Pale Heart Public Events and Patrols
Once you complete the core Destiny 2: The Final Shape campaign, you’re set loose in the Pale Heart patrol zone, except it’s not like any other previous patrol zone in the game. The Pale Heart is a solo, closed instance. You won’t encounter any other random players in your travels.
The Pale Heart also doesn’t have any Public Events or Patrols in the traditional sense. Instead, folded in with the Overthrow activity, there are plenty of mini-events you can participate in that function just like Public Events. High-Value Targets are also sprinkled in, along with some new activities involving cleansing Darkness from chests or just in general. But you can also find several of these activities in other non-Overthrow areas as well.
Follow our guide to survey how these various activities work, along with a breakdown of some new mechanics and strategies.
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This Destiny 2 guide is currently a work in progress, and it'll be updated and amended as we continue our journey through the Pale Heart.
Mini-Boss Encounters
The most common event type appears in the environment with the usual Public Event symbol resulting in several waves of enemies and a culminating boss. Go to that location and eliminate any enemies that spawn.
In some cases, there may be other mechanics at play, which we will touch upon later in this guide. There are also Blights that spawn in different areas, so you'll have to enter the shadowy area to destroy the core. Some Blights also require Volatile Charges to take damage. In some Blight-related events, you may have to throw the charges at shielded Taken Thralls to destroy them.
Expunge Chests
In the Pale Heart’s various areas, you may discover chests that are corrupted and in need of cleansing. To “expunge” the Darkness, you will have to do one of the following:
Light Trails - Once you interact with the chest, you’ll see a nearby ball of light with a trail. You just have to follow the direction that the trail is pointing to until you find another ball and trail. Once you reach a bulging growth, destroy it to unlock the chest.
Orange Pillars - 10 pillars of orange energy will appear in the surrounding area. You have to move through all of them in 90 seconds or less to fill up the “Columns Collected” bar. Then you can return to the chest to expunge it.
Bramble Roll - A platform will materialize nearby with a round divot in it. Somewhere close by, you must find the large circular bramble and push it into the divot to unlock the chest.
Grenade Toss - In The Impasse, the expunge event spawns an energy pool that boosts Grenade regen, so you must use your grenades to destroy all of the glowing orange nodes nearby.
Cleansing - In The Impasse, there's also an Expunge event where you have to stand in a pool of Light and then use the buff to walk over Taken corruption on the ground, on top of nearby buildings, and inside said buildings.
Ghost Escort
If you ever stumble upon a random Ghost in the field, you can choose to “Help the Ghost.” Doing so initiates a brief escort mission. Follow it and wipe out any enemies that spawn to complete the event. Even though enemies will target the Ghost, it doesn’t actually take any damage, making this fairly easy.
Crystal Shielded Knights
Just south of the spawn point in The Landing, you might find a Hive Knight kneeling in a bubble. Shooting the purple crystal in the air will dispel the bubble shield so you can slay the knight. A second knight will spawn with two crystals, a third with three, and a fourth with four. Taking them all out in succession spawns a High Supplicant that’s the final boss of the encounter.
Crystalbound Thrall/Wizard
In the tunnel that runs under the large tree in The Landing (not far from a regional chest and a feather of light), a shielded Crystalbound Thrall might spawn. Destroy the three nearby crystals and pursue the thrall as it runs away. Once it reaches a nearby cave, you’ll have to destroy more crystals to break the shield and kill it.
In the southern area of The Landing, a Crystalbound Wizard can also spawn within a cave. Just like with its thrall counterpart, destroy crystals and follow it to destroy more crystals to bring down the shield.
Other Shielded Enemy Encounters
The Pale Heart has several different shielding mechanics in addition to the above. In most instances, look around nearby to find some kind of energy pool. Sometimes, you can only damage the enemy if you’re standing in the pool. Other times, you have to dash through a series of pools.
In The Blooming, the Volatile Fetor mechanic pops up in several encounters. Enemies like the Putrid Knight are invulnerable unless you find and kill a Revenant Cursed Thrall. Once dead, its remains generate an energy field you have to stand in to "collect" Volatile Fetor. Then, you simply have to rush toward the enemy and dunk the energy on them to remove the shield.
The Impasse also has a shielded Tormentor called Viscera of Nezerac. To free him, you have to destroy the shield generators made from Pyramid tech.
You have to kill Gate Warden Retainers and use the Pyramid Keys they drop to unlock and destroy the shield generators. These spawn fairly far away from the Tormentor, so don't be afraid to wander too far away.
The Wrathbringer Knight spawns in the water pool near the spawn point of The Landing after you eliminate initial enemies. All you have to do to break the shield is stand in the yellow-green energy.
There's also a Runeshielded Knight, and the only way to break the shield is to find the rune tile that matches the large rune that appears in the air above them.
Sky Blight Blasters
One Level 3 Overthrow event in The Blooming spawns some of the flat Blights in the sky that shoot blinding blasts out. The only way to destroy them is to eliminate the Ravenous Taken Knights that spawn so you can pick up the Arc Craniums that they drop. Use them to destroy the Blights, but watch out for the large Taken Ogres that spawn.
Rune Decryption
in the covered patio just left of The Landing's spawn, three large hive runes might appear in the skies nearby. There will also be small chalices that you can dunk Void Charges into, each with a rune coin matching the three in the sky. The yellow-bar Revenant Knights that spawn drop the Void Charges, so just make sure you dunk them in the same order that appears in the sky.
Hive Sword Projectiles
There are a few encounters, mainly in The Landing that involve claiming a sword dropped by Hive Knights. The heavy attack is a ranged blast that can destroy green glowing pools of energy that appear in the air. You'll have to do this for at least one of the area's Overthrow bosses to bring down its shield, but there's also an encounter involving a number of Shriekers in the back area of The Landing.