Destiny 2: Season of the Drifter promises quite a lot of new content. And, just like anytime there’s a new Destiny expansion, it’s very exciting to pick apart all the possibilities waiting for us don the line. But Season of the Drifter is disappointing in one respect: it does not have a traditional Raid activity. However, in addition to some “Raid-like” twists on Gambit Prime, it does have a new PVE event to take part in — The Reckoning.
The new cooperative action takes place in deep unknown space, in a place Bungie refers to as The Planes of the Nine. It is deeply connected to the new Gambit Prime mode, as well. So much so that it only becomes available to you after your first match of Gambit Prime. Both of the new modes were detailed in Bungie’s ViDoc about the Season of the Drifter. You can take a look at it below, or head on over to our breakdown of the new Destiny 2 expansion!
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Destiny 2 – The Reckoning and Gambit Prime
Gambit Prime and The Reckoning are part of what Bungie called a “gameplay loop.” The idea is that you play Gambit Prime for fun and profit, then follow it up with The Reckoning, and then take the rewards you earn from The Reckoning back into Gambit Prime to excel more than ever before. Got it?
The Reckoning even gives you special gear with perks that only work in Gambit Prime. Armor sets for one of four “roles — Reaper, Invader, Collector, and Sentry — don’t just help you in Gambit Prime, either. They modify the playstyle you bring to the table altogether.
You can take Synths earned in Gambit Prime into The Reckoning to craft Gambit Prime armor. Each piece of this armor gives +1 to the set bonus for the armor, meaning you can only unlock one of the four perks for each set. With Tier 2 armor, at +2 each, more perks will are available. And finally, with Tier 3 armor, all four set perks can be unlocked.
In each Reckoning tier, there will be random modifiers each day (the same ones that can be applied to a Nightfall Strike card), so pull out your Ghost and check them to see what’s different.
The Reckoning – Tier 1
Once you’ve gained access to The Reckoning, it’s time to start crafting Gambit Prime armor to excel in the PvEvP arena.
Take the Synthesizer given to you by the Drifter and insert the corresponding Synth for whatever armor set you’d like to craft. Then, head to the mote bank at the spawn area of The Reckoning and insert it. That’s your wager, and now it’s time to make good on your bet.
Before you continue on, though, check the area to the right of the mote bank—there’s a platform there where you can place Rally Banners to give yourself full ammo and a fully charged Super. Take advantage of this!
Soon enough, the countdown will begin, meaning that Reckoning has also begun. The six-minute timer is all the time you have to finish the activity, so drop down into the pit and begin the fight. Be prepared—the recommended Power for this fight is 650.
Taken will be spawning in everywhere, and it’s your job to “prove yourself to the Nine by rapidly defeating enemies” and charge up a meter called “Dominance.” This basically means you have to continuously kill enemies to keep the meter charging. If you don’t kill anything for a short while, it will begin to count back down.
Auto rifles, light machine guns, and any weapon that can easily chain multikills will be great here. Spread out away from your team so you can all kill your own enemies and independently keep the charge going, and pop your Supers if you have to stay alive or need to kill one of the Ultra enemies that spawn in periodically—killing one of those will earn you about five percent charge alone.
Just slay out as many enemies as you can to keep the meter going, and eventually it will hit 100 percent. Once fully charged, a Taken Champion will spawn, and it’s boss fight time. There’s no real DPS mechanics here—just unload on whatever spawns in and kill it before the clock runs out.
Once it’s dead, you will be transported back to the mote bank above, and you can collect your crafted armor.
The Reckoning – Tier 2
Tier 2 ups the ante in a big way. The recommended Power has now jumped to 670, so you will probably want to be at least 665 before attempting this challenging new wave.
The beginning of Tier 2 is the same as the first, tasking you with charging up the “Dominance” meter once more. Clear the adds like usual, but be ready for something very new once it hits 100 percent.
Once finished, your new task will pop up: Construct the Bridge of Folly. Head down the corridor marked by an objective marker and be ready for a long battle. You will need to capture a number of objective points by standing on them to construct the bridge, all while a huge number of Taken will be spawning in all directions.
As you capture the point, make sure to have most of your team stand inside of it, because you’re very limited on time. Have Warlocks place down Rifts and Titans place down Barricades to protect you from the onslaught.
On either side of the bridge, snipers will spawn and deal pretty hefty damage, so make sure at least one of your team is dedicated to taking them out as quickly as possible. Major enemies will spawn in front of and behind you, on top of a large number of Thrall. Do your best to clear them out.
Once you finish capturing one objective, another will spawn further down the bridge, so keep moving and keep trying to stay inside of the objective circle. If you stray too far away from it, you could easily lose track and run out of time, so keep an eye on the timer on the left side of the screen.
Once every objective is captured, a portal will appear at the end of the bridge, and your new task is to “Find and defeat the Hermit to recover its stolen Light.” In this new area, the Hermit will be marked, so find it and eliminate it as fast as possible—you’re once again on the clock here. The Hermit will die and spawn a pool of light.
Stand in that pool of light and use the damage buff to DPS the two massive axe knights who are lumbering towards you. These two are the objective, and killing them will finish out Tier 2, but you may need to do multiple DPS phases. If they survive, wait a few seconds and a new Hermit will spawn. Rinse and repeat the process until they are dead.
The Reckoning – Tier 3
The third and final (so far) tier of The Reckoning requires 680 Power to launch, but the enemies themselves are 690 Power, so make sure to gear up before even thinking about heading into the activity. You will also need to visit the Drifter for a quest to upgrade your Synthesizer one more time to be able to craft the highest level of Gambit Prime armor.
Tier 3 Reckoning functions exactly the same as the first two tiers in the beginning. You must slay enemies to charge up “Dominance” and then build the Bridge of Folly once more. But once you finish the bridge and reach the end, a new challenge appears.
Get ready for a boss fight against a familiar-looking foe—Likeness of Oryx looks just like The Taken King, but he doesn’t pack as big of a punch. The fight is challenging, though, considering the Power recommendation.
The fight itself is pretty straightforward. Likeness of Oryx will blast energy balls at you while teleporting around the arena and spawning more Taken. Clear out the adds and DPS the boss as much as you can. Eventually, the boss will spawn a debuff called Counterfeit Gaze that has a countdown. If the countdown reaches zero, the boss will wipe you. The only way to stop the wipe is to damage the boss enough to stagger it and continue the fight.
Pop your Super abilities when you can, clear out adds to prevent any unwanted frustrations, and continuously DPS the boss whenever Counterfeit Gaze pops up. There’s no other real mechanics to the fight, so do your best to stay alive and deal damage when necessary.
The main challenge in this fight is trying to stay alive and battling against the clock, as you are on a timer again. If you struggle to kill the boss, you might need to level up a bit more or change up your loadouts before heading back into Tier 3.
That’s all there is to The Reckoning right now, but check back here to see if anything changes in the near future!
