destiny 2 latest expansion revealed his first big secret on Tuesday. After the game’s weekly hiatus, players discovered clues in the European Dead Zone that led to a new exotic quest. I finished it earlier today and can confirm it’s a certified banger.
spoiler alert: As with all new Destiny 2 mysteries, this mission is best experienced fresh. Just head into the “Gulch” in the EDZ and start messing around, and you’ll eventually find your first clue. But if you don’t care about spoilers and need help with the mission, please continue.
Shortly after the first weekly reset since incidence of light launched, players discovered a new mission that quickly spread the word on twitter and the The determination underreddit. Called //NODE.OVRD.AVALON//, it’s about delving into an unstable Vex network to investigate the source of a strange message: Avalon. Remember Asher Mir, everyone’s darling grumbling warlock by IO? As previously teased At the end of the Splicer’s season, he’s still alive and needs our help.
Continue reading: 14 things I love about Destiny 2: Lightfall
The new exotic mission is essentially a Season of the Splicer Expunge mission that crosses over with the old Pyramidion strike from back in the day destiny 2 started first. You’ll platform through a Vex network, fight a crowd of Harpies and Minotaurs, solve some easy puzzles, and eventually defeat a strange corrupted version of Brakion, the boss from the original Pyramidion Strike.
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If you succeed, you’ll get the craftable glaive Vexcalibur, which gives allies Void overshields and makes cool sounds. I’m still figuring out how good the new exotic is, but the secret mission to get it is excellent, especially when played as a three-player fireteam. Here’s how.
Go to the Gulch in the EDZ and collect the six Vex Cubes
This part is straightforward. Once you land, go across to the small island where the cabal are based to find the first cube. From there, you have 30 seconds to find each other until you’ve captured all six and decoded the coordinates. Once done, here will open a passage on your map:
Go inside and follow the path to the end where you will find the Blue Harpy and unlock the quest node on the map to start at any time.
The mission says the recommended power is 1800, but anyone who plays it will get at least 1790, so you don’t need to grind before attempting it.
Just be aware that you’re going to have a rough time if you try to compete alone. Whichever loadout you choose, you’ll need plenty of crowd control and close-range killers like a shotgun, fusion rifle, or grenade launcher. Most Vex enemy shields are empty.
How to enter Vex keys
After starting the mission you will come across a very short maze-like area from which you will eventually find your way to reach the first main encounter. Here you will learn the core mechanics of the mission, which revolves around finding patterns of shapes and destroying the Vex shapes that appear in the appropriate order.
The Vex Nodes will always spawn a Pyramid, Diamond, or Cube, and a smaller row of red nodes in the nearby environment will tell you the order in which to destroy them. If you’re playing solo you’ll have to do all the work, but if you’re in a group it’s best if one person finds the pattern and enters the code while the other two players kill enemies. There are three rooms of this followed by a wave of enemies before entering the second phase of the mission.
Pay attention to the deletion log
After a short platforming section, you’ll reach another arena full of Vex enemies. This time certain purple particles will drop, which you can collect and deposit in the central Vex node. This will release the force field and allow you to hide under the floor while the Vex Network erases everything above.
You’ll have to do this a few times, but it’s not that bad. At some point you will fight a Hydra mini-boss. With three players it went down pretty easily.
Follow Asher Mir’s screams until you get to the boss
After the Erasure Log section, you need to create more platforms. The only real challenge here is to take it slow and look out for the ledges that take you deeper into the network. Eventually, you’ll reach the final battle arena, where you’ll meet the boss, a giant Brakion-style hobgoblin.
It starts out the same as the Pyramidion encounter, but this time each damage phase is interrupted by entering more Vex Codes. While the boss is sitting on his platform surrounded by a protective barrier, you need to find the symbol patterns in the wells on the right or left of the arena and then enter them into the central Vex node.
If you are alone, good luck. But if you’re part of a group, I again recommend that one person be responsible for entering the codes while the others clear the room. A lot of Vex spawn in combat and things can get out of hand very quickly. Once the battle is over, it’s time to return to the HELM and collect your prize.
Use Vexcalibur to kill more Vex
After snagging Vexcalibur, you can unlock its pattern and start farming the rest of the exotic quest. To unlock additional crafting options, you must use the glaive to kill a ton of Vex. Fortunately, the new patrol zone, Neomuna, is perfect for this. If you haven’t already farmed the Terminal Overload activity there, now is the perfect time to do so.
I’m right there. I’ve never been a fan of Glaven, but I’m already in love with the look and feel of Vexcalibur (and the name). We’ll see in the coming days and weeks if it finds a place in players’ arsenals or is just a nice reminder of an old friend. Hopefully that means we’ll be learning more about Asher Mir very soon. Meanwhile, //NODE.OVRD.AVALON// is already a great addition to a destiny 2 Extension that is constantly growing for me.
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