The long wait is finally over, and the new season of Destiny 2, Season of the Seraph, begins December 6, 2022. This is the last major update before the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall on February 28, 2023. Here in this guide, we’ll tell you all we know about the new season: a little bit about the story, the new dungeon, the changes to the Crucible, the new activity, the rebalancing of the abilities and weapons, the new Exotics, and the Power level increase.
What to expect:
- Tuesday, December 6th: Season of the Seraph launches, alongside updated Crucible, weapon and ability balances, as well as Moments of Triumph 2022;
- Friday, December 9th: New Dungeon arrives;
- Tuesday, December 13th: The Dawning launches, and it will end on January 3rd;
- Tuesday, December 20th: Revision Zero Exotic becomes available;
- Tuesday, January 3rd: Iron Banner and new Fortress mode arrive.
Season of the Seraph storyline and quest
“The Hive God of War moves to seize control of Rasputin’s network of weaponized satellites. In her hands, she would turn its devastating power on the Last City. To stop her, the Vanguard has authorized special covert operations armed with the Warmind’s most advanced weaponry. Agents conducting these operations are known as Seraphs. Seraph has deployed to multiple destinations to infiltrate Brytech facilities, bypass advanced defense systems, and neutralize hordes of Wrathborn. Your security clearance has been granted, and your Seraph fireteam awaits, Guardian”.
In contrast to the previous season, with its exciting pirate action adventures, Season of the Seraph involves a desperate race against time to restore Rasputin, who has been part of the story since the first game – the original Destiny.
Rasputin is an AI from the Golden Age and was almost destroyed during Season of Arrivals by the Pyramid fleet under the command of The Witness. Since then, Ana Bray has been trying to figure out how to restore Rasputin, but other than saving him in an engram, nothing works so far, and he is slowly dying.
To save Rasputin, the Guardians have to merge him with the data from the submind scattered throughout the system, and this is the only way to help. But the Guardians aren’t the only ones after the submind data. They’ll have to fight for Rasputin. Thus begins the More Than a Weapon story quest.
During this quest, players must help Ana, Osiris, and Clovis-1 gather pieces of Rasputin. For new players, Rasputin is a powerful AI from the Golden Age that may be able to help Osiris in his efforts to find the secret that lies somewhere on Neptune.
The first thing that you will want to do is complete the opening mission and then go to the H.E.L.M. Once the opening mission is finished, you can pick up the new seasonal artifact from the Exo Frame. Leveling up the seasonal artifact grants players access to powerful seasonal mods and also provides a helpful power boost.
New Battleground: Heist Battlegrounds
Heist Battlegrounds is a new seasonal activity that you can participate in two ways: complete the seasonal quest More Than A Weapon or play the Heist Battlegrounds Playlist. You can participate in teams of up to three players or enter the arena alone and head to one of Braytech’s many facilities to fight against the Hive God of War.
The seasonal quest More Than A Weapon will take you to a new location each week to complete Heist Battlegrounds. The first week of Heist Battlegrounds takes place on the Moon, and the second week on Mars.
To play the Heist Battlegrounds playlist, you must first collect 500 Seraph Key Codes. Seraph Key Codes can be earned throughout Season of the Seraph by completing the available Heist Battlegrounds or participating in other Destiny 2 playlists.
Once you have 500 Seraph Key Codes, you will unlock the Heist Battlegrounds playlist in H.E.L.M. Look for it in Exo Frame, Wing of the Seraph.
Along with activities like Grandmaster Nightfalls and other higher-tier Nightfall Strikes, Heist Battlegrounds is one of the most challenging playlist activities of the Season of the Seraph, due to the presence and lack of certain modifiers; and although bringing back vaulted locations and several characters to rehash the story before the upcoming Lightfall expansion, it does not mean that you will be granted the same reward for completing them as you were before.
Spire of the Watcher dungeon
While the Season of the Plunder only brought players a rerun of the King’s Fall raid, the 19th Season of the Seraph presented us with a brand new dungeon, Spire of the Watcher. As a reward for completing the dungeon, the Guardians will be rewarded with an impressive collection of Tex Mechanica weapons and armor, as well as the chance to receive a powerful Exotic Bow “Hierarchy of Needs” each week.
To complete the Spire of the Watcher dungeon, players will have to travel back to Mars, where the Seraph object has been discovered, now invaded by Vex enemies.
The new dungeon is significantly shorter than any dungeon in the game and includes only three encounters. However, this by no means guarantees that you can relax – the first encounter begins with a jumping puzzle, which I personally whole-heartedly hate. The dungeon obviously has an advanced level of difficulty, the Master level, which involves the following changes:
- The Recommended Power is 1610
- Match Game
- Overload Champions
Let’s take a quick look at how to pass the dungeon Spire of the Watcher, and if you want to know more, wait for the next Guide to a detailed walkthrough.
First encounter
- Defeat Conduit Minotaurs and stand in the pool they drop to get Arctrician
- Follow the power cables from the center hatch to the generator
- Shoot the first node at the generator, follow the power cable to the next, shoot it and repeat until you reach the last one
- Repeat this process until all four nodes are activated
- Defeat Conduit Minotaurs for the Arctrician buff
- Activate Arc nodes in sequence to charge elevators
- Climb the spire to the top
Second encounter
- Defeat Conduit Minotaurs and take the Arctrician buff
- Charge up the nodes starting in the middle and going out to the fuel rods
- Shoot Akelous’ eyes and then its center mass
- Repeat until Akelous is defeated
Third encounter and the final boss in the Spire of the Watcher dungeon – Persys, Primordial Ruin
- Defeat Conduit Minotaurs and collect Arctrician buff
- Activate nodes to begin the reactor core purge
- Retreat to the safe room, activate the nodes on the pillars, and the node above the door to close it
- When the door reopens, damage Persys, and then repeat the process
The dungeon is not easy. If you’re new to Destiny 2, it may be a hard nut to crack, but the reward is worth it, and the fact that it is so short only adds to its attractiveness in the eyes of the hunters for good loot.
Season of the Seraph exotic mission
There’s a new exotic mission in Season of the Seraph. It’s called Operation: Seraph Shield. According to the official description, “Guardians must gain access to the most impenetrable facility in the solar system: a Braytech orbital platform above the Last City. Break through layers of security each week and awaken Rasputin before it’s too late.” The prize awaiting you at the depths of Operation Seraph’s Shield is Revision Zero. This Exotic weapon is available to loot from this Exotic Mission on December 20, 2022, and it goes with Catalysts in the weeks following. For more detail, wait for a special Guide.
Season of the Seraph Crucible
As for the Crucible, the following playlists await us:
- Quickplay – Control and Clash using “loose” skill-based matchmaking;
- Weekly Rotator – Momentum Control, Mayhem, Team Scorched, Rift, and Rumble, using connection – based matchmaking;
- Competitive Division – random selection of Survival, Rift, and Showdown using skill-based matchmaking;
- Crucible Labs – showcasing a 3v3 Rift with asymmetric maps, with a 25% reputation bonus;
- Private Match: custom games between friends.
There will also be updates to the limited-time events:
- Trials of Osiris: replaces Crucible Labs, uses existing ticket-based system;
- Iron Banner: replaces Quickplay, using “loose” skill-based matchmaking.
Season of the Seraph Abilities
Now let’s move smoothly to the changes in abilities. These changes are designed to set players up for the global changes that await us with the release of the future long-awaited expansion after Seraph’s season ends. There are quite a bunch of them, so we’ll highlight only the ones that seem the most worthy of our attention:
Solar:
- Healing from Restoration is being tuned down and no longer stacks with Healing Rift
- Knock Em’ down provides increased damage resistance for Deadshot Golden Gun, fewer bonus projectiles for Blade Barrage
- Buff close-range melee damage for Celestial Fire Warlocks
Void:
- Vortex Nova Bomb has increased projectile speed and the inward pull of enemies on impact
- Increased Tether duration on Deadfall Shadowshot arrows, decreased duration on Mobius Quiver arrows
Arc:
- Decreased Touch of Thunder Storm Grenade duration
- Ballistic Slam, Tempest Strike, Arc Soul all do increased damage in PVE
- Boost to Ball Lighting range and Chain lightning damage
Stasis:
- Increased speed penalty to slowed enemies
- Improved Coldsnap Grenade enemy tracking
Season of the Seraph Weapons
And finally, what all Destiny 2 fans love the most – weapons and armor. Season 19 of Seraph gives you the opportunity to get great examples of Legendary weapons, which can be obtained from various activities, among which are also three new Exotics, stylish Tex Mechanica guns in Spire of the Watcher, and great armor sets.
But first, weapons also are undergoing a number of changes. The most notable are:
- The weakening debuff from Divinity is being cut from 30% to 15%
- Deep Stone Crypt weapons have become Deepsighted and craftable
- A new exotic weapon is being added, with anti-champion functionality
Brand new exotics are presented by The Manticore Exotic SMG, Hierarchy of Needs, and Revision Zero. About the stats and perks, I will tell separately, but believe me, they are worth to chase them. Also you can find interesting the Vanguard weapon set and Legendary Rose Hand Cannon.
As well as weapons, all the Guardians will find an armor or ornament set to their liking, and the choice is quite impressive:
- Assassin’s Creed ornament set (available for purchase in Eververse store)
- Arc armor set (available for purchase in Eververse store and Season Pass of Season of the Seraph)
- Iron Banner armor set (available for purchase in Eververse store)
- Warmind armor set (available for purchase in Eververse store)
- Vice armor set (available in Season Pass)
What to do before the Season of the Seraph ends?
- Claim any seasonal titles you have earned. Don’t forget about it, now you are in the home stretch. It would be a shame to miss such a chance and waste all the previous efforts.
- Reach Legend rank in any matchmade activities – Crucible, Gambit, or Strikes – and obtain their vendor-specific rewards.
- Redeem any remaining Season Pass rewards across all classes.
- Have some completed Bounties ready, as well as maxing out relevant materials and Glimmer, to give you a head start for the start of next season. This is the general rule for moving from season to season, this tactic will give you a significant boost at the beginning of the season, and therefore you will get an advantage.
- Watch the ending of the seasonal storyline. Usually, you don’t need to complete the seasonal quest, but even if you can do the quests themselves after the new season starts (and with the new expansion, it’s not certain that this will be possible), you probably won’t be able to see the ending, which was the case with the ending of Season 18 in the Sails of the Shipstealer quest, for example.
And not get lost in a variety of activities, definitely do everything in time, and do not forget anything. You can always contact Overgear, we are happy to help you all the way.
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