Dead Man's Tale

Season 13: Season of the Chosen has introduced us to what many players are calling the best Exotic Weapon Quest Bungie has delivered to date. The way this Quest was introduced was also interesting because players discovered it on their own and shared their findings with the rest of the Destiny Community.

Nightfall: The Ordeal. Last week's Nightfall took us back to the EDZ with Strike, The Arms Dealer. At the very beginning of the Strike, someone noticed that after killing the enemies browsing around the first room, a door to the right opens (which usually does not happen).

Of course, players who spotted this jumped into the rabbit hole and found plenty of resistance in the way of gun turrets. Heavy-hitting, high-health, gun turrets. This led to a Cabal boss complete with shield and more gun turrets around to stifle your progress. Once you kill the Cabal boss, you can pick up a device that's transmitting a distress message to the Vanguard.

Needless to say, you take this to Commander Zavala (preferably after doubling back to complete the Nightfall). This is when you officially receive the Exotic Quest line. In true Zavala form, he is concerned about the message and sends you off on what seems to be a rescue mission. Osiris is the point man, giving you tidbits of interesting Story along the way.

On a personal note, I tried to Solo this mission at around 1264 Light Level. While I was able to navigate the giant Cabal Ship drifting in outer space by using an online tutorial, I was not able to defeat the final boss on my own. After plenty of failed attempts, I decided to start from scratch with a fireteam found through the Bungie.net Forum. Despite a few hiccups, we completed the mission in less than 50 minutes.

Yes, if you're not familiar with the Ins-and-Outs of this Cabal Ship, including which levers to pull, which fuses to shoot, where the spores are, along with how to access them all ..you will get lost and frustrated. However, once you run this Mission a couple of times, you'll get used to it for the most part. There is a lot of backtracking involved along with sporadic waves of tough enemies, namely the Scorn.

While this is a Cabal Ship, there are no Cabal abroad. Only the Scorn, including those annoying pests that run up you from all directions and explode. Your Radar is not Active during this Mission, so not only do you not know where enemies are coming from, you can lose track of where your fireteam is because of the winding halls in certain sections. It's a bit of a maze and not all players like using a microphone to communicate during gameplay. It can be an added challenge.

The Final Boss: he reminds me of one of the Barons from Forsaken. Hammer connected to a long chain that he whirls around and brings down on your head with trails of fire. It's pretty ease to get killed by one hit and he's fast. He will track you down in a heartbeat. Along with the waves of shielded enemies and their minions that spawn around the area, you need to equip your best Load Out to survive this fight.

The Boss is vulnerable for a short time, then becomes Immune and disappears once you take about a third of its Health away. There are two levels to this area, which seems to be connected to a furnace. You have to turn the Furnace off in order to run around safely. Plus, the Boss will turn the furnace back on as he's leaving one level to go the next. Get to the alternate level in less than five seconds or you'll burn to death pretty quickly. Much of this fight consists of reviving your teammates because if you all die, you'll have to start the entire fight sequence from scratch.

I cannot spoil the ending, but it's a sight to behold once the Boss is defeated and you wander to a different room within the Ship. After that, you return to the Tower to wrap up the Exotic Quest with Zavala.

The Bad News? Yes, Zavala will give you the Exotic Weapon, but it will be missing one of two Main Perks. Why? It's like the Developer's way to get you to play the Mission more than one time. Once you earn this Weapon the second time, it will have the missing Perk on it. Annoying? Yes, but since the mission is quite enjoyable, fine. I'll run it, again, better prepared for what's in store.

Overall, be afraid, Guardian. Be very afraid. The flickering lights, hazy air, grumblings in the shadows with no Active Radar in sight, it's by far the spookiest feeling we've ever had during a Mission. Plus, there are sporadic voices talking in the background. At this point, I'm pretty sure this Ship is haunted. A haunted Ship in Destiny 2. Who knew? Time for Spoilers...

In the video above is my Live Stream of this Mission. Although my failed Solo Run attempted is included, the video is set to begin after I recruited a Fireteam and we completed the Mission. The video ends with me running around Europa testing out my new Exotic Weapon. I'm excited to run this Mission again to get the missing Perk because the Weapon is already a Beastie. I think it comes with random rolls, but I'm not that excited to run this mission three or four more times.

-ecj