Barrow-Dyad's Echo: A Strand SMG Woven Through Taken Secrets

In the shifting tapestry of Destiny 2's Heresy season, a disruption rippled through tradition. Where Exotic missions often slumbered until Act III's crescendo, Barrow-Dyad emerged like a phantom thread pulled early from fate's loom—a Strand SMG humming with dissonant energy. Tied to the "Derealize" mission, this weapon arrived not with fanfare but with whispers, harkening back to The Taken King's era of hidden relics and unsolved enigmas. Bungie, defying expectation, unveiled this quest chain in Heresy's second week, a puzzle-box wrapped in gravitational distortions and blighted whispers. Guardians now chase not just power, but echoes of Oryx's dread legacy.

The First Whispers: Unearthing the Blight

No vendor handoff heralds Barrow-Dyad; it demands a sleuth's intuition. Guardians must hunt one of three hidden Taken Blights, phantasmal anomalies scattered like forgotten dreams. The most whispered-about lies in the Hall of Souls, near the Court of Oryx—a place where history bleeds into the present. Entering the Nether alone is advised, a private waltz with shadows where time dissolves like sugar in voidtea. Seek an orange-hued chamber, its air thick with Grims and the looming specter of a Tormentor. Whether fought or ignored, this space holds the key: summon your Ghost, and invisible platforms materialize, ethereal stepping stones defying logic. Leap, and the Blight's pull swallows you whole—a tear in reality's fabric, stitched haphazardly by unseen hands.

Within this pocket dimension, triality reigns: a portal, a plate, a panel veiled in green forcefields. Resist the portal's siren call—it spits you back into mundanity. Instead, step onto the plate. The panel flickers, and dialogue murmurs: "Something whispers to the right." Here, the quest's soul reveals itself: step sideways off the plate, a counterintuitive dance step in this cosmic ballet. This mechanic, a silent symphony where movement writes the score, recurs throughout the journey. Solve it, and an Osseous Fragment materializes—a bone shard humming with Taken energy.

The Path Unfolds: Moon, Cosmodrome, and Curses

With the fragment cradled, Eris Morn's apartment beckons, offering "The Taken Path" quest—a compact odyssey spanning moonscapes and rusted Earth. Expect two hours of poetry written in gunfire:

• 🌙 Sorrow's Harbor (Moon): Not the Altar of Sorrows, but the K1 Revelations Lost Sector. A Taken Blight hovers like a trapped stormcloud. Shatter it, step onto the plate, and heed the whisper. The sector transforms, drowning in Taken essence. An Ogre awaits, its fall gifting another fragment.

• 🏚️ Forgotten Shore (Cosmodrome): Land at the Steppes, trek through desolate valleys to Veles Labyrinth. Navigate its maze, find the Taken orb, repeat the plate ritual twice. But completion mocks you—backtrack to ambush Taken spawns, a phantom cadence in the silence. Defeat the Phalanx boss, claim your prize.

Before Derealize, three Taken Curses must be unraveled—mini-quests demanding relic-wielding finesse. Each curse is a verse in a darker hymn:

Curse	Location	Challenge
Endurance	Sorrow's Harbor (Moon)	Wield a Taken Relic, charge it with kills until it "grows heavy," deposit
Urgency	Hallowed Grove, EDZ	Race against time; kills extend the clock
Revenge	Nightmare Hunt: Pride (Moon)	Battle Taniks—again—amidst matchmade allies, claim relic for final blow

Fragments in the Nether: Statues and Shadows

With curses initiated, return to the Nether's embrace for three more Osseous Fragments. Private sessions are crucial—this is a meditation, not a sprint. Seek Hive statues, eldritch sentinels hidden in patrol zones:

• Hall of Souls: Spawn, turn right. A statue awaits, whispering "call to power." Summon a Hunter of Power (Wizard or Psion), slay it, reclaim the fragment.

• Mausoleum: Leap right into the tentacled abyss. The statue cowers behind sinewy limbs; interact, defeat a Taken Wizard, claim your shard.

These fragments aren't mere collectibles; they're sacrificial keys offered to the dark, each miniboss a stanza in the ritual.

Derealization: The SMG's Birth

All converges at "Derealize," accessed via the Last City node. This mission births Barrow-Dyad—a weapon like a hummingbird's heartbeat made manifest in metal and void. Its intrinsic perk charges a meter, unleashing blight barrages that dissolve foes into Strand-tangled memories. Victory gifts the SMG, but the journey deepens: revisit Derealize to unlock intrinsics and catalysts, and scour the Nether for hidden fragments to refine its power. At Savathûn’s Enclave, customization awaits—each tweak a stitch in this living weapon.

Barrow-Dyad’s design, a frisbee spun from nebulas and nightmares, belies its lethality. Guardians wield it, but does it wield them? What truths lurk in its Taken-infused Strand projectiles? And as fragments whisper in the Nether’s gloom, one wonders: is this power a key... or a lock? The dance continues, always.