Updated on by Antony Terence
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Contents show
✓ At a glance
- Activate wells with an Icon of Light after beating foes.
- Clear barriers by shooting locks scattered in the environment.
- Be careful in the jumping sections and make it to The Pale Heart.
- You’ll learn how to Transcend and fight once-invulnerable foes. Finally, take down the boss Vrihn.
If you’re starting The Final Shape’s brand-new campaign, Transmigration is the first quest you’ll encounter in Destiny 2. The Traveler is taken over by the Witness, kicking off a time bomb for a mass extinction event. In the first mission, here’s how you can enter the Traveler and get to The Pale Heart before unlocking a powerful new subclass.
Our guide to the Transmigration quest
The mission starts with cutscenes that explain the terrible power of the Witness. Mara Sov then opens the Threshold into the Traveler long enough for you to get in. Bungie’s stunning environment design and smartly designed encounters serve as an extended tutorial into new mechanics like activating wells. Here’s a step-by-step guide to Transmigration:
Use the Orb of Darkness after activating it with an Icon of Light. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Pick up Icons of Light from powerful foes. Image captured by VideoGamer.
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Activate the well
Once you start the mission, you’ll find yourself in an otherworldly space, filled with purple hues and new threats called Dread. Follow the quest marker and you’ll find a well. Walk up to it and it will turn into an orb of Darkness. While shooting it will reveal a path forward, you’ll need to clear a wave of enemies here to get an Icon of Light. Pick it up and you’ll be greeted with more enemies. Return the Icon of Light to the well to activate it, letting you proceed further.
Shoot these dark locks to open glowing barriers. Image captured by VideoGamer.
This lock is behind the structure near the hatch barrier. Image captured by VideoGamer.
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Reach the blocked hatch
Keep going and you’ll find another barrier. You’ll find more barriers like these with locks that need to be shot. Use your weapons to shoot locks in order to clear them. After a couple of encounters, you’ll find a hatch blocked by a barrier. It has three locks but they’re easy to miss. There’s one on the barrier, one above the barrier to the top-left, and one behind the wall opposite to the hatch. Remember to look up!
Clear these locks and you’ll find waves of Taken foes in the next spot. Once again, you’ll get an Icon of Light to activate a well. But once you do so, a barrier needs to be cleared by, you guessed it, shooting three locks. You can find one on top of the barrier and two to the left and right of the barrier.
Be careful while jumping on these floating platforms. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Ignore these foes with pink health bars for now as you can’t break them. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Make it to the portal in time. Image captured by VideoGamer.
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Evade the Witness’ Forces
This will take you to a platforming section where you’ll have to time your double jumps carefully. Remember that you can disengage your glide by pressing jump if you don’t want to overshoot a floating platform. Once you clear this section, you’ll find some Bound enemies glowing pink. You can’t harm them yet so don’t waste your rocket launcher ammo like I did. Sprint past them into an area similar to what you’ve seen already.
Activate the well, knock enemies out, and break the locks for a barrier. The locks are close to the barrier this time so you shouldn’t face any issues with them. Activating the well will open up another jumping section. A timer shows up since Mara Sov is struggling to keep up against the Witness. While the purple portal might seem too far away to make it, you’ll gain a massive surge in speed once you reach the top of the platforms.
Sprint through the Lightbridge towards the darkness. Image captured by VideoGamer.
The Pale Heart is a stunning location with massive resting Ghosts. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Transcend with the help of Prismatic wells. Image captured by VideoGamer.
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Enter The Pale Heart
Once you make it to the purple portal, a series of cutscenes will play that hint at the kind of powers you will gain. You’ll find yourself in an area with platforms generated by light, just keep moving on the Lightbridge toward the dark branches. This path will transport you to The Pale Heart, a stunning location with lush jungles and massive resting Ghosts (your drone-like companion). A glowing bird will guide you in the right direction. This is where you’ll find new flying enemies to defeat. You’ll encounter more Dread again so knock them down and keep going. Once more, you’ll need an Icon of Darkness to clear a barrier.
After this part, you’ll come face-to-face with the Bound Taken enemies who were invulnerable earlier. But now, you’ll find pink Prismatic wells of energy scattered in the area. Stand in them to be charged with Prismatic energy and when prompted, trigger Transcendence (B on PC and pressing both joysticks on a controller). Think of Transcend as a mini-Super ability. This will let you damage Bound foes and clear their pink shields. While you will only be in this heightened state for a short time, a few bullets will be able to take off any Prismatic shielding from enemies. After clearing the area, proceed to find another encounter that will test everything you’ve learned so far.
Clear this barrier with two Icons of Darkness. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Beat the Icon of Finality with your strongest gear. Image captured by VideoGamer.
Unlock the Prismatic subclass by interacting with this wellspring. Image captured by VideoGamer.
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Clear the obstacles
This area will require you to unlock a barrier with two Icons of Darkness. All the while, you’ll have to contend with Bound Taken foes and the Dread. Remember to stand in Prismatic wells to charge your Transcend ability and you’ll wipe these foes out in no time. You’ll meet the Icon of Finality boss before clearing the barrier. They’re effectively a bullet sponge so you shouldn’t have any issues with putting them down. After you take down the barrier, keep going to reach the old Vanguard command center. Here, you’ll find a strange Prismatic wellspring. It glows with pink energy and you can weave together Light and Darkness here.
This unlocks the Prismatic subclass, granting you a starter kit with Prismatic fragments and aspects depending on your class. You can now Transcend without a well by filling up two bars. One of them fills up with Void, Arc, or Solar damage while the next one needs Stasis or Strand. Kinetic weapons fill both bars. You’ll need this for the boss fight ahead.
Defeat Vrihn, Subjugator of Gardens
After gaining new powers, you’ll be able to restore your ammo and energy with a Campaign Banner. But we’re not done just yet. You’ll meet another wave of Taken enemies but they’re not the real threat. Vrihn, Subjugator of Gardens, enters the field with three health bars and summons a large number of Dread foes. While this boss can be annoying, understanding their attack pattern will make them less of a threat.
After three Strand attacks, Vrihn will launch a glowing green attack that will suspend you in the air as they rush toward you for a melee strike. This can kill you if you aren’t careful so remember to dodge these attacks. Take out the weaker foes and then focus your attacks on the boss. Enemy Weaves can use Strand attacks to push you off the cliff so be wary of them. Remember to use your rocket launcher or sniper rifle here to inflict massive damage. Your abilities and best PvE weapons will come in handy here too. Losing this fight will mean you’ll have to fight the boss all over again so don’t hesitate to duck behind cover and regenerate health. Beat Vrihn and you’ll see them turn into tree branches. That wraps up the combat in this mission.
Reunite with an old friend
Skip this section if you don’t want spoilers. Once you finish Transmigration, you’ll get a cutscene where you’ll meet a character who you believed was dead. It’s a touching moment for your Guardian and pushes you towards the next mission. The person in question is Cayde-6, an Exo Guardian most players were fond of before their tragic end. And with that, you’ve cleared the first mission in The Final Shape campaign.
