Cull's Shadow Exotic Guide

You need a Weapon of Sorrow. No substitutions. These are the only weapons that interact with the Hive rune symbols scattered through every step. Pick one and keep it in your inventory the entire quest.

• Thorn: buy it from Monument to Lost Light, no excuses
• Necrochasm: Crota's End exotic, if you've run that raid
• Touch of Malice: King's Fall exotic
• Osteo Striga: craftable, requires the pattern

Note: You don't need the Weapon of Sorrow equipped the whole time. Swap to it when runes appear. The game won't hold your hand about when that is.

Scarlet Keep Strike

Launch the Scarlet Keep strike from the Moon or the Portal: any difficulty works, including the easiest one. Play through it normally. Near the end, Hashladun spawns. Kill her. Once she's dead, three Hive runes appear on the walls of the arena.

Equip your Weapon of Sorrow and shoot the three runes. Order matters: top to bottom. A gate opens behind the boss area. Go through it, turn right, and interact with the Hive crystal. It delivers an ominous message about darkness building beneath the Moon. Read it or skip it: either way, you're moving to the patrol zone next.

Tip: Equip the Weapon of Sorrow after the boss dies. The runes spawn on boss defeat, not before.

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Moon Crystal Hunt

Four Hive crystals are now marked on your Moon patrol map. Some phantom markers may appear for unrelated things: ignore them. The four you need are in patrol-accessible areas, each guarded by Cabal infused with Soulfire. A meter at the bottom of your screen fills when you're near them. Use it when lost.

Order doesn't matter. Collect all four, then return to the Temple of Crota and interact with the original crystal again. Congrats: you've unlocked three more crystals to find. Bungie loves you.

Second Crystal Set

1. Deep Hellmouth: keep descending past where the Hive tried to revive Crota in D1. Another door, more rune symbols, same drill.
2. K1 Revelation Lost Sector (Sorrow's Harbor): run to the end, shoot symbols, open the door.
3. Shrine of Oryx: accessible from Archer's Line.

Oblation: Bloodline Mission

Head to Sorrow's Harbor. Go right, under the bridge before the Scarlet Keep entrance. Drop into the hidden hole underneath the bridge. A secret room sits here. Interact with the door inside to launch Oblation: Bloodline: the first of three exotic missions in this chain. Yes, three. Start walking.

Mission Walkthrough

1. Spawn near a thresher. Override security panels.
2. Shoot the vents on cooling pillars to destroy them (all sides).
3. Pull the next lever: look for Cabal structures to navigate. Destroy blue fuses in the area.
4. Enter the cave. Navigate Hive tunnels upward: jump on lanterns, Scarlet structures, keep climbing through the soulfire crux.
5. Cross the bridge into the final encounter area.

Boss: Valus Tau'Rig

The final encounter follows a three-phase loop. Kill ads, finish a Thrall to earn a buff, bank the buff on a brazier. Right side first, then left, then center up top. Lighting all three opens the boss room.

Deplete Tau'Rig's health. At 50% he goes immune: Pyre Cantor Wizards reappear and guard a Soulfire Vessel. Follow the Wizards, claim the vessel, dunk it at the brazier Tau'Rig is draining. Repeat. Kill him. Cull's Shadow drops.

Do not leave. More content unlocks immediately after the boss dies. Equip Cull's Shadow and look for a Hive book on the upper platform.

The base weapon runs the Blades of Unmaking exotic perk. Melee kills generate Soulfire Charges. Charges convert your fusion rounds into corruption-inflicting projectiles. Corrupted targets take increased melee damage. Killed corrupted targets drop soulfire crystals. Destroy crystals with the blades for AoE. It's a loop: get into it or don't bother with the gun.

Three more catalyst traits unlock through additional secret missions triggered after completing Oblation: Bloodline. Each requires another rune puzzle. Each is worth doing.

OPTIONAL BUT NOT OPTIONAL Catalyst Missions

After the Bloodline boss dies, go back into the first encounter area. Clear all remaining enemies. Climb to the third buff position from the encounter. Find a floating Hive book: interact with it. Runes spawn. Shoot them in order with Cull's Shadow or any Weapon of Sorrow. This unlocks Oblation: Soulfed and immediately grants you the Soulfire Succor catalyst.

Progress through Soulfed and locate six more rune sequences scattered through the mission. Complete all six in order to unlock the Soulfire Zeal trait and open the portal to the final mission, Oblation: Emulation. That last mission ends the chain and rewards Soulfire Skewer. Oblation missions are replayable for farming purposes.