Q1: Can the Queen of Ash encounter be completed on Normal difficulty?
No. The terminal override sequence in the Cryptarch vault only spawns if the mission is launched on Legend difficulty. Attempting the bypass on Normal reveals welded blast doors over Sub-Level 07.
Q2: Does defeating the Queen of Ash unlock an entirely new exotic weapon?
Defeating her grants the Incinerator Frame Intrinsic, an exclusive frame modification and cosmetic ornament for the primary exotic weapon tied to Zero Hour, alongside high-stat artifice armor drops.
Q3: What happens to the mission timer during the secret boss fight?
The mission clock does not pause. Fireteams must clear the initial jumping puzzles, solve the terminal bypass, and eliminate the Queen of Ash before the universal 20-minute mission timer expires.
Q4: Is the grapple out-of-bounds skip considered an exploit that Bungie might patch?
Community testing confirms the out-of-bounds breach uses a missing collision face. However, Bungie's design team deliberately placed functional terminal assets and lighting in Sub-Level 07. A patch is expected to seal the collision gap while providing an official, mechanics-based doorway opening in an upcoming revision.
