How to get and use Motes of Light in Destiny 2

Destiny 2’s Pale Heart is filled with secrets, and players who explore the Traveler’s core will soon find themselves with a Mote of Light in their inventory. It’s easy to get some of them but tricky to grab as many as you need to.

Motes of Light are a necessary step in your search for the Khvostov 7G-0X Exotic. Guardians can’t miss a single one of them if they want to grab the auto rifle from its designated chest, but it may be worth the trouble.

Here’s what you can do with Motes of Light in Destiny 2, how to get them, and how to get the Mote of Primordial Light.

What do Motes of Light do in Destiny 2?

Motes of Light are used to open the chest containing the Exotic version of the Khvostov in Destiny 2’s The Final Shape. These elusive items are spread throughout the Pale Heart, and each individual Mote of Light has a designated drop source, so put on some hiking shoes and get ready to mow down bosses.

How do you get Motes of Light in Destiny 2?

Players can get up to 17 Motes of Light, according to content creator Skarrow9: one Mote of Light for each of the eight Traveler’s Visions and another nine of them by completing each Overthrow boss.

Each Overthrow zone has three bosses at the end of the activity, though these seem to spawn randomly. The triumphs to track each of them are seemingly bugged. In my case, it showed I had all three Landing bosses despite still needing two of them.

The nine bosses are:

• Ir Okmarr, Devoted to Savathûn (The Landing) — Lucent Hive Wizard
• Nolakh, Star-Eater (The Landing) — Lucent Hive Titan
• Mharuk, Sky-Stealer (The Landing) — Lucent Hive Hunter
• Voxelos, Taken by the Witness (The Blooming) — Taken Minotaur
• Kholon, Taken by the Witness (The Blooming) — Taken Ogre
• Koftiks, Taken by the Witness (The Blooming) — Taken Servitor
• Rhuna, Subjugator of Chasms (The Impasse) — Stasis Subjugator
• Rhaska, Subjugator of Thresholds (The Impasse) — Strand Subjugator
• Araaxen, Reverent of the Witness (The Impasse) — Tormentor

Once you’ve obtained the Motes of Light, the last Mote you pick up will convert into the Mote of Primordial Light, which looks like an Exotic Catalyst pick-up or a golden Mote from Gambit. Scour the area in case it dropped far away from the boss, but in our case, it was added to the inventory as soon as the Servitor died.

The addition of Motes of Light brought a few high-impact bugs, which led Bungie to temporarily disable the Taken Servitor. Early into The Final Shape, saving the Taken Servitor for last could delete players’ Motes of Light and not drop the final item needed for the Khvostov 7G-0X Exotic. The studio briefly removed the boss from the game but pushed a fix for it days later.

While the boss was out of the game, players who hadn’t killed the Servitor before were locked out of getting the Exotic Khvostov, but the fix made this coveted Exotic weapon available once again. Killing the Servitor seems to correctly drop its mote—or, more importantly, the last piece in the puzzle: the Mote of Primordial Light. In our case, this seemed to have been added straight to our inventory once the boss died and didn’t drop from the Overthrow chest.

What is the Mote of Primordial Light in Destiny 2?

The Mote of Primordial Light is the culmination of your search for the Khvostov. After getting enough encryption bits and Motes of Light, this item is what will ultimately open the chest containing the Exotic Khvostov.

If you have this in your inventory, head to the chest containing the Khvostov, located on the left side of the Old Tower. It has its own small area on the map. If you’ve placed all Visions of the Traveler and have the Mote of Primordial Light on you, you can open the chest and get your reward.