Unlock the secrets of Destiny 2’s most enigmatic challenge: the Chess Puzzle. Hidden beneath Eris Morn’s Throne World lies a giant interactive chessboard where you must strategically place and manipulate pieces collected across the solar system to achieve checkmate. Mastering this intricate puzzle not only tests your chess skills but also rewards you with exclusive weapons, ships, and shaders. Ready to dive into all 27 rounds and claim your prizes? Here’s your ultimate guide to conquering Destiny 2’s chessboard mystery on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
If you don’t complete this chess puzzle, released in the twilight of the “Heresy” episode, you can’t help the community solve the larger picture. So we’re here to help explain it and give you the answers you need to find the solution – and we’ll help you get some great Heresy weapons along the way.
In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll walk you through how to start the chess puzzle, explain how the puzzle works, and show you how to solve the chess puzzle.
How to reach the chess board in Destiny 2
To reach the chess board in Destiny 2, start by traveling to Eris Morn’s apartment in The Last City using the Eris’ Flat waypoint. From there, enter the green Hive portal that teleports you to Eris’ Throne World. Carefully descend from the platform and locate a hidden doorway leading to a chamber beneath Eris where the large chess board is located. Interact with the board to be teleported onto it and begin the puzzle. Note that to fully engage with the chess puzzle, you need to collect all 60 hidden chess pieces scattered across various locations in the game, including the Nether, the Tower, the Court of Blades, and others. Once all pieces are gathered, the portal to the chess board world becomes accessible, allowing you to start solving the puzzles and earn unique rewards.
To reach the chess puzzle in Destiny 2, you need to load into Eris’ apartment in The Last City. Use the Eris’ Flat waypoint to drop in and then use the Hive portal to teleport into Eris’ Throne World.
Once inside, carefully drop off the side of the platform, looking for a doorway that leads to a chamber under where Eris is standing. You’ll find a chess board sitting on the table. When you approach, it’ll ask: “Pick up the King?” Interact with the board and you’ll be teleported onto it.
When you land on the chess board, you’ll unlock the ability to fly in at any time via The Last City menu, using the Unknown Antechamber waypoint either at Middlegame (before you’ve completed the puzzle) or Endgame (where you can collect information to help the community after the puzzle).
HoHowever, to actually solve the puzzle, you’ll first need to find all 60 chess pieces hidden around the Sol system. For the exact locations, we recommend you check out Esoterickk’s video above, which will show you exactly where to find all 60 chess pieces. If you want to have some fun hunting yourself first, keep an eye on your radar as you do the following:
- Visit Eris’ apartment
- Visit The Tower
- Visit the EDZ
- Visit Europa
- Explore the first four areas of The Nether
- Solve “secrets” in The Nether
- Explore the Court of Blades
- Experiment with the Path of Ambition and Path of Resolve
- Speak to The Drifter
You can track your progress via “The Opening” Triumph, and the Triumphs that come after it (“Drifter’s Pieces,” “Nether Secrets,” and so on).
Once you’ve found all the pieces – or you’re able to party up with a friend who’s found them already – return to the chess board to begin the puzzle.
How the chess puzzle works in Destiny 2
The chess puzzle in Destiny 2 involves interacting with a large in-game chessboard where players must place, remove, or convert chess pieces to achieve checkmate against the black king. Players collect up to 60 chess pieces scattered across various locations and use special nodes or “plates” to place specific pieces on designated squares by standing on the corresponding plate and shooting the target square. The board is labeled like a traditional chessboard with letters (A-H) and numbers (1-8) to help track moves. Beyond placing pieces, players can also delete or convert enemy pieces to allies, adding strategic depth. Each puzzle requires players to arrange pieces to deliver checkmate without endangering their own king, with solutions becoming increasingly complex across 27 rounds. Successful completion rewards players with unique items and contributes to a community challenge.
In the Unknown Antechamber, you’ll see a massive chess board with pieces on it, as well as symbols on the white side of the board denoting the various pieces you’ve collected, including the “Deletion” and “Take” symbols on either side (more on those last two later).
The idea here is that you need to create a board where, on the next turn, you (white) will win the chess game by achieving checkmate on the enemy (black) without putting your own king into checkmate.
To achieve checkmate, you’re able to use the pieces you’ve collected by standing on their symbol pillar and then shooting the place on the board where you’d like them to appear. The first puzzle, for example, is solved by standing on the pawn pillar and shooting a pawn to the position just back and to the left or right of the white queen – which is straight ahead of the black king.
That’s simple enough if you understand the rules of chess (which is mandatory for this puzzle, so brush up on the rules if you can’t remember), but it definitely gets more complicated as you go. Remember, this isn’t just chess – it’s Destiny chess.
In addition to placing pieces, you can also destroy pieces – either your own or the black pieces – with “Deletion” or you can “Take” pieces, which turns the black enemy pieces into white ally pieces. The other catch here, and what makes this puzzle quite difficult, is that you must complete 27 chess puzzles (of varying complexity) with the 60 chess pieces you’ve collected. This means you must be extremely efficient with the pieces you use and be mindful of when you use them.
Before you get started, here are two quick tips as you’re trying to solve the chess puzzle:
- ,The board is labeled like a standard chess board, with A-H on the bottom side of the board and 1-8 on the left. Use this to keep track of which pieces you use and when and where you use them.
- While standing on one of the pillars that allows you to place a piece, you can aim with your weapons to make the chess pieces dissolve and instead show their symbol on the board’s floor. This makes placing pieces on a crowded board much easier.
We recommend you try a few boards on your own, as these big Destiny puzzles don’t come around very often. (The last one this size was way back in early 2020!) If you mess up a move, you can undo it via the green computer-thing at the back of the room. If you mess up a lot, you can interact with the book behind you to start over. And when you’re ready for a step-by-step move walkthrough, check out the section below.
How to solve the chess puzzle in Destiny 2
To solve the chess puzzle in Destiny 2, first collect all 60 hidden chess pieces scattered across various locations in the game. Then, access the puzzle by entering the hidden chessboard room beneath Eris Morn’s Throne World. The puzzle involves completing 27 individual chess challenges by placing, removing, or converting pieces on a giant interactive chessboard using special control nodes. Each puzzle requires strategic placement of pieces to checkmate the black king within limited moves. You interact with the board by standing on specific nodes representing different chess pieces (pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen) and shooting the target squares to place or remove pieces. You can also undo moves or reset the board if needed. Familiarity with chess rules helps, but the puzzle adds unique Destiny 2 mechanics. Completing all puzzles rewards valuable in-game items and unlocks further challenges.
One of the cool parts about this puzzle is that it can technically be completed in multiple different ways, and not every successful solution will require the same number or types of pieces. You may even have moves left over, depending on what you choose.
The answers we’ll list out below are those discovered by friend of AELGAMES Skarrow9, a Destiny YouTuber known among the game’s community for solving puzzles. You can see his video above, or check out another puzzle source like Datto if you want another set of moves to try.
You can read the following moveset by following the piece or action (Pawn) followed by “to” and the board space (C-3). Some puzzles require multiple steps, which will be broken up by commas. You’ll know you completed the puzzle correctly when “Absolute Pin” appears on the left side of your screen. We’ve also denoted when you’ll receive rewards as you solve the puzzles.
- Pawn to E-6
- Rook to H-8
- Pawn to E-5 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Pawn to E-4, Pawn to F-4, Knight to D-4
- Knight to D-5, Pawn to E-6
- Pawn to D-1 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Pawn to F-4, Pawn to D-7, Bishop to E-5, Knight to G-7
- Knight to C-6, Rook to D-2
- Deletion to F-6 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Knight to D-7, Pawn to E-4, Bishop to F-5
- Pawn to C-6, Pawn to E-6, Pawn to D-7
- Take to E-4 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Bishop to E-5
- Pawn to B-7, Pawn to F-7, Knight to H-8,
- Knight to D-7, Knight to E-7 (Heresy Adept weapon reward)
- Destroy to F-2, Knight to F-2
- Take to C-3, Take to E-7
- Bishop to C-5, Knight to D-3, Knight to F-5 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Deletion to D-7, Deletion to E-2
- Bishop to E-8
- Bishop to E-2 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Knight to E-5
- Knight to E-3
- Deletion to D-5, Knight to C-4, Knight to H-3, Pawn to B-6, Pawn to B-7 (Heresy weapon reward)
- Bishop to D-2, Deletion to E-4, Deletion to H-4, Queen to D-7, Take to F-5
- Knight to B-4, Queen to E-7, Bishop to D-5
- Take to F-5, Take to E-3, Take to D-6, Take to C-4 (two Heresy Adept weapon rewards)
With puzzle 27 solved, you’ll have completed the initial chess puzzle and can join the community in figuring out what comes next.
What’s next for the Destiny 2 chess puzzle?
The Destiny 2 chess puzzle has sparked renewed enthusiasm and hope among the community, signaling Bungie’s commitment to keeping the game fresh and engaging. Despite the community-driven ARG being fully solved, the core chessboard activity remains accessible for new and returning players to experience the challenge and earn exclusive rewards at their own pace. This ongoing availability suggests Bungie may continue supporting the puzzle throughout the current season or year, fostering a collaborative and strategic gameplay experience that strengthens player engagement and optimism for Destiny 2’s future content.
When you solve the final chess puzzle in Destiny 2, you’ll unlock a bowl of water that you can peer into on the right side of the board, allowing you to see a strange chess board with symbols all around it and – potentially – a color in the middle. You’ll also see a signal number denoted on the left side of your screen.
This is a community-wide puzzle, where players need to come together and share their images together to make a code. Players have already spent hours submitting to this big form, and this special website, which has led the community to a new Bungie-made code input. This code hasn’t been fully cracked yet, so you can still submit your findings to the links above to help the community solve the Aion Network v4.2.4 puzzle.
It’s currently unclear where this puzzle will eventually lead (or what the reward will be), but once there is a solution, we’ll publish a new guide and link to it here. For now, you can use the JGN-PX4-DFN code at Bungie.net (or follow this link to auto-complete the code) to unlock the Secret Signal emblem that players have already found hidden in the Aion Network puzzle.
If you’re looking to help follow along and contribute, you can follow creators like Skarrow9, FalloutPlays, Datto, MrRoflWaffles, BogOnMyDog, and subreddits like r/raidsecrets for updates.
Want to unlock the secret rewards hidden in Destiny 2’s chess puzzle
To unlock the secret rewards hidden in Destiny 2’s chess puzzle, you first need to collect all 60 hidden chess pieces scattered throughout the game world, including locations like Eris Morn’s apartment, the Tower, EDZ, Europa, and various Lost Sectors. Once you have all the pieces, access the secret puzzle room via a green portal in Eris Morn’s flat in The Last City. Inside, solve all 27 chess puzzles by strategically positioning the pieces on the giant chessboard to complete the En Passant Triumph. Completing the puzzle rewards you with exclusive loot such as Adept weapons, the Deinterlace exotic ship, Umbral Rumble shader, Enigmatology emblem, Exotic Cipher, Ascendant Shards, Strange Coins, and Curios of the Nine. If collecting all pieces sounds daunting, you can join a fireteam with someone who already has access to skip straight to the puzzles. This community-driven ARG ties deeply into Destiny 2’s lore and ongoing events, offering both a challenging chess experience and rich rewards for dedicated players.
What secret rewards do I unlock after solving Destiny 2’s chess puzzle
After solving Destiny 2’s chess puzzle and completing all 27 challenges, players unlock a suite of exclusive and valuable rewards. These include:
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Deinterlace, an exotic ship
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Umbral Rumble, a Taken-like shader
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Enigmatology, a unique emblem
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Exotic Cipher
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3 Ascendant Shards
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25 Strange Coins
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3 Curios of the Nine
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Several Adept weapons and crafting materials
Additionally, completing the puzzle triggers a lore-rich cutscene featuring the Drifter, hinting at future story developments involving other universes and the Rite of the Nine event.
