How to unlock Strand in Destiny 2 Lightfall and spend Strand Meditations

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Get Strand in Destiny 2 by playing the Lightfall campaign and unlock more abilities at the Pouka Pond

Destiny 2 Strand unlocked
(Image credit: Bungie)

To unlock Destiny 2 Strand, you need to finish the Lightfall campaign on any difficulty, and then you can unlock Subclass Fragments and more using Strand Meditations. It's quite irritating that you don't get access to the full Strand Subclasses before the end of the Destiny 2 Lightfall story, but you will at least get plenty of time to mess around with it in missions – the Destiny 2 Lightfall Headlong mission ispretty much one (tough) Strand training program from Osiris. Once you do get your Strand Subclass unlocked by accessing the Pouka Pond, you'll also be able to earn Strand Meditations, which must be spent at the pond on unlocking all the Aspects and Fragments necessary for a top-tier Stand build. Here’s exactly how you unlock Strand in Destiny 2 Lightfall and all the Aspects, Fragments, and Grenades for your Subclass.

Minor Destiny 2 Lightfall campaign spoilers ahead!

How to get Destiny 2 Lightfall Strand

Unlocking Strand is one of the last things you’ll do in the Destiny 2 Lightfall campaign, so you’re guided through the process anyway, but here’s what to expect after the final battle in the Destiny 2 Desperate Measures mission:

  1. After heading to the Tower and speaking to the necessary Destiny 2 characters there, head back to the Hall of Heroes on Neomuna.
  2. Stand by the cushions in front of the Pouka Pond and follow the ‘Meditate’ prompt to permanently unlock your Strand Subclass.
  3. Access the Pouka Pond to get 500 Strand Meditations and use the Strand shop to buy upgrades. You can also access the Pouka Pond at any time to buy more Strand powers.

Destiny 2 Strand Pouka Pond meditation point

(Image credit: Bungie)

That’s all you need to know about actually getting access to your Guardian’s Strand Subclass, but you’ll want to get Aspects and Fragments to create a powerful Destiny 2 Strand build for your Warlock, Titan, or Hunter. It’s important to note that, to unlock Strand on your other characters, you’ll need to play through the Lightfall campaign again or pay money for the optional Lightfall campaign skip. Below we’ve got further details on unlocking these upgrades with Strand Meditations and some important limitations of this system.

How to get Destiny 2 Strand Meditations and spend them

Destiny 2 Strand Meditation on the ground

(Image credit: Bungie)

You need to spend Strand Meditations at the Pouka Pond to unlock all the Strand Aspects, Fragments, and Grenade abilities for your current Class. There are numerous sources of Strand Meditations - some are one-off wads of the stuff - but you'll need to spend some time grinding to get them:

  • Defeat enemies using Strand abilities anywhere in Destiny 2: Make sure you pick up the green items enemies drop as these are the Strand Meditations you need.
  • Complete activities on Neomuna in the Vex Incursion Zone: While in the designated Vex Incursion Zone area of Neomuna, extra Strand Meditations are earned from all sources.
  • Complete Destiny 2 Terminal Overload events: Spending a Terminal Overload Key on the bonus loot chest will get you 75 Strand Meditations.
  • Legendary campaign completion: Nimbus will gift you an extra 300 Strand Meditations for this achievement.
  • Neomuna Rank 18 reward: Increase your Neomuna Rank to 18 and then you can collect 200 Strand Meditations from Nimbus. Collecting Destiny 2 Cloud Accretions will help!

With Strand Meditations in your inventory, you can take them to the Pouka Pond to spend them. Here’s what you can buy and how much they cost:

  • Threadling and Shackle Grenades = 50 Strand Meditations each
  • 2 Aspects for your Class = 150 Strand Meditations each
  • 14 Fragments for your Class = 200 Strand Meditations each
    =3200 total Strand Meditations per character

Destiny 2 Strand Fragments shop screen at Pouka Pond

(Image credit: Bungie)

However, it’s important to know that Strand unlocks are character-based, not account-based – in other words, buying a Strand Fragment from the Pouka Pond does not unlock it for all your Guardians, so you’ll need to get even more Strand Meditations to unlock each Fragment again for your other characters. Once you've got all every Strand Subclass unlock on a particular character, you'll also stop earning Strand Meditations on that character, so if you want to reduce future grinding, stockpile meditations before you unlock everything.

Overall, It’s quite the grind, although a bit less so compared to unlocking Stasis upgrades via the Destiny 2 Born in Darkness quest. Either way, Strand is fun and has great potential, so get those Fragments unlocked to sort out a powerful Subclass build and loadout!

Will Sawyer
Will Sawyer
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.