Destiny 2 guide: Empyrean Foundation, Bright Future quest

Destiny 2’s new Empyrean Foundation event is all about building something as a community. In order to build, you need to have already unlocked the Tower Obelisk. Then it’s all about collecting Polarized Fractaline and donating it to the Empyrean Foundation.

But don’t let the Empyrean Foundation’s story of hope fool you into thinking there’s no reward. If you dump your Polarized Fractaline right, you can end every week with dozens of new rolls on Season of Dawn’s best guns.

“Bright Future” quest

Image: Bungie via Polygon

If you want to start donating to the Empyrean Foundation, you first need to speak to Saint-14. Walk over to him in the Tower Hangar, and he will give you a new quest called “Bright Future: Heart of the Sundial.”

The first thing you need to do is queue up for a Sundial run. When you get to the end of the Sundial, the boss will be in a new arena. Kill Inotam, and she will drop the “Brighten the Core” step.

To complete Brighten the Core, you need to collect 30 Orbs of Light. Grab your favorite Masterwork weapons and load into the Leviathan raid. Progress forward into the Castellum, and use your Masterworks to mow down waves of Cabal. Pick up the Orbs your weapons generate and be sure to cast your Super when it’s full so you can pick up more. You can also complete this step in the Tribute Hall for less aggressive enemies.

Once you’ve grabbed 30 Orbs of Light, head back to the Tower. For the “Lantern in the Dark” step, you just need to put the Light-infused Core into the Tower Obelisk. This will bring the Empyrean Foundation restoration effort online.

After you donate some Polarized Fractaline, you can head over to Osiris on mercury to finish the “Pharos Link” quest step, earn a Triumph, and unlock the helpful Light-Fused Fractaline item (more on this later).

How the Empyrean Foundation works

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Once you unlock the Empyrean Foundation, you’ll receive a lump of Polarized Fractaline. You will get a Polarized Fractaline drop like this every week based on your Resonance Power (how high level your Obelisks are on Mars, Nessus, the Tangled Shore, and the EDZ). If you’re curious what your Resonance Power is and how much you will get refunded next week, look on the Tower Obelisk next to Sundial Links.

The goal of the Empyrean Foundation is to take your Polarized Fractaline and donate it to the restoration effort. You donate in packs of 100 Polarized Fractaline, but make sure you have a full inventory of Timelost Weapon Bounties. For every 100 Polarized Fractaline your donate, you earn 25% progress toward all Timelost Weapon Bounties in your inventory.

If you want to maximize your rewards, there’s a delicate flow to how you should donate:

1. Buy as many Timelost Weapon Bounties as you can hold from the Tower Obelisk
2. Donate 400 Polarized Fractaline
3. Complete your bounties and look through your spoils
4. Repeat

According to Bungie, players need to donate billions of Polarized Fractaline for the Empyrean Foundation restoration to complete. So keep doing this every week until something new happens.

How to prepare for next week

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Once you talk to Osiris, you can purchase the Light-Fused Fractaline from the Tower Obelisk. This item costs 20,000 Glimmer and 10 Legendary Shards, but automatically increases the level of any Obelisk in the game.

If you have the funds — and are willing to trade resources to Spider when your Glimmer reserves are low — you can seriously upgrade your Resonance Power every week. The higher your Resonance Power, the more Polarized Fractaline you will receive at the start of every reset.

What is the reward

Image: Bungie via Polygon

Even if you ignore the leaks suggesting the Empyrean Foundation will resurrect the beloved Trials of Osiris multiplayer mode next season, Bungie has in-game hints that suggest it as well.

In the Crucible menu, right where the Trials of the Nine multiplayer node used to sit, there’s a new placeholder for the Empyrean Foundation. If you hover over it, it says “Caloris Spires, Mercury: Help Saint-14 prepare for the future.” The Caloris Spires refers to the Lighthouse, where players originally went after completing a full card of Trials of Osiris in the original Destiny.

We’ll find out for sure once enough Fractaline has been donated.