Destiny 2: The Final Shape | How to Unlock and Farm the Exotic Class Items (Dual Destiny Exotic Quest Guide)

As week 2 of The Final Shape arrives in Destiny 2, new secrets and storylines have begun to unveil themselves. Between the start of the episodic storyline with Failsafe and the Vex, creepy Ghosts appearing across a transformed Nessus, and a slate of new Vex-inspired gear to hunt, Guardians are continuing the hearty meal delivered to them by this incredible expansion. However, possibly the most exciting revelation for most Guardians is that the Exotic Class items are now able to be acquired. 

Exotic Class Items were one of the most hyped-up aspects of The Final Shape as they allow players to combine the effects of two other Exotics into one. While the available perk pools are limited, these Exotics are an incredible boon for build crafting and now they’re available to earn from a new secret Exotic mission. However, this Exotc mission takes the term ‘secret’ to the extreme, like the original Whisper mission from back in Destiny 2 Year 1. There are a lot of steps to do and a lot of hidden tasks to perform to even unlock the mission. So, we’re here to give you a hand.

Here’s how to unlock the Dual Destiny secret Exotic Mission and claim the new Exotic Class Items for yourself.

If you’re looking for more Destiny 2: The Final Shape content and guides, then you can find it here on KeenGamer:

1. Destiny 2: The Final Shape | How to Unlock the Legendary Khvostov 7G-02
2. Destiny 2: The Final Shape | How to Unlock the Exotic Khvostov 7G-0X
3. Destiny 2: The Final Shape | How to Unlock All Prismatic Fragments, Aspects, and Abilities
4. Destiny 2: The Final Shape | All Salvation’s Edge Secret Chest Locations
5. Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin Dungeon Guide | All Encounters Explained

Solipsism Exotic Bond

How to Unlock the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission

The Exotic Class Items drop from a new secret Exotic Mission, Dual Destiny. The path to unlocking this Exotic Mission is much more like the original Whisper mission back in Vanilla Destiny 2 where you are given very few hints.

To begin, make your way to The Pale Heart of the Traveler and start a round of Overthrow, the main patrol activity within the Pale Heart. Whether you begin in The Landing, The Blooming, or The Impasse doesn’t really matter because you’ll eventually be completing Overthrow in all three locations anyway. Upon defeating the final boss of Overthrow and claiming your loot, you’ll get a mysterious message informing you that a “Secret Keeper of Savathun Has Appeared.” Once you see that message, you have until the start of the next Overthrow to find these Keepers – who are Lucent Hive Warlocks – and defeat them. 

The Secret Keepers can be found in the following locations:

• The Landing: In the cave system by the Lost Sector
• The Blooming: In the hidden canyon near The Seclusion entrance
• The Impasse: In the opening near the Lost Sector

Once you have defeated all three Secret Keepers from all three Overthrow Locations, a sickly ray of green light will shoot up into the sky somewhere near the start of The Pale Heart. Following this beam will take you to The Refraction and, specifically, to the crystallised statue of Savathun from Season of the Lost which will begin laughing as you approach it. 

You will then receive the Savathun’s Envoy buff for six minutes and be directed deeper into The Refraction where two mini Pyramid Ships await. These ships will spawn a legion of Dread, mainly Husks and Grim, who will hunt you relentlessly. Eventually, after defeating enough of them, a very tanky Subjugator will spawn at each ship. Deal enough damage to these Subjugators and they’ll vanish, leaving behind either an Orb of Light or an Orb of Darkness. 

With both of the orbs in your possession, you need to haul them back to Savathun’s statue and deposit them on special Light and Dark plates. If you manage to do so while you have Savathun’s Envoy, some enemies will spawn alongside a flag which will take you into the Dual Destiny secret Exotic Mission. 

However, there is a roadblock before entering the Exotic Mission. Dual Destiny is the first Exotic Mission in Destiny 2 which must be completed in a fireteam of two people: you cannot launch it solo nor in a full fireteam of three. This is due to several special mechanics throughout the Exotic Mission which require heavy communication from both players, so bring a mic and be ready to talk to your partner.

Dual Destiny Exotic Mission

Dual Destiny Exotic Mission Guide

Encounter 1

The first major encounter in Dual Destiny takes place in the same location as the Sword Dance Cyst. Here, the Light-Aligned and Dark-Aligned players will be split up and have to deal with their own set of adds on two layers of the room. Eventually, both of them will get a special Major adversary – a Taken Phalanx for the Light-Aligned player and a Taken Knight for the Dark-Aligned player – with either a Light shield or a Dark shield. These enemies will drop a special mote upon defeat. 

For the Light-Aligned player, picking up a Mote of Light will reveal a symbol on a pedestal near their plate. These symbols are the exact same ones from the Vow of the Disciple Raid and you must call them out in order (left to right). For this first room, the Light Aligned player needs to defeat two majors to grab two Motes of Light and spawn in two symbols.

At the same time, whenever the Dark-Aligned player picks up a Dark Mote, it will spawn several floating resonances around the room with symbols on top of them. The Dark player then needs to shoot the same symbols called out by the Light player. If the symbol you need to shoot isn’t currently available, defeat another Knight to spawn a new batch of symbols.

Light-Aligned Player POV

So, in short:

1. Kill Light-shielded Phalanxes to spawn Light Motes which reveal symbols.
2. Kill Dark-shielded Knights to spawn Dark Motes which summon floating resonances. 
3. The Light-Aligned player must call out which symbols need shooting in order from left to right.
4. The Dark-Aligned player must shoot the resonances associated with those symbols. 
5. Repeat that process until you shoot all the summoned symbols. 

Once the Dark player has shot the two symbols correctly, both players will be teleported to a new part of the Cyst. This time, the roles have reversed: picking up Light Motes from the Phalanxes will spawn the floating resonances, whereas picking up Dark Motes will spawn the symbols you need to shoot. Also, you now need to shoot three symbols instead of just two. 

After successfully shooting the symbols in the second room, you’ll repeat the process again in a third room where the original roles of each player will be returned to them. If you manage to spawn and then shoot this last batch of four symbols, the first major encounter in the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission in Destiny 2: The Final Shape will be complete.

Dark-Aligned Player POV

Encounter 2

After a rather lengthy jumping puzzle, you’ll arrive at the second encounter in Dual Destiny. Instead of symbols or Taken Majors, you’ll be presented by a semi-circle made out of resonance switches, the same kind seen in both Vow of the Disciple and Onslaught.

Once the encounter begins, an unrelenting wave of Taken and Dread will begin to assault your position. After defeating enough enemies, a Tormentor will appear in the middle of the map and whoever lands the final blow on it will receive the Harmonious Balance buff for 30 seconds. This allows them to shoot any of the resonance switches: shoot the wrong switch, though, and the sequence will change, spawning a bunch of Husks as an added insult. 

Between you and your partner, you need to discover which three switches need shooting in each sequence. However, a key detail you may have missed is that you and your partner will see a different set of active switches. The easiest way to call out which switches are active is to assign them a number (1 is the top left and 9 is the top right). Active switches will be tethered to the middle of the pyramid, whereas inactive switches will be turned off and have no tether. 

Encounter 2 Callouts

There are two primary methods to discover which switches need shooting:

• Call out which switches are inactive for both players and then trigger the switches neither of you mentioned. For example, if player one calls out switches 1, 4, and 7 as being inactive, and player two calls out switches 2, 3, and 6, then you can safely shoot switches 5, 8, and 9. 
• Alternatively, one player can call out all six of their active switches and the other player will tell them which switches match their own active set. For example, if player one calls out 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 8 as their active switches, player two will then call out that they also have switches 2, 4, and 7. 

No matter how you figure it out, you need to repeat the process three times to clear the encounter. Because the Harmonious buff has a short 30-second timer, we recommend trying to work out which switches need activating before you spawn and defeat the Tormentor.

Defeat the Tormentor to Induce Balance

Encounter 3

The last encounter in Dual Destiny has a lot going on between several puzzle mechanics and a dual boss fight against two deadly Subjugators. The first one you’ll face down is the Stasis Subjugator you found in The Refraction.

Once the boss gains an immune shield, you need to clear the room of any adds to spawn in two Serville Wizards, one Light and one Dark. Just like in the first encounter, they will drop Motes which allows one player to see a series of three symbols in the middle of the room, whereas the other player will see many resonances they can shoot. Simply call out the middle symbols from top to bottom and have the other player shoot them. 

This will take down the boss’ shield and allow you to damage them until you hit about 1/3rd of their health. At that point, they’ll teleport away and another Subjugator will take their place. This fight works the same as the first: whale on the Subjugator until it summons a shield, then kill all of the remaining adds, defeat the Servile Wizards, and call out the symbols you need.

Old Habits

Things begin to get really interesting once the second Subjugator disappears. At that point, two giant clock-like structures will activate on opposite sides of the room. In place of numbers, you will see twelve resonance switches tethered to a pyramid at the centre of the clock. so you can call them out exactly like a clock face. Like with the switches in the second encounter, both players will see different things on each clock: on one, all of the switches will be active whereas, on the other, only four will be active and constantly changing every 10 seconds or so. 

You need to go to the side where only four of the switches are active. To successfully clear this stage of Dual Destiny, have one player quickly call out their four active switches. The other player then needs to see which switch matches an active switch on their clock. They then need to call it out and both players need to shoot the same switch before the sequence switches over.

For example, if the active switches for player one are 1, 3, 5, and 11, and the active switches for player two are 2, 6, 7, and 11, the second player will need to call out they both have switch 11 active. Then, both players must shoot switch 11 before the sequence changes over to successfully unlock one of the switches. 

Encounter 3 Clock Callouts

You’ll need to repeat this process three times in a row without mistakes. If you mess up and shoot the wrong switch, the lock will reactivate and you’ll need to go through all three locks again. However, pick all three locks successfully and you’ll unleash the Subjgators back onto the field. 

So, in essence, the encounter goes as follows: 

1. Damage the Subjugator until it disappears. 
2. Find the Servile Wizards to spawn symbols and resonances to shoot.
3. Shoot the correct resonances according to the called symbols. 
4. Rinse and repeat steps 1 to 3 with the second Subjugator. 
5. Once both Subjugators have vanished, each player needs to go to one of the clocks on either side of the room. They need to go to the clock with only four active switches from their POV. 
6. Both players need to shoot the matching switches in each sequence three times.
7. If done successfully, both Subjugators will reappear and you can defeat them. 

Claim Your Prize

The Duel

Upon defeating the Subjugators, you’ll enter a room and find your shiny new Exotic Class Items enshrined in amber. However, upon stepping into the Light and Dark plates like you’ve done many times before, a wave of Darkness will overcome and kill you as Savathun laughs manically in the background. 

Savathun will summon you back to the arena where you fought the Subjugators, only now your opponent is your partner. This section essentially acts like a mini-game of the Crucible. Once one of you defeats the other, a choice will appear: do you crush your partner’s Ghost and show relentless fury, or do you spare them and show Mercy? This choice is more flavourful than impactful but, to make sure that your sanity (and friendship) remains intact, we recommend choosing the Mercy option. 

Whatever you choose, Savathun will have some choice words to give you before finally awarding you your coveted Exotic Class Item. 

Ruthlessness or Mercy?

How to Farm the Exotic Class Items in Destiny 2: The Final Shape

Each Exotic Class Item has the chance to roll with a massive number of Exotic trait combinations. As such, many players will want to obtain as many rolls of the Exotic Class Item as possible to trick out their builds with various crazy combos.

There are two main ways to farm new rolls of the Exotic Class Item. The first is the most simple. Complete the Dual Destiny Exotic Mission again and a new Exotic Class Item will drop at the end of the mission. You can do this as many times as you like and you can launch the Exotic Mission from the Pale Heart map.

Exotic Class Item

Alternatively, if you’re solo and don’t want to run the mission again, you can simply explore the Pale Heart. Once you’ve unlocked the Exotic Class Item, a new upgrade will unlock at Ghost, giving you a rare chance to obtain a new Exotic Class Item whenever you open any chest in the Pale Chest. This includes Overthrow Chests, Resonance Chests, and even just small resource chests you find out and about as you explore. While the chance is fairly low, this makes for a good grind to do alongside farming Overthrow for a nice Ergo Sum. 

That was how to unlock, and farm, the new Exotic Class Items in Destiny 2: The Final Shape.

How to Farm the Exotic Class Item