Destiny 2 Revenant’s Gameplay Loop Explained

The following contains spoilers for
Destiny 2
Episode: Revenant Act 1.

Destiny 2‘s second Episode, Episode: Revenant, is finally here, introducing a brand-new gameplay loop for players that involves the game’s newest activity. Players should expect to spend plenty of time in Destiny 2‘s new gameplay loop, as it requires extensive farming and can be quite time-consuming.

Players open up Destiny 2‘s latest gameplay loop upon completing the initial story mission for Episode: Revenant, “Na-Veskirisk.” It should be noted that the mission itself introduces gameplay mechanics that come into play later on, especially with the new Onslaught mode, Onslaught: Salvation. Once the mission is completed, players will arrive in the new Last City social space — which replaces the H.E.L.M. — and the new gameplay loop for Episode: Revenant (at least for Act 1) begins to show itself.

Destiny 2 Episode: Revenant’s Full Gameplay Loop

The Setup for Episode: Revenant’s Gameplay Loop

At the end of the day, Destiny 2 Episode: Revenant’s gameplay loop largely revolves around Onslaught: Salvation and the new Tonic and Fieldwork system, which has already proven to be divisive among players. This dissension is primarily because a large portion of what Destiny 2 players will be doing in the first act of Episode: Revenant involves plenty of menu navigation and crafting. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of combat and gameplay involved, but it’s generally all for the purpose of crafting Tonics and completing Fieldwork.

Upon arriving in the new Last City social space, players are introduced to Eido and her Tonic Laboratory. There, she has been researching ancient Eliksni recipes and concoctions in an attempt to save her father, Mithrax, who is sick from Nezarec’s curse. From there, after completing the initial prologue mission and obtaining the Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel Artifact, players will obtain the first main story quest for Act 1 of Episode: Revenant, which first sees them brewing a Tonic at Eido’s Tonic Table.

Episode: Revenant’s Gameplay Loop of Tonics, Fieldwork, and Onslaught: Salvation

A tutorial will then take players through the process of brewing Tonics — which involves choosing a Tonic, gathering the necessary ingredients, taking those ingredients to the Eliksni Apparatus to brew the Tonic, taste-testing it, and then imbuing it with the power of the Light to obtain the finished product. This is the process players are required to perform any time they want to craft a Tonic in Episode: Revenant, so they will be repeating this many times throughout the Episode. Tonics are then used to give players a chance to obtain specific rewards from Destiny 2 activities, and obtaining the reagents necessary to craft those Tonics is most easily accomplished by playing rounds of Onslaught: Salvation.

Once the Tonic-brewing tutorial has been completed, players are introduced to Episode: Revenant’s Fieldwork system, which is used to acquire new Tonic recipes. Essentially, the Fieldwork system is a more advanced bounty system that sees players completing a series of objectives to obtain Tonic Reagent Sacks and Tonic Upgrades. Reagents are gathered from each Tonic Reagent Sack that can then be turned in for new Tonic recipes at Eido’s Tonic Table. The more recipes that are unlocked, the higher the rarity of recipes that will become available.

This process is repeated for all Tonic types in Episode: Revenant — Volatile Tonics, Onslaught Tonics, World Gear Tonics, Shadestalker Tonics, and Resource Tonics.

All of this taken into account, Onslaught: Salvation is likely where most players will spend their time, as it is the best place to farm reagents, obtain new loot, and take advantage of Onslaught Tonics. This is the heart of Destiny 2 Episode: Revenant’s new gameplay loop, which sees players completing rounds of Onslaught: Salvation, performing Fieldwork, and crafting and using Tonics before the cycle repeats itself. Things may change in Act 2 of Episode: Revenant, but this is where the game is currently.