A strong point of contention between Bungie and Destiny fans is the ever-mysterious Xur: Agent of the Nine. The Agent shows up every weekend with a fresh stock of randomly generated gear ranging from Exotic armour and weapons, to Engrams and Heavy Ammo Syntheses. It turns out, however, that Xur’s inventory may not be random after all, and that Bungie may in fact have complete control over his stock from week to week.
Bungie’s DeeJ recently clarified that all Bungie really controls with Xur is his allotted time slot in the Tower – such as setting it for every weekend and extending it over Christmas.
“Xur is randomized,” he said “… his inventory is governed by the same chaos that influences all the loot drops.”
This put those who were desperate for particular Exotic weapons, such as the infamously-rare Gjallarhorn, in a state of trust, wherein they then knew that the only way to find said weapon was in a drop, and not necessarily by any direct action from Bungie.
Now, it seems that Bungie may in fact control Xur’s stock and purposely withhold particular weapons and armour.
Reddit’s rising star Megamanexe4 is known for their accurate Destiny leaks, from House of Wolves content to Xur. What Megaman found in their latest Xur prediction is an interesting anomaly. Compare the following screenshot with the featured image at the top of the page:
There’s one key difference, aside from one being in Japanese – in the second image (Megaman’s data-mined source), Xur is selling Heavy Ammo Synthesis, but in his current inventory he has an Exotic engram instead.
Given that Megaman provided proof of Xur’s inventory prior to him appearing in the Tower, and their impressive track record of Destiny leaks, the difference seems legitimate. That being said, we should still treat the following as rumour, or unverified at the least: if this is true, it means Bungie does indeed have control over what Xur has in stock, and can change it at very short notice.
There are other explanations too, such as the stock being randomly generated with Bungie able to edit it after the fact, but the point remains: Xur’s stock may not be entirely up to RNG.