Destiny 2‘s first Episode is sending players back to an overhauled Nessus, and Failsafe has tasked them with a series of assignments—including tracking down the Specimen ID NES001. As part of this quest, they must activate Planetary Assimilation Pistons in Nessus.
As is the case in some parts of Destiny 2, this quest for the specimen can have its tricky parts. One of them is the cryptic objective needed for step three. Odds are you’ve probably never seen a Vex piston, because that’s the type of thing that hardly comes.
Here’s how you can activate an assimilation piston, extract data, and complete the Specimen ID: NES001 quest in Destiny 2.
How to activate a Planetary Assimilation Piston in Breach Executable
The next step is arguably the trickiest: You need to extract data and activate a Planetary Assimilation Piston. Extracting data is a core part of Breach Executable, and you should have enough data to clear this objective in one go. The Vex Assimilation Piston, however, may be hard to find.
A Vex Assimilation Piston looks like a regular conflux, but it has a base with multiple circular inlays. Each of these inlays pulsates, as expected from a piston. To activate it, just interact with it and it will spawn myriad mineral nodes.
In our experience, this Vex Assimilation Piston appeared after the second section and before heading to the boss area. This one was on a somewhat high ledge, behind a tree. If you’re in a closed fireteam, let your teammates know, because going too far into the mission will trigger the “joining allies” message.
Before heading in, make sure your tool has a charge. You can see this on Failsafe’s vendor menu, which will show how many hammer charges you have.
After you’ve done everything, you can head to Failsafe and return to grab your rewards from the mission. This will drop a Seized Radiolite Incubator and the Primary Echo Engram focusing, which lets you pick four Echo Engrams and turn them into a previously acquired weapon of your choice.
