Hey gamers, I hope you're all doing great, and I hope you'll join me as I keep pushing forward through these incredible PvE missions this game has to offer. This time around we're tackling the Reliquary mission, which ties directly into the Aurora Project, the central pivot point of the story in the campaign mode. Now we get to see another one of these parallel missions that happened during the unfolding of that whole Aurora storyline, this time infiltrating a fortress taken over by the Ecclesiarchy in order to destroy the warp beacon hidden inside. So, let's get into it.
Pushing our way into the fortress
Right from the start, we have to fight our way into the fortress, and let me tell you, this place does not make it easy. The moment you set foot near the entrance, you're already dealing with heavy resistance, enemies entrenched behind cover, defensive positions set up to funnel you into kill zones, and that constant sense that whoever's holding this place knew exactly what they were doing when they fortified it.
The approach itself is pretty intense, mixing open exchanges of gunfire with tighter corridors where you have to rely more on melee to clear rooms quickly before getting swarmed from behind. What I really appreciate about this mission's opening stretch is how it immediately sets the tone, this isn't just another straightforward "walk and shoot" introduction, it's clear from the very first encounter that this fortress is going to test every bit of combat skill you've built up so far. The architecture itself also carries that heavy Ecclesiarchy aesthetic, all gothic spires, religious iconography, and imposing stonework, which makes the whole place feel as oppressive visually as it is mechanically.
Searching for the fusion core in the servitor bodies
Once we're inside, things take a turn toward something genuinely unsettling. We have to search for a fusion core, and it turns out this core is hidden inside the bodies of servitors scattered throughout the area. If you're not familiar with the lore, servitors are basically lobotomized humans fused with machinery, used as disposable labor and combat units, and seeing them used this way in the mission adds this extra layer of grimdark horror that this universe does so well.
Searching through these bodies isn't exactly a calm, methodical process either. While you're trying to locate the right one, the area stays hot with enemies trying to stop you from completing the objective, so you end up splitting your attention between scanning corpses and staying alive at the same time. It's a great example of how this game takes what could've been a boring fetch-quest style objective and turns it into something tense and uncomfortable, both narratively and mechanically.
Restoring the console's power
Once we finally track down the fusion core, we have to use it to restore power to a console, which naturally doesn't go off without a hitch. As the power slowly comes back online, enemies start pouring in, trying to stop the restoration process before it finishes, so you end up holding your ground in a pretty contained space while waves of enemies test how well you can manage crowd control under pressure.
This section reminds me a lot of the reactor defense sequence I wrote about in an earlier post, that same formula of watching a progress bar creep forward while you fight off everything thrown at you works really well here too. There's something about these restoration sequences that the game keeps nailing, that mix of urgency and chaos, where you genuinely feel like if you mess up positioning for even a few seconds, the whole thing falls apart. By the time that console finally lights back up, there's a real sense of relief, mixed with the knowledge that whatever's coming next is probably going to demand even more from you.
Escorting the Servo-skull
With the console restored, we move on to escorting a Servo-skull, one of those small floating mechanical skulls that serve various functions throughout the Imperium, through the rest of the fortress. Escort missions can sometimes feel like a drag in other games, but here it works surprisingly well, mostly because the Servo-skull actually serves a purpose beyond just being an objective marker you have to babysit.
While escorting it, you're still dealing with constant enemy resistance, so it's less about painstakingly guiding a slow-moving object and more about clearing a path while making sure nothing destroys the skull along the way. The pacing stays brisk, and the combat encounters along the escort route keep things varied enough that you're never just standing around waiting for the skull to catch up. It's a nice change of rhythm compared to the more stationary defense sequences earlier in the mission, giving the whole level a good sense of flow from tense holds to active pushes forward.
Defeating the Hell Drake
And then, finally, we reach the big moment of this mission, facing off against the Hell Drake. This fight is everything you'd want from a climactic boss encounter in this game, big, loud, and genuinely dangerous. This creature doesn't just sit there taking hits either, it moves aggressively, forces you to constantly reposition, and punishes you hard if you get caught out in the open during its more devastating attacks.
What makes this fight stand out is how it ties together everything you've been doing throughout the mission. By this point you've already been through tight escort sequences, defensive holds, and tense searches through hostile territory, so facing the Hell Drake feels like the natural, earned climax after all that buildup. The scale of the creature itself is impressive too, it fits right in with this game's habit of making you feel both powerful and completely overmatched at the same time, which somehow always results in incredibly satisfying fights once you finally bring the thing down.
Taking down the Hell Drake wraps up the Reliquary mission in a genuinely exciting way, and once again, this game proves it knows exactly how to escalate tension throughout a mission and deliver a payoff that actually feels worth all the fighting that came before it.
So, gamers, that's mission number 4 done and dusted. The PvE side of this game keeps surprising me with how much care went into each of these missions, whether it's the lore connections to the main campaign or just the sheer variety of objectives packed into a single run. I'll keep pushing forward through the rest of these missions, and I'll see you with more in a next post!
