Marathon: How to Get Inside Pinwheel Base – Both Routes (Season 2)

Pinwheel Base has no front door, and that is why runners waste whole raids circling it. As of Season 2 and Update 1.1.5 (21 July 2026, client 1.025.000), both access routes work. The Drone Wing terminal route is the consistent one: find the orange terminal in the white control room under the Drone Wing, run the Conveyance Request, then ride the lift up from the bay. The Destroyed Wing switch route — which Bungie disabled on 11 March — was re-opened on 31 March 2026 in Update 1.0.5.2 and has not been closed since. Pinwheel sits on the Outpost map and unlocks at Runner Level 12.

What changed since launch

If you read a Pinwheel guide written in March, it probably told you the Destroyed Wing was dead. That was true for exactly twenty days.

• 11 March 2026 — Update 1.0.0.4: Bungie “temporarily disabled switches access route to the Broken Wing on Outpost,” with a dev note saying it trivialised entry into the Pinwheel.
• 31 March 2026 — Update 1.0.5.2: “Destroyed Wing entrance has been re-opened.” The same patch improved Pinwheel loot, retuned encounters to match reward quality, changed the security credentials for the hub’s locked room, and added bulletproof glass to that room.
• 2 June 2026 — Season 2 begins with Update 1.1.0, followed by economy passes in 1.1.0.1 and 1.1.0.4.
• 21 July 2026 — Update 1.1.5: the biggest mid-season patch, adding the experimental PvE mode Vault Breaker, Cradle Evolution, grenade loadout restrictions, and heavy weapon plus Runner Shell rebalancing.

None of the patches after 1.0.5.2 touch Pinwheel access. No new entrances have been added, and the Runner Level 12 gate is unchanged. What did change is that Pinwheel is now worth the trip — the loot buff in 1.0.5.2 was specifically aimed at making the encounters pay out in line with their difficulty.

Where Pinwheel Base is on the Outpost map

Pinwheel is the central facility on Outpost, not Dire Marsh. It is stitched into several named POIs rather than standing alone, so navigating by the building itself is a losing game. Navigate by labels instead: Processing, Drone Wing, and Orientation bracket it.

The single most useful landmark is the DRONE WING map label. The terminal you want sits just south of the “E” in DRONE WING and northwest of Processing. Orient off that and you skip almost all of the wandering that eats a raid timer.

Route 1: Drone Wing terminal (the reliable one)

Run this first. It is the same every time, it puts you directly into the interior, and it does not depend on you solving the exterior.

Step 1 — Find the control room under the Drone Wing arm

Approach Drone Wing from Processing. You are looking for a small white control room tucked under the wing structure, not an obvious entrance. If you find yourself circling the upper walkways, you have overshot — drop back down and work the underside of the structure.

Step 2 — Run the Conveyance Request at the orange terminal

Inside the room, interact with the orange terminal and run the Conveyance Request. This is where most runs go wrong: it does not open a door in front of you. It activates a rideable lift or crate elevator in the bay below. Players hear the mechanism engage, assume something opened ahead, and push forward into nothing.

The access point is vertical, and it is underneath you.

Step 3 — Drop to the bay and ride the lift up

Move to the bay, find the platform, and land on it cleanly. Let it carry you up into Pinwheel. Do not sprint off the moment it rises — check the receiving level for hostiles from the platform first.

The tradeoff on this route is security. The Drone Wing approach is high-loot and heavily patrolled by bots and turrets, and that is what kills otherwise clean runs. Being stuck on a slow-moving platform with a turret already tracking you is one of the worst positions in the game. Clear your angles before you commit to the ride.

Route 2: Destroyed Wing switches (working again since 31 March)

This is now a genuine alternative rather than a historical footnote. It is faster once you know the box locations, but it demands you solve the exterior first.

Step 1 — Start from Orientation and climb

Approach from Orientation and work your way up onto the roof, checking both the ruined exterior and the broken interior spaces. You are not hunting a terminal here — you are shutting the barrier system down manually.

Step 2 — Shoot all four control boxes

Find the four white square control boxes marked with red lights spread around the Destroyed Wing. They are distributed across the outer shell and interior nooks, including awkward placements near ceiling edges and floor cavities. All four must be destroyed; three drops nothing.

Shooting them makes noise. On a populated Outpost run, expect the four shots to advertise your position to anyone within earshot, which is the practical argument for taking the quieter Drone Wing route when the lobby feels busy.

Step 3 — Enter through the dropped barriers

With all four boxes down, the barriers drop and the Destroyed Wing opens into the base interior.

Which route to take

Solo, take Drone Wing. In a squad where one player can watch the roofline while others hit boxes, the Destroyed Wing is faster.

What you get inside

Pinwheel loot was buffed in 1.0.5.2 and its encounters were retuned so the rewards match the difficulty — this was one of the headline changes of that patch. The hub also has a locked room whose security credential requirement was changed in the same update, and Bungie added bulletproof glass to it, so old approaches that relied on shooting through the glass no longer work.

Season 2’s broader economy passes in 1.1.0.1 and 1.1.0.4 adjusted armory stock and costs, which shifts what a Pinwheel run is worth relative to a safer route — worth factoring in before you commit a full raid to it. For the wider picture on what to do with the haul, see our Season 2 vault management and XP routing guide.

FAQ

Is the Destroyed Wing entrance still disabled?

No. It was disabled on 11 March 2026 in Update 1.0.0.4 and re-opened on 31 March 2026 in Update 1.0.5.2. No patch through 1.1.5 has re-disabled it.

Do I still need Runner Level 12?

Yes. No patch through 21 July 2026 has changed the Outpost unlock requirement.

Are there other ways into Pinwheel?

Not in any documented patch. The Drone Wing terminal and the Destroyed Wing switches are the two routes, and Bungie has not added entrances since launch.

Is Pinwheel worth it in Season 2?

More than at launch, because of the 1.0.5.2 loot buff — but it is still a heavily patrolled objective. Treat it as a run you commit to, not one you detour into with five minutes on the clock.

Vault Breaker changed what “worth it” means for a lot of runs this season; our breakdown of why your best loot can’t leave that mode covers the catch. Everything else on the game lives in our Marathon hub.