How to get Bound Presence in Destiny 2

Destiny 2’s Season of the Haunted brought in more ghosts and Nightmares than you’d expect. Its harrowing thematic and storyline put players face-to-face against vile magic, and the Nightmares of some of the Vanguard (and their allies) will come back to torment them.

The weekly Sever mission, for instance, has players enter the Derelict Leviathan (now in a Glykon-like stage thanks to the Darkness and the Egregore that dwell within) to help dispel the influence of the Nightmares and the Darkness. Sever is one prong in the seasonal activity loop, and it’s viscerally tied to the Nightmare Containment activity that also launched alongside Season of the Haunted.

To progress the seasonal storyline (and to get more loot at the end of Sever missions), players must find Bound Presence, a unique resource. This resource is consumed after opening the chest at the end of Sever, but players can refill their stocks of Bound Presence with a bit of grinding and a bit of luck.

How to get Bound Presence in Destiny 2

Bound Presence drops randomly when you bind Nightmare Containment bosses by using 500 Vestiges of Dread at the end of the activity. The first time you bind a Nightmare Containment boss each week, you’ll get a guaranteed Bound Presence, though it’s unclear if this counts per character or per account. After that, interacting with the Harvester at the end of the mission (and spending 500 Vestiges of Dread) has a chance of giving you Bound Presence.

To use your Bound Presence, you have to open the chest at the end of the weekly Sever mission. This will consume one Bound Presence and give you more seasonal loot. Unlike other consumables like Opulent Keys, though, you can have more than one Bound Presence in your inventory at once. This means you don’t need to stop what you’re doing to complete your Sever mission and free up inventory space.

Vestiges of Dread, on the other hand, drop from any activity, and playlist activities seem to give out decent results at base values. Equipping pieces from the seasonal Eidolon Pursuant set will also make you earn Vestiges more quickly, with each piece giving you five percent more Vestiges, with a max bonus of 20 percent. Strikes, for instance, will give you approximately 280 Vestiges of Dread with four pieces equipped, meaning it will take two Strikes until you have enough Vestiges to have a shot at getting a Bound Presence.

Keeping yourself topped up on Vestiges of Dread is helpful for the seasonal loop, and it also helps you get Bound Presence more quickly if you’re willing to farm Nightmare Containment for it. Luckily for players, though, the first Bound Presence each week is on the house.