Sever the Hedron Links is the Unknown-zone story mission where Dylan Faden shuts down two Hedron connection points floating on isolated islands. Before those islands become reachable, you have to prepare the zone through Emily Pope’s side quest, which lays out fast-travel doors, unlocks the area map, and stitches the scattered floating clusters together.
Quick answer: Finish Pope’s Research to open the Unknown’s fast-travel doors and map, then reach the two isolated islands near the Patterned Field Office and the Patterned Evac Building and destroy both Hedron cores.
How Sever the Hedron Links follows The Hedron Link
Sever the Hedron Links begins on the story route straight after The Hedron Link. That earlier mission starts with the objective to rescue Pope, sending Dylan through the training facility, past the first Hedron enemies, and out into the Unknown to break a single link.
Along the way, a tutorial card introduces the Hedron enemies you keep fighting through the rest of the crisis. Learn their movement here, because the same entities and a Hedron Proxy boss guard the links you sever later.
After rescuing Pope, Dylan crosses a stretch of floating pillars over a glowing void to reach the Hedron Parallel, breaks the first link, and reports back. Completing that mission and returning to the Oldest House crisis is what opens Sever the Hedron Links.
Do Pope’s Research first
Pope’s Research is the practical requirement for this mission. Deploying its research probe relays is what configures the floating islands, opens the fast-travel network, and gives you a path to the two isolated islands the links sit on. You do not have to finish every objective, but completing it is strongly recommended and awards its own trophy.
Take the Oldest House elevator up to the rooftop entrance to the Unknown. You need the Level 1 Keycard for clearance-level-1 doors on the way. The first balloon sits on this rooftop platform.
This route is a “where to go” plan, not a combat plan. If enemies pin you down, turn on Assist Mode for immortality or one-hit kills so traversal stays uninterrupted.
Unlock the fast-travel doors and zone map
The Unknown is split into disconnected floating clusters. Activating the fast-travel doors lets you jump between them instantly instead of re-crossing the void every time. Open each door as you pass it.
- Oldest House Rooftop
- Twisted Rooftops
- Tower Island
- Factory Island
- Patterned Evac Building
The full Zone Map stays hidden until you activate three satellite map-kit dish stations around the central tower island. Station 1 sits past the red neon HOTEL sign near the Twisted Rooftops. Stations 2 and 3 are reached by jumping across the elevated rooftops and using inverted-gravity traversal along the building faces near the central tower.
After all three dishes are live, return to the central antenna tower and synchronize the terminal. The Zone Map Unlocked notification confirms the area map is now readable, which makes finding the remaining balloons far easier.
Deploy all eight probe relays
There are eight probe relays to plant, each tied to an air-dropped cargo balloon. Every relay works the same way: release the probe payload from its cargo platform, pick it up, carry it to the painted red circle, and set it into the ground.
| Relay | Deploy location | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| 1/8 | Oldest House Rooftop | Drop from the rooftop entrance platform |
| 2/8 | Tower Island alleys | Gravity well north toward the blue mold |
| 3/8 | Streets below Tower Island | Drop off the building, dash-recover, grab payload |
| 4/8 | Southern residential blocks | From Twisted Rooftops, leap south past the map tower |
| 5/8 | Factory Island perimeter | Gravity well to Factory Island, hit balloon mid-air |
| 6/8 | Neighboring high-rise roof | Gravity well leap from Factory Island |
| 7/8 | Patterned Evac Building | Gravity well to the Evac island, enter the shelter |
| 8/8 | Central street intersection | Launch high, glide down to the central island |
Relay 3 is the fiddly one. Jump off the building into the street below and spam air recovery and dash to land on the suspended platform, then carry the payload through the alleys to its marker.
Planting the eighth relay updates the objective to Investigate Point 0, the center of the swirling car vortex above the zone.
Reach Point 0 to finish Pope’s Research
Return to the central map tower and climb its rooftop to get above the suspended vortex of yellow taxis. Leap across the spiral of floating cabs to land on the center platform.
Touching down at Point 0 triggers the finale sequence for the side quest, shows Quest Completed POPE’S RESEARCH, and awards the Budding Analyst trophy. With the islands configured and the fast-travel network live, the main mission’s targets are now reachable.
Sever both Hedron links
Two isolated islands each hold a link you must break. Both follow the same pattern: cross to the island with a gravity well, activate the glowing link device, drop into the space below it, and destroy the enemy that guards the core.
Link 1: near the Patterned Field Office
Link 2: near the Patterned Evac Building
Confirm the mission is complete
Destroying the second link triggers a cutscene showing the Hedron collapse. The Stop it at the Source trophy then appears, along with a Quest Completed SEVER THE HEDRON LINKS banner. Rewards for the mission are the Resonant Token, Living Shard, Ordered Image, Patterned Thought, and Source, plus a Talent Point collected in the Unknown. After the completion banner appears, the story resumes during the Oldest House crisis.
