Destiny 2 Dark Academia quest walkthrough
The Dark Academia quest in Destiny 2 Edge of Fate requires you to open a complicated door

Destiny 2’s Dark Academia quest is one of the many side missions you’ll unlock as you adventure through Kepler, the mysterious destination that hosts The Edge of Fate’s new campaign and kickoff to Destiny 2’s “Fate” saga.
Deep into the Exile’s Accord zone, in the section called Augur’s Bethel, Ikora will ask you to help the native population get past a big, locked door. In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll walk you through how to open the door for the Aionians so you can reap the (meager) rewards and make some progress toward the “Fated Weapon” title.
How to start the Dark Academia quest in Destiny 2
Once you’ve completed enough of the Edge of Fate campaign on Kepler to unlock Mattermorph, the Dark Academia quest should show up in Augur’s Bethel. Fast travel to the Curtilage Divide, then follow the guide lines and the marker on your map down through the green tunnel. It’s a pretty straight shot from the landing zone to the quest, but make sure you mark Dark Academia on your map so the icon shows you when to turn left.
Eventually, you’ll find yourself in an area with a bit of a Fallen infestation. If you continue along the tunnel, past the enemies, you’ll find a door next to a generator that has a barrier around it. If you look above the door, you’ll see three unlit lights. To light these and open the door, you’ll need to locate three charges spread around the immediate area and destroy them.
Where to find charge 1
The first charge is located very close to the door, and isn’t covered by any kind of barrier:
- Turn around from the door and take the first left. You’ll see a little bridge leading to the rest of the area.
- Jump down and look under the bridge. You’ll see a pipe here with an exposed charge sitting in it that you can shoot.
Where to find charge 2
For the other two charges, you’re going to need Mattermorph, which is pretty out of the way, so let’s tackle how to find the Mattermorph hive first, then the second charge:
- Climb up onto an angled pipe in the back of the room. You’ll know you’re on the right pipe junction if it’s connected to a giant, circular cog on either end (one of which will have a laser grid).
- Once the pipe levels out and you’re squarely on the second floor of this zone, look ahead of you and you’ll see a pipe with that familiar dull glow of a Mattermorph interactive item.
- Ignore this for now and instead turn right. You’ll see a thinner pipe junction moving up into the zone. At the top of this smaller junction, you’ll find a giant batch of spores and a Mattermorph hive.
- Run up to the hive and grab Mattermorph.
- Come back down to the larger pipe junction and use Mattermorph on the glowing green pipe from before. This will move it enough for you to peek in and shoot the second charge.
Where to find charge 3
Charge 3 is mercifully easy to find once you know where the Mattermorph is:
- Grab another Mattermorph charge to re-up your time, and head down to the train, which is resting just under the big pipe junction. To the right of the train, you’ll see a glowing panel on the wall.
- Hit the panel with your Mattermorph to expose the final charge.
- Destroy it and head back to the door.
- Pop into Matterspark and charge the generator by the door. If you haven’t finished the campaign yet, you’ll need to run over to the nearby Matterspark pylon.
- With the door open, interact with the object on the ground to "begin Ikora side quest", which feels a little silly considering we’re already at the end of the quest.
Head back to the Caldera to report your findings to Dean Rebecca and you’ll get a Tier 2 Kepler weapon and three Fated Ciphers for your trouble.
Make sure you're clued up on how Destiny 2 Armor 3.0 works and what the Destiny 2 Edge of Fate Exotics are that you'll be chasing after the campaign.
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Ryan started playing games before he started making memories, but he began writing about them for a living in 2016, when his first League of Legends guide for Polygon's satellite esports site, The Rift Herald. After years of freelance, contract, and part-time work with Polygon proper, he was finally hired full-time in 2019. Ryan left Polygon in 2025 after Vox Media sold the site. He's since started his own, alongside a former co-worker, dedicated to high-quality guides: BigFriendly.Guide. Ryan will play pretty much anything, but has a particular affinity to progression-heavy loot games, ARPGs, and metroidvanias. He's written hundreds of Destiny guides over the years, and loves helping others better understand complex games and their systems.
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