Though she initially rejected Skywalker’s lightsaber, Rey ultimately used it to defeat an injured Kylo Ren during the assault on Starkiller Base. In the aftermath of the Resistance victory, Rey sought out the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker—who had chosen a life of exile on the planet Ahch-To as a result of his nephew’s fall to the dark side and the failure to restore the Jedi Order—and presented him with his father’s lightsaber. To Rey’s surprise, Luke threw his father’s lightsaber over a cliff, hoping to lose it again.

Rey reclaimed the lightsaber and trained with it during her time on Ahch-To in spite of Luke’s reluctance to train another Jedi. After Luke declined Rey’s invitation to leave Ahch-To and join the fight against the First Order, Rey kept the Skywalker lightsaber and journeyed to the First Order Navy flagship Supremacy where she intended to redeem Kylo Ren. She was taken to the throne room of Supreme Leader Snoke, who kept the lightsaber at his side while interrogating Rey. The aspiring Jedi attempted to summon the weapon back into her possession through telekinesis but was overpowered in the Force by the dark side wielder and sentenced to die by Ren’s hand. Unknown to the Supreme Leader, Ren subtly manipulated his grandfather’s lightsaber with the Force, turning it to face in Snoke’s direction before activating the blade to bisect his Master’s body. Rey and Ren both used the Skywalker lightsaber to fight the Elite Praetorian Guard, but when their objectives clashed they each attempted to take the lightsaber with the Force, only for the weapon to snap in two due to the stress. Rey then took the broken halves with her on the Millennium Falcon. Sometime after the Battle of Crait, the lightsaber was reconstructed.