The Choir of One Exotic Catalysts are locked behind a quest chain in Destiny 2 called “//Choir: Eternal.” You’ll need to complete the “Encore” Exotic mission once to access it and then find an array of secret chests to complete it.
In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll teach you how to unlock the Subsistence Catalyst for Choir of One and where to find three of the secret chests in the “Encore” Exotic mission (out of a total seven secret chests).
Note: Like most Exotic missions, the rest of the Catalysts for Choir of One are timegated for the next few weeks. We’ll update this guide with details on how to get the Destabilizing Rounds and Onslaught Catalysts, as well as the four remaining secret chests in “Encore,” once they become available.
How to get the Subsistence Catalyst for Choir of One
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Once you’ve finished the “Encore” mission and progressed the quest further, you can talk to Banshee-44 in the Tower and he’ll give you the “//Choir: Eternal” quest. This quest asks you to find the first secret chest in the “Encore” mission and then finish the mission on the Expert difficulty.
If Banshee doesn’t have the quest when you visit him, go collect the secret chests we’ve listed below and complete the mission on Expert. “//Choir: Eternal” is retroactive, and you’ll be able to pick up the Subsistence Masterwork even if you didn’t have the quest in your inventory when you did the steps.
How to unlock the first secret chest in ‘Encore’
Image: Bungie via Polygon
During your first run through the “Encore” mission in Destiny 2, you’ll collect the NES007 sample once you reach Maya’s lab. Continue the “Rising Chorus: Act III” quest to complete the Specimen research, which will net you the Conductor’s Imprint Codes research instrument with Failsafe. This will enable you to return to the “Encore” Exotic mission and unlock new secrets.
Load into the Encore mission (Expert isn’t required to find the chests, but if you’re going for the Catalyst, you might as well) and progress through until just before the first puzzle. Instead of going right toward the CONNECTION node, go left.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
You’ll find yourself in a room filled with dead portals and a spire switch. Access the switch and the room will start to come alive. Eventually a bunch of cubes will appear in the sky above where the spire was. Wait for a smaller cube to appear under one of the bigger ones. This small cube is an indicator of which one you should shoot first. Shoot the cubes in the correct order — by popping the one above the small cube and then waiting for the indicator to reappear —until you’ve destroyed all four. This will complete the first sync.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
The cubes will then move to the four portals around the room. Once again, be patient and wait for the little cube to appear and guide you. Destroy all four in the proper order to fully awaken the Ancillary Transit Nexus and get the first secret chest.
How to unlock the second secret chest in ‘Encore’
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Once you reach the second puzzle room, before you take the elevator up to the first portal node, you’ll see another access spire appear in the middle of your path (as long as you’ve completed the first secret chest and unlocked the nexus). Access it to open the portal to your right, which will take you back to the hub. Walk into the nexus and take the other portal on your left to return to the very beginning of the mission.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Near the Radiolaria waterfall, you’ll find yet another spire to access. Do so and it’ll spawn several bronze plates around the arena for you to shoot. To find them all, follow the faint white lines that connect each plate to the spire itself. Whenever you see a plate, shoot it with any weapon.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
There are five total plates to shoot, and while none of them are hidden, they might be sitting on the back of a building or otherwise facing away from the spire. You have 90 seconds to get them all, which is more than enough time for this tiny arena.
Once you hit the final plate, you’ll earn the “Vector Extension” Triumph, get some bonus loot, and receive Command Frame 2, the upgrade to the Intrinsic perk for Choir of One.
How to unlock the third secret chest in ‘Encore’
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Proceed through the mission until you reach the very end, just before you enter the boss arena. In Maya’s study, the Ishtar Research Facility, you’ll find another spire if you’ve activated the first secret chest. Approach it, access it, and a portal will appear at the back of the room. Go inside and cross the transit nexus to the portal across the room. Take it and you’ll appear in the Aberrant Code Containment area.
In front of you are five portals, a ton of ACCESS nodes, and two ACCESS modules. Above you, you’ll notice five purple blobs, some of which are shielded and have lasers pointing at them. Pop all five of those purple blobs before any of them respawn, so they’re all dead at once. They seem to be on a timer, which makes doing this in a group significantly more efficient.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
To pop them, all you need to do is shoot them. The problem is you can’t shoot through the ceiling or through their square shields. So you’ll need to go through the portals to get a line of sight on the ones without shields first, which will cause the shields around the others to disappear. The other problem is that the portals are all jumbled up, and don’t directly correlate to the purple blob above them.
When you put an ACCESS module into an ACCESS node, it will light up the portal next to it. However, the portal will send out a line to one of the red diamonds above the other portals in the room and light it up. This is showing you where the portal will actually take you to. So, for example, if portal #1 is the left-most portal and you activate it, it will draw a line to portal #4, which is the fourth portal from the left. Going through portal 1 will put you above portal #4.
Image: Bungie via Polygon
Through trial and error, learn where each portal connects. Once you’ve done that, look at the ceiling to see which purple blobs are unshielded, and teleport your allies to the correct places to deal with them. Once you destroy all of the blobs at once, the secret chest will spawn in the middle of the room.
The only other thing you have to worry about in this area is the legion of Vex that spawn here. They aren’t too tough unless you’re alone or on Expert, in which case you should either slow down to deal with them or have a dedicated add clear person.
We’ll update this guide with even more secret chests and Catalysts when they appear!