It’s a brand new week in Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals which means we’ve got another weekly Interference mission and a Means to an End quest for Guardians to complete. Head over to the Prismatic Recaster in the Tower, pick up your bounties, and let’s get started with our mini-guide.
Note: For more information about the other activities and content for this season, check out our Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals guides and features hub.
Update: Head over here if you’re keen on checking out the quest and mission for week 4. (Hint: it’s kind of the same as what we’ve completed during week 1.)
Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals – Week 3 Means to an End quest
Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals‘ third week will have a slightly different take on the Means to an End quest that you pick up from the Prismatic Recaster. Of course, you still need to head to Io’s Lost Oasis zone to do a couple of Contact public events.
The difference here is that the heroic boss fight you get will be against a giant Taken knight called the Taken Howler. It’ll be paired up with a smaller Taken knight called a Bond Brother.
These bad boys have similar mechanics that long-time Destiny 2 fans will remember: Mengoor and Cra’adug, bosses from the Court of Oryx. For starters, they’ll have an immunity shield that you can’t bypass.
The only make their immunity shield go away is if you bring them closer together. This can be done by just pushing them with swords or having players lure them into moving closer to each other.
Once their shields are down, go wail away on them. If you’re able to kill both of them in quick succession, then great. If not, the Taken Howler will be shielded again and another Bond Brother will spawn. Try to keep them in close proximity as usual to remove their shields. Complete a couple of these Contact public events to finish the first step of the Means to an End quest.
Note: Killing the Taken Howlers is part of the “Contact: Heavy Hitters” triumph, a requirement for the Forerunner seal/title. Unfortunately, this triumph is currently bugged and the tally won’t get updated for some reason.
Umbral Essences collection
For Destiny 2: Season of Arrival‘s third week, you’ll need to collect Umbral Essences by way of Menagerie runs, Heroic Adventures, Crucible Survival/Elimination, or Trials of Osiris. You can also gain Umbral Essences via “disintegrations” or kills that melt opponents with elemental damage such as supers, some charged melee attacks, heavy sword attacks, fusion rifles, and the like. Here are some examples:
- Striker (top or bottom tree) with Insurmountable Skullfort; just shoulder charge or punch everyone to death.
- Arcstrider cross counter melee -> dodge to regain melee charge -> keep punching stuff.
- Loaded Question, Telesto, or Jotunn.
- Heavy sword attacks from Temptation’s Hook or Falling Guillotine.
- The “Forked Lightning” effect from Trinity Ghoul.
In any case, just ignore all the other options and queue up for the Menagerie (Nessus director) to farm some kills. Bosses/ultras will even net you heaps and hoards of Umbral Essences to quicken your progress.
Note: If it’s your first time doing the Menagerie activity, head over to our Menagerie basics and encounters guide.
As for the encounters, the Riposte and the Hunted are your best bets when trying to farm Umbral Essences due to the high mob density. The Crystal and Gauntlet encounters are also decent (in case you can’t get Riposte or Hunted); for the latter, you can kill your character and respawn while everyone else is running through the obstacle course. Because the disintegration kills of other blueberries would count, you should see faster progress overall.
Note: It’s possible for your Umbral Essences tally to no longer update despite eliminating countless hostiles in encounters like Risposte or Hunted. That’s fine because it’s probably just lag. You’ll see these quest items pop up a few seconds later, even after the encounters are finished.
Arunak is the Menagerie boss this week in Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals. The boss fight also has a lot of adds spawning for you to get more Umbral Essences towards the end.
You should be done in a single clear. If not, just queue up and do it all over again.
Weekly Interference mission
The weekly Interference mission follows the usual pattern of clearing the mobs around the Tree of Silver Wings. That’s followed by doing damage to Savathun’s shrieker until you get teleported to a new Court of Savathun location.
In this week’s Court of Savathun, you’ll spot three shielded crystals that you can’t destroy yet. That’s because you’ll have to eliminate some Savathun’s Envoys.
The first area will have Hive wizards:
The next part will have an anti-barrier knight champion (and lots of other knights actually), while the last part will have a couple of ogres:
Remember to destroy all three crystals to open up the Hive locks:
Of course, in the end, you’ll be facing Savathun’s gigantic shrieker. It’ll close up at certain intervals when you do a lot of damage. Just kill the mobs and make it open up again.
Once you’re done, pick up the Umbral Engram, go through the portal, and speak to Eris Morn. You’ll get another lore entry when the dialogue’s done.
Lastly, fly back to the Tower and pick up your pinnacle reward from the Prismatic Recaster. If you still need help with pinnacle drops and power level increases, head over to our leveling guide.
Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals is available on Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
