Engrams have always been the cornerstone of Destiny 2’s loot grind, and Season of Arrivals doubles down on that loop. The new Umbral Engram mechanic gives players more control over what random rewards they receive. Here’s everything you need to know about where to find Umbral Engrams and how to recast them.
How to find Umbral Engrams
To start receiving Umbral Engrams, you must progress through Season of Arrivals’ first quest. The mission sends you to The Drifter, who will ask you to set up two new machines in his Tower area. One will decrypt Umbral Engrams and the other will allow you to customize them. Once The Drifter gives you your first Umbral Engram, you can start receiving them in the wild.
Umbral Engrams reward a piece of legendary gear. Like any other engram, these dark purple drops will appear randomly. You may get one for finishing a crucible match, or find one lying around during the new Contact event. Unlike regular engrams, you can not decode these at the Cryptarch; you must use the decoder next to The Drifter.
While you’ll mostly get these at random, there are a few ways to intentionally obtain them. For one, you’ll receive a few as part of your season pass, so make sure to check whenever you rank up.
The main way to get these is through the Prismatic Recaster next to The Drifter. This operates like most vendors, where you can rank it up by depositing certain materials. Each time you rank up, you’ll get an Umbral Engram. The more you rank up, the more passive perks you’ll unlock, which increases the different ways you can get these to drop.
In order to rank up, you’ll need Twisted Energy. The Prismatic Recaster offers different bounties, some of which reward Twisted Energy, so pick up as many as you can hold. Once you have 500 Twisted Energy, head back to the Recaster and deposit them to get an engram and rank up.
Customizing your Umbral Engram rewards
The Prismatic Recaster isn’t just for gaining engrams; it also allows you to choose what rewards you get from them. This machine functions a lot like Season of the Worthy’s bunkers, with bounties, perks, and reward options.
To customize your Umbral Engrams, open the Prismatic Recaster and inspect the Umbral Focusing box. You’ll see three rows of options, with only the first few available to you to start. Inspect each one and it will show you what gear and weapons your engram will drop if you refocus it.
When you have an Umbral Engram in your inventory, simply click one of the options to refocus your engram. When you decode it, you’ll get one of the rewards listed. There’s still an element of randomness to it as each focus contains a few pieces of gear, but this will help narrow down what reward will pop from any given engram.
Your first two focuses per week are free, but after that you’ll need Altered Element. Like Twisted Energy, this is a new material that is earned through Prismatic Recaster bounties. Always make sure to stock up on these bounties whenever you visit the Recaster.
As you rank up, you’ll gain more advanced options, which can spit out gear with specific stat focuses. Much of your time during Season of Arrivals will be spent ranking up the Prismatic Recaster, so take advantage of this mechanic while you can to get the exact gear you’re looking for.
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