How to complete the Dyadic Ascension quest in Destiny 2

Destiny 2 gave players the coveted Barrow-Dyad Exotic during Heresy, and it came with a matching mission. The Dyadic Ascension quest lets you improve the SMG’s intrinsic—provided you’re not stuck in step five, that is.

The Barrow-Dyad SMG is a powerful weapon that truly feels like an Exotic, but players who try to complete this quest can get stumped with their quest progress through no fault of their own. You can still get far enough to unlock the third level of the intrinsic, but anything after step five is time-gated until Act Two, Bungie confirmed.

Bugged or not, the Dyadic Ascension quest tasks you with finding several secrets in the Nether within Destiny 2‘s Dreadnaught. Here’s what you must do to complete this quest.

Dyadic Ascension quest guide in Destiny 2

The Dyadic Ascension quest has seven steps in total, and they’re quite similar. The descriptions for the quests are as follows:

1. Progress your rank with the Shaping Slab in the Path of Resolve.
2. Locate and collect six Taken Osseous Fragments in the Nether.
3. Progress even further with the Shaping Slab.
   • This objective auto-completes if you’re ranked high enough, so you can do the two Taken Osseous Fragment hunts in the same Nether run.
4. Find six more Taken Osseous Fragments in a different part of the Nether.
5. Progress even further and acquire the Moment of Clarity upgrade.
   • This is the most troublesome step in the quest thanks to the time-gate.
6. Find the remaining Taken Osseous Fragments hidden in the Nether.
7. Prove your mastery of combat and exploration in the Nether.

You’ve been hunting Taken Osseous Fragments for the Path of the Taken quest, so why stop now? The Dyadic Ascension quest tasks you with finding six of them in different areas of the Nether. Our run took us to the Hall of Souls and the Trenchway, where we found the necessary six for each step. We covered the exact locations in our Taken Osseous Essence guide.

Like many players, we got roadblocked at step five, but quest data from light.gg (which gave us steps six and seven above) indicates the next stages will be more of the same. And halting progress isn’t an accident.

Is the Dyadic Ascension quest time-gated?

The Dyadic Ascension quest is time-gated, Bungie confirmed on social media on Feb. 12. This means you must wait until the release of Act Two on March 11 before they can continue to upgrade the weapon’s intrinsic—though the Taken Osseous Essences in the remaining starting area in the Nether are still available before the release of the new Act.

Can you obtain the Moment of Clarity upgrade for the Dyadic Ascension quest?

According to Bungie, the Moment of Clarity upgrade isn’t available in Destiny 2 yet and will only appear in Act Two. As such, there’s no legitimate way to obtain this upgrade and progress the Dyadic Ascension quest until then (though that may not stop glitchmaster extraordinaire Cheese Forever from trying).

This step might be related to a second path in the Shaping Slab. So far, the Guardian has taken the Path of Resolve, and in-game triumphs point to an alternative option called the Path of Ambition. The story—and this quest—continue in March.