The Crucible is an important part of Destiny 2. For some players, it is the true end-game content that they can come back to long after the story has been told at that point. And for others, it is the only piece of content they interact with.
For the longest time, the competitive scene for Destiny 2 was a bit lacking. There wasn’t anything to fight besides bragging rights and the occasional emblem. But at the start of late last year, Bungie revamped everything into one playlist activity. And gave us rolls of the coveted Rose Hand Cannon to keep us coming back week after week.
Here’s what you need to know about the Competitive playlist in Destiny 2.
How to start the Ascending the Divisions Quest
To start the quest, all you need to do is to talk to Lord Shaxx over at the tower. The overseer of the Crucible will immediately give you a new quest. But it will not be the Ascending the Divisions quest yet. He will first give you the Dividing the Ladder quest first.
Dividing the Ladder Steps
- Step 1: Complete a match in the Competitive playlist.
- Step 2: Complete your Placement Series matches to establish your starting position on the tiered ladder. It requires you to complete 7 whole matches of Competitive. This will calibrate your position on the ladder.
- Step 3: Return to Lord Shaxx after completing your 7 placement matches to turn in the quest and receive your static roll of the Rose hand cannon.
At this point, you automatically start the Ascending the Divisions Quest and you can start climbing the ladder starting from your placement rank.
Destiny 2 Ascending the Divisions Questline
The questline for the Ascending the Divisions is split into 4 steps:
- Step 1: Earn Division progression by winning Crucible matches in the Competitive 3v3 playlist.
- Step 2: Reach a Promotion Series by winning Crucible matches in the Competitive playlist.
- Step 3: Complete your Promotion Series
- Step 4: Report your success to Lord Shaxx back in the Tower.
What Factors Affect Division Outcome?
According to Bungie, there are 4 factors to consider while taking part in Competitive:
- Match outcome: Whether you win or lose.
- Division inflation/deflation: How far above or below your division is compared to your Skill.
- Match performance: How well you performed on a match-to-match basis.
- Player-to-lobby Skill delta: How your Skill compares to everyone else in the match.
Competitive Divisions in Destiny 2
There are a total of 7 Competitive Divisions in Destiny 2 as of Season 19:
- Copper
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Platinum
- Adept
- Ascendant
Each rank, except for Ascendant, is subdivided into 3 tiers. Tier I, II, and III.
If you manage to gain enough Rating to move up between subdivisions (for example -> Gold II to Gold I), you automatically enter the next subdivision. The same also applies to when you go down a subdivision.
Passing Tier I on the competitive ladder will make you eligible for the promotion series, where you must win two out of three games to be promoted to the next division. Similarly, if you lose enough Rating to move down a division, you enter a relegation series, where you must win two out of three games to remain in your current division.
An important thing to note is that once you reach Gold or higher, your Division Rating is subject to decay on a weekly basis. In other words, you will lose Division Rating if you haven’t played enough matches recently.
Another thing to note is that your current division gives you a multiplier on all Crucible ranks (reputation) earned in Destiny 2, letting you earn more Crucible engrams, resets, and extra perks on weapons much faster.
- Copper and Bronze – 1.0x multiplier
- Silver – 1.1x multiplier
- Gold – 1.2x multiplier
- Platinum – 1.3x multiplier
- Adept – 1.4x multiplier
- Ascendant – 1.5x multiplier
But don’t worry if you feel the need to keep playing competitively to maintain your ranks. Bungie has stated that even if you aren’t great at PvP, jumping into Competitive Division and earning/keeping your rank up will help you earn Crucible rewards 10-20% faster than you would if you didn’t take part in Competitive.
Competitive Division Game Modes
As of season 19, the competitive playlist contains Rift, Showdown, and Survival. After the match-making process, you and your fellow Guardians will be put into a random match of one of these modes.
- Rift: To win, score more points than your opponents by collecting the Spark and igniting your opponents’ Rift.
- Showdown: Win the match by winning more rounds than your opponents. Defeat them to score points; the team with the most points wins a round. An interesting note about the game mode is that reviving teammates actually reduces the enemy’s score. This gives you the incentive to revive allies to deny enemy progress. And the feature further sets it apart from regular Survival.
- Survival: To win, your team must become the last Guardian(s) standing by defeating the opposing team to exhaust their revives.
And that’s all you need to know about the Competitive game mode in Destiny 2. Good luck out there, Guardian. Remember, if you start losing once too often, maybe consider blowing off some steam in Rumble or in the casual playlist.
Check out this video from Youtuber Aztecross where he talks about getting started in Destiny 2’s Competitive game mode.