The Fafnir is the exotic shotgun tied to The Division 2’s Y8S3 Red Horizon season. It fits the season’s fire theme by loading Dragon’s Breath shells that can set enemies ablaze, and it scales its own damage off your Status Effect bonus. Getting it does not involve a random drop or a boss farm — it is a fixed reward on the Season Pass track.
Quick answer: Progress the Red Horizon Season Pass and claim Fafnir at tier 69 on the free track, or receive it at tier 1 with the Premium Season Pass. The weapon lands in your inventory once claimed.
How to get the Fafnir exotic shotgun in The Division 2
Fafnir unlocks through the Red Horizon Season Pass rather than a loot pool, so where you sit on the pass decides how quickly you get it. Both routes reward the same weapon; the only difference is the tier at which it appears.
| Track | Cost | Fafnir unlock tier |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Season Pass | 1000 Premium Credits | Tier 1 |
| Free track | None | Tier 69 |
To climb the track on the free route, you simply need Season Pass XP. The fastest sources are Priority Objectives, Journey missions, Projects, and open-world content run at Heroic, Master, or Legendary difficulty. Once you reach the required tier, open the Season Pass screen and claim the reward. Fafnir is confirmed when it shows up in your weapon inventory and can be equipped.
Red Horizon also hands SHD agents the blueprint for Fafnir after it is unlocked through the pass. That blueprint lets you reconfigure the weapon for a fresh roll in its Random Bonus attribute slot.
After Red Horizon ends, Fafnir joins the general loot pool, which means you can target-farm it later instead of relying on the season track.
Fafnir base stats and fixed mods
Fafnir is modeled on the M870 and handles like a heavy pump shotgun with a larger magazine. Its accuracy and stability sit in line with other shotguns, but the extra rounds push the reload time up to a lengthy 5.34 seconds, which is the main trade-off to plan around.
- Rate of fire: 75 RPM
- Magazine: 10 rounds
- Headshot damage: 65%
- Optimal range: 11
- Reload time: 5.34 seconds
As with every exotic in the game, Fafnir arrives with locked mods you cannot swap or tinker: a +15% Critical Hit Chance optic, a +5 Rounds magazine, and a +10% Weapon Handling underbarrel. The built-in crit chance is what makes the weapon punch above a standard shotgun, since it frees up a mod slot’s worth of crit elsewhere in your build.
Its item description carries a line from Joe Ferro:
“Everything I’m doing, all the good and the bad, is so you could be safe. Okay?” – Joe Ferro
Dragon’s Breath talent explained
Fafnir’s exotic talent is Dragon’s Breath, which turns every shell into an incendiary round and ties the weapon’s output to your status effect setup.
- Dragon’s Breath shells power this weapon’s shots.
- On every shot, Burn is inflicted with a 40% chance; targets currently on fire cannot be set ablaze again.
- Its Weapon Damage increase equals 50% of your Status Effects bonus.
Because the damage amplifier scales off your Status Effects stat, stacking that attribute directly raises Fafnir’s per-shot damage on top of the Burn it applies. The more Status Effects you carry, the larger the amplified bonus becomes.
Burn still follows the game’s normal status effect diminishing returns on tougher enemies, so the real-world ignite rate on high-armor targets feels lower than the flat 40% number suggests.
Best attributes and rolls for Fafnir
Fafnir drops with fixed core attributes and one rerollable slot. The cores are set, so the roll you actually chase is the Random Bonus in the third slot.
| Slot | Attribute |
|---|---|
| Core 1 | Shotgun Damage |
| Core 2 | Damage to Armor |
| Third slot | Random Bonus (rerollable) |
For the third slot, the strongest pick for damage is Damage to Targets Out of Cover (DTTOC). It is a multiplicative bonus that lifts overall output more than the alternatives, which is why it is the standard choice for damage-focused weapons. Use the blueprint to reroll toward this bonus if your initial roll lands on something weaker.
Image credit: Ubisoft via YouTube/@Azazel’s Gaming Realm
Where Fafnir fits in a build
Fafnir works in two directions. In a yellow-core status effect build, the Dragon’s Breath scaling rewards you for stacking Status Effects, so fire-oriented brand sets and Burn synergy pieces pair naturally with it. In a straight DPS build, it slots into a flexible secondary weapon slot and leans on its Shotgun Damage cores, the built-in crit chance, and a DTTOC roll.
Either way, close-range content suits it best. Countdown, open-world bounties, and Legendary pushes let you close distance and make the most of the incendiary shells before the long reload becomes a liability.
