Published , by Bill Lavoy
Published , by Bill Lavoy
The arrival of Xur in Destiny 2 on March 19, 2019 introduced Guardians to a quest line called Invitation of the Nine. This line spans a total of nine weeks, which is a number that will appear many times throughout its duration. Below, Guardians will find the steps and instructions to complete this entire quest, with new updates every time Xur shows up with the next step.
The Invitation from the Nine can be picked up from Xur, who. You don’t have to buy it from him, but you might want to buy something else he’s selling depending on how complete your exotic collection is. Once you’ve picked up the Invitation of the Nine it will show up in your inventory under Pursuits. From there it can be tracked through until its completion.
Note: As of April 12, 2019, Guardians were able to complete quest steps on any planet, even though the quest itself would specify one. As of April 12, 2019, Guardians must complete steps on the planets specified or they will not get the drops they need from the various enemy types.
The first quest step is called The World and has the following criteria that Guardians must complete:
This is approximately 20-30 minutes of work depending on how lucky you get with the drops. The samples must be collected in the EDZ, so consider spawning in at the Trostland region near Devrim Kay. There is a fight that occasionally takes place between the Fallen and Cabal that can push this quest step forward in a big hurry. Besides that, head to the Gulch to find a steady supply of Cabal and stay in Trostland to find plenty of Fallen. The Taken, however, can be found when firing up the Lake of Shadows strike, which is also in the EDZ. It can be accessed from the Director. It doesn’t have to be heroic or a Nightfall, and it shouldn’t take more than two runs (it’s a five-minute strike) to get all nine samples.
The next quest step is called Into the Unknown and will ask Guardians to complete a single-player mission called Mystery and Potential. This can be found by loading into the Gambit Director. There will be a small dot next to the Reckoning event. Fire up the mission and load in. When you’re set to go, run forward and hop into the portal, then run forward and jump down and into another portal. This is where you’ll meet the Emissary of the Nine, completing the mission. Grab your reward from the chest, read any lore you’ve unlocked, then spend the next week waiting for Xur to return.
The second Invitation of the Nine will see Guardians head to Titan to do some dirty work. You can find the quest steps below:
The easiest way to knock the Justice quest step out is to head to Titan and load into Savathun's Song. It doesn't have to be the Nightfall or from the playlist. Just use the Director on Titan to fire it up. There will be a lot of Hive in here, and a single run should give you the nine samples you're after, and the strike completion. Once that's out of the way, enter the free roam mode on Titan and hang out at Siren's Watch. You can also partake in the two Fallen Walker public events that pop up. All in, the tasks in this quest step will take about 30 minutes, strike included.
The final quest step for the Invitation of the Nine this week is to fire up the Mystery and Potential mission from the Gambit Director. You must load in solo, but there's no combat. Just run forward and hop through the portal like you were firing up The Reckoning, then enjoy the dialogue and loot.
The third Invitation of the Nine quest kicks off with the quest step The High Priestess. This requires brave Guardians to head to Nessus for a few activities:
To begin the High Priestess quest step, open the Director for Nessus and fire up the Inverted Spire strike. It will only be a recommended Power level of 200, but that’s fine. This should be painless for most veteran Guardians, and I was able to get all nine Cabal samples in half a run. If that doesn't happen for you, the Cabal, Fallen, and Vex samples can each easily be obtained from patrols, lost sectors, or public events on Nessus. Like previous weeks, this is about a half an hour of play time to complete this step, with Guardians needing nine of each sample type.
When that’s done, open the Director and choose the Gambit option. Near the Reckoning event will be a single-player mission called Mystery and Potential. Head inside and run forward, moving along the path as if you were playing a round of Reckoning. Once you go through the portal in the ground, you’ll get a bit more lore to dig into, so relax and enjoy it.
As per usual, that’s all there is to the work that needs to be done for the Invitation of the Nine this week, but Xur will be back in seven days to give us all the fourth step.
Week 4 of the Invitation of the Nine sees more busy work for Guardians, plus some additional insight into the Nine and The Drifter in Destiny 2. The first step, The Magician, requires the following:
Guardians will need to complete The Pyramidion strike. This can be done by selecting it from the Director when Io is open. This should clear out either the Taken or Vex samples required depending on the version of the strike players get. In all, nine samples are needed of each enemy type. With the strike complete, use public events and lost sectors to finish it off. Keep in mind that players do not need to stay on Io to complete these tasks. Travel anywhere in the game that ample samples of each enemy type spawn.
The second part of the Week 4 quest is again Into the Unknown. Open the Gambit Director and launch the Mystery and Potential mission from there. When you spawn in, run forward and jump through the portal, then climb the step to get the cut scene and loot. That's it for this week.
Week 5 of the Invitation of the Nine shapes up like the others, except this time Guardians are headed to Mercury. Note that this was the week Bungie patched the ability to complete these quest steps on any planet, whereas for the previous weeks Guardians could travel throughout the solar system even though the quests stated otherwise.
Guardians will need nine samples of each enemy type, and drops are somewhat random. Most if not all of the Vex samples are obtainable in the Garden World strike, which can be selected from the Director on Mercury. Vex are also all over Mercury in nearly every event, making them the easiest to finish. Cabal can be obtained by completing the Tree of Probabilities strike also available from the Director on Mercury. They can also be found in various adventures that can be picked up from Brother Vance in the Lighthouse. Hive are more difficult. Hive should be completed by visiting Brother Vance and picking up an adventure called Bug in the System. Once through the Infinite Forest there will be lots of Hive, and there might even be a few along the way. When the strike is done and all samples collected the Strength quest step will be complete.
When all conditions are met head to Orbit and bring up the Gambit Director. Choose the single-player mission called Mystery and Potential from there and load in. Run forward and drop through the portal for another cut scene and a powerful drop. That will tie things up until next week.
Week 6 of the Invitation of the Nine has players diving once more to a planet to kill enemies, collect samples, and run a Strike. For this week's invitation, you will be completing The Twins, which tasks you with the following:
To launch the Strange Terrain Strike, open the Director and navigate to Mars. The node for the Strange Terrain is down south, in the caves below Glacial Drift. This Strike should see the Hive portion of this quest step completed. Thankfully, completing the Cabal part is as easy as running through the Ma'adim Subterrane Lost Sector a few times. Keep in mind, you can only collect the samples from the planet that is listed, and this week it's Mars.
After the Strike is finished and the samples are collected, the invitation will complete and you can load up Mystery and Potential. This is found by opening the Director and selecting the Gambit node, and then selecting the little circle below The Reckoning. Pass through the portal, listen to the new dialogue, and then collect your powerful gear from the chest.
Week 7 of the Invitation of the Nine was bugged for a bit, but it’s working now. This one takes place on the Tangled Shore, requiring the same resource gathering and whatnot from previous weeks.
Hive and Scorn are all over the Tangled Shore, so those are easy to come by. Scorn will most likely be done during The Hollowed Lair. Hive can be easily completed with one to three runs of the Wolfship Turbine lost sector in Sorik’s Cut. The Vex are only found in the Warden of Nothing strike, and it could take two or three runs if Guardians are unlucky. Remember that for the Invitation of the Nine, Guardians can simply launch the strikes from the Tangled Shore Director and not depend on the Heroic playlist.
When the strike is complete and all the samples have been collected, select Gambit from the Director and look for the Mystery and Potential mission. This is a solo activity, but there’s no combat. Simply fly in and run forward as if you were about to participate in The Reckoning. Enjoy the cut scene and get ready for the next invitation.
Week 8 of the Invitation of the Nine will take Guardians to The Dreaming City, one of the best patrol zones in Destiny 2. The first part of the quest, The Hanged Man, requires the following:
The Corrupted strike can be launched from The Dreaming City Director. It does not have to be from the Heroic playlist of a Nightfall. This strike will almost certainly complete the Taken samples portion of the quest, and possibly a couple Hive, but don’t count on that. Once through, Guardians can knock out the Scorn samples in the Bay of the Drowned Wishes lost sector, which is directly behind the Divalian Mists spawn point. For Hive, consider the Blind Well if the week is right, which it is right now (May 10, 2019). Hive can also be found in the Divalian Mists just wandering around near the entrance to the Blind Well.
When everything is done, launch into the Mystery and Potential missions from the Gambit Director. Run forward as if you were about to play The Reckoning, then enjoy the eight cinematic. There should also be a powerful drop in there, which has been an exotic on more than one occasion for me.
Invitation of the Nine will play out in the weeks to come but expect a lot of downtime while you wait for Xur to return. In the meantime, visit the Destiny 2 complete strategy guide for help with improving your Guardian in all ways.