Encore

Encore: Overture

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Next:	Encore: Concerto
Encore
Game:	Destiny 2
Campaign:	Episode: Echoes
Player(s):	1-3
Recommended Power Level:	1945 2005 (legend)
Location:	Planetary Core, Nessus
Objective(s):	Investigate Maya Sundaresh's domain deep within Nessus to gain a tactical advantage against her faction of Vex.

Encore: Concerto

Prev:	Encore: Overture
Encore
Game:	Destiny 2
Campaign:	Episode: Echoes
Player(s):	1-3
Recommended Power Level:	1945 2005 (legend)
Location:	Planetary Core, Nessus
Objective(s):	Disrupt the Conductor's violent experiments to gather data on her Vex Collective.

Encore is a series of Exotic Missions introduced in Episode: Echoes and can be accessed in the H.E.L.M.. Completing the activity initially rewards the Guardian with the Choir of One Exotic Auto Rifle and eventually begin to uncover secrets once the NES007 specimen quest is completed.

Walkthrough

Initial Traversal

Upon loading into the mission itself, you will want to go down the stairs and look over towards a slanted platform to the right. Go up the slanted platform until you reach the top, then look towards a sphere containing a circle of blue lights; jump down into the hole and continue until reach the section where you go down a wall with a red light in the back of the room to the right. At this point, moving platforms will be present. When playing the Concerto variant, Harpy adds will also be present. Go up on the moving platforms until you reach a room with Vex pistons; head to the center one and ascend. Once they follow the tunnel, look for a hole with a purple light, then go through. There will now be a fork containing 2 different rooms. The left fork takes the players to a room containing inactive Transfer Gates where players can uncover secrets within the mission only if the NES007 specimen completed from Failsafe. The straight will get players familiarized with the central mechanic of the Exotic mission: the manipulation of the Vex Module pickups.

Manipulating the Pickups

When players take the fork straight ahead, they will see a bowl-shaped device used to deposit one of the Vex Module pickups. This pickup is called Vex Module//CONNECTION and can be identified by a green color with the icon of an arrow pointing up. The pickup will not be there on the bowl when they first enter the area, so they must turn tight from here, go down the hallway, and kill adds until you see a room with 3 octahedrons glowing red when you first enter this room. At this point, an array of bowls will be scattered around the room, but only 1 of them contains the pickup that you need. Interact with the bowl to take the pickup from it and place it on other 3 other bowls. The pickup is used to create platforms when installed on a specific bowl until it is taken out. You will want to create platforms leading to a Conflux that needs to be interacted with to unseal a room next to the 3 octahedrons. In the process of uncovering the final conflux below from where they entered the room, another pickup is introduced called Vex Module//PARTITION. This pickup can identified by a yellow color with the icon of blocks reminiscent of Tetris blocks and is used to remove solid walls in the area when installing it into its bowl. To obtain it, players must kill a Minotaur called PARTITION Module Bearer. After interacting with all 3 confluxes, the room will be unsealed. Go down the tunnel until you reach a dead end containing the Connection pickup needed to deposit into the bowl where they first saw it. Upon acquiring the Connection pickup, a deletion wall spawns, along with Vex adds and traps when playing the Concerto variant. Octahedrons will also spawn that can temporarily stun Vex units if the NES008 specimen quest was completed. After escaping, plant the pickup where you first used it to traverse the room as only 1 Vex Module pickup can held at a time per player, similar to the Operator, Scanner, and Suppressor pickups in Operation: Seraph's Shield and the Deep Stone Crypt raid. Take the pickup out of the one where you entered the tunnel now blocked a deletion wall, then take it to the bowl that you initially saw was requiring it.

City Traversal

After creating the platform from placing the pickup in the initial bowl, go left towards the cylindrical platforms and traverse the grav lifts. After that, go down the tunnel towards a Vex-looking house ahead. Kill the adds until a Minotaur called Independent Variable spawns. Kill the Minotaur and acquire the Partition pickup from it. Take it into a bowl next to a shell-shaped door. Installing the pickup onto the bowl removes the door, allowing them to extract Radiolite samples and activate a conflux leading them to the first set of secrets once the Ancillary Transit Nexus conflux has been activated after the NES007 specimen quest is completed. Go onto the grav lift ahead. The Hobgoblin and Fanatic adds will guard the next pickup now being introduced, called Vex Module//ACCESS. This pickup by can be identified by a blue color with the icon of a transfer gate. Acquire the pickup where the Fanatic adds came from and install it on the bowl the Hobgoblin adds were guarding earlier. This pickup is used to open Vex portals when installed in a specific bowl. Go through the portal and from here, you must the Hydra called Root Module Restriction that spawns upon entering the portal. Killing it will spawn the Access pickup needed to solve the puzzle. Do not acquire the Connection pickup until you have acquired the Access pickup from the floor when the Hydra was killed. Instead, take the Access pickup to the portal on the right hand side of the room, then take it out of the room where this pickup was introduced; go back through the portal you just emerged from and then install the pickup on the central portal. Now, take the Connection pickup and place it in the room within the central portal to then return and take the Access pickup from the right portal and take it inside the far end of the room within that central portal.

Pyramid Remnants Encounter

At this point, a rally flag will spawn, and approaching the Access pickup begins the encounter where players must an Omen Subjugator named Eexonios, Pledged to Yirix and a Tormentor named Iziira, Pledged to Yirix When the Omen reaches ⅔ of its health, it flees, and the barrier preventing players from acquiring the Access pickup is lowered; take it and install on the bowl at the top right area. Go through the portal and fight the Tormentor until reaches ⅔ of its health. It and the Omen will drop the Access module when they flee from this point onwards; continue fighting them until both bosses have reached ⅓ of their health. When they return to the area where they initially saw the Access pickup blocked by a barrier, they must now face both bosses at once. Killing both bosses ends the encounter, spawns a loot chest, and opens the portal next to the loot chest to continue their way forward. After crossing the portal, crouch through a narrow tube leading to the final traversal section.

Jungle Traversal

Traverse through the area, kill adds and Independent Variables along the way. When they reach the area where they begin to see Golden Age buildings being erected, players will have another opportunity to extract Radiolite samples. After killing all of the Independent Variables and adds, go past the building towards a canyon separated by a chasm of Radiolaria. Kill the Hydra blocking the portal to that will lead to a pyramid complex that has a portal leading into the Conductor's lab. After entering the lab, a pile of degaussed Exominds will be littered in the floor and a conflux containing the second set of secrets will activate once the Ancillary Transit Nexus conflux has been activated after the NES007 specimen quest is completed. The portal containing Vex Countermands within the cavern will introduce players to the final pickup called Vex Module//DELETION. This pickup by can be identified by a red color with the icon of a lightning bolt. This pickup is used to bypass deletion walls when installed in a specific bowl and area that linger past the deletion become kill zones for players when this pickup is taken out of the bowl. To acquire them, players must kill the DELETION Module Bearer. In the areas with Hexahedric Mind secret boss and the radiolaria pods, players must kill the ACCESS Module Bearer to acquire the Access pickup. Now that players are in the lab area with a surgical table, go past it. In order to open the door leading to the final entrance, you must scan one of the degaussed Exominds and wait for dialogue from the characters to be finished. If the Overture variant of the Exotic mission is played for the first time, you will also acquire the NES007 specimen as well, but you will not to be able to acquire the quest for it until you have progressed far enough into the story where it requires the completion of that quest.

Confronting the Hydras

After scanning the degaussed Exomind and waiting for dialogue to be finished, a door leading to a large chamber where you eventually fight the Hydra frames sent by the Conductor will open. A rally flag will appear in the area, and going past the rally flag begins the encounter where an Independent Variable carrying the Connection pickup spawns immediately. Kill it and acquire the pickup so it can then placed in the bowl at the center; if the Concerto variant is being played, 2 Root Module Restriction Cyclops will spawn upon acquiring the pickup to prevent you from placing it in the center bowl, so they must be killed first. After placing the lockup in the center bowl, interact with the conflux, then find which side the Cyclops is on. Whichever side the Cyclops spawns on is the same side where DPS against the Hydra bosses will begin, so kill the Independent Variable and take the Connection pickup to the side the Cyclops spawns at. Stand on the plate and kill adds until it reaches 100% and then shoot the exposed pyramid on the barrier to begin DPS until it reaches ½ of its health. When it reaches that threshold, it will create deletion walls inside the chamber and spawn in Independent Variables carrying the Access pickup. Kill them and install them on the proper bowls. Rinse and repeat until the boss reaches ¼ of its health. It will flee to the center of the chamber and erect a barrier while barraging players with their weaponry. Shoot the exposed pyramid to begin the final round of DPS until it is killed. Players we will earn the Choir of One when it’s completed for the first time with guaranteed Deepsight Resonance and eventually its catalysts when the quests from Banshee-44 were acquired.

Objectives

Overture

• Investigate the Conductor's Domain

The Conductor has directed radiolaria to a hidden location at the planet's core. Uncover the secrets concealed within.

• Create a Connection Pathway

A Vex Module is required to cross the chasm.

• Pursue the Shadow Legion

A Shadow Legion force has infiltrated the Conductor's domain. Put an end to their search.

• Counter the Shadow Legion Advance

Remove the Shadow Legion forces to pursue the Conductor's secrets.

• Explore the Jungle

Traverse the Vex jungle.

• Investigate the Vex Constructs

Reach Maya Sundaresh's facility deep inside Nessus.

• Investigate the Conductor's Experiments

Discarded and degaussed Exo bodies lie within Maya Sundaresh's facility on Nessus. Examine the deactivated Exos to learn about her experiments.

• Reach the Planet's Core

Find a path to the core to put a stop to Maya Sundaresh's plans.

• Disrupt the Choral Mind

Interfere with the planetary core’s operations to draw the Choral Mind closer.

• //CONNECTION Required

Obtain Vex Module//CONNECTION to cross the chasm.

• Analyze the Choral Mind's Shield

Gather scan data for Failsafe so she can identify a weak point in the Choral Mind's shield.

• Break the Choral Mind's Shield

Damage the Choral Mind's weak point to lower its shielding.

• Restore Connection

Install Vex Module//CONNECTION to restore the interference control node.

• Access Required

Bypass the Vex barrier with Vex Module//ACCESS.

• Defeat Parodos, Choral Mind

Maya Sundaresh is using radiolaria and her Vex Collective to convert Nessus. Destroy Padoros, Choral Mind, to disrupt her plans.

Concerto

• End the Conductor's Plans

Uncover Maya Sundaresh's secrets to put an end to her plan to convert Sol.

• Stop the Shadow Legion

Reach Maya Sundaresh's facility before it is overrun with Shadow Legion forces.

• Defeat the Pyramid Defectors

Pyramid forces have pledged themselves to Yirix. Remove them before they infiltrate Maya Sundaresh's facility.

• Explore the Jungle

Traverse the Vex jungle.

• Investigate the Vex Constructs

Uncover information about Maya Sundaresh's experiments.

• Gather Vex Intelligence

Find and secure useful data to use against Maya Sundaresh.

• Stop the Conductor's Plans

Find and confront the Choral Mind, custodian of Maya Sundaresh's plans.

• Disrupt the Choral Mind

Interfere with the planetary core’s operations to draw the Choral Mind closer.

• //CONNECTION Required

Obtain Vex Module//CONNECTION to cross the chasm.

• Analyze the Choral Mind's Shield

Gather scan data for Failsafe so she can identify a weak point in the Choral Mind's shield.

• Break the Choral Mind's Shield

Damage the Choral Mind's weak point to lower its shielding.

• Restore Connection

Install Vex Module//CONNECTION to restore the interference control node.

• Access Required

Bypass the Vex barrier with Vex Module//ACCESS.

• Defeat Stasimon, Choral Mind

Maya Sundaresh commands an army of Vex with the aim of converting Nessus. Destroy Stasimon, Choral Mind, to obtain data on her Vex Collective.

Transcript

"And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going."The following is a verbatim transcription of an official document for archival reasons. As the original content is transcribed word-for-word, any possible discrepancies and/or errors are included.

Overture

• Ikora: Guardian. The Conductor has diverted the flow of radiolaria to the planet’s core.

• Osiris: We know her goal. We must uncover her method.

Returning to the Planetory Core, the Guardian spots three Shadow Legion Threshers and a Harvester flying into the distance.

• Osiris: It seems a contingent of Shadow Legion has taken interest in Sundaresh’s plans. To what end, and under whose command, we do not know. Outpace them.

Delving deeper into the Conductor's domain, the Guardian traverse across Vex obstacles to eventually arrive at a large cavern occupied by Shadow Legion forces.

//MSUND12 CONNECTING…

//CONNECTED

I know you're here

• Osiris: I can only speculate as to the Shadow Legion’s motivations. We have seen allies… sublimated into the Vex network. It takes great strength of will to maintain a distinct identity within it.

• Osiris: The Echo grants that strength of will. We have seen it firsthand in the Conductor’s presence.

• Ikora: And we’ve stopped Psion incursions into the Nessus Vex Collective before. The Shadow Legion wants the same thing we do.

Retrieving Vex Modules and utilizing them to manifest platforms or dispel barriers, the Guardian gains access to the Confluxes, interacting with them to open the way forward to the Adytum.

What are you looking for?

A way to stop me?

To destroy my Collective?

To halt the future?

Discovering another Vex Module within a room, the Guardian retrieves it, causing the Deletion Walls to activate as they slowly closes in on the Guardian

Darkness Zone. Respawning Restricted.

Fleeing down the hallway, the Guardian arrives at a new room as the Deletion Wall halts upon reaching the entrance. The Guardian exits the room to arrive at a new cavern, bringing forth a connection pathway with a Module.

• Osiris: Sundaresh is creating pluralities within the Vex minds, instigating individuality within her Collective.

• Ikora: Until now, each Vex Collective was guided by one mind, acting in unison. Maya has turned a collective into a community.

• Osiris: It makes them unpredictable. Our tactics must change accordingly.

Arriving into a new cavern with large Vex structures, the Guardian uses a tractor beam to arrive at a new room inhabited by Shadow Legion forces. Upon engaging with the enemy forces, the Subjugator leading the Cabal detachment retreats while Parados, Choral Mind appears.

• Osiris: This Vex Mind is acting as a caretaker for the planet’s core. An immune response to the Shadow Legion. Intriguing.

With the Guardian's arrival, Parados, Choral Mind retreats. Meanwhile the Guardian defeats the Vex and Cabal converging on them and uses a Vex Module to open the way forward.

I survived the Collapse

I will survive you

The Guardian arrives at a lab and installs a Vex Module to open a portal taking them into the neighbouring room. Defeating the Vex forces, including the Root Module Restriction, the Guardian utilizing the Modules eventually creates a portal taking them to the Vex Jungle Construct. When the Guardian attempts to retrieve another module, a barrier appears around it as forces of the Shadow Legion led by the Subjugator, Iziira, Pledged to Yirix appears.

Darkness Zone. Respawning Restricted.

As the Guardian gravely damages Iziira, the Subjugator teleports away. Utilizing the Module, the Guardian arrives at another room Iziira retreats once more as the Tormentor, Eexonies, Pledged to Yirix appears. Pursuing the two Dread commmanders across different rooms, the Guardian eventually returns to the Vex Jungle Construct where they defeat Iziira, and Eexonios, Pyramid Remnants. Traversing across the jungle, the Guardian uncovers a cavern containing Ishtar Collective buildings.

• Ikora: Ishtar buildings. Here?

• Ikora: Are the Vex establishing facilities as reconstructions of Sundaresh's memories?

• Ikora: Taking comfort in the familiar, and forcing the Vex to give her what she needs. Sounds like Maya.

Defeating the Vex forces, the Guardian continues their journey through the jungle.

You come from a false future

You are nothing

An enemy of progress

Swaddled in ignorance

Raging against my command

Uncovering further Ishtar buildings, the Guardian destroys a Root Module Restriction.

I am Maya Sundaresh

I will recreate the past

I will create futures

Entering into another Vex portal, the Guardian appears at a Ishtar Research Facility, littered with dead Exo bodies. Accessing a degaussed Exomind, the Guardian listens to a recording.

• Maya Sundaresh: Fidelity test. What did we name our daughter?

• Chioma Esi: W-What? Maya?

• Maya Sundaresh: What did we name our daughter?

• Chioma Esi: Where are you? What’s going on? Please… Maya

• Maya Sundaresh: What did we name our daughter?

• Chioma Esi: …Nisa.

• Maya Sundaresh: Elaborate.

• Chioma Esi: We… debated names for weeks. Parthenogenetic incubation was moving along fine in the lab.

• Chioma Esi: [takes sobbing breath] Then the Collapse. Everything happened so fast; we had to leave! We—

• Maya Sundaresh: Answer latency beyond acceptable bounds. Degaussing Exomind.

• Chioma Esi: NO!

• Ikora: Osiris, I read your reports from Neptune. That was Chioma Esi… What did Maya do?

• Osiris: She’s searching for something. Using Chioma as a baseline to find our Golden Age among the simulations.

• Ikora: This is horrific.

• Osiris: I’m afraid this is just the beginning.

The Guardian reaches the Nessus's Core, where Parodos, Choral Mind is contained within a Vex shield.

• Osiris: Sundaresh has amassed a formidable Vex force. We can only delay her plans.

• Ikora: Guardian. Take this opportunity to strike.

The Collapse was inevitable

But so am I

//DISCONNECTED

Defeating Independent Variables, the Guardian receives Vex Modules and brings forth platforms with Vex plates. With the Guardian accessing the Vex plates, Failsafe successfully exposes a Vex Node maintaining Parodos's shield.

Vex security exploit detected! Happy to help, Captain!

Destroying the Vex Node, the Guardian disables Parados's shield

Vex security disrupted! Have fun, Captain!

As the Guardian heavily damages Parodos, the Vex Mind would respond by activating wall protocols. Despite its powerful weaponry, the Guardian succeeds in defeating Parodos.

• Osiris: Sundaresh is doing more than commanding the Vex. She’s taking control of an entire collective, and using radiolaria to search the Vex Simulation Network. Our Golden Age, in her understanding, must exist within it.

• Ikora: And Chioma?

• Osiris: A means to an end. A way to measure reality. A heart... weighed against a feather.

• Ikora: Could Maya find what she’s looking for?

• Osiris: I don’t know. That is not the question at the front of my mind. That question is only: What will happen if she does? Return to the H.E.L.M., Guardian. I need time to think about what we’ve found here.

{End Mission:Encore: Overture}

Concerto

• Osiris: We must gain access to Sundaresh’s facility once again.

• Osiris: With the data Failsafe has collected, we can better determine Sundaresh’s use of the Exo consciousnesses within the VexNet.

• Osiris: The Conductor seeks to assimilate all of Sol under her command.

• Osiris: She desires a “Golden Age”. But what does she really mean? With her methods, I do not assume benevolence.

• Osiris: All I know is that it would undo everything we have accomplished since the Collapse. We cannot allow this.

Delving deeper into the Conductor's domain, the Guardian traverse across Vex obstacles to eventually arrive at a large cavern occupied by Shadow Legion forces.

• Ikora: Empress Caiatl believes that the Shadow Legion here are commanded by the defected Psion, Yirix.

• Ikora: It would explain their interest in Maya's research, and the Echo.

• Ikora: It wouldn't just be access to the Vex Simulation Network. It would give Yirix command over an entire Vex Collective.

• Ikora: You can see the danger in that.

Eventually, after utilizing Vex Modules to traverse further through Nessus, the Guardian creates a pathway leading to a structure occupied by Shadow Legion forces.

• Ikora: Maya is diverting radiolaria to search the Vex Simulation Network. Peering into other timelines, trying to find our own past.

• Ikora: And to that end, raising an army of her own Collective to subsume Sol.

• Ikora: She can use her Echo to control Vex, but these are under her command completely. She's… converting them to serve her. [sharp sigh] Do they even know what they're doing?

//MSUND12 CONNECTING…

//CONNECTED

Arriving at the Vex Jungle Construct, the Guardian confronts both Eexonios, and, Iziira Pledged to Yirix. Pursuing them both across different rooms, the Guardian eventually defeats them both at the Vex Jungle Construct once again.

Look at yourself

This is what you do

Thoughtless destruction

This is what you are

Using Vex Module//ACCESS, the Guardian enters into a portal and returns to the cavern containing Ishtar Collective buildings.

• Osiris: Sundaresh's use of Chioma prefigures a dangerous compromise.

• Osiris: We knew that she was capable of stepping beyond the bounds of ethics in her experimentation, but…

• Osiris: Now we know the extent. The threat is serious… and imminent.

Destroying the Vex forces, the Guardian travels towards the next Ishtar town.

A child

Wandering through my garden

Picking flowers

Crushing them

Upon arriving at the other Ishtar town, the Guardian destroys the Root Module Restriction before continuing further towards the research facility.

You don’t know what we've lost

Everything

The joy

The laughter

The promises

The future

Everything

Gone

//DISCONNECTED

Eventually the Guardian arrives at the Ishtar Research Facility where they access a Degaussed ExoMind

• Maya Sundaresh: Fidelity test. How did I make you cry on our wedding night?

• Chioma Esi: Maya? Maya? W—Where are we? How — we’re alive!

• Maya Sundaresh: How did I make you cry on our wedding night?

• Chioma Esi: You didn’t. I made YOU cry. Because I called you "sunrise". Suryodaya. Because your mother called you that.

• Chioma Esi: Because it reminded you she was gone… that she missed the happiest day of your life.

• Chioma Esi: And—and I touched your cheek! And I told you there is always another sunrise, even after we see it set.

• Maya Sundaresh: Degaussing Exomind. Sentimentality is higher than expected variance.

• Osiris: Sundaresh… she… is bringing copies of her wife, Chioma Esi, out of the VexNet. Finding them, interrogating them, and… discarding them.

• Ikora: For her "Golden Age"?

• Osiris: No. No, or perhaps… what would be her own personal Golden Age. The wife she remembers. The one from her own simulation.

• Ikora: And Maya will destroy Sol to find her.

Exiting the research facility, the Guardian enters into a cavern where Stasimon, Choral Mind is contained within a Vex shield

• Osiris: Sundaresh has recreated her Caretaker. We face the same threat as before.

• Osiris: And I do not believe it will be the last.

Using the Vex Modules, the Guardian exposes the Nodes maintaining the shield, allowing them to damage and eventually defeat Stasimon.

• Saint-14: Osiris… I heard what the Guardian found. [sighs] How could Maya do such a thing to Chioma? To the woman she loved?

• Saint-14: Sundaresh convinced herself that she could never have loved this Chioma at all. Not this one, and not the others.

• Saint-14: But this Chioma loved Maya… We heard it.

• Saint-14: I am sorry. For doubting. For believing the Conductor for even one moment… I am so sorry, Osiris. For doing that to you.

• Osiris: No, Saint. Don't apologize. You… you were forgiven from the first.

Enemies

Vex - Compelled Collective

• Choral Goblin
  • Uplifted Choral Goblin
• Uplifted Choral Fanatic
• Choral Hobgoblin
  • Uplifted Choral Hobgoblin
• Choral Harpy
• Uplifted Choral Minotaur
• Copyphaeus Minotaur
• Independent Variable
• Uplifted Choral Hydra
• Root Module Restriction
• Choral Cyclops
  • Uplifted Choral Cyclops
• Uplifted Choral Wyvern
• PARTITION Module Bearer
• ACCESS Module Bearer
• DELETION Module Bearer

Cabal - Shadow Legion

• War Beast
• Honored Psion
• Legionary
• Honored Phalanx
• Honored Incendior
• Gladiator
• Honored Centurion

Bosses

• Iziira and Eexonios, Pyramid Remnants
  • Eexonios, Pledged to Yirix
  • Iziira, Pledged to Yirix
• Hexahedric Mind (Secret)
• Parodos, Choral Mind (Overture)
• Stasimon, Choral Mind (Concerto)

Rewards

• Choir of One

Appearance

• Destiny 2: Episode: Echoes (First appearance)