Avast Guardians, Season of Plunder is here! This space pirate-themed Destiny 2 season is all about crossing blades with Fallen House of Salvation, hunting for buried treasure, and working with everyone’s favorite scoundrel, the Drifter. Of course, there is a bunch of new loot to chase and activities to complete. One of the most entertaining is a treasure hunt that’s unlocked when you reach Rank 7, 10, and 16 in the Star Charts. The second of these quests is Cryptic Quatrains II, which is more riddles and loot for you to uncover. Here’s how to complete the Cryptic Quatrains II quest in Destiny 2:
Cryptic Quatrains II Quest Steps
Just like the other Cryptic Quatrains quest, you will need to solve a series of riddles to find the buried treasure. The first riddle requires you to visit The Dreaming City and complete the Bay of Drowned Wishes Lost Sector. The difficulty of the Lost Sector doesn’t matter, so just load into the Divalian Mists patrol zone and turn around when you spawn. You should see the cave entrance directly behind you (shown above). Now just go through the Lost Sector, kill the boss, and open the chest.
Complete the Lake of Shadows Strike
For the next step, you’ll need to finish the Lake of Shadows strike found in the EDZ. You can just manually load this one up from the EDZ destination menu, so don’t worry about hoping it randomly pops up in the Vanguard Operations playlist. Upon killing the final boss you will unlock another riddle to solve.
Beat an Expedition With a Sword
After beating the Lake of Shadows, you’ll be given another riddle that tasks you with completing an Expedition while having a sword equipped. This doesn’t mean that you can only use a sword to kill enemies, but it should be equipped in your Heavy slot for the entire duration of the activity. What sword you’re using doesn’t matter, so just use an exotic such as The Lament if you don’t have a good legendary sword. The next step of the quest will unlock after you open the final chest at the end of the activity.
Go to The Cistern on Nessus
It’s time to do some treasure hunting. Bring up Nessus’ destination map and spawn at The Cistern patrol zone in the bottom left corner. From here, you will be heading to the largely broken spire with the triangle door (shown above). Once you arrive at the tower, climb the stairs and go through the triangle-shaped door. Inside, directly on the right, you should see a bright green Fallen sigil painted onto the ground. Approach and interact with the sigil to reveal the location of the treasure.
Find the Buried Treasure
From the tower, go back outside and look left. You should see a large tree in the distance that’s partially covered by a stone wall. Hop on your sparrow and head in this direction. It will be directly north of The Conflux Lost Sector in this patrol zone if you get lost. If you’re familiar with Nessus Public Events, this is where the Cabal drill event takes place.
Once you are over the hill beyond the large tree you should reach the area above. Stick to the shore along the left to find another mound of dirt with a Fallen sigil painted on it. Approach and dig up the treasure to get some free loot! You will also get the second Crude Cipher, but it still cannot be used. That’s all for Cryptic Quatrains II, now you just have one pirate riddle left to earn!
Looking for more Destiny coverage? We already have guides up on the Season 18 Seasonal Mods, a look at the Season of Plunder calendar, and a list of known bugs and issues. If you’re looking towards the future, we have a guide on everything we know about the new Strand subclass, the new Neptune zone coming with Lightfall, and the in-game loadout feature. And if you’re a Fortnite fan, check out the crossover where Zavala, Ikora, and the Exo Stranger are in Fortnite, while three skins from Epic’s title have made the jump to Destiny 2 as universal ornaments.