Destiny 2 Season of the Haunted is here, and it’s the spookiest addition yet. With the return of Emperor Calus’ mighty Leviathan, players are tasked with venturing into this massive ship to deduce what has happened to this corrupted vessel. Along with the new Nightmare Containment activity, players can earn new weapons, armor, and cosmetics for your Guardian.
If you’re a veteran of Destiny 2, then you should be familiar with the H.E.L.M. upgrade system that slowly gives users access to passive bonuses throughout the season. This time, players will commune with the Crown of Sorrow if they want to unlock upgrades tied to the seasonal activities, story, and gear. Where things differ is that you can unlock a solid amount of upgrades in the first week if you play enough. This is because the item used to unlock upgrades, Figments of Darkness, aren’t just tied to the weekly challenges and story mission. Players can earn three by hitting Crown of Sorrow Rank 4, 10, and 16. If you’re wondering about what upgrades you should snag, here are my recommendations for each column.
Best Crown of Sorrow HELM Upgrades
Channeling
- Opulent Deepsight: Obtaining the crafting patterns for all the new guns is always important, so any way to 100% guarantee one each week is worth getting early on. Giving you a Deepsight weapon for opening your first Opulent Chest of the week is especially helpful since you’ll be getting a ton of Opulent Keys throughout the season. Plus, this one can be picked up only after four other upgrades are unlocked, which means you can snag it quite early.
- Focusing Deepsight: Similar to Opulent Deepsight, this is just another consistent method for getting a Deepsight variant of an Opulent gun. This will be whatever weapon you focus on first each week, meaning you have added control about what firearm you want to work towards crafting.
- Sever Deepsight: I’m going to sound like a broken record, but more ways to get Deepsight weapons isn’t a bad thing. I know Bound Presence isn’t the most common material, but it’s another one players will frequently come across throughout the season. So why not get some extra rewards for your trouble when you complete Sever?
Reaping
- Vestiges of Dread Bounties: An upgrade you can snag this week, this one will give you another method for farming Vestiges of Dread. Given how important this material is for opening the second “chest” at the end of the Containment activity, you’ll always want to ensure you have 500 ready to spend. Plus, the bounties are remarkably easy to complete, which can be a nice way to supplement your Vestiges of Dread farming.
- Vestige Capacity: You can hold more Vestiges of Dread, meaning you spend less time farming this material. It’s a simple and effective upgrade.
- Vestige Core Ritual: While the best current method for farming Vestiges of Dread is running around the Leviathan, this upgrade will make playing the core activities worth your time. Currently, we don’t know the increased amount of Vestiges of Dread given out, but since these activities already award a staggering 240, this upgrade can only be helpful. It’s also nice to just get more rewards when you’re working on other activities or grinding out Pinnacle rewards.
Manifesting
- Umbral Energy Chests: Opulent Umbral Energy is perhaps the most important resource this season as it allows you to focus your engrams into seasonal gear. Since this is the best method for target farming new gear, any way to get more Opulent Umbral Energy is a good thing.
- Opulent Weapon Focusing/Haunted Weapon Focusing: I’m putting two here because these upgrades simply unlock the ability to focus both Opulent and Haunted weapons. If you really want to earn specific seasonal guns, these are two you should absolutely prioritize.
- Umbral Binding: Similar to Umbral Energy Chests, this upgrade just gives us more Opulent Umbral Energy at the end of the Containment activity. You will always need more of this throughout the season, so I highly recommend picking this perk up as soon as you can. There’s no doubt you will be playing a lot of Containment, so make sure you get the most materials for your time spent!
If you’re looking for more help, we have guides covering how to unlock the Solar 3.0 fragments and grenades, how to get the new Jotunn catalyst, how to farm Vestiges of Dread and Opulent Umbral Energy, all Exotics, new weapon Patterns, seasonal mods, and Season of the Haunted triumphs. In addition, we’re covering all patch notes, bugs and top issues, Bound in Sorrow quest steps, and Calus Bobbleheads. We’ve covered how to get Opulent Keys, Bound Presence in Containment, Crown of Sorrow H.E.L.M. upgrades, Iron Banner Seal Triumphs, and the Trespasser Catalyst. And lastly, we’ve written on how to find a Loyalist Commander for Battles Lines Triumph and the Cek’ik Boss.
