Bungie hid one last secret in Destiny 2. Quietly buried under the Moon, waiting for someone to find it. In the Monument of Triumph update, the final update Destiny 2 will ever receive, Bungie dropped a nested chain of exotic missions that culminates in a brand new Weapon of Sorrow: Cull’s Shadow, an exotic fusion rifle. This is how you get it.
UNLOCKING THE MISSION
Before you can touch Oblation: Bloodline, you have to earn the right to start it. There is no quest marker, no vendor, no obvious on-ramp.
The whole thing begins in the Scarlet Keep strike.
Load into Scarlet Keep on any difficulty. You do not need a high Power level. The only equipment requirement is a Weapon of Sorrow — Thorn, Necrochasm, Touch of Malice, Osteo Striga. Any of them will do. You do not have to use it throughout the strike. Run the strike normally until you reach the Hashladûn boss fight, defeat her, and then equip the Weapon of Sorrow. With it equipped, three Hive runes will appear around the arena — they are only visible to players holding a Weapon of Sorrow. Shoot all three. A gate in the arena will open. Head through it, turn right, and interact with the Hive crystal inside.
That crystal initialises what the game calls the Soulfire Network. From this point forward, four Suspicious Syndicate Activity waypoints will appear across the Moon patrol zone.
Archer’s Line — Monarch’s Shrine
The first waypoint sits in Archer’s Line. Within the activity circle, your HUD displays a Soulfire Network Frequency bar — think of it as a hot-and-cold signal. The closer you move to the target, the fuller the meter. You are looking for a dead, glowing green Cabal body. Interact with it. It will show the hint: Soulfire seethes within a Monarch’s Shrine. Then follow the trail of similar corpses that mark the route like breadcrumbs into a Hive structure in the northeast canyon. Inside, clear the Totality Division enemies and the Totality Sapper Scion miniboss. A locked door will appear, sealed with Hive runes. Equip the Weapon of Sorrow — the runes are invisible without it — and shoot them in order from top to bottom. The door opens. Interact with the crystal inside.
Anchor of Light — Princely Temple
The second waypoint is in Anchor of Light. The initial Cabal body gives the hint: Soulfire thrums deep within a princely temple. Follow the corpse trail to a Hive structure on the east side of the area. There is a fresh hole blown in one of the walls — the Totality Division has been busy. Head inside, clear enemies, shoot the runes top to bottom, and interact with the crystal.
Hellmouth — Nocturnal Chamber
The third waypoint sends you into the Hellmouth, deep into a part of the Moon that players of the original Destiny will recognise. From the surface, descend through The Gatehouse, into the Circle of Bones, and follow the corpse trail right into the World’s Grave. Keep heading into the dark tunnel at the far end. A Totality Division squad is protecting another sealed door at the tunnel’s terminus. Clear them. Shoot the runes. Interact with the crystal.
Sorrow’s Harbor — Sorrowful Revelation
The fourth and final crystal is actually inside the K1 Revelation Lost Sector in Sorrow’s Harbor — which will make sense to anyone who knows the sector’s name. In the boss room, a new door has appeared on the right side, sealed with Hive runes. Shooting the runes also summons a squad of Totality Division — the Hive and the Cabal are not happy with each other here, which helps. Interact with the crystal to complete the fourth node.
The Mission Unlocks
After interacting with all four crystals, a new activity circle appears near the entrance to the Scarlet Keep in Sorrow’s Harbour. Pull out your Ghost to track the exotic marker. Through a tunnel to the right of the Keep’s entrance, you will find the launch point for Oblation: Bloodline. You can also launch it directly from the Moon destination screen thereafter.
OBLATION: BLOODLINE
The mission opens underground, beneath the Moon. Aunor Mahal is here. She explains what is happening: the Totality Division, the Cabal splinter cell responsible for the Syndicate activity across the Moon, is drilling into the lunar surface with a massive energy beam. They are after something. Specifically, they are after Dredgen Cull’s weapon, hidden here centuries ago. You need to stop the drill, go deeper, and take Cull’s Shadow before they can.
Sabotaging the Drill
The first section of the mission is largely mechanical — no exotic combat encounter, just systematic sabotage.
Drop down off the ledge to your left before reaching the large red tower and fall to the platform below. Rather than pushing forward, turn to face the Psion snipers behind you. Take the stairs up to them and defeat the shielded Centurion guarding the command console. Once he is dead, override the Safety Controls — flip the switch. Three blue fuses will appear behind the switch. Destroy all three.
The fuses activate Cooling Pillars below you. Each Cooling Pillar has four vents on its sides that open and close periodically, glowing a hot red when open. Shoot a vent while it is open to damage it. Break all four vents on a pillar, and it fails. The first pillar is past the initial drop point. Destroying it activates a man cannon nearby — take it to the next area.
The second area repeats the process with more complexity. Defeat the shielded Centurion, flip the switch, and locate the three fuses. The first fuse is above and to the left of the switch. The second is directly across from it. The third is across the platform to the left. Destroy all three, then take out the vents on the two remaining Cooling Pillars in this section.
With the pillars down, head back toward the entrance and into the command centre built into the rock face — the energy shield guarding it has dropped. Clear the room, flip the final switch to overload the laser drill, then take the man cannon into the hole it leaves behind.
The Ascent
The next section is pure platforming — a long climb up through the cavity the drill created, then through an extensive cave system above. The Shacknews guide describes it plainly: head to the back of the cave opened by the laser drill, jump up into the light green cave to your left, then across to where Acolytes were sniping at you. Use the Acolytes as guides — wherever they are standing is a platform you can reach. The snipers are functional waypoints.
As you near the top of the first room, look across at a platform covered with stalactites. Hop across and take a right through the tunnels. At a dead end, jump up onto the ledge above, then continue into a large area called the Soulfire Crux.
In the Crux, jump across the chasm to your right, then up onto the hanging sarcophagi — the suspended burial chambers that recall everything dark about this place. Use the sarcophagi and the jutting rock platforms on the cave walls to keep ascending. More Acolytes mark the way. At the top, against the back wall, is a large hallway with windows blocked by iron bars. Jump onto the hall’s roof and look over the ledge on the far side — there is a platform below you.
Turn left and look at the final set of stairs leading up into what appears to be a sealed chamber. There is a crack in the stairs. Drop through it. Follow the caverns down into a pit, and continue forward into another large room with the same scarlet towers you have been passing through the whole mission.
Use the left-hand platforms to ascend to a pair of Wizards, then continue using Acolytes as waypoints until you can look down and see the first proper encounter of the mission.
Extinguish the Soulfire Barrier
A massive column of soulfire is blocking the path forward. Three unlit braziers surround it. You need to light all three.
The mechanic works like this: Pyre Matron Wizards are guarding a Soulfire Vessel — a Thrall enemy encased in energy. Kill the Wizards, then finish the Vessel with a melee to gain the Soulfire Charge buff, which has a timer. Run the buff to one of the unlit braziers and dunk it.
The first Vessel is in the central area. Kill the Pyre Matron, finish the Vessel, and dunk it in the nearest brazier. Enemies will spawn pointing you toward the second Vessel, which is through a doorway in the direction they came from. Clear the entire room, including three more Pyre Matrons, which will drop the shield around the second Vessel. Melee finish it, then return to the middle and dunk the second brazier.
For the third Vessel, look for Acolytes in the back left of the area — they are your waypoint, as always. Follow them up rocky ledges to the top of a red iron tower. Past the Ogre waiting there, you will find a room full of Pyre Matrons and Knights. Clear them, finish the Vessel, dunk the final brazier. The soulfire barrier collapses, and the boss room opens.
Boss: Valus Tau’Rig, The Insatiable
Tau’Rig is a Cabal Valus — a general. He is here for the same reason you are, and he is not going to step aside.
Phase one is deceptively straightforward. His initial health bar is thin for a boss of his stature. Burn it down with whatever you have — Praxic Blade, rockets, linear fusions. He will go immune before he dies.
Phase two is when the mission’s mechanics return. Three more powerful Wizards — Pyre Cantors rather than Matrons — have empowered him. They will briefly disappear, then reappear to guard a Soulfire Vessel while Tau’Rig begins absorbing energy from one of the braziers around the room. Follow the Cantors to wherever they are guarding the Vessel. Clear them. Finish the Vessel with a melee. Take the Soulfire Charge to the specific brazier the boss is siphoning from — dumping it there interrupts the siphon and drops his immunity shield. This is important: you have to match the buff to the brazier Tau’Rig is using, not just any brazier.
Damage him. He is significantly tankier now, so commit your best DPS tools. At fifty per cent health, he goes immune again, and the cycle repeats — same process, with the addition of Ogre enemies harassing you throughout. Follow the Cantors, clear them, finish the Vessel, interrupt the siphon at the correct brazier, and push him to zero.
Cull’s Shadow drops when he dies. It is yours. You are done — but you are not finished.
GOING DEEPER (Oblation: Soulfed Unlock + First Catalyst)
Do not interact with the mission-end prompt. Do not leave.
Equip Cull’s Shadow, your new Weapon of Sorrow, and head back into the first encounter area. Clear every enemy remaining in the space, including the larger ones. Then ascend to where you found the third buff during the encounter. A message will appear on screen: *The Weapon of Sorrow craves profane wisdom.*
Jump across the sarcophagi to the right of where the final wave of enemies spawned. Keep to the right until you find a floating Hive grimoire — a tome suspended in the air. Interact with it to indulge Cull’s Shadow in its contents. Hive runes will now appear on the walls of the boss room.
Return to the boss’s room. Shoot the runes in order, top to bottom, as you have done at every sealed door throughout this quest. The seal breaks. A new door opens in the back right corner of the room.
Approaching that door does two things: it grants the first exotic catalyst for Cull’s Shadow — Soulfire Succour — and it gives you the option to launch Oblation: Soulfed directly from within the mission. That second exotic mission can also be accessed from the Moon destination screen from this point forward.
There are further missions and further catalysts beyond Soulfed. That is a separate video. What you have right now is the weapon, its first catalyst, and the understanding of what Bungie built here: not just a hidden quest, but a layered, self-referential love letter to the community concealed inside the final update of a twelve-year-old game.