Destiny 2: Pinnacle Ops (Exotic Missions and Offensives)

Secret Exotic Mission Chain

Oblation

Unlock Oblation: Bloodline, earn Cull’s Shadow, then follow the post-mission secrets into Soulfed and Immolation for the full Weapon of Sorrow catalyst path.
Refer to our written guide or select the Video Guide tab to watch community video guides.

Goal: reveal the hidden Bloodline node by using a Weapon of Sorrow, solving Moon rune doors, and investigating the Hive crystals tied to the Suspicious Syndicate Activity search areas.

Requirement

Bring a Weapon of Sorrow

Equip one before puzzle steps. Thorn, Osteo Striga, Touch of Malice, or Necrochasm can reveal and break the green Hive rune discs.
Thorn is the easiest fallback. If a player does not already own one, it can be purchased from the Monument to Lost Lights with the required currency.

Scarlet Keep

Open the Hidden Gate

Launch The Scarlet Keep. Progress to Hashladûn’s boss arena and damage the boss enough to begin the hidden rune step.
Shoot the three green Hive symbols. They appear around the back gate of the arena while your Weapon of Sorrow is out. The order does not matter for this first gate.
Enter the gate before finishing the strike. Go through the back gate, take the first room on the right, and interact with the Hive crystal. Then finish Hashladûn and return to Moon patrol.

Moon Search Areas

Track the Suspicious Syndicate Activity

Use the Soulfire Network Frequency meter. Each search zone has a glowing dead Cabal/Syndicate trooper. The meter acts like a hotter-or-colder tracker as you move around the area.
Archer’s Line path. Find the trooper near the central crater / lower bridge area, then follow the trail into the Shrine of Oryx.
Anchor of Light path. Find the trooper near the western/northern colony structures, then descend into the Temple of Crota.
Hellmouth path. Find the trooper near the main Hellmouth entrance, then follow the lower tunnels toward the Chamber of Night.
Sorrow’s Harbor path. Find the trooper along the northern ramparts / raised edge, then head into K1 Revelation.

Shrine of Oryx
Temple of Crota
Chamber of Night
K1 Revelation

Rune Locks

Solve Each Hive Door

Read the door from top to bottom. The locked Hive door shows the symbol order. Shoot the matching green rune discs in that same order.
Do not panic if it resets. A wrong shot resets the lock and may move the symbols, so re-check the door before trying again.

Mission Node

Launch Bloodline

Clear all four crystal rooms. Once the Moon crystal chain is complete, Oblation: Bloodline unlocks.
Start from the Moon map. The mission can also be reached from the door/tunnel area beneath the Scarlet Keep bridge in Sorrow’s Harbor.

Tip: keep a Weapon of Sorrow equipped through the chain. It prevents the most common issue: arriving at a rune door and not seeing the symbols.

Core mechanic: defeat Pyre Matrons, punch the Soulfire Vessel to gain Soulfire Charge, then dunk that charge into the correct brazier to remove barriers or break Tau’Rig’s shield.

Phase 1

Sabotage the Drill

Drop left at the red tower. At mission start, take the left-side drop to the lower Cabal platform.
Override the console. Clear Psion snipers, defeat the shielded Centurion, then interact with the Safety Controls.
Destroy the fuses. Shoot the three glowing fuses near the switch, then break the hot vents on the Cooling Pillar when they open.
Repeat after the launcher. Use the cannon to reach the next platform, override the next switch, break the next set of fuses, and destroy the remaining Cooling Pillars.
Overload the drill. Enter the command room in the rock face, clear the Totality Xenoexcavator/miniboss room, and activate the final console.

Traversal

Climb the Necropolis

Look for green-lit caves. After the drill opens the path, climb up through the cave network and use enemy platforms as waypoints.
Follow the Acolytes. When the route is unclear, Acolytes usually stand on the platform you need next.
Use sarcophagi and wall ledges. Cross the Soulfire Crux by jumping to hanging coffins, then to the rock-wall ledges.
Find the hidden drop. At the barred hallway, climb onto the roof, drop to the rear platform, then take the hole in the broken stairs instead of following Bael’s shadow.

Encounter

Extinguish the Barrier

Clear the Pyre Matrons. The Soulfire Vessel stays protected until the nearby Wizard group is defeated.
Punch the Vessel. Melee the Soulfire Vessel Thrall to take Soulfire Charge.
Dunk at a brazier. Deposit the charge into one of the unlit bowls facing the barrier. Enemy spawns point you toward the next Vessel.
Repeat three times. The final dunk extinguishes the giant Soulfire Barrier and opens the way to Valus Tau’Rig.

Boss

Valus Tau’Rig

Open with normal damage. Burn the first health gate until Tau’Rig transforms and becomes empowered by Pyre Cantors.
Watch where the Cantors fly. They lead you to the Soulfire Vessel you need for the next shield break.
Dunk where Tau’Rig is siphoning. Take Soulfire Charge to the brazier beside the boss. This stuns him and drops his immunity.
Repeat at half health. The second loop adds pressure and Ogres, but the mechanic remains the same: Cantors, Vessel, charge, active brazier, DPS.

Do not leave after the chest. Cull’s Shadow is the key to the Soulfed unlock step, and the first post-boss secret starts inside Bloodline.

Core mechanic: Soulfire Charge now lights braziers that spawn throwable Hive worms. Throw the worms at green Soulfire Crystals to open routes, disable hazards, break boss shields, and complete the unlock path into Oblation: Immolation.

Entry

Descend Deeper

Start where Bloodline ends. Soulfed begins beyond the rune door unlocked by Cull’s Shadow and the Bloodline book step.
Drop through the center hole. Fall past the rotating spiked cylinders and look for the side passages around the Soulfire plume.
Find the Vessel Knight. Kill the Soulfire Vessel Knight, take Soulfire Charge, and dunk it at the nearby brazier.

Mechanic

Worms & Crystals

Light the brazier. A dunked Soulfire Charge spawns worms around the brazier.
Pick up a worm and move fast. Worms have a timer and explode if held too long.
Throw worms at green crystals. Crystals clear Soulfire, open doors, raise sarcophagi, start moving platforms, or expose the next route.
Look high and low. Many crystals are above doorways, across moats, tucked into small wall caves, or hidden behind moving sarcophagi.

Traversal

Follow the Descent

Keep going down. Soulfed repeatedly drops you into deeper rooms, shafts, and hazard spaces.
Carry worms across gaps. Some crystals require crossing sarcophagi or moving through Soulfire jets while holding a worm.
Hug the left wall in the large sarcophagus room. The safest route through the biggest platforming section tends to stay left before moving toward the arena.
Watch for the secret switch route. In the worm-carry / Soulfire jet passage, backtrack near the beginning of the jet section and look down for statue bowls below the doorway.

Secret

Hidden Book Cell

Drop to the statue bowls. Before continuing past the Soulfire jet passage, drop onto the small basin/statue platforms below the doorway.
Activate the golden mechanism. Look to the side for a bright golden energy switch held in a Hive claw and interact with it.
Continue deeper. Later, after dropping down the shaft into the lower cell area, one glowing cell door will now be open.
Indulge Cull’s Shadow. Enter the cell and interact with the Hive tome. This advances the Soulfed secret path before the final boss arena.

This is the hidden Soulfed book step. It is important for the secret/catalyst chain, but Immolation itself is unlocked after the Soulfed boss encounter through the Cull’s Shadow rune puzzle.

Boss

Three Hive Bosses

Bosses are immune by default. Use the lower rooms to kill a Soulfire Vessel, dunk the charge, and spawn worms.
Throw worms at the boss crystals. The upper crystals correspond to the boss whose shield you need to break.
Ogre first, then Knight and Wizard. The Ogre pulls with a purple sphere; the Knight and Wizard fight together and can force you into the open.
Use lower-room cover. The arena gets messy quickly, especially once floor traps appear.
Claim the tome and chest. Interact with the Hive tome after the bosses, then loot the chest for Soulfire Rancor and Sorrow’s Coronet.

Unlock

Unlock Oblation: Immolation

Do not leave Soulfed. After the three Hive bosses are defeated and the tome/chest are claimed, stay in the mission.
Go behind the encounter arena. Look for another golden energy switch held in a closed Hive claw. It cannot be used immediately.
Equip Cull’s Shadow. Turn around and locate the six Hive rune discs held by the surrounding statues.
Read the weapon. Inspect Cull’s Shadow and use the vertical Hive-symbol order shown on the weapon from top to bottom.
Shoot the statue runes in order. Hit the six rune discs using the weapon’s top-to-bottom order. This unlocks the golden switch, grants Soulfire Zeal, and opens Oblation: Immolation.

Clean flow: Hidden Book Cell first, Soulfed boss clear second, then Cull’s Shadow rune order behind the arena to unlock Immolation.

Core mechanic: Immolation tests the full Oblation kit. Navigate by following Acolytes, survive Bellows plates and Soulfire jets, then use rotating active braziers, worms, and crystals to break Ir Gohl.

Opening Route

Left Wall, Green Caves

Move left across sarcophagi. The opening room wants you to follow the left-side route, using incoming coffins and Acolyte positions as markers.
Find the small wall hole. After the Wizard platform, clear the enemies and look on the left side for a small opening into green-lit caves.
Break shimmering chitin. Shoot or melee the glowing Hive bars to continue through the tunnels.
Kill the yellow-bar Ogre. After it dies, look back and upward for the Acolyte platform that leads into the pipe route.

Encounter

Break the Bellows

Damage the Soulfed Bellow Stoker. Push roughly a third of its health to make it teleport away.
Stand on the lit plate. A glowing plate appears in one of the circular rooms, usually with a Wizard above it. Stand there to fill Redirecting Soulfire.
Use plate edges and alcoves. Soulfire jets sweep the halls. Stand near safe edges or cover instead of in the middle of the plate.
Repeat three times. Each cycle adds danger, including shield Knights and an Ogre in later rounds.

Final Approach

Reach Ir Gohl

Climb the right wall. After the Bellows, drop into the platforming room and work up the right-side wall route.
Enter the blue-lit hall. Pass pendulums, the furnace pipe, and Soulfire jet rooms. Keep moving when the room fills from front to back.
Kill the Shrieker. Clear the Shrieker room to drop the Soulfire barrier near the left-side statue.
Drop far left. In the giant chamber with bridges and Hive statues, move to the left edge and drop to the lowest platform, then follow the bridges into the boss arena.

Boss

Ir Gohl, Forger of Sorrow

Phase one: snuff three braziers. Defeat the Wizard mini-boss at each Soulfire brazier to drop Ir Gohl’s first shield and begin damage.
Phase two: watch the center. Ir Gohl creates a Soulfire sphere in the middle. When it completes, the center platform explodes and the active brazier rotates.
Grab worms at the active brazier. Throw them at the two Soulfire Crystals flanking the center platform. Both crystals must be activated to drop the shield.
Damage, then repeat. You get a short DPS window before the shield returns. Repeat the worm-and-crystal loop until Ir Gohl falls.

Final rewards include the Soulfire Skewer catalyst and Denier of Futurity Sparrow from the final chest.

Secret path: every step depends on not leaving too early. Check the arena after each clear, use Cull’s Shadow as the key, and solve the rune/statue puzzles before moving to the next mission.

Bloodline Secret

Soulfire Succor

After Tau’Rig, do not orbit. Equip Cull’s Shadow and return outside the boss room to the first encounter area.
Climb to the tower/book. Go up toward the tower area tied to the third Soulfire Vessel route, then cross the sarcophagi to reach the floating Hive tome.
Return to the boss room. Shoot the sealed door’s Hive runes in top-to-bottom order with a Weapon of Sorrow. This grants Soulfire Succor and opens Soulfed.

Soulfed Secret

Soulfire Rancor

Activate the hidden switch. During Soulfed, drop to the statue bowls beneath the Soulfire jet passage and activate the golden mechanism.
Open the lower cell. Later, after dropping into the cell area, enter the glowing open cell door and interact with the Hive tome.
Finish the Soulfed boss encounter. Defeat the Ogre, Knight, and Wizard bosses, then claim the post-boss tome and reward chest.

Immolation Unlock

Soulfire Zeal

Stay in Soulfed after the boss. Go behind the arena to find the closed golden switch.
Use Cull’s Shadow as the key. Inspect the weapon for its vertical Hive-rune order.
Shoot the six statue runes. Use the weapon’s top-to-bottom order to unlock the switch, earn Soulfire Zeal, and open Oblation: Immolation.

Catalyst Roadmap

Full Cull’s Shadow Path

Soulfire Succor: Bloodline post-boss book and rune-door secret.
Soulfire Rancor: Soulfed hidden book cell plus Soulfed completion.
Soulfire Zeal: Soulfed post-boss Cull’s Shadow statue-rune puzzle, which also unlocks Immolation.
Soulfire Skewer: Immolation final chest after defeating Ir Gohl.

Practical rule: after each Oblation clear, check for a book, a locked Hive door, a golden switch, or Cull’s Shadow symbols before leaving the activity.