Destiny 2’s mid-year Solstice event is upon us again. And like last year, we are heading to the European Aerial Zone in our weeks-long quest for improved armor and god rolls for seasonal weapons. The question is now, “What is different about Solstice 2023 compared to last year?”
Well, last year the Destiny 2 community wasn’t too loud about boycotting Silver purchases for the sake of letting Bungie know what we think about their current monetization schemes. But we won’t be getting into that here. We’re here to talk about Solstice 2023 and the changes compared to last year’s offering.
First things first, let’s go over what the Solstice of Heroes event is all about.
Solstice of Heroes Brief Summary
The Solstice of Heroes event in Destiny 2 is a three-week-long event that starts in the latter half of July. The event usually ends at the start of the second week of August next month. This year the event will start on July 18th and ends at the weekly reset of August 8th.
The objective is to collect Silver Leaves to turn them into Silver Ash which is then used to improve seasonal armor in the way you desire it to. Think of it as making your own Raid-ready high-stat armor. You can get Silver Leaves from any of the game’s activities including Vanguard Strikes, Nightfalls, Gambit, and the Crucible. Do keep in mind that you’ll need to wear Solstice armor to collect Silver Leaves.
The central focus of the event is the Bonfire Bash, a three Guardian activity where players gather orbs from killing miniboss to feed the fires of a Bonfire at the center of the map. Guardians have to use floating platforms to reach the far ends of the map. And there is the final boss fight which the Guardians have to defeat to light their Bonfire.
The bonfire is what turns out the Silver Leaves into Silver Ash. Only a certain number of leaves can be burned in one session. This encourages repeat tries of the activity. And finally, a chest appears at the foot of the bonfire. The quality of seasonal rewards depends on how much fuel was added to the bonfire before the final encounter took place.
Last year, Bungie implemented a new Event Card system that changed the way players took part in the event. The system was praised at first but later events quickly drew the ire of the community at large for its lackluster content behind a paywall.
Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes 2023 Changes
Continuing where they left off last year, Bungie has stated that they have increased ad density as well as the overall difficulty of the activity. We don’t know what that translates to in-game just yet. But we suspect they are upping the difficulty a little bit to encourage players to rely on the buffs they will add during the event.
The first one is called Firebound. During the Bonfire Bash event, Guardians close to another fireteam member gain increased Recovery and Super regeneration.
The other buff is Flare. This one is active in both Bonfire Bash and Vanguard Ops. Rapidly defeat combatants to unleash waves of Paracausal fire around you, dealing damage to nearby combatants.
And finally, we can’t have a new event without getting a weapon. Although we don’t the name of the weapon just yet, Bungie did preview an image of the weapon. And it appears to resemble a Precision Frame rocket launcher similar to the Palmyra-B and Royal Entry.
This is the third weapon to be introduced to the Solstice event. It joins the Compass Rose shotgun and the Something New hand cannon as potential weapon rewards from the event chest.
And that’s everything you need to know about Solstice 2023 and the changes that are bound for the event. We will be participating and will write guides on it where needed. Have an amazing Solstice of Heroes. And good luck and have fun out there, Guardians.
Destiny 2 Season of the Deep is out now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. The season will run from May 23, 2023, to August 22, 2023.