrySharK provides weekly analysis that breaks down the stat rolls on each armor piece, complete with recommendations covering what's worth it and what's not. Check out this week's rundown right here.