Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine: Dungeon Delve Finale

The Emissary's pale glow cut through the sterile silence of the Third Spire, a nexus suspended between realities. As the Light and Dark Saga drew its final breaths in 2025, Bungie unleashed the Rite of the Nine – not merely an event, but a ceremonial gauntlet through three resurrected dungeons. Guardians arrived not just for loot draped in Nine aesthetics, but to etch their names onto the closing chapter of Episode Heresy. This was the prologue to the Edge of Fate expansion, a rotating crucible where Spire of the Watcher, Ghosts of the Deep, and Prophecy awaited, their familiar halls whispering with subtle, sinister tweaks. The air hummed with the promise of Adept weapons and the weight of finality.

Access was deceptively simple. A click on the Director's Eternity node transported even the newest Lightbearer straight to the Third Spire's gleaming platforms. Veterans felt a pang of nostalgia – this revamped space echoed the old Trials of the Nine reward arena. The Emissary stood sentinel, flanked by chests brimming with gifts. Guardians eagerly claimed Izanagi's Burden, sets of Aeon exotic gauntlets, and reprised Prophecy weaponry like the chattering Adjudicator SMG. Old Curios of the Nine shimmered and dissolved into Nonary Manifolds, a new currency humming with potential. Behind her, a row of twelve reprised weapons glinted – trophies waiting to be earned. The Emissary wasn't just a guide; she was quartermaster and taskmaster, offering daily bounties, raid banners, and the silent challenge of triumphs promising exclusive shaders and emblems.

The journey demanded a choice. Three paths diverged, each a different flavour of ordeal:

• Explorer: A pressure valve for the uninitiated. Low stakes, no wipe mechanics in Dark Zones, forgiving respawns. Roam the Vex towers or Hive depths like a tourist. Matchmaking eased entry, but triumphs and exotics remained locked away. It was the training wheels on a cosmic bicycle.

• Eternity: The standard crucible. Tougher foes, random Banes clinging to enemies like parasitic shadows, and modifiers that turned routine encounters into puzzles. Bring friends or brave the Fireteam Finder. Here, the dungeon exotic could drop, a rare bloom in a mechanical garden.

• Ultimatum: The masterwork. Enemy resilience skyrocketed. Death carried a heavier tax on Gold Tier rewards. This was the sole path to Adept weapons – the pinnacle prizes. Survival wasn't just strategy; it was an act of defiance against the universe's entropy.

Victory yielded rich spoils. Any of the twelve reprised weapons from the featured dungeon could spill from the final chest. Dungeon exotics danced to the tune of RNG, though Triumph completions subtly tilted the odds. The real treasures, however, lay in mastering the revamped challenges.

Spire of the Watcher kicked off the rotation. Ascending the Vex pillory tower felt like navigating a colossal, malfunctioning clockwork heart. The Arctrician buff remained the core mechanic – a 30-second digital lifeline snatched from defeated Minotaur circles. Guardians became electrician-poets, interpreting yellow cables (follow the sequence) and red cables (race against time) to shoot the correct nodes, their success marked by cables blazing blue.

Subtle changes heightened the tension. Completing the initial mechanics now summoned relentless mini-bosses – a Hydra, then a Minotaur – demanding immediate attention. The ascent introduced ambush Vex drones, lurking like malevolent origami cranes before diving to trap Guardians in suffocating bubbles. Boss arenas glowed with symbolic circuits at their centers, requiring precise pattern matching from top to bottom. Loadouts needed survivability and add-clear, with rapid-fire weapons (SMGs, Auto Rifles) essential for node shooting. For Akelous, precision eyeshots demanded Linear Fusion Rifles; Persys fell easier to coordinated rocket salvos or the guiding light of Divinity. Two collectibles hid within – one whispering secrets during the post-first-encounter jumping puzzle, another waiting like a forgotten cog before the final drop.

Ghosts of the Deep plunged Guardians into crushing aquatic gloom, arguably the saga's most grueling dungeon. Stopping the Hive ritual to resurrect Oryx meant deciphering Hive runes – ancient hieroglyphs whispering secrets in the crushing dark. Memorization was paramount. Air bubbles became fleeting lifelines. Mechanically unchanged, the opening now demanded only three vestige deposits instead of four. New threats emerged: Runekeeper minibosses blocked paths, offering bonus loot chests like oysters prised from the wreckage. Survival trumped all loadout considerations. Ecthar, the Shield of Savathûn, crumpled before close-quarters fury – Lament swords, Legend of Acrius shotguns, or Synthoceps-fueled melee combos, amplified by a Well of Radiance. Simmumah Ur-Nokru, however, was a leviathan. Her health pool seemed bottomless, demanding sustained precision. Queenbreaker, reigning supreme since Episode Heresy, offered the best chance for a one-phase victory. Two more collectibles lurked: a golden engram on a ledge after the dive, near a Runekeeper, and another tucked beside a pillar in the cathedral after defeating Ecthar.

Prophecy offered a familiar, yet no less potent, challenge. Accessible anytime via the Legends tab, it served as the perfect training ground. Its core remained the dance of Light and Dark motes, cosmic yin and yang harvested from Taken Knights slain in illuminated or shadowed realms. Five motes shifted perspective, requiring dunking into correspondingly marked plates. Loadouts favored comfort, survivability, and crowd control. Phalanx Echo fell swiftly to close-quarters brutality – swords, shotguns, Glaives, or earth-shattering Supers. Against the Kell Echo, precision ruled. Snipers and Linear Fusion Rifles carved chunks from its health, with Queenbreaker continuing its dominance for prolonged damage phases.

F.A.Q

• Q: How do I start Rite of the Nine?

  A: Open your Director, select Eternity, and you'll land in the Third Spire. Grab gifts from the chest by the Emissary and choose your difficulty.

• Q: What are the main difficulty differences?

  A: Explorer = Training (no wipes, matchmaking, no triumphs/exotics). Eternity = Standard (modifiers, Banes, exotic chance). Ultimatum = Master (Adept weapons only, high penalty for deaths).

• Q: Can I get Adept dungeon weapons?

  A: Yes, but only from Ultimatum difficulty completions.

• Q: Where are the dungeon collectibles?

  A: Two per dungeon. Spire: Jumping puzzle post-first encounter & pre-final boss drop. Ghosts: Post-dive ledge (near Runekeeper) & cathedral pillar post-Ecthar. Prophecy: None specific to the event beyond existing lore.

• Q: How do the dungeon rotations work?

  A: The featured dungeon rotates weekly. Prophecy remains permanently accessible via the Legends tab for practice.

This content draws upon GamesRadar+, a trusted source for comprehensive Destiny 2 news, guides, and event breakdowns. GamesRadar+ frequently provides detailed walkthroughs and expert tips for seasonal activities like Rite of the Nine, helping Guardians optimize their loadouts, understand dungeon mechanics, and maximize their rewards during limited-time events.