Photo : Luxomnis

A brand new Destiny 2 puzzle, discovered this week by players and solved early this morning, led not to an exotic weapon or a secret quest, but a real-life treasure cache in upstate New York, containing gold coins and a spear based on Warmind’s Valkyrie.




The puzzle, which started off as a symbol within the AI Rasputin’s bunker in the newest expansion and turned out to be an elaborate cipher, required a massive crowdsourcing effort to solve. Different members of the r/raidsecrets subreddit were able to piece together different parts of the puzzle, using the symbols to determine code words like “REVERSE” and “ENLIGHTENMENT,” and then Redditor Randomiser solved the cipher late last night, posting that it had all led to a secret message:

thank you for taking the time to piece together this message, friend. the time of our final conflict is drawing closer and you and ana have an important role to play in the events to come. so watch over her, guardian. i would have no life without ana or the exoprogram. i regret that we have become strangers, but we each have a path that we must walk. and, ironically, there never seems to be enough time. tell her, rasputin’s first attempt was in the right location, but the wrong moment. look here: 43.549573, -73.544868 - e


Longtime Destiny fans may get a kick out of the fact that “e” is Elsie Bray, sister of Ana Bray, who it’s now clear is the Stranger from the first game. You know, the one who told us that she didn’t have time to explain why she didn’t have time to explain? (“Ironically, there never seems to be enough time.”) We haven’t seen her since those first days of Destiny 1, so this is a neat throwback.

Lorebombs aside, those coordinates were the real discovery, leading to Sleeping Beauty Mountain in upstate New York. Vicarious Visions, the lead developer of Warmind, is also in upstate New York, so it was safe to assume that wasn’t a coincidence. “I’m in Saratoga county,” wrote Redditor I_love_science. “On my way.”

When I_love_science got there, they found this cache:


Inside was an incredible treasure—a spear based on the Valkyrie, a weapon you can find and temporarily use during certain missions and activities in Warmind.


There was also a box of gold coins (along with instructions asking the finder to only take one), a set of notes, and a journal for recording visitors. The note, from Warmind design lead Rob Gallerani, encouraged the finder(s) to share photos of this discovery and told them that there are only three spears like that in existence—one at Vicarious Visions, one at Bungie, and this.




While it’s a shame that this spear can’t go to all of the intrepid secret hunters who collaborated to find this, it’s wonderful to see a Destiny that’s full of mystery once more.