Guardian Games 2023: What You Need to Know

Destiny 2 Guardian Games 2023 Featured Image

The Guardian Games are back in Destiny 2. This iteration of the annual late Spring event promises new weapons, new emblems, and a huge shake-up with the new Class vs Class event. Guardian Games 2023 also sees teams signing up for the open-invitation Guardian Games Cup. For glory! And charity, of course.

The Guardian Games 2023!

Guardian Games 2023 is set to kick off next week starting on May 2nd, 2023. The friendly competition between classes will last for three weeks, ending on May 23, 2023, at the end of Season 20.

As Bungie stated, “Every Guardian is proud of their class, as they should be. Hunters are beloved for their jumpy nature and their laid-back attitude. Warlocks can’t stop eating grenades, reading books, and sharing wisdom. And have you ever been hugged by a Titan? Because those big arms aren’t just good for building defenses and punching.”

How to Win the Guardian Games

The games function the same as years before – your character deposits Medallions and contribute to that day’s combined class efforts. The class that deposits the most Medallions will be crowned the winner for the day.

The following list of activities will allow you to earn certain grades of Medalions:

  • Bronze or Silver Medallions
    • Gambit
    • Quickplay Crucible matches
    • Vanguard ops
    • Neptune activities
    • Defiant Battlegrounds
  • Gold or Platinum Medallions
    • Nightfalls
    • Raids
    • Dungeons
    • Competitive Crucible
    • Trials of Osiris
    • Legend Defiant Battlegrounds

Additionally, you can purchase Contender Cards from our humble event coordinator for 1000 Glimmer. And they award you Gold Medallions. Do note that you can only carry two Contender Cards at once: one for strikes and Gambit and another one focused on the Crucible. Platinum Cards, ones that cost 1500 Glimmer each, will award you Platinum Medallions. And again, you can only carry two at a time: one for Strikes and Gambit and one for Crucible.

Guardian Games 2023 – Split Strike Playlist

The Guardian Games 2023 has the split strike playlists:

  • The Guardian Games Ops Playlist
    • All currently available strikes
  • Guardian Games Ops Competitive Playlist
    • Focuses on a weekly strike that operates as a Nightfall, with modifiers and a Hero difficulty scaling.

The biggest difference is that the Competitive Playlist features a non-matching option in case you want to compete with a premade fireteam.

Guardian Games 2023 Event Weapons

According to Bungie, the Title Void SMG will be coming back, now with new perks such as Repulsor Brace. The new featured weapon this year is the Taraxippos, the game’s first Legendary Strand Scout Rifle. It is a light frame weapon and it comes with the PvE gem of a perk, Kenetic Tremors.

Strike Scoring Returns

Strike scoring was introduced during last year’s Guardian Games. The way it works is by earning high scores in Guardian Games activities, you will unlock potent buffs for your weapons and abilities that only work inside of the Guardian Games playlist. Even if you don’t get it right away, you can keep trying so that you can gain more Strike Medals, more points, and even stronger buffs.

Supremacy Game Mode

This year is going to have a special version of the Supremacy game mode as the featured PvP game mode. Players have the option to matchmake into a team comprised only of their class. Every Guardian that falls will leave a class-branded crest behind, and collecting those is the key to winning each match, no matter if they were dropped by a defeated enemy or by a fallen comrade. Focus on recovering the crest to earn points and defeat the opposing classes.

There will also be a quest tied to the Supremacy mode and four more torches in the Tower to light.

Guardian Game Cup 2023 Details

This year, Destiny 2 is opening the competition for all Guardians to take part in the competition. All in the hope of raising money for charity.

Players can sign up and compete to be one of the top teams in either the Technical and Charitable categories. Bungie will be tracking each officially registered team in the Technical category as they assess the total number of medals dunked during the three-week period. On the flip side, for the Charitable category, Bungie will be tracking the total amount raised through the team’s official Bungie Foundation sign-up page throughout the same period.

The teams will be competing for the following prizes:

  • Top Team in the Technical category: custom art of your fireteam by PherianArt
  • Top Team in the Charitable category: custom art of your fireteam by GammaTrap
  • Top two teams in the Technical and Charitable categories: Guardian Games Pendant ($200 MSRP)
  • Top three teams in the Technical and Charitable categories: Apricot Dawn emblem
  • Top four teams in the Technical and Charitable categories: Bungie Store $50 discount code

Bungie continued to clarify a couple of things:

  • Prizes are cumulative, so the top team in each category will also mean the prizes from the lower categories. The top two teams will receive custom art, the top four teams will receive Guardian Games Pendant, the top six teams will receive the Apricot Dawn emblem, and the top eight teams will receive Bungie Store discount codes.
  • If a team wins in both categories, they will receive duplicate awards.

Players can go here to register their fireteam of six Guardians. One person in your fireteam should take charge as the team captain to sign up. Once signed up, the team will be locked, and the captain can distribute the links to the team members.


Destiny 2 Guardian Games 2023 starts on May 2 and goes on until May 23, 2023. May the best class win! For Charity! (and god rolls.)

Check out this video from Youtuber Aztecross where he goes over the Guardian Games 2023 blog post from Bungie.