- Mission Type: Season of Defiance
- Mission Location: Outskirts, European Dead Zone
Following shortly after the Lightfall campaign, the Shadow Legion had begun taking prisoners and holding them captive on EDZ.
You have been tasked to infiltrate the pyramid and save the prisoners that are being held captive by the Shadow Legion before anything happens to them.
During this Defiant Battleground activity, you will need to push your way through the EDZ and face off against a powerful Shadow Legion boss known as Warden Vincu’us.
How To Get Defiant Battleground EDZ?
Defiant Battleground EDZ is one of the activities that was introduced during Season of Defiance and continues to be playable.
You can access the Defiant Battleground EDZ activity by going to the destination or via the Defiant Battleground Playlist.
Defiant Battleground EDZ Mission Objectives
1) Scout the Perimeter
You will be starting quite a short distance away from the pyramid and will have to make your way to the waypoint, which can easily be done on a Sparrow.
Upon reaching the waypoint, you will be dismounted from your vehicle and will have to continue on foot as you fight through Shadow Legion enemies.
2) Break Their Lines
More Shadow Legion enemies will begin to appear and you will need to clear all of them out before you can proceed.
As you are clearing out the enemies, a mini-boss known as Bracus Vigulin will appear and you will have to defeat him.
3) Rescue the Captured Prisoners
A portal that is marked by a waypoint will be nearby and you will need to get on your Sparrow to cross the water and head over to it.
Once you reach the portal to the Ascendant Plane, you will need to interact with it to open it up, which will allow you and your team to get through.
4) Traverse the Ascendant Plane
As you arrive in the Ascendant Plane, you will need to keep following the waypoint but there will be Taken enemies that you need to fight through first.
Cross the broken bridge and make your way past the Taken until you reach a tunnel that you need to maneuver through to avoid getting thrown off or killed.
Once you reach the waypoint you will need to destroy the nearby Blight to ignite the Balefire, which allows you to proceed through a blocked entrance.
5) Rescue the Captured Prisoners
The waypoint will now be leading you into the Pyramid and you will need to follow it until you reach a large room where a mini-boss will be waiting.
6) Eliminate Exomida, Taken of the Witness
A large mini-boss known as Exomida will attack you from a distance and you will need to destroy more Blight and ignite Balefires to make it vulnerable.
Continue damaging Exomida (precision hits occur when aiming for its eye) until a health bar is down, which causes it to go invulnerable.
Igniting a Balefire will make it vulnerable again and you will need to keep fighting it until all of its health bars have been depleted.
7) Rescue the Captured Prisoners
With Exomida taken care of, you will need to push forward to the waypoint, which is where an exit from the Ascendant Plane will be.
8) Locate the Prisoners
You will need to continue making your way to the next waypoint, which will lead you to the final boss fight, where you will be facing the warden.
9) Engage Warden Vincu’us
As you enter the area, you will be in a large hall where the Warden Vincu’us will be waiting for you, who is accompanied by both Shadow Legion and later Taken enemies.
Warden Vincu’us may be attacked right away but after reducing one of his health bars, he will become invulnerable and retreat.
This is when Taken Blight will appear and you will need to go inside its radius to destroy it, allowing you to ignite a Balefire.
You will need to stay inside the safeguard zone, which will be within range of Warden Vincu’us, and will need to avoid his attacks while fending off the Taken.
While defending yourself, there will be Taken Anomalies that spawn and you will need to defeat them and pick up their Taken Essence.
10) Consecrate Taken Essences
Once you have defeated the Taken Anomalies, you will have to head over to the Balefire to consecrate the Taken Essences and throw them at Warden Vincu’us to make him vulnerable.
After throwing consecrated Taken Essences twice, he will be vulnerable and you may continue to deal damage to him until another health bar is depleted.
Continue doing these steps until Warden Vincu’us has been defeated and you will later be able to proceed to where the prisoners are located.
Once you reach the back of the area, you may interact with the holding cell to release the prisoners and the mission will be complete.
Defiant Battleground EDZ Rewards
Completing, Defiant Battleground EDZ has a chance to reward you with Glimmer, legendary gear, and additional rewards if you open a Defiant Battleground Chest at the end.
If you are playing the mission from the destinations menu, you may obtain a Defiant Key at the end but there will be no chest to unlock.
Defiant Battleground Chests will appear at the end of Defiant Battlegrounds Playlist activities if started from the H.E.L.M.
Summary
The Shadow Legion may have gotten the upper hand but it looks like even with their forces combined with the Taken, they stood no chance.
You were successfully able to infiltrate the pyramid and were able to rescue the prisoners being held captive by one of the wardens.
While there are other locations where prisoners may have been taken captive, it is only a matter of time before the numbers of freed prisoners grow.
