How to activate a Planetary Assimilation Piston in Destiny 2

Destiny 2’s seasonal activities in Episode Echoes can give you more loot thanks to a new mechanic: Activating Planetary Assimilation Pistons. These pillars appear in the seasonal activity, and collecting their drops can give you weapons and even Exotics.

Planetary Assimilation Pistons appeared alongside Destiny 2‘s first Specimen quest in Echoes, but they quickly became a mainstay in the episode’s activities—so much so that Bungie pushed a bevy of fixes and quality-of-life changes to them after hearing complaints.

Here’s how you can activate a Planetary Assimilation Piston across the seasonal activities in Echoes—and why you should do it as often as possible.

How to activate a Planetary Assimilation Piston with the Piston Hammer in Destiny 2

The Planetary Pistons appear in Breach Executable and in Echoes’ seasonal Battlegrounds activities. They like a regular conflux, but their bases have multiple circular inlays. They generally appear on your HUD, marked with a star-like icon.

Two Planetary Assimilation Pistons appear in Breach Executable and two in each run of Echoes’ Battlegrounds. In the starting seasonal activity, they appear after each objective completion, but they have fixed spawns in the Battlegrounds activities.

Before you can activate a Planetary Piston, however, you need Hammer Charges (any flashbacks to Season of the Chosen are likely just a coincidence). Activating a Piston consumes a charge, though you can get more charges by completing Echoes activities. Only one guardian needs to activate the Piston. You can check your charges on the Research Bays tab of Failsafe’s vendor menu.

What do you get by activating an Assimilation Piston in Destiny 2?

Activating a Planetary Piston on Echoes activities will cause several Radiolite nodes to spawn around the area. Detector mods mark those nodes on your HUD, and weapons with high zoom (such as snipers) can give you even more range when looking for them.

You can deposit Radiolite samples at the end of the activity or at the H.E.L.M. by Failsafe. Dunking enough can give you seasonal weapons and armor, and we’ve obtained multiple Exotic armor pieces from those.

The game also gives you different objectives based on activating Planetary Pistons. The Specimen ID:NES005 quest requires you to grab Bufo Bites, a consumable that drops from these pistons while the quest is active. Some steps in A Rising Chorus: Act Two can only advance by triggering these Pistons. Lastly, the Miner’s Swing seasonal challenge gives you some XP if you (or any member of your squad) interact with three Pistons.