As part of its final ever content drop, a new secret Exotic mission has been added to Destiny 2. The reward is Cull’s Shadow–a fusion rifle with the intrinsic trait of Soulburn. Soulburn means that final blows or rapid hits with the weapon’s frontal blades heal you and provide Soulfire Charges, which cause rounds fired by Cull’s Shadow to inflict potent corruption. The frontal blades deal increased damage to targets afflicted by that corruption. As a nice added bonus, it’s also effective against Unstoppable champions.
How to start the Oblation: Bloodline mission
The Exotic mission wasn’t shown on the Director in-game, so we had to find out how to trigger it. First, head to the moon and open The Scarlet Keep strike. Play through it normally until the boss, Hashladun, spawns at the end. Leave the boss alive.
Now, get a Weapon of Sorrow. The Destiny 2 Weapons of Sorrow are a class of weapons created by fusing normal guns with Hive magic. You can choose from the hand cannon, Thorn, the scout rifle, Touch of Malice, the auto rifle, Necrochasm, or the submachine gun, Osteo Striga. You can just draw them from your collections.
Then shoot the Hive runes that spawn around the boss with that weapon. It doesn’t matter which you shoot, but you’ll need to shoot three. Then, to the right of the arena there’s a gated barrier that will lower.
There’s a Hive crystal through the barrier that you should interact with. This will bring up a message box saying that a suspicious signal is cropping up on the moon. It asks you to find more of these crystals to help pinpoint the source.
Finish the strike, and then return to the Moon. There will now be several waypoints to investigate to try and find the Hive crystals. They will be called the Suspicious Syndicate activity.
Archer’s Line Suspicious Signal
The first one is in Archer’s Line, you’re looking for a deceased Cabal. As you get closer to the dead Cabal, the Soulfire Network Frequency bar in the lower right will fill up. When you find it, interact with it to trigger a message that reads, “Soulfire seethes within a monarch’s Shrine.”
That shrine is the Shrine of Crota, and you’ll know you’re going the right way as you should see several further glowing dead Cabal bodies along the route. To get to that shrine, you want to follow the Hall of Wisdom, drop down the platforms, and follow the path through. You’ll eventually come to the Shrine of Oryx. In here, continue through the path to Crota’s Shrine.
When you get there, you’ll be faced with several enemies including large Psion. When you kill him, some more Hive runes will spawn. You can only see and shoot those runes if you still have the Weapon of Sorrow equipped.
Look at the door. You’ll see three specific Hive runes. Take note of them, and then find the corresponding runes around the shrine. From top to bottom, shoot these. If you’ve shot the correct one it will disappear.
Doing this successfully will open a nearby door and reveal another Hive crystal. Interacting with that will bring up another message box and complete the Archer’s Line suspicious signal.
Anchor of Light Suspicious Signal
The body of the dead Cabal is atop the yellow container in the area where the Soulfire Network Frequency is strongest. Interacting with this body will show the message, “Soulfire thrums deep within a princely Temple.”
Follow the glowing green Cabal bodies to the Temple of Crota. Enter the temple, and drop down the platforms at the back before going through to the back of the room and following the corridor. Continue through until you reach the caves, and navigate them. When you’re in the red area there will be more enemies to take down.
Repeat the Hive runes shooting puzzle to open the door and interact with the next crystal to complete the Anchor of Light suspicious signal. The message box that pops up will explain more about what’s going on in terms of lore.
Sorrow’s Harbor Suspicious Signal
Head to the Sorrow’s Harbor landing zone and, facing the main entrance to Sorrow’s Harbor itself, the dead Cabal will be quite far back to the left. Use the Soulfire Network Frequency to get closer to it.
Interacting with that corpse will show the message, “Soulfire surges toward a Sorrowful Revelation.” This is the K1 Revelation Lost Sector nearby. Remember to keep your Weapon of Sorrow equipped to get the Hive runes to show. Shoot them in the correct order to open the nearby door and interact with the crystal again.
Hellmouth Suspicious Signal
The Hellmouth signal is a bit more frustrating to get to since it isn’t near many fast travel points. Your best bet is to aim toward it from Sorrow’s Harbor. The body is inside the building that looks out over the Hellmouth itself.
Interacting with this body will show the message, “Soulfire roils within the nocturnal Chamber.” Continue through Hellmouth until you find the Cabal enemies. You’ll need to go through the Gatehouse, slightly take the path to the right, and end up in the caves. Navigate these, following the glowing green Cabal bodies again.
After navigating the caves, you’ll find yourself in the Circle of Bones. In this large room there are more enemies. Take them out, then continue along the path taking the right caves through The World’s Grave. Continue on through the darkened corridors into the Chamber of Night.
Once you eventually reach the main area there will be more Cabal enemies and the same Hive rune puzzle. Interact with the final crystal. When you do this, you’ll get a new Suspicious Syndicate activity in Sorrow’s Harbor. Travel back there to progress.
Sorrow’s Harbor Suspicious Syndicate
This time, we’re not looking for another Cabal body. You’re looking for the start of the secret Exotic mission. Head through the door in the footings of Sorrow’s Harbor to the far right and continue through the corridor. You’ll eventually find the Oblation: Bloodline Exotic mission start point.
Oblation: Bloodline walkthrough
You’ll spawn in below the moon. Walk forward and speak with Aunor. You’ll have to take out the laser that’s aiming at the moon. To do that, there is a long orange pipe going to a platform. On the platform you’ll take out enemies before climbing a staircase and killing a large Cabal boss.
In this room three cooling tower control fuses appear that need to be shot. After all three are destroyed, make your way to the next platform where the cooling pillar vents will open and close. Shoot them when they’re open to destroy the cooling pillar. Take the orange portal to be thrust across to the next area.
Here, you’re tasked with engaging the manual safety override. Take out some enforcers, activate the trigger, and repeat the process of destroying the control fuses and cooling pillars.
Next, it’s time to overload the laser. Head to the nearby area that was previously blocked off by a Cabal shield and go inside the building. Overload the laser by flicking the handle nearby. Use the orange portal to be thrust further to another area.
Here, there are various ways to go but just make your way up as much as possible. Navigate through the narrow cave corridors until you reach Soulfire Crux, then continue upward again.
Eventually, you’ll reach another area with a lot of traversal and jumping. Use the Hive lanterns to get to where you need to be. Remember that the goal is to head as far upward as possible, so keep that in mind when you’re choosing your path.
You’ll come to an area that seems like a dead end, but jump across the large red wall and drop down to a smaller red platform with a door. Follow the hallway down there, until you reach some stairs. There is a very small opening in the staircase itself, so jump down there.
Yet more traversal through small corridors and caves will, after what feels like an eternity, update your quest. You’ll come to a large arena with three glowing green cauldrons.
Some Wizards will be guarding a bubble of Soulfire on the ground. When you kill the Wizard, a Soulfire Vessel enemy will spawn. You can only kill him by using a finisher, but when you do, you’ll get a buff called Soulfire Charge which has around a 17-second countdown. Take the buff to any of the Hive cauldrons and deposit it there.
This needs to be repeated two more times, with some more enemies in a side room. The final room is up in a corner of the area, reached by jumping across to the jutting out rocks. This is a bit further of a run back once you have the Soulfire Charge, but easily manageable if you drop down.
This will unblock the door, where a Cabal boss will take out a Hive boss. That leaves your fireteam to handle the Cabal boss–Tau’rig, The Corrupted. He’s immune from the off, so to remove his shield you need to kill the Colossus enemies nearby. Then, you’ll need to head to the side rooms in search of more Soulfire Charges. Immune Wizards will spawn in. You can damage these by waiting for the Hive crystals that spawn in and explode, and ensuring that you’re near a Wizard when they’re due to spawn.
This will remove their shields and they can take damage again. Once they’re dead, find the Soulfire Vessel enemies to collect the Soulfire Charge. However, pay attention to where the boss is focusing their energy. You will need to deposit the Soulfire Charge into the Hive cauldron that the Cabal is drawing energy from.
Repeat that process three times to completely lower his shield, and then it’s time for the boss damage phase. Lay as much damage into him as possible. There is a health gate, so once you do enough damage his shields will go back up and you’ll have to repeat the process.
Killing the boss will guarantee the Cull’s Shadow linear fusion rifle Exotic drop. If all you’re looking for is the weapon, then you’re done here. You’ve got it, it’s fully functional, and you can leave. However, all is never quite that simple with Bungie. A message will appear that states, “The Weapon of Sorrow craves profane wisdom.”
Soulfire Succor Cull’s Shadow Exotic Catalyst
Head to the top of the area before you end the mission. Use the ledges in the cliff face to scale as high as possible. Go all the way across to the other slightly concealed, round area. You’ll find a book inscribed with Hive runs. Interact with it to “indulge Cull’s Shadow.”
A message will appear that reads, “The tome’s profane wisdom reveals Hive machinations.” Head back to the area where you have the option to end the mission and take out the enemies.
Back in the boss arena you’ll notice Hive runes begin to appear when you’re near them with the Weapon of Sorrow equipped. Remember that your new Cull’s Shadow is also a Weapon of Sorrow, so using that is fine here.
In the back right corner of the boss arena there’s a door to show you which runes to shoot, much like the puzzles earlier in the mission. After you shoot all three, you’ll get the first Cull’s Shadow catalyst–Soulfire Succor. When the door opens, you’ll have the option to start the next Exotic mission–Oblation: Soulfed. We’ll cover Soulfed in a future update to this guide so you can get all of the Cull’s Shadow catalysts.
Header image credit: Luckyy10p
