Destiny 2 Thorn Quest: Definitely Do Not Do This In The Savathun's Song Strike

The quest to unlock Destiny 1's Exotic hand cannon Thorn in Destiny 2 is upon us. While the Thorn quest itself isn't too difficult, offering lots of options for how you can clear most of its steps, it does culminate in one very tough mission: a much more difficult version of the Strike Savathun's Song on Titan.

The Strike will put most players through their paces, even if they're over-leveled, thanks to its combination of tough-to-handle modifiers. We've put together a guide for getting Thorn that can help--beginning with the information you need to actually find the Thorn quest's start--but it's going to come down to grit, gumption, and skill to actually defeat Savathun's Song and the Arbiters to get a Thorn of your very own.

Players have been working over the boss of Savathun's Song for quite a while now, and they've gotten pretty good at it. In fact, even in the Nightfall version of the Strike, it's usually possible to hit the boss so hard you kill it in one phase, rather than having to deal with it warping all over the arena and calling in tons of Hive reinforcements. It certainly makes the Strike a lot easier.

That was probably the thinking in one run we did of the Thorn version of the Strike, Chasm of Screams, in which we found that Super abilities such as Blade Barrage could still wallop Savathun's Song, even if the difficulty had been amped up. After several failed attempts to finish the Strike and claim Thorn, our team--composed of folks gathered from the Destiny 2 app's Looking For Group feature--decided to try to take down Savathun first and go after the other bosses at the end of the Thorn Strike afterward.

Turns out, you should definitely not do that. Under no circumstances should you kill Savathun's Song before the last phase of the Chasm of Screams Strike.Doing so automatically fails you, forcing you to run the whole Strike over again.

The thing that sets Chasm of Screams apart from the regular version of Savathun's Song is the Arbiters, a set of Hive Knights that appear throughout the Strike. You have to kill all of them, and that includes the two that spawn right at the end of the fight with the boss. If you take out Savathun's Song before they spawn, the Strike will end as normal--and you won't get Thorn.

We've got plenty more tips about how to speed your way through the Thorn quest and take home the villainous hand cannon. You might also want to read up on the lore behind Thorn, its rival The Last Word, and what they've all got to do with the Drifter.