In the recent raid of Destiny 2, numerous players cheated. Now, it affects not only the cheaters but also their friends.
What is behind the bans? Destiny 2 conducted a ban wave on August 5, 2025, targeting players who cheated in the contest mode of the latest raid, The Eternal Desert. The raid was introduced with the latest expansion “On the Edge of Destiny”.
Shortly after the raid, a list of players caused an uproar, accusing a large portion of the teams successful in contest mode of cheating. Allegedly, around 400 out of 600 successful runs involved cheating. That’s nearly 70% of all winning teams.
Bungie bans not only cheaters but also accomplices
What is this warning about? As Bungie announced on X, the ban wave also targets players who benefited from cheaters in their team. Guardians who intentionally took advantage of their cheating teammates can also face penalties.
The community manager of Destiny, dmg04, added in a post on X that this was only the first ban wave and more will follow should Bungie discover any “laggers.” He warned: “Do not play with cheaters.”
How did the cheaters get caught? Shortly after the raid, when the large list of suspected cheaters was posted, various indications pointed to the alleged cheaters. These included:
- A team member excelled with an unbelievable number of kills, while the rest of the team had hardly any.
- New accounts were used, which had hardly completed any raids.
- Certain sections of the raid were completed within a few minutes, while other teams required several hours.
It is not yet known if the players on the large list were actually banned, but Bungie’s reaction and the announcement of the ban wave indicate that cheating occurred in the contest mode of the raid.
What is the contest mode actually? During the contest mode, the best teams of Destiny 2 compete under challenging conditions. Each team aims to successfully complete the new raid first – this is known as the World-First race. During the race, thousands of viewers regularly watch.
However, the winning team of the race is reportedly not affected by the bans and seems to have prevailed through fair yet very strong gameplay. Bungie will likely remember the name of the team for a while: A team of unknown Guardians is the first to complete the new raid, but Bungie is ashamed to reveal the name of the winners
