The Definitive Guide to Destiny 2‘s Butterfly‘s Grace and Le Monarque - 33rd Square (2025)

As a hardcore Destiny 2 player with over 2000 hours logged, I vividly remember the pain and frustration surrounding the initial release of the Butterfly‘s Grace quest. This multi-step quest was the only way to earn the slick new Le Monarque exotic Void bow that had the community drooling over its unique poison arrow perk.

Only problem? The quest itself was an absolute grind layered with mechanics that essentially time-gated your progress no matter how hard you grinded. But the sweet, sweet damage potential of Le Monarque kept players coming back.

Now, years later, earning Le Monarque has been simplified to visiting a vendor in the Tower. But having gone through the journey first-hand, I wanted to create the ultimate guide chronicling the evolution around acquiring this bow.

Let‘s dive into the history and evolution of Butterfly‘s Grace, Le Monarque stats/perks, and how to maximize its potential:

From RNG Hell to Easy Purchase

Here is a quick timeline showcasing the various methods of obtaining Le Monarque over Destiny 2‘s lifespan:

As you can see, originally players had to complete the Butterfly‘s Grace quest to earn the exotic bow. It was a long and frustrating road for most players, but doing so did provide a sense of accomplishment.

Later on, Le Monarque was added to the general Exotic loot pool, albeit with a very low ~5% drop chance. You essentially had to get extremely lucky with random drops to obtain it.

Now, the bow can simply be bought outright from the Tower kiosk by any player who owns the Forsaken expansion. It does still cost precious upgrade materials, but is far easier to acquire than dealing with fickle RNG.

Below I break down the details and evolution around all acquisition methods:

Butterfly‘s Grace Quest (December 2018 – Present)

This legendary quest will live in Destiny 2 infamy because of the surprising amount of confusion and grinding it involved. Here were the steps:

• Forge 10 "Legendary" Black Armory frames
  • Required weekly time-gated materials from Ada-1
  • 5+ weeks minimum to gather enough materials
  • Needed to complete 2 frames per week
  • Frame completions didn‘t carry week-to-week
• Get precision bow kills on Fallen enemies
  • Players struggled if inexperienced with bows
  • Some strike bosses worked well here

The frame portion was the biggest source of trouble because your progress essentially got reset each week. Even if you forged 20 frames, only the 2 you did that exact week counted.

This meant even the most dedicated players had to wait 5+ weeks coming back to forge the frames twice a week. A true display of time-gating!

The other difficult part was scoring precision bow kills on Fallen enemies. This took me to The Tangled Shore Lost Sector grind. Not the most exciting times, but worth it for the eventual payoff!

Random Exotic Drops (December 2018 – November 2020)

After finally finishing Butterfly‘s Grace, I quickly discovered Le Monarque had entered the general Exotic loot pool with a drop chance of around 5 percent. Here is the breakdown of how that typically played out:

As you can see, the chances were low everywhere with extremely bad luck protection. The chances of it randomly dropping from quickplay Crucible were essentially zero. Your best bet was either grinding Nightfalls or raids and just hoping RNG blessed you.

I saw many friends run 50+ raids with no drop in sight. Trying to get others through the quest just wasn‘t feasible either when so much relied on luck.

While disappointing, random world drops at least gave casual solo players are chance without doing the Butterfly‘s Grace quest. But the stress of hoping for a miracle after every activity was draining.

Buy from Monument to Lost Lights (November 2020 – Present)

Praise the Destiny gods! With the Beyond Light expansion, Bungie finally provided a clear path to getting previously difficult to acquire exotics. Namely, Le Monarque and several other notorious RNG weapons.

By visiting the Tower kiosk introduced as the "Monument to Lost Lights," players can now directly purchase Le Monarque for the following prices:

• 1 Exotic Cipher
• 1 Ascendant Shard
• 150,000 Glimmer
• Own Forsaken Expansion

So while expensive to buy in terms of rare upgrade materials, this gives bad luck-stricken players agency over acquiring one of the best exotic bows in Destiny 2. No stupid quest or fickle RNG can stand in your way anymore!

Now let‘s get into why exactly you want to get your hands on this weapon of poison destruction in the first place.

Le Monarque Exotic Bow God Roll

Here are the key stats and perks associated with the exotic Le Monarque Void bow:

Default Stats:

• Accuracy: 76
• Stability: 48
• Reload Speed: 46
• Draw Time: 684 ms
• Aim Assist: 59
• Inventory Size: 61

Arrow Perks:

• Snapshot Sights
• Natural String
• Compact Arrow Shaft

Intrinsic Perk

• Straight Fletching: Precision hits load an arrow with Void Light. Shot kicks up a Void explosion. Kills create areas of Void Light that weakens enemies.

The intrinsics perk around Void precision damage/explosions is what truly sets Le Monarque apart from other offerings. Chaining precision hits creates massive damage potential through the poison AoE DoT effect.

And by masterworking the bow all the way to Level 10, you can enhance these already impressive base stats:

Masterworked Stats:

• Accuracy: 81
• Stability: 51
• Reload Speed: 46
• Draw Time: 684 ms
• Aim Assist: 61
• Inventory Size: 81

As you can see, the increased inventory size, accuracy, aim assist all push Le Monarque into S-Tier territory from a stats perspective. But you need to learn to activate and leverage that poison damage consistently through skilled aim.

Now let‘s get into ideal perk combinations and subclasses to maximize your poison damage potential…

Build Crafting for PvE Poison Domination

While deadly on its own, we can amplify Le Monarque‘s damage to truly nuclear levels by synergizing various armor exotics, mods, and subclass perks.

Here is my personal god-roll PvE build for melting majors/bosses with poison:

• Exotic: Lucky Pants
• Subclass: Way of the Trapper Nightstalker
• Mods: Bow Dexterity, Unflinching Bow Aim, Quick Access Sling
• Combat Style: Tag with Tether trap, pepper precision shots

The key epiphany I had after much experimentation is combining Lucky Pants (for quick swaps) with the Quick Access Sling mod. This lets you activate the poison and instantly swap back to keep chaining the damage faster.

Pair this with The Trapper Nightstalker‘s shared damage boosts in tether traps and you have a recipe for some absolutely wild DPS potential. Just be sure you have Bow Dexterity on your gloves for crisp swaps and draws.

An alternative more defensive build revolves around…

• Exotic: Assassin‘s Cowl + Protective Light
• Subclass: Top-Tree Nightstalker
• Mods: Bow Dexterity, Protective Light

Here you lean hard into survival by going invisible to reposition for every precision kill. Stacking protective light mods allows you to tank huge damage as well once your shields pop.

This build carries teams through end game PvE activities like Grandmaster Nightfalls and Dungeons. Give both setups a try to see which Resonance‘s with your playstyle.

PvP Setup – Be the Dangerous Support

While perhaps not top-tier, a skilled bow user can make Le Monarque deadly in Crucible when used properly. I tend to run the following setups focused on team-shooting and shutdown potential:

• Kinetic: Chaperone/Duality Shotgun

• Energy: Le Monarque

• Power: Colony Grenade Launcher

• Subclass: Middle Tree Nightstalker

• Mods: Bow Dexterity, Bow Targeting, Unflinching Bow Aim, Enhanced Impulse Amplifier (boots)

I tend to mostly play Control, camping objectives and using Le Monarque to team shoot groups of enemies pushing the zone. The poison prevents pesky Hunters from dodging to cover for regen.

Whenever an overeager shotgun rusher approaches, swap to Chaperone for the quick shutdown. Bait players around corners and set Colony traps to secure heavy.

The key is playing your life and leveraging vertical space to rain down poison arrows safely. Let your teammates push aggressively while you hold down lanes methodically. Oh, and always have an escape route planned when getting pushed up close!

Conclusion

While the trauma from Butterfly‘s Grace may still induce PTSD for early Destiny 2 players, the improvements to acquiring Le Monarque have made it accessible for all fans to enjoy.

Take the time to truly learn advanced combat tactics and synergistic build crafting with this exotic bow. Melt raid bosses and dominate Crucible foes by keeping your poison damage rolling.

Let me know down in the comments what your god roll setup with Le Monarque looks like these days! After all the quest grinding years ago, I‘m thrilled more players can now experience one of Destiny‘s most unique and satisfying weapons. Poison arrow kills never get old.

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