Destiny 2 Solstice Of Heroes Event: Start Date, Rewards, And Details

Destiny 2‘s Solstice of Heroes event begins on July 30, and now we know what to expect from the last big event of the Season of Opulence. You’ll be chasing a special set of Solstice armor for your characters and upgrading it by completing a number of objectives and participating in a new activity that’s specific to Solstice. There are also a variety of new cosmetic rewards to acquire during the event.

Bungie laid out all the details of the Solstice of Heroes in a post on its blog that included a trailer, which you can watch below. The event starts with picking up a special set of Solstice armor, which is in a pretty rough state when you first get it. You’ll need to complete Solstice objectives to upgrade the armor, slowly improving it until you can get it to its Masterworked “Majestic” state. You’ll have until Solstice of Heroes ends on August 27 to complete it.

Bungie also explained that the Solstice armor set will be the first “Armor 2.0” set available in its upcoming new expansion, Shadowkeep. Armor 2.0 is Destiny 2’s upcoming new armor system, which allows you to transfer the properties of one set of armor to another set–essentially allowing you to wear armor you like the look of, not just what has the best stat and perk random rolls. When Shadowkeep launches in September, you’ll be able to pick up the Solstice Armor 2.0 set, provided you earn and upgrade the whole thing during the event.

Upgrading that armor will take you to a new area for Solstice called the EAZ, or European Aerial Zone–essentially a version of the EDZ that’s in Destiny 2 already, but composed of a bunch of floating platforms. A matchmade Solstice activity takes place there that has you and two other players fighting a bunch of mini-bosses to receive treasure chest rewards. The more bosses you kill, the more chests you get; the whole thing sounds a bit like the Haunted Forest and Verdant Forest activities from past events.

Solstice also adds a new elementally themed mechanic to the game. As you play different activities in Destiny 2, you’ll see orbs dropping that align with your elemental subclass. Pick them up and you’ll access additional buffs that are specific to the element you’re using. It sounds like gathering these orbs will be part of the process of powering up your Solstice armor as well.

• Solar orbs generate a damaging wave around you as you play
• Void orbs allow you to go invisible and give you Truesight to see through walls when you crouch
• Arc orbs enhance your movement speed and melee and sword damage

There’s one more big change coming to the Solstice of Heroes, which might give a hint of what players can expect from the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion. Most seasonal events come with event-specific Eververse engrams for players to earn as they level up, which give them random drops of event-specific cosmetic items. That’s not the case in Solstice, though–instead, there will be no Solstice engrams, and all event cosmetics will be available for purchase from the Eververse store with either Bright Dust or Silver, Destiny’s premium currency.

That might be a hint at the shape of things to come as Bungie changes its approach to Destiny 2 microtransactions. We know Bungie is about to greatly change how Bright Dust works, making it so you solely earn it from playing the game (rather than from breaking down Eververse items you could have purchased with Silver). We might get a hint at the limits of how you can use Bright Dust in Solstice, and how much of the Eververse Store will require you to use Silver, which you can only purchase with real money. Then again, this might just be a weird limbo period between system changes, but either way, things are going to be different than usual with Solstice of Heroes–and every different with the launch of Shadowkeep on September 17.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-solstice-of-heroes-event-start-date-rewa/1100-6468669/