An alternative method for the location of transition states using density functional theory is described. The user controlled and managed method, dubbed ‘pragmatic’, is based on iterations of small-step small-extent energy reductions from trial structures that necessarily oscillate across the potential energy barrier. This automatically optimises variables conjugate to the reaction path, and allows the user to converge trials to the transition state geometry. The method does not require prior knowledge of reactant or product structures, and is valuable for the exploration of complex potential energy surfaces and of unknown mechanisms, and the discovery of intermediates. The illustrations provided are from the complex mechanism in which the conversion of N2 to NH3 is catalysed at the FeMo-cofactor of the enzyme nitrogenase. The pragmatic method is successful for reaction paths where geometrical changes are asynchronous, and where the automated linear synchronous transit and quadratic synchronous transit methods are unreliable.