Destiny 2 Treasure Beacon Guide: How To Solve The Cryptic Quatrains Pirate Riddle

Among the many new things to do in Destiny 2’s Season of Plunder are–appropriately enough for a pirate-themed season–quests that involve solving pirate riddles to hunt down buried treasure. You’ll need to rank up the Starchart seasonal vendor a fair bit before you begin getting into these, but once you do, you’ll receive a Small Treasure Beacon, which kicks off a quest called Cryptic Quatrains I. Here’s how to complete it.

How pirate riddles work and what the reward is

For better or worse, these riddles are mostly very obvious, with the possible exception of the final step. Each step of the quest will present you with a riddle, but certain words in each sentence will be highlighted in yellow–those words strongly hint at where you need to go and what you need to do. If you’re hoping for some real head-scratchers, you’re unlikely to get it, at least with this first quest, Cryptic Quatrains I.

The steps will lead you from one location to another and, ultimately, the buried treasure. It’s unclear at this point if the rewards are randomized at all, but in our case, we received glimmer, a Resonant version of one of the seasonal weapons (No Reprieve), five Map Fragments, and a Crude Cipher Fragment (the purpose of which is currently a mystery).

Below, we’ve outlined the steps involved with solving the first of the three treasure beacons–the Small Treasure Beacon, which is a reward for reaching Rank 7 at the Starchart. You can increase your Starchart rank by earning Savvy through the seasonal Ketchcrash and Expedition missions.

Cryptic Quatrains I

Step 1

After receiving the Small Treasure Beacon, you’ll receive the Cryptic Quatrains I quest. The first step’s riddle reads thusly (with bolded text in place of the yellow-highlighted words displayed in-game):

The solution here is simple: head to the Moon.

Step 2

Once you’ve arrived, the next riddle is presented:

Piece those words together and you’re being asked to head to the Sorrow’s Harbor area on the Moon, which is home to the K1 Revelation Lost Sector. Load in at the Sorrow’s Harbor landing zone and make your way into the Lost Sector, which you can see labeled on your in-game map (the entrance is pictured above if you’re having trouble finding it). Complete it as normal, and the chest at the end will complete this step.

Step 3

Once you’ve completed the Lost Sector, you’ll get this riddle:

This is directing you to complete the Fallen SABER Strike in the Cosmodrome. You can boot directly into it by viewing the Cosmodrome in the Director and selecting the appropriate node, which you’ll see in the upper-right corner, near the Forgotten Shore. Complete the Strike to finish this step.

Step 4

Finally, we arrive at the step that might cause some confusion. Here’s the riddle:

Clearly, you’re being directed to Europa’s Eventide Ruins area, but there are a number of cranes to be found. Fortunately, you don’t need to go far. As soon as you load into the Eventide landing zone, you should see two cranes directly in front of you. The closer of the two isn’t holding anything. Move to just under where the crane’s hook is hanging, and you should see a lump of snow marked with a green symbol (pictured below), much like you’d see at the end of an Expedition. Dig up the treasure to complete the quest.

We’ll report back with further details on the subsequent two treasure hunts once we’ve unlocked them.