Destiny 2's Empyrean Foundation Quest. Let's Get Started

Join the Community activity for the return of Trials

Destiny 2's next piece of content in the Season of Dawn has arrived. The weekly reset on Tuesday, February 4, marks the beginning of the Empyrean Foundation quest, an item that was on Bungie's roadmap for this season. Data-mining suggests this is the first step in returning the Trials of Osiris to the game--but to get there, we first need to do some work.

You can start the Empyrean Foundation quest by visiting Saint-14 when you login starting on February 4. Saint then tasks you with retrieving the "core" for the Tower obelisk you've created through the course of the season. If you haven't built up the obelisk, you'll want to gather the Polarized Fractaline material from completing Obelisk Bounties and Saint-14 Bounties, and by using Fractaline Skimmers you can buy from the Tower obelisk. Head to each of the obelisks in the solar system to upgrade them with Polarized Fractaline until their resonance power is strong enough to complete the Tower obelisk.

Once that's done, you can go after the core, which you can retrieve from completing a Sundial run this week. When you do, you'll take on the fourth and final of the Psion bosses who populate the Sundial, called Inotam. The thing about Inotam is, you'll face a tougher battle than you have with the other bosses, because Inotam combines all the abilities of the previous three Psions.

How To Beat Inotam

On the default difficulty, Inotam isn't too tough a fight because you pretty much can't lose--you have as long as you need to finally defeat the Psion. On Legendary difficulty, things can be considerably tougher. But if you know the mechanics, it's possible to best this battle without too much frustration.

You'll find Inotam in a new arena located in the Corridors of Time. Like the other Psions, you'll find Inotam shielded. Unlike the past battles, however, there are no Psion Commanders in bubbles that you need to find and eliminate. Instead, look for marked Vex pressure plates on the ground. You'll need to stand on them and fight off enemies in order to drop Inotam's shield.

In the meantime, Inotam will use all the abilities you've seen from past Sundial bosses against you. That includes Arc lightning storms from above, exploding Solar bolts, and Void bubbles that can kill you if they encase you. To open the bubbles, shoot any of the points where the latticework comes together; for the Solar bursts, ducking behind cover can save you. The lightning can be avoided if you move quickly out from beneath its threatening clouds.

Once you damage Inotam a bit, he'll transport you through time to another room. Here, you can pour on the damage, and you'll want to do so quickly--the room will quickly flood with Cabal reinforcements. The goal here is to hit Inotam as hard as you can, as fast as you can, to get him to return you to the original arena for another phase of the fight.

When you return from being tossed through time, you'll see that Inotam is shielded again. This time, your team will need to split between two Vex plates. Repeat the whole process to get transported through time, and when you return for the third and final phase, you'll need to cover three Vex plates. That can get tough as you get charged by tougher and tougher Cabal enemies, so abilities like Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance can be very helpful.

Charging The Core

Keep blasting away at Inotam when her shield goes down and you'll finish the fight. That'll reward you with the obelisk core, sending you on a relatively easy next step. Here, you'll need to gather 30 Orbs of Light to charge up the core. That's not difficult; just equip a masterworked weapon and run something like a Black Armory forge or a few public events where you'll have a lot of targets all at once (Strikes are also good).

Once you get your 30 Orbs, you can return the core to the Tower. You'll now receive Polarized Fractaline materials from the Tower obelisk each week in an amount equal to its overall "Resonance Power," which is determined by how much you upgrade the other four obelisks. You can up the number by continuing to upgrade those obelisks.

Empyrean Donation

Your overall goal should be to spend Fractaline on the "Empyrean Donation." This is a big community effort to restore the Empyrean Foundation, and the Tower obelisk will continually measure how much Fractaline the entire Destiny 2 community donates. As the total grows, the entire community will unlock bonuses, including shaders and faster progression on Timelost Weapons.

Credit: GameSpot | Philip Hornshaw