In Destiny 2, seasonal challenges are introduced in Season 13. They are meant to replace bounties and reward you generously with Glimmer for the Eververse.
What’s new: Destiny 2 will launch its 13th season on February 9. This season brings numerous changes, including the new seasonal challenges.
- These will guide you week by week through the season and replace many bounties that have become quite annoying for many players.
- The challenges reward you with Glimmer for the Eververse and experience points and are meant to even reduce FOMO (fear of missing out).
- However, Guardians criticize that seasonal challenges are mostly just bounties with a new name.
What’s behind bounty fatigue? Some Guardians joke that Destiny 2 deserves the nickname “Bounty Simulator.” Before the action begins, players stack up numerous quests from all the NPCs. Tasks like “how to achieve X kills with element Y” are meticulously completed and then redeemed. This mainly provides experience and, in some cases, valuable Glimmer for the Eververse, the cash shop.
On one hand, it’s cool – it gives you a small goal in your activity that brings progress. The problem: Destiny 2 is flooded with bounties and they dictate the gameplay and quest design significantly. Even during events, you move from bounty to bounty.
Already in May 2020, MeinMMO stated that bounties are a core activity of Destiny 2 and addressed the issue.
At least recently, you can now accept bounties via smartphone in orbit, so you don’t have to visit every NPC in person. Here is an official guide from Bungie.
Seasonal challenges in Season 13 of Destiny 2
This is how the system works: In the first 10 weeks of a season, you automatically receive seasonal challenges. Each week, you will find 3 to 10 new tasks in a new menu. These tasks grant you experience, Glimmer, or seasonal items. Additionally, the weekly bounties from NPCs will be removed from Season 13 onwards.
The special thing: The challenges can be completed retroactively. For example, you can tackle the tasks from week 1 and week 2 if you did not complete the challenges back then or took a break from Destiny. After week 10 of a season, no further challenges will be added. A season typically lasts 12 to 13 weeks.
Such tasks await: Bungie already gave a small preview of possible challenges for Season 13 in the TWaB from January 28 (via Bungie.net):
- Defeat the Primeval Invaders in Gambit
- Complete Gambit matches
- Defeat enemies in “Nightfall: The Ordeal” with seasonal weapons
- Defeat Fallen
- Earn Recklessness or Valor ranks
- Earn ritual weapons and their cosmetic ornaments
- Win rounds in Trials of Osiris
- Complete a Grandmaster Nightfall
However, not all tasks are meant to be as challenging as a victory in the Trials. The goal is rather to provide a rough roadmap for the season and offer players a broad range of possible playstyles.
Glimmer for the bounties, uh, challenges
This is the reward: Since the weekly bounties will be removed, which were the main source of Glimmer, the resource will now move to the challenges. If you master individual challenges, you will receive different amounts of Glimmer.
The seasonal challenges are intended to be completable by 60% of players who do not own a season pass. However, only these 60% reward Glimmer.
Moreover, if you complete enough challenges by the end of a season, you will receive a big chunk of Glimmer.
- 6,000 Glimmer for free seasonal activities
- 4,000 Glimmer if you complete almost all seasonal challenges.
Where else does Glimmer come from?
- 7,500 Glimmer is included in the free path of the season pass, which all Guardians automatically have.
- 3,000 Glimmer is included in the premium path for season pass owners.
- The weekly ritual vendor challenge (complete 8 bounties) yields 120 Glimmer each time – If you complete all of them every week, you can reach a total of 14,040 Glimmer in Season 13.
- The daily and repeatable bounties remain in the game, and for events, you will still deal with bounties that reward Glimmer.
The total amount of Glimmer is not really more than before. The advantage now is that the challenges are account-wide. So you don’t have to slavishly grind out bounties with all 3 characters for a decent amount of Glimmer. Overall, especially average Guardians are likely to have more Glimmer available starting Season 13 – if the challenges are completable for them.
This is how it’s received by the Guardians
The retroactive nature of the seasonal challenges and the fact that some tasks are quite challenging is well received by the Guardians. Also, the fact that you don’t have to scour every NPC anymore, but have everything compressed in one tab, is appreciated.
This is the criticism: However, some Guardians wonder whether Bungie simply renamed bounties to seasonal challenges and thereby just gave the problem a new name. The feeling of “I have to meticulously complete a task list to play Destiny correctly” remains for them.
What do you think? Are seasonal challenges just bounties that do not expire after a week? Or will you wait and see what the tasks entail, viewing it as a positive step towards less FOMO and bounty fatigue? Let us know in the comments.
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