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Alongside a new location to explore, campaign to complete, and raid to take on, one of the key additions in Destiny 2: The Final Shape is Prismatic. This is a new subclass, of which we’ve only ever had five in Destiny’s history, but this one is much different in that it blends together old and new options from the existing Light and Darkness subclasses to give you an interesting blend. With so many choices comes a lot of complexity, so we’re here to guide you through everything there is to know about Prismatic, including how to unlock it and all of its Supers, Aspects, Fragments, and other options, as well as recommended builds as we start to wrap our heads around what’s possible.
Table of Contents [hide]How to unlock PrismaticHow to get more Prismatic Supers, grenades, Aspects, and FragmentsExotic class itemsTranscendencePrismatic tipsRecommended Prismatic buildsTitanHunterWarlock
How to unlock Prismatic
Unlike Strand or Stasis, Prismatic is put into your hands early in the Final Shape campaign, and it isn’t taken away. You’ll have unrestricted access to it, although it takes time to unlock all of its customization options (more on that below). Simply fire up the campaign, and you’ll be mixing Light and Darkness like never before on your path to confronting The Witness. Part of this involves unlocking an entirely new Super and Aspect, which will also be available when using the corresponding elemental’s subclass, in addition to Prismatic.
How to get more Prismatic Supers, grenades, Aspects, and Fragments
What makes Prismatic so exciting and fun are all of the options you’ll eventually have at your disposal. Playing through the campaign will get you a limited selection of Supers, grenades, Aspects, and Fragments, but as you can see on the customization screen, there are more that await you.
As soon as you’re done with the campaign, you’ll be able to start the Destined Heroes quest, which will eventually allow you to unlock the Ergo Sum Exotic sword. But part of that extended questline involves completing several other missions, which contain some great story content but also will fill in much of your Prismatic arsenal.
Ghost will offer you two Transcendence quests, each aligned with either the Light or Darkness. You can complete them in either order, but completing them and their associated Adventures will each provide an additional grenade option, Aspect, and Super. Once you’re done with these, you should have all of your Prismatic unlocks available, except for Fragments.
New Prismatic Fragments are unlocked in a different way. Hidden Prismatic chests can be discovered throughout the Pale Heart, and it’s by opening these that you’ll be able to round out your arsenal. Check out our dedicated guide to Prismatic Fragment locations for help finding them all.
Exotic class items
Another new addition in The Final Shape–though they aren’t available during the first week–are Exotic class items. These blend together modified versions of Exotic perks from other Exotic armor, allowing for powerful and exciting combinations that were never before possible, not unlike Prismatic. One thing to know about these items is that you’ll have to be using a Prismatic subclass in order to equip an Exotic class item, making it more important you have a good build set up.
Transcendence
Aside from the interplay that opens up from being able to mix and match elements of the different subclasses, Transcendence is perhaps the most key element of Prismatic. Two new bars will be located under your Super meter when using Prismatic. The Light bar is filled by dealing damage with Void, Solar, or Arc ability or weapon damage, while the Darkness bar is filled by Stasis or Strand abilities and weapons. (Kinetic weapons slowly build up both bars.) Once both bars are filled, you can activate Transcendence. This does a few things:
Increases weapon damageInstantly refreshes grenade and melee abilitiesIncreases grenade energy regeneration when dealing melee damageIncreases melee ability energy regeneration when dealing grenade damageSwaps your grenade to a special Prismatic versionProvides damage resistance
This state only lasts for a limited time, although kills do refill your meter, allowing you to extend the duration. The meters can be filled more quickly by standing on glowing pink/purple patches on the ground, which you’ll typically see in the campaign any time you encounter special types of enemies.
Being Transcendent is required in order to make certain foes–Bound enemies, those that you’ll see with a similar sort of pinkish-purple coating around them–vulnerable to damage. Any damage dealt to these enemies while Transcendent allows you to start attacking them with any damage type, although if they’re left alone for long enough, they’ll become Bound again.
Prismatic synergizes well with the aforementioned Ergo Sum, which has a perk–Transcendent Duelist–that helps to speed up filling the Light and Darkness bars, deals increased damage while Transcendent, and further extends its duration when getting kills with the sword while Transcendent.
Prismatic tips
The nature of Prismatic means you really need to think through your build, perhaps more so than any other subclass. While you can have fun mixing any combination of abilities, Supers, Aspects, and Fragments, there are clear synergies to be had. It also opens up some other interesting possibilities that we’re still discovering. Here are some tips based on our time with it so far:
Equipping a reliable Strand or Stasis weapon in addition to a Void, Solar, or Arc one can make it easier to consistently build up your bars to activate Transcendence.As noted above, Bound enemies are invincible until damaged by a Transcendent player, but if necessary, you can rapidly build up your Light and Darkness bars by firing at a Bound foe, allowing you to activate Transcendence.Before activating Transcendence, be sure to use your grenade and melee charges. Because they’ll be automatically refreshed (and your grenade replaced with a Prismatic one), you can deal some extra damage this way.Keep alternating between your grenade and melee ability. Dealing damage with either one while Transcendent will rapidly speed up energy regeneration for the other, allowing you to jump back and forth between them.Transcendence does not make you invincible. It’s easy to feel empowered by its increased damage resistance, but don’t mistake that power for invincibility–particularly if you’re in a Darkness Zone where a death can be costly.
Recommended Prismatic builds
We’re still digging our teeth into all of the possibilities that Prismatic allows, but here are some early suggestions for builds or combos to consider. We’ll continue adding more as we spend more time with the subclass, but be sure to let us know what you like using in the comments below.
Titan
An enticing combo comes with the Consecration Aspect. While sliding, this lets you use a melee charge to launch out Solar energy to scorch targets, and then slam down to ignite them. But while the Solar subclass would normally have just one melee charge, you can opt for Frenzied Blade, which can store up to three melee charges. This way, you can potentially use Consecration multiple times in a row, or just more often in general. To make this even more powerful, you can equip the Facet of Ruin Fragment, which (among other things) increases Solar ignitions’ area of effect, making these even more devastating.
Hunter
As a Hunter, you can leverage the ability to go invisible with other subclass perks. The Void Aspect Stylish Executioner will give you Invisibility and Truesight whenever you defeat an enemy who is weakened, suppressed, or volatile; it also weakens a target when you melee attack an enemy while invisible. Combine that with Gambler’s Dodge–the Arc subclass ability–which fully recharges your melee when you dodge near an enemy, and then you have access to a melee more often. Then, equip the Combination Blow melee, which buffs your melee damage as you get kills and recharges your class ability when you get a kill (in addition to giving you health), and you have an amazing loop:
Void debuff an enemy, kill them with your melee to go invisible, buffing your melee damage, dodge to restore your melee, and weaken an enemy by doing a melee attack while invisible, restarting the loop and providing that Void debuff.
Warlock
Prismatic pairs very nicely with the Getaway Artist Exotic gauntlets and Bleak Watcher Aspect. You’re able to keep Radiant, Devour, and Amplified activated through most combat encounters and have both multiple Bleak Watchers deployed along with an Arc Soul.
