Destiny 2’s Season of the Chosen is officially live, so grab your weapon of choice and get ready to face the Cabal horde. Revolving around stopping Emperor Calus’ daughter Caiatl from uniting the Cabal, players will need to take down various champions that are vying for a seat on her War Counsel. Along with new content, Umbral Engrams make their return. Similar to their previous iteration, players can use these engrams to farm for specific rewards which can alleviate the grind. Tied to the Prismatic Recaster in the H.E.L.M., these Umbral Engrams can either be turned in normally or focused if you unlock the necessary components.
How to Get Umbral Engrams
As far as earning umbral engrams goes, all you have to do is play. You’ll earn them just like any other engram in the game. So play what you enjoy! Whether that’s public events, strikes, nightfalls, patrols, Gambit, Crucible, or anything else. These will drop randomly from any defeated enemies, albeit at a much slower rate than in Season of Arrivals. You can tell if you found an Umbral Engram because they will have a dark glow around them that’s mixed with the pinkish/purple color we typically see.
How to Focus an Umbral Engram
Now that you have an Umbral Engram, what the hell do you do with it? Take it to HELM, of course!
Once you have an Umbral Engram, return to The Tower and interact with the Prismatic Recaster. Select the Umbral Focusing tab to open up a new menu that shows off three rows of different engrams and any focusing quests you need to complete. In order to focus your Umbral Engrams, you’ll need to first complete a series of bounty-esque missions. These can be as simple as getting kills with a sniper rifle or scout rifle or requiring players to bash open Tribute Chests with the Hammer of Proving.
This item is acquired by completing the quest you’re given when the season begins which takes about 2 hours to finish. Once you unlock the Hammer of Proving you will be given the option to bash open a chest at the end of any Battlegrounds activity you are in. Just remember, you’ll need 14 Cabal Gold to use this weapon, otherwise, you’ll only be able to unlock the middle, base reward chest. You can see what steps you need to complete for each focused variant in Tier 2 & 3 by highlighting them with your cursor. Unlocking these will take some time, so don’t expect to have access to the Tier 2 & 3 rewards right away.
After you’ve unlocked a few different focusing options, open up the Prismatic Recaster and select which one you want to use. Upon selecting this, your Umbral Engram will be focused and can be used in the Umbral Decoder to obtain your reward. You will need some Legendary Shards and Hammer Charges (which are obtained via the Battlegrounds activity) to produce a Focused Engram.
What’s New in Season of the Chosen?
What’s coming to Destiny 2 over the next three months? For starters, there’s a new seasonal activity called Battlegrounds and, thank the Traveler, it’s a three-player matchmade experience. No more roaming around in patrol hoping people show up to your party. There’s also a new area in the Tower called the Hub for Emergency Logistics and Maneuvers, or HELM. Basically, it’s your new area for coordinating Vanguard operations with the “War Table Seasonal vendor” who we thought was Zavala, but that probably can’t be the case.
You can also use the Prismatic Recaster here and decode your Umbral Engrams at the Umbral Decoder. In a new move, the help document also says players can manage their vault and get items from the Postmaster here! For those who like events, Trials of Osiris is back on February 12 with new armor sets and weapons to chase. Iron Banner is another routine staple and the Guardian Games will be hosted in late April. Will the Titans come out victorious once again?
