Destiny 2: 10 Best Seasonal Activities, Ranked

Highlights

• Destiny 2’s
  seasonal system offers new content every three months, with engaging activities tied to each season’s story and quests.
• Some seasonal activities, like Override and Defiant Battleground, have become more popular than the core playlist, providing quality loot.
• Unique activities like The Coil and Vex Offensive offer challenging gameplay, impressive mechanics, and great weapons for players to enjoy.

Destiny 2 introduced its seasonal system with the launch of the Forsaken DLC. Approximately every three months, the game receives a new batch of content, including one or two seasonal activities tied to the story and quests of that season. These activities are central to each season, as players must participate weekly to progress their quests and obtain every seasonal weapon.

Thanks to their engaging mechanics and quality loot pools, some seasonal activities became more popular among the community than the core playlist of strikes and raids. While these activities don’t always return after a season concudes, it’s still fun to reminisce about some of the game’s highlights. Here are some of the best seasonal activities in Destiny 2.

10 Override

Season Of The Splicer

Season of the Splicer introduced a new game mode to Destiny 2 called Override. This 6-player match-making activity was closely tied to the season’s story and showcased some of the game’s most impressive locations. The Override game mode in Destiny 2 was similar to Gambit, incorporating elements from various public events such as Contact from Season of Arrivals, Battlegrounds from Season of the Chosen, and even Wrathborn Hunts from Season of the Hunt.

The Override mode was a unique experience, with mechanics such as depositing motes to generate heavy ammo and special modifiers like increased damage from flying enemies and Psions spawning grenades upon death. For an added challenge, the activity also included Champions.

9 Defiant Battleground

Season Of The Chosen

Defiant Battleground was a 3-player seasonal activity introduced in the Season of the Chosen, marking the first match-making mode added to the game since the Beyond Light expansion. In this activity, Guardians assault Cabal positions to hunt down their commanders. The Defiant Battlegrounds resembled a Strike more than a typical seasonal activity, and Bungie even added it to the Strike playlist the following season.

During the season, players had access to four different battlegrounds. Completing the playlist version of these battlegrounds rewarded them with the Cabal Tribute chest, which could be opened with a charged Hammer of Proving for additional rewards. The loot pool featured seasonal weapons and was considered very good among the fanbase.

8 Sundial

Season Of Dawn

Sundial was another excellent 6-player seasonal activity introduced during the Season of Dawn. In this activity, Guardians faced off against the Red Legion on Mercury. Like the Menagerie, Sundial featured rotating encounters unlocked by completing various objectives and defeating Cabal enemies, though it took place in a smaller area than the Menagerie.

Sundial also introduced a new Obelisks system, through which players could focus on a specific weapon as loot upon completing the activity. The loot pool was also impressive, particularly the sidearm Breachlight, which quickly became a metagame favorite.

7 Vex Offensive

Season Of The Undying

During the Season of the Undying, Vex Offensive debuted as a 6-player arena activity, taking Guardians into the heart of the Black Garden to fight off waves of enemy machines. This mode also added new enemy types, such as Barrier and Overload Majors, which added a significant layer of difficulty. Vex Offensive also had some interesting mechanics beyond simply clearing vex ads.

This activity’s unique feature involved searching for where the Vex invasion was happening, as opposed to starting from a menu. The weapons and armor in the activity were inspired by the Black Armory, and featured an excellent perk pool.

6 The Coil

Season Of The Wish

The Coil is one of two seasonal activities in the current Season of the Wish. It brings Guardians to Riven’s Lair, a strange para-casual pocket universe created by Riven, the last Ahamkara. This 3-player activity is super fun and challenging, even without Champions. There are more twists in terms of rewards, and an added layer of intensity with the revive tokens and ability upgrades during encounters.

Drawing inspiration from the mechanics of the Last Wish raid, The Coil focuses on activating platform plates to unlock different portals. Players face four final bosses from various enemy factions: Scorn, Taken, and Vex. Furthermore, each action features random encounters, ranging from clearing additions to defeating mini-bosses, which adds to the gameplay’s unpredictability and excitement.

5 Astral Alignment

Season Of The Lost

Astral Alignment was introduced to Destiny 2 during Season of the Lost as a seasonal activity. In this mode, a team of six Guardians faces off against waves of Taken and Scorn who have seized control of the Dreaming City’s Beacons. Additionally, the beloved Blind Well activity returned as part of this activity.

Midway through Season of the Lost, Bungie introduced a second difficulty level for Astral Alignment called Legend difficulty. This variant ramped up the activity’s challenge with extra modifiers and a higher power requirement, providing seasoned players an even greater test of skill and teamwork.

4 Nightmare Containment

Season Of The Haunted

In Destiny 2‘s Season of the Haunted, Guardians were sent back to the Leviathan, the original location of the vanilla Leviathan raid in Destiny 2. One of the seasonal activities introduced in this season was Nightmare Containment, which tasked players with using a unique device to capture the Nightmare creatures introduced in the Shadowkeep expansion.

Nightmare Containment worked more like a public event rather than a match-making activity. It could be triggered in the Derelict Leviathan’s patrol zones and required multiple tiers of players to complete. The best part of this activity was the loot pool, which reintroduced the craftable variants of fan-favorite Menagerie weapons like Beloved and Austringer.

3 Shattered Realm

Season Of The Lost

Season of the Lost reintroduced the Dreaming City and Ascendant Realm into the game. Shattered Realm was a 3-player seasonal activity set in the Ascendant Realm, where Guardians teamed up with Mara Sov to rescue corrupted Techeuns. Shattered Realm was divided into three locations, each with secrets to uncover and challenges to take on.

Exploring the stunning Ascendant Realm was a fantastic experience. Additionally, Shattered Realm offered the quest for Aeger’s Scepter, one of the best stasis trace rifles in the game. The Aeger’s Sceptor was also used to reveal secret passageways and chests hidden across the activity’s map.

2 Forges

Season Of The Forge

The Black Armory expansion in Destiny 2 was about finding powerful weaponry and tech from the Arsenal’s past and then using them to craft some incredible new guns. Forges were hidden locations of secret Black Armory caches. However, enemies would regularly invade Forges, and Guardians would have to eliminate those intruders before claiming the Forge’s rewards.

There were four different forges, each offering enjoyable gameplay across three rounds of combat. In these rounds, players had to defeat glowing enemies to collect Radiant Batteries, which they threw at Forge Ignitions. During the Season of the Forge, players were able to complete one Forge per day, and use weapon frames obtained from Ada-1 to craft legendary weapons.

1 Menagerie

Season Of Opulence

Many players consider Destiny 2‘s Season of Opulence as the game’s best season, primarily due to the seasonal 6-player activity Menagerie. The Leviathan’s Menagerie was an underground labyrinth filled with enjoyable bosses, unique gameplay mechanics, and excellent weapons.

Another great thing about the Menagerie was the Chalice of Opulence, which allowed the players to narrow down which weapon or gear they would receive after completing the activity and opening the chest. This was the first time players could target-farm loot in such a manner. The Menagerie offered some of the best weapons in the game, such as Beloved and Austringer.