Your journey to the Pale Heart of the Traveler begins now, Guardian. Destiny 2 expansion The Final Shape has arrived, but before you can dive into any activities it is highly recommended you complete the campaign—including its opening mission, Transmigration.
Queen Mara Sov is holding the portal to the Traveler’s Heart open for you, but she can’t hold it forever. You’ll need to make it to the center yourself, and quickly. This opening mission won’t just serve a narrative purpose, as you’ll also be learning about the range of mechanics you’ll encounter further into the campaign.
Here’s how to complete the Transmigration mission in Destiny 2 The Final Shape.
This article contains spoilers for the beginning of The Final Shape campaign. You’ve been warned!
Competing Transmigration in Destiny 2, a guide
After crashing your ship, you’ll find yourself standing in The Threshold. Pushing through this area will take you to the Pale Heart, but there are a few things you’ll need to learn to reach it. Follow the architecture of the room and the quest objective marker on your screen.
1) Wells of Darkness and Icons of Light
You’ll come to an impossible gap in the architecture you can’t cross, but in the center of the platform in front of you is a Well of Darkness and an orb. Entering the Well and shooting the orb will create the path ahead of you, but it is incomplete. You’ll need to connect Light and Dark together to complete this path.
After shooting the orb, enemies will spawn beneath you including one glowing with Light. Defeating this enemy will drop an Icon of Light. Pick this up, then return to the Well and shoot the orb again. This adds Light to the path.
2) Nodes of Darkness and passing through the barrier
You’ll reach a derelict version of the EDZ church, but you’ll notice it’s blocked by a barrier and three Darkness nodes. Shoot these nodes. There will always be three nodes to a barrier, but they may be scattered around the area. You’ll be able to see every node by standing at the barrier and looking around—don’t forget to look up!
3) Combine the mechanics to cross The Threshold
Both the first and second boss zones of The Threshold combine these main mechanics. You’ll need to enter the Well and shoot the orb, then find the Icon of Light held by an enemy miniboss, then head back to the Well, shoot the three nodes to bring down the barrier protecting the well, then enter and shoot the orb.
This continues creating the path forward through The Threshold. You’ll need to do this twice before reaching the center. Watch out for the “Bound” enemies glowing pink and blue: You won’t be able to damage these just yet (but you’ll learn how to soon enough).
After completing a few more jumping sections, Queen Mara’s last-ditch push will send you into the middle of The Threshold and into a cutscene before you land in the doorway between reality and the Pale Heart. Walk forward and the Traveler will create glass-like platforms for you to walk on.
4) Entering the Pale Heart of the Traveler and discovering Prismatic
Once you approach the dark roots, a blast of light will hit you, then you’ll walk through a tunnel and emerge on the other side of the portal. You made it, you’re in the Pale Heart! Your job isn’t done yet though; push through the weird and wonderful hills and tunnels ahead until you reach city buildings and walls.
From here, you’ll run into another barrier blocked by a different node of Darkness. To bring down this barrier, find the Wizard nearby (marked by your quest icon) and pick up its Icon of Darkness. The first barrier will have one Icon, the next will have two (plus a tanky Ogre boss) so save your Super for this section.
Along the way, you’ll also pick up the Prismatic subclass. Stand in the Prismatic Wells, then when the two bars are full, press the button shown on the screen to Transcend. Doing this allows you to damage and kill the Bound enemies from earlier.
5) Take down Vrihn, Subjugator of Gardens
Finally, you’ll reach the Lost City and a copy of the old Tower, where The Witness greets you with one of the new enemy types you’ll face: A Subjugator. There are no puzzles here, just waves of enemies and the Subjugator.
There are a few Prismatic pools nearby allowing you to spam Transcendence, giving you plenty of practice with your new Destiny 2 abilities.
Once you defeat Vrihn, this key The Final Shape mission is complete.
