Destiny 2: The Witch Queen guide: Preservation mission walkthrough (2024)

After players first beat the Vow of the Disciple raid in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, a mission called Preservation unlocked for all players. This mission takes you through the raid’s opening and the first encounter so you can unlock some of the secrets held within the Darkness Pyramid.

In this Destiny 2: The Witch Queen guide, we’ll do a walkthrough of the post-raid Preservation mission.

Opening the door

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When you first spawn in, you’ll see a large door in front of you, guarded by a Projection of Savathun and some other Hive enemies. The mission will progress as soon as you kill the Projection, so focus it down. Once you defeat the Projection, the doors will open and you can proceed. The path to the next part is long, but you can hop on your Sparrow to make it quicker.

Guiding the boat

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You’ll eventually reach a clearing, and in the center of it will be the “Darkness boat.” This is the boat you’ll use to shuttle to the Pyramid to open the door. When you first touch the boat, a small group of enemies will spawn, as well as a “Knowledge Bearer” Abomination. While the Abomination is alive and you are not standing in the orange circle around the boat, you’ll start to gain stacks of Pervading Darkness. This debuff stacks to 10, and you’ll experience less and less visibility the higher the stacks climb. If it reaches its maximum, it’ll kill you.

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Clear the enemies and kill the Abomination to spawn nine collectibles on the ground. These collectibles grant you stacks of Knowledge. Collect all nine and bring them back to the boat. You can collect them up to three at a time. Once you collect all nine and deposit them in the boat, it will start to move. This loop will continue six more times, each following the same progression.

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The boat will eventually enter a garage, and the door in the Pyramid will open.

Navigating the pyramid

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Once you enter the Pyramid, you’ll be in a large, open room. Head to the back right corner and you’ll find a large hole in the ground. Jump down.

You’ll see an open doorway; make your way through. Continue forward until you enter a room where there are symbols on the podium. This is where you can do a puzzle for lore books. (You can follow our guide here for information on how the puzzle works). Exit this room on the opposite side and get ready to fight.

Fighting the Scorn

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When you enter the new room, there will be a small group of enemies that you need to kill. If you’re playing solo and you die, or if you team-wipe anywhere after this point, you’ll spawn back here, so play carefully. This encounter is long.

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This fight uses some of the symbols from the raid. Here’s a refresher on those symbols.

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You’ll then want to go to the Give room. We have marked it on the map above.

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Kill the enemies in the room and it will reveal a symbol on the back wall, denoting the Stop room.

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Make your way to the Stop room, killing the enemies that stand in your way.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Kill the enemies in this room and it’ll reveal two symbols: Knowledge and Drink. Exit the Stop room and kill the enemies that spawn outside of it.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

The door between the Knowledge and Drink rooms will open, leading you to the final fight.

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Three Scorn Chieftains and a lot of smaller Scorn will spawn. You’ll only need to kill the Chieftains to beat the encounter, just like the Savathun projection.

This can be tough, especially if you are running solo, so bring an Exotic weapon like Gjallarhorn or damaging Supers like Golden Gun. When all of the enemies are dead, you have 25 minutes to run around and collect the lore pieces.

If you need some help finding them, you can follow our guide here. If you don’t want or need the lore, you can safely leave the mission as soon as the timer pops up.