Exotic Class Items are a huge selling point of The Final Shape expansion in Destiny 2, but obtaining them isn’t as easy as you’d think, especially compared to some of the other Exotic gear found within the Pale Heart of the Traveler.
There’s a secret mission called Dual Destiny that rewards an Exotic Class Item upon completion, and you can even run it repeatedly to get different rolls on your Hunter cloak, Titan mark, or Warlock bond. Getting access to the mission requires you to solve a puzzle, however, and it’s basically impossible to complete if you don’t already know what to do.
- How to Get Exotic Class Items in Destiny 2
- How to Unlock Dual Destiny Mission
- Light and Dark Alignment Explained
- Find Balance Symbols Encounter Guide
- Explore the Anomaly Encounter Guide
- Find Balance Clock Encounter Guide
- Mastery of Balance Boss Encounter Guide
- Schism Encounter Guide
How to Get Exotic Class Items in Destiny 2
To get your Exotic Class Item in Destiny 2 The Final Shape, you need to complete the Dual Destiny mission in the Pale Heart of the Traveler. This mission can only be accessed after completing The Final Shape campaign and unlocking the activities within the Pale Heart destination. It has a recommended Power level of 1995 and requires a fireteam of two. There isn’t any matchmaking. Each completion of Dual Destiny will reward a new roll for your Exotic Class Item.
How to Start the Dual Destiny Mission in Destiny 2
To unlock the Dual Destiny mission in Destiny 2 The Final Shape, you need to kill three unique boss enemies after completing Overthrow activities in each region of the Pale Heart. After fully completing all tiers of an Overthrow activity and defeating the final boss in either The Blooming, The Landing, or The Impasse, the Traveler’s Light will heal the area temporarily and clear the zone of enemies for five minutes.
Overthrow Secret-Keeper Locations
At the beginning of this five-minute downtime, you’ll see a notification saying “A Secret-Keeper of the Witch Queen is near…” This means that a group of Hive has spawned somewhere in the zone, and you have to take them out before the timer expires and the next Overthrow begins. Here are all the locations of the Secret-Keeper bosses:
- In The Blooming, the Secret-Keeper is located in the cave near the landing zone.
- In The Landing, the Secret-Keeper is located near the entrance to The Forgotten Deep Lost Sector.
- In The Impasse, the Secret-Keeper is located in the bottom left corner of the zone near just north of The Broken Deep Lost Sector.
You have to defeat the Secret-Keeper bosses in all three regions, so you need to complete at least three Overthrow activities. Be patient if they don’t immediately spawn after completing an Overthrow activity. Sometimes the message takes a while to pop up.
Savathun’s Envoy
After you defeat all three Secret-Keepers, go to The Refraction which is between The Landing and The Blooming. A golden beam of glowing light will appear in the sky leading you to a blue room full of shards with a statue of Savathun in the middle.
Right when you get near the statue, Savathun laughs, you get Savathun’s Envoy which is a seven-minute timer, and two objective markers appear on the screen. For both objectives, leave the room like you’re going to The Landing.
Once at a marker, clear the Dread adds and a Subjugator will appear. Take one bar off of the three-bar Subjugators and a Light or Dark Mote will appear. Pick it up, bring it back to the Savathun room, and dump it into the Light or Dark platform. Do this for both areas before seven minutes and you’ll unlock the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission.
When both orbs have been deposited, you can begin the Dual Destiny mission. You need to have a second player with you to start the mission, and there is no matchmaking. You also need to have one player with a Light subclass equipped and one player with a Darkness subclass equipped (Prismatic counts for both) to start it. Once you complete the unlock process, you’ll permanently unlock a node to access the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission from orbit — it’s right next to The Refraction on the Pale Heart map.
It sounds like a complicated process, but you really just need to complete three Overthrow activities, kill three bosses, and then head to the unlock zone and complete the Savathun’s Envoy section to permanently unlock Dual Destiny. Thankfully, you only need to do this once, which gives you plenty of time to farm gear from the new Episode.
Light and Darkness Alignment Explained
When you first enter Dual Destiny, you’ll be introduced to the main mechanic of the mission: Light and Darkness alignment. There are two glowing pads in the first room of the mission, one for Light and one for Darkness. Each person needs to stand on a pad to choose their role, and this will determine the mechanics and enemies that you’ll be responsible for throughout Dual Destiny.
After standing on the pads, the real mission will begin. There’s a brutal timer that will fail the mission when it reaches zero, and there are no checkpoints. If you lose, it’s back to orbit with the both of you. There are a few ways to extend this timer, but for the most part, you’ll just have to practice the mechanics and effectively communicate with your partner.
You can skip right past the enemies outside, and you should if you want to save time. When you reach the cave, you’ll find a glowing white pad that the Light-aligned player should stand on. The Darkness-aligned player should continue left, past the enemies and Ogre to find the orange Darkness pad. Standing on both pads at the same time will remove the resonance wall and let you continue to the first real encounter of Dual Destiny.
Find Balance Symbols Encounter Guide
The first encounter of Dual Destiny requires you to “find balance,” and it’s a classic symbol puzzle. The Darkness-aligned player activates their pad and stays up top, while the Light-aligned player heads down below to activate their pad.
Orange bar enemies with glowing orange and white auras will spawn throughout the encounter, and Darkness-aligned players should kill the orange ones while Light-aligned players should kill the white ones. These enemies will drop Motes of Darkness and Light respectively, which grant you the ability to see the symbols hidden throughout the arena.
In this encounter, the Light-aligned player will see a pair of pedestals near their pad. Killing the orange bar enemies and collecting Motes of Light will reveal symbols above these pedestals. As the Darkness-aligned player kills their orange bar enemies and collects Motes of Darkness, symbols with black resonance orbs will appear around the arena.
The main goal of this encounter is for the Light-aligned player to call out the order of the symbols on the pedestals down below so that the Darkness-aligned player can shoot them in the correct order up top. You’ll drop your Motes if you die, but any symbols that you have destroyed do not reset.
If you die and respawn, just collect your Motes again to reveal the symbols and shoot the next one as if nothing happened. If you shoot the wrong symbol (which is easy to do if you think you have to reset the order fresh every time you die), you’ll have to start from scratch.
There are only two symbols in the first room, and after you shoot them both, you’ll move on to the second room where there are three symbols you need to shoot. The roles are reversed this time, though, and the Darkness-aligned player needs to reveal the symbol order on the pedestals while the Light-aligned player destroys them. Pro tip: Red Death Reformed is a lifesaver in this encounter because of its built-in healing ability.
The same Mote mechanic applies though, so just kill the special enemies when they spawn. The Motes may drop into the lava below on occasion, but it’s safe to jump down there and grab them as long as you’re fast enough. There are a ton of ads crowding this room and there’s not a lot of space to move around, so we recommend bringing a weapon like The Call to easily thin the hordes.
Once you’ve destroyed all three symbols in the second room, you’ll be teleported to the third and final room where there are four symbols to shoot. The Light-aligned player reveals the order in this room and the Darkness-aligned player destroys them. It’s the same process, so just communicate with your partner and you should be fine.
The main things to watch out for in the third room are ad control and the Taken Vandals that spawn on a balcony overlooking the arena. We recommend bringing weapons like Lost Signal — the Area Denial Frame grenade launcher from Echoes — to clear ads more efficiently. Using Ergo Sum with a perk like Arc Conductor from Riskrunner is a good strategy as well. The Taken Vandals can easily two-shot you in a flash and they pop up pretty often, so be on the lookout. The Darkness-aligned player should keep an eye out for them since they’ll have a better view.
After shooting all four symbols in the correct order, the first encounter will conclude and you’ll get a few more minutes added to your timer. Next up is a parkour puzzle, but it shouldn’t take you too long.
Explore the Anomaly Encounter Guide
After the symbols encounter, there’s a brief parkour section that’s mostly linear. There’s a puzzle with Light and Darkness pads near the end, though, and that’s what stumps most players.
To begin the puzzle, stand on your respective pads. This will cause the architecture to slightly shift, revealing parkour paths forward for each player. Continue along your side and you’ll find more glowing pads. Stand on them at the same time as your partner to unlock more of the path forward.
Eventually, you’ll reach a large gap with a bunch of Taken enemies waiting for you on the other side. Both players need to swap sides at this point since the pads will be on opposite sides of the chasm. There’s a slim ledge that you can use to shimmy around to your partner’s side. You might see a glowing purple crystal (or a feather or two) along the way. Shoot these crystals to add more time to the timer.
Once you both reach your pads, the way forward will be revealed and you can make your way over to the enemies. Clear them out, step on the final two pads, and continue the mission. The next encounter is another fight with a new mechanic to master, so get ready.
Find Balance Clock Encounter Guide
The clock encounter is the second firefight of the Dual Destiny mission. You can place a banner down to get ammo and recharge your abilities, so make sure to do that before starting. To begin the encounter, step on the glowing pads.
In the back of the room, there are three big pyramids. In the center of them is a clock-like structure made out of small orbs and beams of light. This is the key to progressing forward. Each player will see different beams of light, and the goal is to find which ones you have in common. Use clock callouts (1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, etc) to communicate with your partner.
A Tormentor called the Icon of Division will spawn repeatedly throughout the encounter, and whoever lands the killing blow on it will receive a buff that lets them shoot the clock orbs to solve the puzzle. Whoever gets the buff needs to shoot the three orbs that both players have in common. We recommend typing out the numbers that are active for you in text chat so you can compare with your partner more easily.
It’s hard to call out your clock spots while dealing with ads, so take some time to thin the horde so you can focus on the Tormentor and communicate with your partner. Again, Red Death Reformed is incredibly helpful to have on hand since there are plenty of red bar enemies in this encounter that essentially serve as health packs if you have this Exotic Pulse Rifle. Don’t be afraid to pop your Super as well, and don’t forget about Transcendence if you’re using the Prismatic subclass.
Once you shoot the three orbs that you and your partner have in common, you’ll see a notification stating that “Light and Darkness surge, destabilizing an obelisk.” That means you did it correctly! Just repeat this process three times to destroy all three pyramids to complete the encounter. There’s a brief parkour segment after this, but then it’s time for the final boss.
Mastery of Balance Boss Encounter Guide
The final encounter of Dual Destiny requires you to demonstrate your mastery of balance, pitting you against a pair of powerful subjugators as final bosses. The battle begins against Expector Selin, who is vulnerable from the get-go. Pop your Supers, use your heavy ammo, and burn them down as fast as you can. Still Hunt with Celestial Nighthawk works wonders here if you’re a Hunter, by the way.
After dealing enough damage, Expector Selin will become invulnerable and you’ll need to repeat the symbols mechanic from earlier in the mission to trigger the next DPS phase. Two Wizards will spawn on opposite sides of the arena, one for the Light-aligned player to defeat and another for the Darkness-aligned player to kill. Once they’re down, the Light-aligned player will call out the order of the symbols, and the Darkness-aligned player will shoot the correct ones floating in the air above Expector Selin.
Destroying the symbols will make the boss vulnerable again. After the second DPS phase whittles down Expector Selin’s health bar to its final third, they’ll disappear and a new boss will show up. Expector Yemiq spawns in the back half of the arena, so move over there for the next part of this boss battle. Yemiq is immediately vulnerable, so use everything you’ve got to make a strong start.
Once Expector Yemiq becomes invulnerable, it’s time for the symbols yet again. This time, the roles are reversed and the Darkness-aligned player calls out the correct order while the Light-aligned player destroys the symbols. This will make Expector Yemiq vulnerable again, so use your best weapons for this DPS phase.
Expector Yemiq will shield up once their health bar drops low enough. At that point, it’s time for the final puzzle of the mission. The clocks are back again with more Wizards to protect them, so take down the correct one for your alignment and get ready to call out to your partner. This time, there will be four beams of light per player, and you both need to shoot the one you have in common. Repeat this a few times and the final DPS phase will begin.
You need to take down both Expector Yemiq and Expector Selin in the final DPS phase, so you can either split up and fight them one-on-one or stay with your partner and burn them down one by one. Either way, keep an eye on the clock as it ticks down. Once both Subjugators are dead, you’ll be sent to claim your Exotic Class Item. This mission isn’t over just yet, though.
Schism Encounter Guide
Once you try to claim your Exotic Class Item at the end of Dual Destiny, Savathun will teleport you and your partner into cages. A message will pop up stating that “there is no Light here.” As you face your partner, you’ll see a prompt to “prepare for battle.“
In this encounter, you can either fight your partner to the death or choose a peaceful outcome and continue forward to collect your reward. If you don’t want to fight, then turn around and select the other symbol to “choose peace.” A lot of players don’t realize they can turn around and choose the second option, so make sure to tell your partner beforehand before they get too bloodthirsty.
Both choices lead to the same outcome though, so just choose whichever sounds cooler. You will both get your Exotic Class Items no matter what. Nothing will change if you fight or spare the other player in Dual Destiny.
After you make your choice, you can finally claim your Exotic Class Item for real. They roll with two Exotic perks at random. You can farm Dual Destiny as many times as you want to get different rolls of the Exotic Class Items, but they’ll also begin to drop from all chests in the Pale Heart of the Traveler after your first completion of Dual Destiny. The drop rate is low, but you’ll still encounter a few while grinding Overthrow or other activities within the Pale Heart.
Published: Jun 12, 2024 12:34 pm