Destiny 2’s annual Festival of the Lost event begins this week. The 2021 festivities bring new dinosaur-themed armor and weapons, plus a variety of Halloween activities and cosmetics. However, that’s not the only thing going down in Bungie’s FPS MMO.
Bungie is adding a new difficulty mode to Destiny 2’s Astral Alignment activity. In addition, Astral Alignment is gaining new modifiers, introducing new risks and rewards to the six-player co-op activity.
RELATED: Destiny 2 Players Can Cheese Activities to Gain Festival of the Lost Pages and Candy Insanely Fast
Bungie announced the new features in the developer’s This Week at Bungie blog. As the blog post explains, the new difficulty will have a recommended Power of 1320. That means the new difficulty mode is specifically for max-level Destiny 2 players looking for an extra challenge. In addition, Bungie is adding six new modifiers that Destiny 2 will cycle through every day to spice things up even further.
There are three rotating modifiers, and six constant modifiers giving the following effects:
Weekly Taken rotating modifiers
- Denial: Taken Vandals summon their shields significantly more often.
- Epitaph: Taken combatants generate blight geysers when defeated.
- Empath: Enhanced radar, take increased damage from melee.
Constant modifiers
- Champions: Overload and Unstoppable
- Equipment Locked: Players cannot change equipment during the activity.
- Match Game: Shields are harder to break when using a weapon of a different element.
Players will need to pick the right weapons to coordinate effectively if they want to complete the four-part Astral Alignment. Tension is ratcheted up even further by the prospect of restarting from the beginning if the team wipes or otherwise fails to finish. However, those who manage to pull it off will get more than just bragging rights. Victorious teams will find a new third bonus chest waiting for them at the end of the activity. All three bonus chests will all have a higher chance of dropping the Catalyst for Destiny 2’s Ager’s Scepter rifle.
Any high-level Destiny 2 players who don’t want to wait can also try out the new difficulty option for Shattered Realm missions. The new difficulty mode greatly boots the Power requirements and throws players against stronger enemies in exchange for high-stat gear. It’s a difficult challenge and a Destiny 2 Experience that's best not undertaken solo. Still, Bungie insists that the rewards are more than worth the effort.
Players can also jump into Destiny 2’s Haunted Sectors by putting on their festival masks and starting the Gone but Not Forgotten Quest. Summon and defeat the Headless Ones to collect rewards and unlock the new Headless Hues Shader, the Beheaded Home Emblem, and the Headless Horsepower Exotic Sparrow. Altogether, Destiny 2 has a lot to keep fans occupied this October.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Destiny: Explaining Cayde's Story from the First Game to D2
Source: Bungie