How to start the Dual Destiny Exotic quest in Destiny

Destiny 2‘s Exotic class items finally landed, but in a secret Dual Destiny mission instead of the Excision activity like most expected. Starting the mission requires a few convoluted steps involving Overthrow, Savathûn, and a fellow fireteam member.

The Dual Destiny mission requires a second player, and we’ve only succeeded in starting it while we had a two-person fireteam in Destiny 2. It’s also a somewhat long prep and an even bigger time in the actual mission. The rewards are extremely worth it, though: they’re the main way to guarantee an Exotic class item.

Dual Destiny mission: How to start and rewards

• Have another guardian in your fireteam.
• Complete an Overthrow activity in each area. After each activity ends, kill the Secret-Keeper of the Witch Queen that appears in each of the three zones.
  • Finishing this in order (Landing, Blooming, Impasse) had better results for us.
• Once you’ve killed the Secret-Keeper in all of the major areas, a green beam of light should appear in the sky, leading to the Blooming, then to the Refraction.
• The beacon will lead you to an area within the Refraction with two objective markers. Take the orbs there and lead them back to the area.
• Launch the Dual Destiny mission from its unique node on the Pale Heart.

Starting the Dual Destiny mission: Three Overthrows and Secret-Keepers

What worked for us was having only two people in a fireteam and starting the Overthrows from The Landing. We attempted exhaustively to do this with a full fireteam, but this only worked once we had two people on the squad.

After finishing each Overthrow activity, a message will appear saying a Secret-Keeper has spawned. This is a secret Hive Wizard that spawns during the downtime between Overthrow activities. Kill it in all three areas, and the beam of light should appear. Here are some general directions for each zone:

• The Landing: By the entrance to the Forgotten Deep Lost Sector.
• The Blooming: On the other side of a cave, below the spawn point.
• The Impasse: On the southeastern corner of the map, where a Taken Blight event occasionally spawns during Overthrow.

Follow the beam of light to the Refraction, within The Blooming, where the next step takes place.

Head to The Refraction and dunk the two orbs

When the area loads into the Refraction, you’ll be taken to the area where you cleared the view to the Cradle and Ikora’s ship during the campaign. Reaching this spot will give you a buff called Savathûn’s Envoy, which lasts for a few minutes.

Within that time, you must take down bosses on each location marked on your map and bring the orbs back to the room you came from. They’ll appear on your HUD, which makes it a little easier to know where you’re going. Each orb appears as one half of an objective, and whenever you grab one, it’ll draw an arrow to your destination.

Start the Dual Destiny mission

If you’ve dunked the two orbs on the room, a banner with the Dual Destiny activity will appear. If it doesn’t work, launch it through the Pale Heart, with its own Exotic mission node.

Before launching, make sure you have another player with you and that you’re using the appropriate subclasses. The Power level for this is 1,995, so make sure the Power leader is at least at 2,000 Power so everyone stays at the cap.