I wouldn't say this Quest is difficult to figure out as you follow the quest steps until Ana gives you this but it is certainly a grind and along the way there are some challenging activities to do to get this done, mainly due to your Power level struggles along the way.
Here's the Quest steps to get the Sleeper Simulant:
Complete the main story in Warmind and subsequent missions Legacy Code and A Piece of the Past
Receive the IKELOS Hand Cannon as quest reward, then visit Ana Bray and pick up the Violent Intel quest item
Defeat Hive and Cabal with an IKELOS weapon equipped
Defeat yellow bar enemies with an IKELOS weapon equipped
Complete 5 Heroic Strikes with an IKELOS weapon equipped
Complete 3 Escalation Protocol levels and find 15 Sleeper Nodes with an IKELOS weapon equipped
Complete the 'Will of the Thousands' mission with an IKELOS weapon equipped
It's now a 2 mag size rather than 3 due to how Power ammo works but it is something that fits clearly into Warmind and definitely will help against key bosses.
I'm really enjoyong the grind for this. It is the closest quest we've had to D1 in terms of steps and I hope we get more of these going forward.
The Sleeper Nodes are a brilliant way of one of the steps as lots of people enjoy hide and seek collectibles that also have a purpose.