The Rite of Dawning is one of two new quests introduced in 2021’s Dawning event. Its sister quest “The Pigeon Provides” has us bringing the Fallen in on our festive activities, while the Rite of Dawning deals with Caiatl and her Cabal.
We’re going to be helping Zavala win her affection by collecting a series of ceremonial Cabal ornaments and delivering it to her like a macabre love letter. Well, that’s how I’m rationalizing it, anyway.
So if you’re looking for a Destiny 2 Rite of Dawning quest guide, I’ve got you covered. Here are all 10 steps and how to complete them.
Destiny 2 Rite of Dawning Quest Guide
- Speak with Commander Zavala
- Find the Festive Intel in Firebase Hades
- Collect the Ceremonial Cup and Ritual Schematics
- Acquire Torobatl Ceremonial Vestments
- Deliver Dark Chocolate Motes to the Drifter
- Return to the Drifter in the Tower
- Speak with Commander Zavala
- Complete the Proving Grounds Strike
- Speak with Commander Zavala
- Speak with Eva Levante
Speak with Commander Zavala
To start off the Rite of Dawning, you need to have a chat with Zavala. He’s going to be swooning over Caiatl, as usual, and will ask for your help bringing her some of that patented Dawning Cheer.
Compared to The Pigeon Provides, this quest is remarkably short. It shouldn’t take you any longer than an hour to complete, even if you go into it with no supplies or ingredients to your name.
Find the Festive Intel in Firebase Hades
Your first step towards completing the Rite of Dawning quest is to find the Festive Intel in Firebase Hades. You’re not going to be able to spawn right into the base, so transmat into the Winding Cove and make your way there by Sparrow.
Make sure you’re tracking the Rite of Dawning in your quest tab.
Once you arrive in the Firebase Hades load-zone, you’ll see a marker on your screen directing you towards the Festive Intel. Interact with it to complete this step.
Collect the Ceremonial Cup and Ritual Schematics
Once you have the Intel, do a complete 180 and start heading towards the Pathfinder’s Crash Lost Sector. Run through it and loot the Ceremonial Cup from the rewards chest. Along the way, make sure to kill 25 Cabal troops to collect the required Cabal Ritual Schematics.
You shouldn’t have any trouble completing the Pathfinder’s Crash Lost Sector. If you do, though, bring some rockets and focus on the boss. You only need to kill him to loot the chest.
Acquire Torobatl Ceremonial Vestments
After you’ve gotten the Schematics and Cup, you have to go get some fancy clothes. To do that, you need to complete the Arms Dealer Strike.
Go into the EDZ on your map and load directly into the Strike rather than rolling the dice with Vanguard Operations. It should only take you around 15 minutes to complete it. The Vestments will be in the chest that spawns in after you defeat the final boss.
Deliver Dark Chocolate Motes to the Drifter
This is, by far, the most annoying part of the Rite of Dawning quest. If you haven’t got the materials sitting in your inventory for this, you’re in for a rough time.
The Drifter, being the slime-ball that he is, is in possession of some Cabal Wine that we want. Problem is, he won’t part way with it without a bribe. Specifically, a whole bunch of Dark Chocolate Motes.
You need Taken Butter and Null Taste to make the Chocolate Motes. That’s not the problem. The problem is the 45 Essence of Dawning you need because the Drifter is greedy and wants three Dark Chocolate Motes instead of one. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a Dawning bounty or two that will help you get that Essence quickly. If not, you’re going to be farming activities until you do.
The fastest way to get your hands on Essence of Dawning is by farming Wrathborn Hunts. Each completion should earn you around 10 Essence, meaning you could potentially get all 45 motes in half an hour or so. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than spending three hours running Strikes.
Return to the Drifter in the Tower
After you bribe the Drifter with chocolate, you’ll need to have a small chat with him. He’ll talk about his late-night gambling sessions with Eva and Tess before sending you back to Zavala with the Ceremonial Wine you need to complete this overly long simp-quest.
The hard half of the Rite of Dawning quest is over by now, so you can start to take your foot off the gas a little bit. No more baking or running around gathering Cabal artifacts.
Speak with Commander Zavala
As if you haven’t already done enough for him, Commander Zavala will send you off to the Proving Grounds Strike on Nessus. The idea is that you leave all of the gifts you’ve acquired at the end of the Strike after killing Caiatl’s Champion.
I guess the Post Master is having some shipping issues this Dawning.
Complete the Proving Grounds Strike
Just like the Arms Dealer, the Proving Grounds Strike can be done on normal difficulty. It’ll only take you around 10 minutes to complete it, provided you’re trying to go fast.
Run through the Strike, kill Ignovun, and grab your rewards from the chest. You’ll automatically have left Caiatl’s goodies adorning the corpse of her favorite warrior because that’s what a Cabal Christmas entails, apparently.
Speak with Commander Zavala
Back to Zavala we go to tell him that we delivered his love letter. He’ll give you some text about Cabal rituals that is honestly quite interesting if you’re interested in Destiny lore.
If not, don’t pay too much attention to it. Just finish up with him and head over to Eva to complete the Rite of Dawning quest.
Speak with Eva Levante
Once you finish your conversation with Eva, you’ll have completed the Destiny 2 Rite of Dawning quest. You’ll get a cool-looking Emblem for your troubles and be sent on your merry way.
While The Pigeon Provides is clearly the superior quest of the two, it is nice to see us attempting to bring some festive cheer to our non-human allies. I appreciate little bits of worldbuilding like this in-between Seasons and hope it’s something that Bungie continues to do.
