Completing the Destiny 2 Oblation mission is how you get the new Cull's Shadow weapon, but it's not a quest that's simply given to you. In fact, unlocking the Oblation mission is arguably the hardest and potentially most time-consuming part of getting Cull's Shadow, as you need to investigate Hive objects all over the Moon first. Only after that can you begin the mission, which is thankfully quite straightforward. To help you get Cull's Shadow in Destiny 2, here's a full guide on how to unlock and complete Oblation.
How to unlock Destiny 2 Oblation
Before getting started with unlocking the Oblation mission in Destiny 2, you must have one of the four Weapons of Sorrow equipped – those are Thorn, Osteo Striga, Touch of Malice, and Necrochasm, with Thorn being the easiest to obtain as any player can get it from the Monument to Lost Light provided they have enough Glimmer and one Exotic Cipher.
So, with one of the above weapons in hand, here's what you need to do to unlock Oblation:
- Play through the Scarlet Keep Strike on the Moon as normal until you reach the Hashladun boss fight at the end. Draw your Weapon of Sorrow and shoot the three green Hive symbols around the arena to lower the main gate.
- Defeat Hashladun, then go through the gate and into the room on the right where you'll find a Hive crystal. Follow the button prompt to investigate it, which will reveal several locations on the Moon map you need to search.
- Head to each marked location and use the Soulfire Network Frequency indicator to home in on a dead Syndicate trooper that you need to examine. This will then give you a vague clue to a different location, with a trail of dead Syndicate troopers roughly guiding you. Here's where to look for each location:
- Archer's Line: The trooper is in the crater in the middle of this area. Afterwards, head to the Shrine of Oryx via the Hive doorway on the east side of the area. You'll reach the Hall of Wisdom first, at which point you need to take the first left to find the tunnel to the Shrine of Oryx.
- Anchor of Light: Find the dead trooper on top of a small building that's part of the colony structure in the north of the area. Next, go down to the Temple of Crota using the path in the east.
- Hellmouth: Go to the main Hellmouth entrance to find the dead trooper, then descend to the Chamber of Night. To get there, follow the downward path and then bear right once you reach the Circle of Bones. Pass through the door to reach the World's Grave, then carry on down the dark tunnel to reach the Chamber of Night.
- Sorrow's Harbor: The dead trooper is on a raised area on the northern edge of the location and west of the bridge into the Scarlet Keep. After examining, you'll be directed to the K1 Revelations Lost Sector.
- Upon reaching the ends of these four trails, you'll find a small force of Cabal soldiers (or the Lost Sector boss in the case of K1 Revelations) guarding a doorway locked by Hive symbol seals. Draw your Weapon of Sorrow and green Hive symbols will appear in the surrounding area, as in the Scarlet Keep Strike.
- Following the door seal symbols from top to bottom, shoot the corresponding green symbols with your Weapon of Sorrow to unseal the door and reveal another Hive crystal to investigate.
- Head back to Sorrow's Harbor and make your way inside the tunnel that runs under the bridge into the Scarlet Keep, which can be accessed below the east side of the bridge. In this tunnel you'll find a door from which you can begin the Oblation: Bloodline Exotic Mission, although you should now be able to launch it from the Moon map.
Now that you've got the Oblation Exotic Mission unlocked in Destiny 2, you can complete it to get Cull's Shadow.
How to get Cull's Shadow in Destiny 2
The Oblation mission in Destiny 2, at least the Bloodlines version of it, isn't particularly long or difficult, which makes getting Cull's Shadow quite easy. Here's a walkthrough of everything you need to do:
- Head downward through the Necropolis, then find the Cabal control panel and follow the 'Override Safety Protocols' button prompt to get started.
- Destroy the Cooling Tower Control Fuses and Cooling Pillars: Start by shooting the three glowing fuses in the large pipes near the control panel, then destroy the four heat vents on the nearby Cooling Pillar.
- Use the nearby cannon to get fired over to the next area, override another control panel, then repeat step 2 to destroy the remaining two Cooling Pillars.
- Head inside the nearby control room with the Totality Xenoexcavator miniboss and overload the mining laser using the console.
- Brave the Tunnels: For the first part carved out by the mining laser, you just need to head up. Use the tunnels to reach elevated areas that you can use to jump to other ledges, until you eventually go through a tunnel that leads to the Soulfire Crux area.
- Use the bridges, towers, and hanging coffin-like objects to traverse this chasm area until you reach an enclosed bridge going across with barred windows. Hop over to the other side of it to find an open window, then go left and down the stairs. There's a hole in the broken steps you can fit through, which leads down to the next area.
- Extinguish the Soulfire Barrier: Kill the three Pyre Matron Wizards then punch the Soulfire Vessel to death, giving you a timed effect called Soulfire Charge. Jump into any one of the three large bowls nearby to remove the effect and partly extinguish the barrier.
- Repeat this twice using the Soulfire Vessels in the left and right rooms to fully extinguish the Soulfire Barrier, letting you move to the final boss arena.
- Defeat Tau'rig, the Corrupted: Shoot Valus Tau'rig until he transforms into Tau'rig, the Corrupted, then wait for him to go towards one of three large bowls. As in the previous step, find the Soulfire Vessel (it will be either in the left or right room or by the entrance to this arena), kill the nearby Wizards, punch the Vessel, then dunk the Soulfire Charge into the bowl that Tau'rig is next to. His shield will go down, letting you damage him.
- When his shield returns, he'll go to one of the other soulfire bowls, letting you repeat the process to break his shield again and kill him.
With Tau'rig defeated, Cull's Shadow is yours. It's an Exotic kinetic-damage Fusion Rifle that can be used to melee enemies and deal damage over time by spreading corruption, like Thorn and Osteo Striga. You can keep replaying Oblation to both reveal more of the Monument of Triumph update's story and get more Exotic Catalysts for Cull's Shadow.
Elsewhere in Destiny 2 Monument of Triumph:
Destiny 2 Distortion quest: How to use the Strange Signal
Destiny 2 Archie location: Where is Archie?
Destiny 2 For The Bird: Hawthorne's quest
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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.
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