Who doesn’t love a new planetary material in their Destiny 2 activities? Well, with Episode: Heresy, we get another one. Called Metastasized Essentia, it’s your key to even more loot in an Episode where it’s already practically falling from the sky. Gathering this Essentia is pretty straightforward, but access is limited to a scarce few sources, and getting your rewards is a bit clunky.
Related
Destiny 2: The Best Rolls For All Episode: Heresy Weapons
Here are the best perk combinations you can find for Episode: Heresy’s seasonal weapons.
Thankfully, there are some simple things you can do to make farming and using Metastasized Essentia more comfortable and consistent. We’ll discuss all those methods today.
You’ll only find Metastasized Essentia on the Dreadnaught as part of The Nether activity. It only exists there and as a reward for increasing your Shaping Slab reputation. It is, however, fairly plentiful on Oryx’s flagship.
Each unit of the Essentia is a large, white, spiny sphere that lightly glows wherever it grows. You’ll find Metastasized Essentia mainly in the following places:
- Along the walls and on the edges of each section of the Dreadnaught
- Tucked in corners both against walls and made by structures throughout the Dreadnaught
- Hiding in holes in the Dreadnaught’s walls
In short, you won’t find much Essentia in each area’s main sections near the Eversion or boss encounters. You might find them there occasionally, but you’ll have better luck looking at the fringes of each zone. The best thing you can do to find more Metastasized Essentia is to use the Combo and Wombo Detector Ghost mods.
Using either mod will place a triangle symbol on your HUD whenever you’re within a certain distance of an Essentia. The Combo mod is 40 meters; the Wombo mod is 50 meters.
Combo and Wombo Ghost mods will also mark randomly spawned chests on your HUD, but they’re clearly marked with a chest symbol.
You can extend this range further by equipping a weapon with a zoomed sight like a Sniper Rifle or other longer-range weapon. Aiming down your sights can show where you can find more Essentia at a greater distance.
One final note about Ghost mods: the HUD elements will remain for several minutes after you’ve collected either a chest or Essentia. Take stock of where you’ve already been to ensure you don’t waste time hunting for something that isn’t there.
When you first collect Metastasized Essentia on the Dreadnaught, you’ll see it has the “Fleeting” descriptor. To leave The Nether with your Essentia, you need to complete at least one boss encounter and open the reward chest.
Doing so will remove the “Fleeting” descriptor and allow you to leave the Nether with your Essentia to spend it. If you leave the activity by any means — a team wipe, a random disconnect, or by exiting before completing a boss encounter — you’ll lose any Fleeting Metastasized Essentia you’re carrying.
You don’t need to beat all three bosses in the entire Nether activity to get out with your Essentia, as each chest you open removes the Fleeting descriptor from any Essentia you found in that zone.
Once you have at least ten Metastasized Essentia in your inventory, return to Eris’s flat in the Last City. You’ll find a Taken Altar in a corner directly across from the Shaping Slab.
Depositing ten Essentia immediately awards:
- 200 Taken Mastery Shaping Slab reputation.
- Up to two reprised weapons
- A Corrupted Scripture Legendary Tome of Want a ritual tablet
- A chance to get an Enhancement Prism
You need a stack of ten Metastasized Essentia to dunk at the Taken Altar. You can’t bank fewer than that to build up to ten, nor can you use more than ten at a time. It’s a single stack of ten for every deposit, every time. This restriction is likely in place to avoid loot overload, so keep it in mind.
Next
Destiny 2: Heresy – The Nether Activity Guide
Learn how to overcome The Nether’s unique roguelite mechanics with this in-depth guide.