After watching about five minutes of gorgeous Destiny 2 cutscenes, you will gain control of your Guardian for the first time. You will find yourself in the decimated Council Chambers of the Tower. It is time to retake your home from the Cabal.

Grid View

Walk forward and turn right, toward the large wall of debris. It will crumble in front of you, revealing two Cabal troops. Take them out and keep moving forward.

More Cabal will emerge, destroying a Crucible bot. Take them down and head down the hall. Keep an eye out for the Cabal on your left and then rendezvous with Cayde. He will take out some Cabal and give you the lowdown.

Take a right past the ruins of the Tower. When you meet up with Lord Shaxx, he will offer you weapons. Step through the door and walk up to the weapon racks. Accept the prompt to receive a pair of new weapons to replace your boring old pistol, including an energy weapon pistol named The Last Dance and a kinetic weapon auto-rifle named Origin Story. (In the beta campaign level, this was an exotic weapon. In Destiny 2, it’s not.) More on this in a second.

Grid View

Equip your new gun and head down the corridor. Several Cabal Legionary will be fighting through an exploded doorway. Use this opportunity to test out your new firepower. Continue through the rubble and into the hanger. Jump up the stairs and into the ventilation area before meeting more Cabal. Ruin there day and walk through the door to meet your first Centurion.

Bungie/Activision

This foe has a shield and a powerful weapon. That shield is where you’ll use your new energy weapon. Switch to energy weapon you picked up from Shaxx and start shooting the centurion. There’ll be a prompt at the bottom of the screen that lets you know what’s happening here — matching elemental (arc, solor or void) damage to certain shield types (indicated by color) deals extra damage and “causes a powerful explosion,” as the Destiny 2 text says in the image above.

Once he falls, more Cabal will emerge from a pod, as well as another Centurion. Finish them off using the same tactics as before. Move through the hall and the door in front of you.

After taking your first look at the command ship, move into the hanger proper and take out all the Cabal using every tool at your disposal. Once everything is dead, jump up to your right and crouch through the flaming rubble. When you emerge, you will be in the Tower Plaza.

The Tower Plaza

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Head up to greet Zavala, killing all the Cabal in your way. You will have to stay here and defeat three waves worth of Cabal. Beware standing by Zavala, as he will be targeted with missiles occasionally. He will create a Ward of Dawn shield around him that you can stand inside of.

Be aware that shields are not bulletproof and you can still get killed here, and Zavala is a bullseye for missiles. You are likely to die trying to get into the shield, but if you stay over by the stash terminals, you will be safe from the missiles. Once all three waves are dead, Zavala will send you you to help Ikora and the Speaker.

The Tower Marketplace

Grid View

Head out the right side of the Plaza and walk through the familiar hallway of the Tower. After passing the infamous sweeping robot, walk through the door and watch Ikora destroy a legion of troops. Prepare for a pod to drop outside of a set of doors and unleash more Cabal. When they’re dead, walk through the giant Tower doors and into the Tower Marketplace.

The moment the doors open, you will meet the Incendior Cabal, flame-throwing monsters that will burn you if you get too close. Target the tanks on their back, so that they explode and you get a quick kill (and possible kill other enemies in the blast). Make your way through the Cabal before heading out the doors and onto the back patio.

There’s a big fight here with four Legionaries and the Honored Centurion, the first mini-boss. Take out his solar elemental shield with The Last Dance, your energy weapon. Once he dies, Amanda Holiday will show up to whisk you away.

The Immortal Command Ship

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Once Amanda drops you onto the command ship, run up the walkway and jump onto the platform. Make your way into the interior and take out the unsuspecting Cabal in the map room. Download the Immortal’s schematics to your Ghost and head out of the room and to the left.

You will enter a large side hallway full of Cabal. Take them out, including the first named enemy, Pashk, the Searing Will. The name is far more intimidating than the enemy. Lower his shield with a solar weapon and then deal damage from range. Avoid his flaming projectiles and move through the door on the right once he is gone.

Head up the double ramp and onto the top of the ship. Here you will meet Psions for the first time — they’re basically snipers, but they’re also the weakest enemy you’ll face in this introductory section. Line up a headshot or two and they’ll go down. Defeat the rest of the enemies in the area and press forward. Take it slow and watch your back.

Grid View

Once you make it to the end of the ship, Brann, the Unbent Blade, will be waiting for you. He’s another mini-boss.

Brann, the Unbent Blade will deal a lot of damage in a small amount of time. Lower his health a bit, and he will move into the empty courtyard. Here he will summon some friends to help him out. Move under the walkway on the left side if you need to recover health, and take it slow.

When you defeat him, proceed down the ramp and back into the ship.

You’ll need to make your way down to the bottom of the ship, three floors below you. There are enemies in front of and below you. Move around to get a line of sight on them, and shoot whoever you see. Use the boxes throughout the environment as cover. Once they are all dead, jump to the lowest point and head forward.

Clear out all the enemies in the long hallway before taking out Kreth, the Living Skyfire. Use your super ability if it’s charged, and attack him. If you don’t have your super available, concentrate on the weaker enemies before you take him on. Use the alcoves throughout the room to hide and recover your health. After he falls, move into the shield generator room.

Destroying the three turbines

Grid View

To take down the shield generator, there are three turbines you have to shoot. You can ignore the big spinning pillar and its attached crosspiece. All you need to focus on are the spinning turbines underneath all that.

The first is easy to see — you can shoot it without even dropping into the room. Once it explodes, Ghost will tell you how good a job you are doing. Jump onto the central platform, careful to avoid the spinning pylon.

The other two turbines are spread evenly around the room, but they’re a little harder to get to. You have to avoid the spinning pylon — because that’s instant death — to get to the pits near them. (Hit the button on your controller to pull up your objectives to flag the turbines on your HUD.) Time your jumps to get into the two remaining pits and destroy the turbines.

Now you can jump up to the open blast door and make your way through the flames. Once you hit the door, the mission will end and you will meet Dominus Ghaul, Destiny 2’s big bad.

This dude is a jerk. He disables your Ghost, removes your Light and kicks you around the ship for a bit. Eventually, he pushes you off the top of the ship. The Destiny 2 title card pops up and you will be dropped into the Director.

Congratulations on failing to save the Tower and everyone you love! Now it is time to remedy your mistakes, reclaim your light and stop Ghaul.