Season of the Splicer’s new Seasonal Activity is now playable in Destiny 2 and sees a team of six Guardians fighting through hordes of enemies to gain access to the Vex Network and clear out a final boss.
Completing Override missions and opening both chests at the end will potentially reward Destiny 2 players with some of the new Legendary weapons and armor from Season of the Splicer. Lots of new gear, including several Exotics, are also available this season, but players can also get some new Stasis Aspects and Fragments from the Exo Stranger too.
In Override: Europa, six Guardians will be matchmade together and sent to Europa to open a way to the Vex Network with the help of Kell of Light Mithrax and other allies back at the Tower.
To launch Override missions, players need to open the Destinations screen, select the H.E.L.M., and then choose the Override mission node. The activity can be split into two distinct phases - opening the Vex Network and clearing it out – which involve very different mechanics from each other.
Phase One - Opening the Vex Network:
Opening the way to the Vex Network involves completing several objectives in order and repeating them until the portal to the Network opens. As soon as players spawn into Override, one player will need to head to the large Vex Conflux Terminal in the area and follow the button prompt to start the activity and cause either Vex or Cabal enemies to spawn in.
Overloading the Terminal:
To complete this objective, players need to defeat enemies in the area, collect the bright-purple Motes they drop and any Data Spikes, and deposit them into the Terminal. All players will be able to see the progress bar towards the top-right corner of the screen to see roughly how many more Motes need to be deposited to progress to the next objective.
As with Gambit and its Motes, defeating any enemy during this section in Override will cause them to drop one or more purple Motes. Guardians can pick them up by running over them and can hold up to 10 at a time, although if a player dies, they will lose all their held Motes. These Motes can then be taken to the Terminal and deposited to increase progress towards the next objective. If a Destiny 2 player deposits 10 Motes at once, a heavy ammo crate will spawn which all players can use.
Champions will periodically spawn during this section, and they need to be killed quickly. Letting them get too close to the Terminal will cause it to turn red and become blocked, making it impossible for players to deposit their Motes until the Champion is dead.
A deactivated Vex portal can also be seen near the Terminal. Once enough Motes have been deposited, a backdoor into the Vex Network will be available and players can head through the portal into the Network. Players in the Network need to run towards the exit portal to find a "Scytale" Champion.
Defeating the Champion will cause it to drop a Data Spike item which must be manually picked up and held, meaning players cannot use their normal weapons while holding it. Taking the Spike through the exit portal and depositing it will award a big chunk of progress towards completing the objective. Depositing Data Spikes also gives all Guardians a brief ability regeneration buff called Splicer’s Will. Defeating the Scytale Champion is not difficult, so only a couple of players should head through the Vex portal at a time so as not to make defending the Terminal from Champions harder.
Clearing the Connection Blockers:
Once the progress bar has reached the first checkpoint, all enemies will despawn and be replaced by new ones to block the connection which will turn the Conflux Terminal red. For this objective, players just need to work together to quickly wipe out all the enemies that spawn in so that connection to the Terminal is re-established.
Override the Terminal Passcode:
Now that connection to the Conflux Terminal has been restored, players will need to enter the passcode to hack the Terminal. Lots of Vex Oracles – the floating white cube-like objects – will appear around the Terminal. Every few seconds, one of these Oracles will turn red, so players need to shoot and destroy three of the red Oracles to override the passcode. After some time, enemies, including exploding Vex Fanatics, can spawn during this objective, so players should try to complete it quickly.
The Terminal will return to its normal appearance and several platforms at different heights will spawn around the Terminal. One player needs to climb up the platforms and follow the button prompt to hack the Terminal once at the top. Once hacked, the platforms will despawn, and the encounter will reset so that players can repeat these objectives two more times to eventually gain access to the Vex Network.
Each run of these objectives introduces harder enemies and more minibosses, and players will need to climb higher up the Terminal platforms to hack it after the Oracles have been destroyed. On the final Terminal hack, the Terminal will disappear, and a Vex Network portal will open up in the ground and will suck in any nearby Guardians.
Phase Two - Clearing the Vex Network:
This phase is split into two sections, with the first being a platforming area that leads to a portal, and the other being the final boss.
Bypassing Network Security Systems:
For this objective, just one of the six players needs to cross the platforming puzzle and reach the exit portal that leads to the final boss arena. There are several versions of the platforming puzzle, each involving some combination of slides, disappearing platforms, Vex mini-Harpies, moving lasers, laser grids, and Vex cubes that need to be destroyed to bring down barriers.
Destiny 2 players with the Codestrider Splicer Gauntlet upgrade can activate green nodes during these platforming puzzles that create shortcuts and avoid obstacles. Other Splicer Gauntlet upgrades reduce the damage Guardians take from the moving lasers and increase the amount of heavy ammo gained from crates found in the first phase of Override.
As soon as one player makes it to the boss arena, all players will eventually be teleported to them to begin the final fight.
Deleting the Subjugated Mind:
Once inside the boss arena, players will be able to see the Subjugated Mind standing on a central column and surrounded by a barrier. One player needs to activate the nearby Conflux Terminal to lower the barrier and lure out the Subjugated Mind.
This boss is a massive Vex Wyvern that deals a lot of damage, can dive on players to kill them or knock them off the arena, and can teleport around. A range of Vex enemies, such as Hobgoblins, Cyclopes, and Finalizer Fanatics - which will likely reappear in the Vault of Glass Raid - will spawn throughout this fight too, so players need to be aware of stray shots and accidentally walking into a Finalizer.
Constant movement is crucial to avoiding the Subjugated Mind's weapon shots and diving attacks. Its powerful stomp also means it can be difficult to deal damage up close without a Well of Radiance or Ward of Dawn. Deathbringer with a fully upgraded Exotic Catalyst is very deadly and is a great heavy weapon for this boss fight.
Once players take off a third of the Subjugated Mind’s health, it will teleport back to the central column and summon a barrier. More enemies will spawn, including a Hobgoblin Scytale Barrier Champion, and three protected Vex cubes which power the Subjugated Mind’s barrier will also appear. Players need to defeat the Scytale Champion to make the barrier cubes vulnerable, and then destroy those to bring down the boss’s barrier and begin another damage phase. The Scytale Champion will also drop a Data Spike which can be deposited at the Conflux Terminal to give all players the Splicer’s Will buff.
As the fight goes on, the Subjugated Mind will spawn tougher enemies, including Soterian Minotaurs. Repeat damaging the Subjugated Mind and taking down its barrier until it is dead. Destiny 2 players can then head to towards the Conflux Terminal to open the Vex Chest to get some loot. Players can also open Conflux Chests with Key Codes crafted from Ether to get even more Splicer loot.
Opening the Conflux Chest will also award players with Decrypted Data which is use for upgrading the Splicer Gauntlet and focusing Umbral Engrams. There is also a random chance of a Vex loot Goblin spawning in the boss arena which grants extra Decrypted Data, although the chance of it spawning can be increased by depositing Data Spikes.
Override is currently only available on Europa, but versions for the Moon and the Tangled Shore will arrive in the coming weeks.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S
