Today marks the start of the “Empyrean Foundation” event in Destiny 2. We summarize what is already known about it, show how it relates to the return of the Trials, and provide an important tip for a successful start.
What this event is about: Today, on February 4th, the Empyrean Foundation starts, marking one of the last two remaining contents of Season 9.
Unlike the Valentine’s Day event, the Crimson Days, which is the other upcoming content, the Empyrean Foundation is expected to entertain Guardians not just briefly, but for the rest of the current season – until early March.
Therefore, we take a closer look and summarize all the important information for your start in a compact way.
Empyrean Foundation – An Overview of What You Need to Know for the Start
What kind of event is this? The Empyrean Foundation is essentially a type of community event. Here, the player community as a whole is challenged. The contribution of each individual is important.
Guardians are meant to come together and donate massive amounts of a specific resource in the game to rebuild something great. This project is ultimately supposed to become the foundation for the events in the upcoming Season 10.
How long does the new event run? The Empyrean Foundation starts with the Weekly Reset on February 4th at 6:00 PM. It sounds like the rebuilding effort will last until the end of Season 9, likely until March 9th.
Who can participate? All Guardians who own the base game of Destiny 2 can participate – regardless of any additional content. So even if you only have the Free-to-Play version Destiny 2: New Light, you can still contribute to the rebuilding effort. There is a lot to do.
How does the Empyrean Foundation work?
As part of the event, players will be encouraged by Saint-14 to participate in the rebuilding of the Lighthouse by donating the resource Polarized Fractaline. The minimum donation is 100 Fractaline.
There will be a total of 7 stages that the community needs to reach in this joint effort. Here is what is known so far:
- Stage 1: 400,000,000 donated Fractaline
- Stage 2: 700,000,000 donated Fractaline
- Stage 3: 1,200,000,000 donated Fractaline
The amounts needed for stages 4-7 are not yet known.
Donations will take place at the Obelisk in the Tower, where players can also track progress for the event in real-time with the help of a hologram. However, the other Obelisk structures are also important.
By the way, even before the official announcement, data miners and clever fans had already discovered quite a bit about the event: Empyrean Foundation – what we know about the last mystery of Season 9
What are we actually working on? Bungie hasn’t officially revealed much yet, but through data mining results and some in-game sightings, it’s pretty clear: We are working on rebuilding the Lighthouse and the return of the Trials (of Osiris) – the highly anticipated and probably most popular PvP format in Destiny.
This seems to validate a theory that was often ridiculed at first. More details on this and the general return of the Trials can be found here:
- Destiny 2: It looks like the Trials will finally return with Season 10
- Destiny 2: Guardians stumble upon a secret mission – Could it bring back the Trials?
However, not everyone is excited about the return of the beloved PvP mode: Destiny 2: The return of the long-awaited Trials leaked, but the excitement is muted – Why?
Are there special rewards for the event? While for many the greatest reward will likely be the return of the Trials associated with the event – Guardians will also be rewarded for their efforts beyond that.
- If the community reaches stage 7, all players will receive a special shader.
- All who donate more than 5,000 Fractaline by the end of Season 9 will receive a triumph and a special emblem.
This event is particularly worthwhile: Anyone who wants to obtain time-lost weapons, such as
- the powerful Perfect Paradox shotgun
- or one of the best hand cannons of Season 9, “Jack, Queen, King 3”
who is farming for a specific roll can be pleased. Because each donation at the Obelisk in the Tower contributes immediately 25% to the progress of all time-lost weapon bounties from Season 9 that are in your inventory at the time of donation. The tasks are thus completed quickly while donating.
In short: Anyone looking to obtain some of the best weapons from Season 9 can use this event perfectly to farm time-lost weapon bounties.
Important tip for the start: Polarized Fractaline is at the center of this event. Everything revolves around this resource.
However, you should not donate everything immediately and also not necessarily try to accumulate 5,000 units of this resource to sink them directly in the Tower Obelisk.
At the start of the Empyrean Foundation, you should allocate your resources differently – even if you have already saved up a lot and best done so before the event begins.
Because the Tower Obelisk will passively generate Fractaline for you each week according to its resonance strength. Its resonance strength can be increased by upgrading the other four planetary obelisks. And for that, you need Fractaline.
And this is where you should initially allocate your resources – before the event starts and ideally also all freshly collected resources in the two weeks following. Starting from the third event week, you can then donate the resource for the rebuilding. This way, you should be able to extract the maximum Fractaline and not only donate it but also effectively farm time-lost bounties.
By doing this, you should end up receiving more than 50% more Fractaline than if you simply donated it at the very beginning of the event.
For more information, check here: Why you should invest your Fractaline in Destiny 2 now
Also interesting: A data miner has recently discovered a new voice line that is currently causing quite a stir. Is this possibly a result of the rebuilding of the Lighthouse – the ultimate goal of the Empyrean Foundation?
And here’s what to expect in Season 9 for 2020:
