The path forward is blocked by an icy wall that resembles the Cosmodrome wall but with Cayde-6 and Crow on your team, there may be a way through.
You will need to make your way towards the large icy barrier and find a way over it to continue through The Pale Heart.
The only thing stopping you is the need to find a way around as well as the enemies that you may encounter along the way.
- Mission Type: The Final Shape
- Mission Location: The Seclusion, The Pale Heart
How To Get Ascent?
The Ascent is a mission that you obtain during The Final Shape main quest, which you will need to complete if you want to progress further.
This mission becomes available once you reach quest step 12, which comes later after you have found Zavala in The Seclusion and brought him back to camp.
Ascent Mission Walkthrough
The mission begins with you scouting ahead, where you make your way through a tight cave and eventually reach an area where you need to jump across platforms.
You will run into taken as you make your way through and will need to fight your way through them until you reach the exit, which takes you to The Divide.
There will be a large area where multiple taken will appear and you will need to go around to the side to find a way past some Taken Blight.
This involves fighting through to the other side where you will find Volatile Darkness, which can be picked up and thrown at the Taken Blight that is blocking the way.
After you have removed the Taken Blight, proceed with making your way and you will reach a chest just before you start making your ascent.
Keep making your way toward the waypoint, which will require you to make jumps that will be boosted by the gusts of wind coming from below.
You will stumble upon Cayde-6 and Crow, who are having a chat but do not have to wait for them to finish as moving away will have their talk continue on comms.
Make your way towards the waypoint and you will reach more combatants and there will be another Taken Blight nearby. (Defeat enemies to remove barrier blocking Volatile Darkness)
There will be Vex blocking your path and you will need to fight past them as you continue making your ascent but they should not be too hard to defeat.
You will reach the side of the frozen wall that appears to now be a manmade structure and will need to jump from platform to platform to continue making your way higher.
This path will take you to an open area where you will find a Splinter that must be destroyed and once done, enemies will begin to appear. (Including Bound variants)
Make use of the Prismatic Wells to defeat your enemies as there will be tons of them that spawn and afterward, you will need to nullify two of the glyphs in the area.
Much like with the previous missions, you can nullify the glyphs by finding the ones your enemies have dropped and approaching the ones that are shown near the blocked path.
A chest will appear if you have done this successfully and you may then continue pushing forward towards the next waypoint.
There will be an underground passage blocked by Taken Blight once more and you can find the Volatile Darkness nearby above you.
Proceed with destroying the Taken Blight and make your way below within the structure, where you will now need to cross the large gap by jumping from platforms and pipes.
There will be another area with a Splinter that you must destroy and you will need to defeat all the enemies, including a boss called The Unwaking Mind.
Defeating all the enemies will remove a barrier covering the nearby Volatile Darkness, which you may use to destroy the Taken Blight on both sides.
There will be enemies in two rooms that you need to defeat to make glyphs appear and once they drop, you need to nullify the glyphs in the room where The Unwaking Mind is.
This happens after you have removed half of its health and after nullifying the glyphs, you can finish off The Unwaking Mind and proceed.
Grab the chest and make your way to the waypoint, which will take you outside of the structure and it is later revealed that this is The Impasse.
You might recall this area to be similar to where Ghost first found you and once you reach “The Light” you will need to interact with it.
A sudden surge of power will give your character strength and enemies will appear, leaving you with the only option to destroy everything around you.
Once the enemies in the area have been cleared out, there will be a bit of dialogue before the mission comes to an end.
Ascent Rewards
After defeating a vast amount of enemies, the mission will end and you will obtain XP and more for completing it.
During this mission, you will be able to unlock the Solar Super (Light Ability) for your character and may obtain gear along the way from chests and defeating combatants.
Summary
Making your way through the icy wall that resembles the Cosmodrome Wall leads you back to a memory of where you were found by Ghost.
It was in this desperate time that you were able to embrace the Light, which Ghost believes was The Traveler reaching out.
Should this be true, this means that the fight is not over and the Vanguard still has a chance since The Traveler is still present and is still on your side.
