The Corridors of Time, Destiny 2's most complex and large-scale puzzle to date, was solved earlier this week, marking a significant achievement for the Destiny 2 community. But the secret quest was far from the first Bungie had dropped into the game for players to dig up, and previous secret quests have created some of the Destiny franchise's most exciting - and most frustrating - moments.
The Corridors of Time mystery began after the January 14 weekly reset, when players discovered Season of Dawn's Osiris vendor had a new quest for them. He told them to go back to the Corridors of Time quest area, where players had previously begun their search for Saint-14 at Season of Dawn's start, to search for hidden secrets there. It quickly became clear that passing through a series of doors marked with distinct symbols in a particular order would result in a corresponding reward, but that wasn't the end of the puzzle. Each of the 19 reward-granting rooms at the door combinations' end had another mystery for Guardians to decipher, which led to the largest community puzzle-solving effort in Destiny's history.
While the Corridors of Time's Bastion Fusion Rifle reward - more on that, and how players eventually got to it, below - ended up being a disappointment for many, the puzzle was largely a success. Not all of Destiny 2's puzzles have been warmly received by its players, however. Here are the game's most clever, convoluted, and complicated puzzles and secrets so far.
Destiny 2's Hidden Exotic Quests Explained
Two of Destiny 2's most widely-liked quests are those for the Whisper of the Worm exotic sniper and the Outbreak Perfected exotic Pulse Rifle. Both of these quests, which return fan-favorite exotics from the first Destiny, were added into the game secretly and then discovered by the community. In July 2018, players found that killing a new, named Taken enemy during the Taken Blight public event in Io's Lost Oasis created a mysterious portal nearby. Players who jumped through were met with a 380-power, 20-minute timed mission with no clear objective. It was gradually discovered that, after completing a lengthy platforming challenge and defeating a group of tough Taken bosses, players would unlock the Whisper of the Worm, a reprise of Destiny 1's Black Hammer/Spindle - itself introduced in a secret quest.
The Outbreak Perfected quest proceeded similarly. In May 2019, if they met certain prerequisites, players were able to open a previously locked door within the Bad Neighbors Heroic mission on Titan. In the room, a Fallen Transponder device provided six riddles that took players to Lost Sectors across Destiny 2's various destinations. Players then met with Mithrax, a friendly Fallen NPC, who sent them to complete the Zero Hour mission. Like Whisper of the Worm's quest, Zero Hour took players on a convoluted, platforming-filled journey through an unfamiliar area - the ruins of the old Tower. They also had to contend with a terrifying guard robot the community dubbed "Trevor," as well as a boss fight at the mission's conclusion. The reward? Unlocking the Outbreak Perfected, a remade version of Destiny 1's Outbreak Prime.
Destiny 2's Niobe Labs Explained
While these hidden quests that brought back beloved guns were well-received by the community, the Niobe Labs puzzle was a different story. During the January 2019 Destiny 2 Black Armory season, Bungie implemented a complicated puzzle that the community would need to solve to unlock the final Black Armory forge activity. The previous forges had involved puzzle-solving, as well, but solving the Niobe Labs puzzle proved much more difficult. The solution actually involved seven puzzles within the larger one, each requiring a unique, complicated solution, and each followed by a wave of tough enemies that would send players all the way back to the beginning if defeated. This meant solving it was a matter of banging one's head against a wall, and only those like Twitch streamers with unlimited time to play the game had any chance of getting to the end. Bungie later announced that a hint for Niobe Lab's seventh puzzle was mistakenly missing, which would likely have sped up the process.
The puzzle was eventually solved after more than 80 hours, but not before Bungie decided to unlock the final forge, Bergusia, in an effort to appease those who argued the puzzle was unfairly locking them out of season pass content they'd already paid for. Some community members, however, felt this made pointless the hours of effort players had already put into grinding toward a solution.
Destiny 2's Corridors of Time Explained
For the Corridors of Time puzzle, Bungie learned from the Niobe Labs fiasco and created something less divisive. Beneath the floors of the 19 reward-granting rooms mentioned above, players found an array of hexagons, each with a symbol on it, which could be lined up with one another to create a jigsaw puzzle-like map to lead players through the Corridors. The final room this led to contained another array of symbols, but this time, the array was different for every individual player and changed once an hour. What followed was almost a week of data collection by players and streamers, culminating in a massive map (seen in the graphic from Twitter user Nic below) that led players to the final Corridors of Time solution.
This puzzle differed from Niobe labs in that every community member was able to contribute something to the effort, since anyone could at least submit a screenshot of their array of symbols, regardless of skill, knowledge, or free time. Players were disappointed that, rather than some surprise new exotic, the puzzle only rewarded a weapon already revealed in the Season of Dawn roadmap, but the puzzle itself was Destiny's best yet.
Destiny 2's Season of Dawn began on December 10, 2019.