I Finally Beat Controlled Burn in 2026 (Yes, I’m Still Cleaning Up 2022)

Controlled Burn Triumph in Destiny 2: find Tlazet and Uaoc in the Pleasure Gardens and advance toward the coveted Reaper title.

I am not proud of this, but in 2026 I found myself doing homework from 2022. Specifically, I was chasing Controlled Burn, a Destiny 2 Triumph from Season of the Haunted that asks me to eliminate two elite Nightmares with names that sound like heavy-metal bands. I could have spent my evening doing something useful. Instead, I stared at the left side of my screen like a raccoon waiting for a trash can to open.

Controlled Burn is one quarter of the Shadow’s Return Triumph, and it is required if you want the Reaper title. That title has been sitting in my brain like a splinter for years. The Triumph itself is simple on paper: defeat Tlazet, Fed to Beasts and Uaoc, Spine Breaker. On paper, I am a competent Guardian. In the Pleasure Gardens, I am a confused tourist with a grenade launcher.

What Controlled Burn Actually Wants

The in-game description is not exactly a love letter to clarity, so here is the human version: go to the Pleasure Gardens, kill a lot of things, and pray that the right two elite Nightmares show up. This is not like the Sporest of Beasts Triumph, where the targets hide inside a Haunted Alcove. No, Tlazet and Uaoc both appear out in the open. That sounds convenient. It is not. It means you can run past them, through them, or around them while wondering why your Triumph counter is still at zero.

The only warning you get is a message on the left of your screen: “A High-Value Target is nearby.” That is it. That is the whole alarm system. No trumpet fanfare. No giant arrow. No helpful ghost saying, “Hey, genius, the thing you want is right there.” Just a tiny line of text that I missed at least four times because I was busy punching a lesser Nightmare in the face.

The Pleasure Gardens Walk of Shame

Finding the Pleasure Gardens is not the hard part, but I still managed to make it feel like a maze. From the Castellum Landing Zone, travel north and turn right at the third unlit brazier. Then follow the path around the middle area. Congratulations, you are in the Pleasure Gardens. Now prepare to do laps like a mall cop with a bad hip.

Target	Enemy Type	Where I Found It	My Mood
Uaoc, Spine Breaker	Cabal Colossus	Left side of the map, near the Orb of Dread deposit	😤 “Why are you so tall?”
Tlazet, Fed to Beasts	Psion	Eastern side, near the Opulent Chest	😑 “Of course you are a Psion.”

Both enemies have a truly rude amount of health, but they are not mechanically difficult. Uaoc is a Cabal Colossus, which means he is basically a walking apartment building with a gun. Tlazet is a Psion, which means he is smaller, faster, and personally offensive to my aim. Other Guardians in the area can help, and picking up Unstable Essence from lesser Nightmares gives you a damage boost. I learned that last part after stubbornly shooting a Colossus with the enthusiasm of a wet noodle.

The Real Boss Is the Spawn Timer

Here is the part that made me question my life choices: only one of the desired elite Nightmares can spawn at a time, and plenty of other enemies can show up instead. So you kill. You wait. You kill more. You check the left side of your screen. You see “A High-Value Target is nearby,” sprint across the Gardens, and discover it is not the target you need. Then you do it again. And again. It is tedious in a way that makes loading screens feel like thrilling content.

My tips, forged in the fire of impatience:

• 🎯 Do not ignore lesser Nightmares. They feed you Unstable Essence, and the damage boost is real.

• 👀 Watch the left-side text. The spawn message is tiny, and the game will not hold your hand.

• 🏃 Bring a mobility build. You will run from one side of the Gardens to the other more times than you expect.

• 🧘 Set a time limit. If you are still there after an hour, step away. The Triumph will still be there. Probably.

• 🎉 Ask for help. Other Guardians in the area can speed things up, and shared suffering is still suffering, but with company.

Once both Uaoc and Tlazet are dead, Controlled Burn pops, and you are one step closer to the Reaper title. Most likely, this is also the final part of Shadow’s Return you need. I will not pretend I did a victory dance. I did a small, dignified nod and then checked my inventory for loot I did not need.

The 2026 Reality Check

In 2026, this is legacy content, not the hot new seasonal grind. Destiny 2 is available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, and the old reference to Google Stadia belongs in a museum next to my patience. If the Season of the Haunted activity is available in your version of the game, treat Controlled Burn as a checklist item from a previous era. If it is not, well, welcome to Destiny 2, where content comes and goes like my motivation on a Tuesday night.

Would I do Controlled Burn again? Absolutely not. Am I glad I finally finished it? Yes. The Reaper title is one step closer, and I only lost a small portion of my sanity. That counts as a win in the Pleasure Gardens. 🏆