Destiny 2’s Season of the Chosen is officially live, so grab your weapon of choice and get ready to face the Cabal horde. Revolving around stopping Emperor Calus’ daughter Caiatl from uniting the Cabal, players will need to take down various champions that are vying for a seat on her War Counsel. But who cares about all that, we’re here for the loot. To the surprise of some, a new secret exotic quest went live during the Weekly Reset. Tied to the Dead Man’s Tale scout rifle, players can hunt this weapon down starting today. However, since it’s tied to The Arm’s Dealer Nightfall I strongly recommend completing the first step this week.

How to Get the Dead Man’s Tale

Find the Distress Signal in The Arms Dealer Nightfall

For the first part, you need to be in The Arms Dealer Nightfall. Doing this in the strike version will not work, so make sure to hop into this weekly Nightfall as soon as you can. Once you load into the Nightfall, clear out the opening room of enemies. Instead of scanning the terminal with your Ghost, a door will open to the right of the console. Enter inside and destroy the turrets that spawn around you. Head outside to find a yellow-bar Phalanx and some more turrets. Kill the Phalanx and approach the control panel on the left landing platform.

Inspecting it will give you the distress signal. You don’t need to actually finish the strike, so head back to the Tower and speak with Zavala.

Complete the Presage Mission

The next step is to complete the Presage mission which can be found in the top left corner of the Tangled Shore’s map. I highly recommend you do this without a guide or any spoilers, but if you are stuck, here’s a breakdown of how to beat this rather spooky and tricky mission.

Jumping Puzzle

While it might seem like you’re meant to walk straight up the ramp and into the derelict ship, Bungie hasn’t made things that easy. First, we’ll need to complete a good old jumping puzzle. From where you first spawn in, turn to your left. See those pipes along the edge of the ship? That’s the way we want to go. Follow them around the outskirts of the ship. Eventually, you’ll come to the end of your forward path. Here we’ll need to start ascending with a few switchbacks. Look up and hop up, making sure to check behind you for more ledges to stand on. Your final target is to your right, jutting out of the ship.

Darkness Spores

After this, you’ll be stuck in the vents for some time, but there’s only one path forward. You’ll need to shoot out multiple grates blocking your way, so be on the lookout for those. There’s lots of crouching, climbing, and descending going on here so it’s possible to get disoriented. Don’t be afraid to take your time here, there’s no rush.

Eventually you’ll drop down into an open room. There’s a switch immediately to your right which opens the ship door that we started at. The automatically opening doors to your left leads to a weird sight. Darkness, and spores feeding off of it. What you want to do is stand next to the spores when you shoot them. This will give you the Egregore Link buff which lets you walk through zones devoid of Light.

With the buff, you can now pass through that barrier. There’s another mass of spores just inside in case you need them. What you want to do is jump up to the left of the door you entered through and hop up onto the pipes above. These will lead you to a grate you can shoot, exiting the Darkness zone.

We once again need to crawl and climb through the ducts before falling into a room with electric walls blocking our way. Immediately hang a right and eliminate the corrupted Screebs. At the far end of the room is a switch you can flip. Now double back to where we entered and you’ll find some spores just behind where we dropped down. You’ll need to grab these and jump across the gap, minding the vats blocking your way.

Since you’re timed, make your first attempt count. Get across, go through the doors and head to the back, dropping into an area where more Screebs will spawn. Eliminate these and head to the far end of the room, jumping up and gaining access to the middle area once more. Now we’re behind that first wall of electricity. Make your way across the gap, shooting the glowing core in the red pipe, and dropping into the door just below it.

There are more Screebs down here, of course. Eliminate them to start. You’ll find nothing on the far side of this room. Rather, from where you enter head to the back right corner making sure to jump up on the grate. Now head back to that far side on the top floor, and outside, flying across the gap to flip a switch. This opens the door on the bottom floor where we just came from.

Inside that, you’ll see another fuse to blow up against the wall. Shoot it, head back to the top and find the open door below. Thanks to all of our work, the metal will rotate to catch you. Go down the slide and enter the next part of the quest.

Trash Compactor

When you slide down the large tunnel and land in the giant room, approach the console at the end. Interact with the switch to spawn a bunch of Screebs and cause the walls to begin closing. Now it’s a race against time, so kill the enemies and quickly blast open the metal grates on the floor panels. You are looking for three glowing white fuses, which can be destroyed. The first is at the very top in the middle row, the second is on the right about midway up the columns, and the last one is to the left near the switch.

If you die, all your progress, minus destroying the fuses, will be saved. It’s honestly ideal to blow up the Screebs and panels first, since these don’t respawn upon subsequent attempts. After three have been blown up, look for a panel with a glowing red light around it. Jump down this to avoid being crushed to death. Now proceed through the vent along the pipes.

Scorn Room

When you drop through the vent, a bunch of Scorn enemies will spawn. These foes can quickly overwhelm you, so keep moving and prioritize the Chieftains and snipers in the back. I recommend Salvager’s Salvo is you have it or any mob clearing Super will work wonders here. Once all the Scorn are dead, head through the open door in the back and follow the path.

Survive

The next room is going to be a bit of a challenge if you’re solo. When you enter the room another massive wave of Scorn will appear. Wipe them out quickly, making sure to once again focus on the Chieftains first. Once the first wave is demolished, two very beefy Scorn Abominations will spawn. Stick to the right side of the room and kill any enemies that spawn with them first. These creatures have a lot of health, so you’ll need to be careful when making ammo runs.

More Spores, Scorn, and Puzzles

After you clear the room, go to the left side and follow the platforms outside. Follow this to another, smaller hanger and then jump on the ship. Follow the suspended platforms to the vent on the left and make your way through the passage. When you drop down into what appears to be a laboratory, head to the left and throw the lever. This will open a door with a spore behind it, so blast it open and collect the essence. Quickly run to the door on the other side of the room and pass through the darkness gate before the timer expires. A few more Screeb will attack in the next room.

In the room with the Screebs, pull the lever on the center column and then shoot the fuse against the wall directly in front of you (if you’re facing the lever.) Destroying the fuse will temporarily lower the electrical shield above you, so quickly hop up there before it re-activates. Now throw the lever and head left to find a third lever along with a door leading to the Screeb room. Jump down and locate the newly opened door by the fuse. Shoot the spores, gain the essence, and pass through the darkness gate in the back of the room.

In the next room, you’ll have to deal with a small group of Scorn. Once they’re dead, throw the lever near the back of the room. Now head back towards the door you enter from, kill the newly spawned Cabal turret, and enter the tiny room it was in. Shoot the fuse to open a panel on the right that contains some spores. Blast the spores, run to the back of the room, and drop down into the vent.

Vents

In these vents, start shooting the metal grates out and head to your right. You’ll come across a few Screebs down here, so be ready to either kill them or dodge their suicide attack. Keep progressing through the vents until you reach a door blocked by darkness. Backtrack to a room with several grates lined up in a room. Destroy them and head that direction to find another mound of spores. Shoot these and quickly run through the darkness gate to exit this nightmarish area.

Now that you’re back in the lab, a door will have opened along the glass wall. Turn and shoot the spore mound in this room so you can enter. The next area has some more Scorn enemies, so kill them first before approaching the darkness gate. From the gate, turn around to see a lever along the wall. Throw the lever to open up a panel behind the large yellow pipe. You’ll see a fuse against the wall, which will open up another door containing some spores in this room. Go through the darkness gate to enter the last puzzle room.

In this long room, make your way to the very end, making sure to kill all of the Scorn snipers. Once you reach the end, throw the lever and destroy the Cabal turret. Now head back towards the way you came and blast open the fuse along the center of the room. This will open up a door near the back of the room with a spore mound. Shoot the spore mound and run to the middle left door, passing through the darkness gate. Quickly kill the spore mound to refresh your buff, and head to the very back of the room through the last darkness gate.

Locus of Communion

Okay, this is the last part of the quest. Before you head in, I recommend using either Anarchy or Xenophage if you have them. The latter is preferred before you’ll want to be able to move and damage the boss at the same time. Once you’ve rallied, drop down through the darkness gate to begin the fight.

This room is broken up into two levels. The top area with the levers and the underbelly where the boss will be. When the fight starts, damage the Locus of Communion a bit until he retreats and spawns reinforcements. Kill all the Scorn in the room until it’s absolutely empty. Now, throw the levers on the right and left side of the room. Once that’s done, go through the doors in the back to a room that’s heated. Quickly pull the last lever before the fire kills you. After this is done, all of the pipes around you will go ice cold, allowing you to jump down into the underbelly via one of three entrances to fight him.

Here’s where things get tricky. The moment the boss’ health reaches the end of each chunk the room will begin to heat up again. You’ll literally have around five seconds to escape before it burned you alive. To combat this, drop down through one of the entrances and shoot the boss a bit. If he gets too close, retreat up top, drop down via another entrance and shoot him. You always, always, always want to be right at an entrance when his health his that specified threshold. This allows for an easy escape. Do this three times to finally kill the boss and open up the bridge.

Proceed to the bridge to complete this mission. Now just go talk to Zavala to earn yourself a shiny new exotic scout rifle!

Dead Zone Rifle

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