‘Starcrossed’ Exotic mission and secret chest guide in Destiny 2: Season of the Wish

The “Starcrossed” mission is new to Destiny 2: Season of the Wish. It operates similarly to the “Avalon” mission from earlier this year and “Operation: Seraph Shield” from Season of the Seraph in that they’re brief asides that offer a powerful weapon and some secrets to uncover each week.

In “Starcrossed,” you’ll venture into the Black Garden with Riven and Crow to take on an army of Vex. Your reward? The new Strand Exotic bow: Wish-Keeper — which is able to deploy a Suspending trap after getting enough kills or precision hits.

In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll walk you through how to complete the Starcrossed mission and find its secret chest.

How to beat the ‘Starcrossed’ Exotic mission in Destiny 2

“Starcrossed” is, essentially, just a straight line with a few stops along it, so this guide will focus less on where to go and more on how the mission’s three primary mechanics work: Sire’s Obligation, Dam’s Gift, and Crowned by Dragons. Let’s break it down.

Sire’s Obligation

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Your first big mechanic, which you get just before the first major encounter, is a buff called Sire’s Obligation. You can get it from standing in a blue pool that appears in some flowers by a locked gate. It lasts forever while you’re standing in the pool, but only lasts 45 seconds once you leave.

Sire’s Obligation allows you to damage Obdurate enemies and allows you to see the Last Wish symbols. Use the buff to defeat the first Obdurate Phalanx and open the door.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

You’ll put Sire’s Obligation to practical use in the first encounter. Get the buff from one of the pools and look to the gate at the end of the arena. You’ll see three symbols in a random order. You’ll need to check the order yourself every time, but for the sake of this guide, let’s use this order as an example: Dragon, Fish, Bird.

Now, with your buff (make sure to renew it if you run out of time), run around the arena and look for Obdurate Phalanx enemies. There are three of them, each residing under one of the three symbols you saw on the door. Defeat them in the order of the combination on the door (Dragon, Fish, Bird, for this example) and you’ll open the way. Defeat them in the wrong order, and they’ll all respawn.

Dam’s Gift

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Dam’s Gift is the second mechanic in this mission, and comes from a red puddle that comes from certain flower patches. It lasts for the same amount of time as Sire’s Obligation.

Dam’s Gift allows you to walk into the orange mist, which you’ll encounter for the first time just ahead of the first red flower patch. Without Dam’s Gift, you’ll take damage inside the mist and get the Unwelcome debuff, which will eventually kill you. However, you’re safe in the mist as long as you maintain Dam’s Gift.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

After you run through the initial mist, you’ll need to use Dam’s Gift to complete the second encounter. You’ll find a red puddle in a small arena and three passageways covered in orange mist: left, right, and middle. Use Dam’s Gift to walk each of these paths and quickly kill the Gatekeeper Wyvern’s within. Once the Wyvern is dead, a shield will disappear over a Vex node, which you can interact with.

Repeat this process until you’ve killed three Gatekeeper Wyverns and interacted with all three nodes in the arena to complete the challenge.

Crowned by Dragons

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At the end of the mission, you’ll need to combine these two buffs together. When you enter the next arena, head to the left to get Sire’s Obligation and to the right to get Dam’s Gift. Once you have them both, the buff will transform into a single buff: Crowned by Dragons.

While you have Crowned by Dragons, you’ll be able to see symbols, damage Obdurate enemies, and traverse the orange mist. Running through either buff will renew Crowned by Dragons back to 45 seconds.

With Crowned by Dragons in hand, look to the big door in the center of the room to get your lock combination. Then, run around the room and kill the Obdurate enemies in the correct order. There’s one Obdurate enemy in the main room, and one in each of the arena’s two wings. In order to get to the wings, you’ll need to traverse orange mist, so make sure you never lose Crowned by Dragons.

How to beat Akardon, Pitiless Mind, in Destiny 2

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Once you open the door, proceed down to the final boss, which is a massive Vex Hydra: Akardon, Pitiless Mind. You can damage the boss from the start of the fight as long as you have Crowned by Dragons. However, you will have a much easier time killing the boss if you remove its rotating shield, which tends to block a lot of incoming damage if you don’t time your shots well.

To do this, use Crowned by Dragons to kill both of the Pitiless Attendant Phalanx enemies in the room with the Hydra. Once they’re both dead, the boss will lose its shield and start spawning Taken enemies. Kill it quickly and then proceed into the treasure room to finish the mission.

Destiny 2 ‘Starcrossed’ secret chest location

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When you first start “Starcrossed,” you’ll be in an area with a big chasm, and will need to jump across some plant leaves. The first part of this area is fairly open, but you’ll eventually need to turn right and walk across a massive tree branch, which will lead you to a narrow opening and the rest of the mission.

Once you turn and hit that big tree branch, stop. Instead of continuing along, look down and around you. You’ll find an edge that leads into a small alcove.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Head down into this small area and you’ll find a Dreaming City chest nuzzled against the wall. Open it for a Season of the Undying weapon.

If you’re struggling with this chest, I recommend putting the Wombo Detector Ghost Shell mod on, which will allow you to detect nearby treasure chests and resources.