On 7th December Bungie launched its 30th Anniversary Event for Destiny 2 which includes the Dares of Eternity event for all players regardless of whether they purchased the DLC or not.
The Dares of Eternity are a sort of cosmic game show in which Xur and Starhorse task Guardians with dispatching enemies within a time limit. The activity isn’t all that challenging so long as your character is at the appropriate power level. And that’s the rub.
New and returning Destiny 2 players are basically dumped into Dares of Eternity upon loading into the game for the first time. With this event requiring 1150 Power on Normal however, this creates a problem as new and returning players may not meet that watermark. Further compounding problems is the fact that Champions, which require special mods, are also present in the activity.
To sum up then, new and returning players basically hit a wall when loading into the game and that’s not fun for anybody.
So in a bid to assist these players, veterans have taken to lowering their power level intentionally in hopes of matching with new players and helping them through the match.
In order to lower your power level, players need to equip lower level gear which can be reacquired from the Armour tab in Collections. In the image below you can see our power level shift from 1354 to 1124 by equipping white gear from our Collections.
Players then load into Dares of Eternity and, because of how Bungie’s matchmaking works, players should match with others closer to their light level. Upon loading into the Dares of Eternity activity, players can then switch back to their high power gear and proceed to complete the activity with the new and returning players in tow.
We ran several of these rescue missions at the weekend and while we matched with many veterans, on one occasion we matched with lower light players and completed a run.
There is also a bit of an incentive to intentionally lowering your power level. Bungie has said that players who complete a Dares of Activity run between 7th and 18th January will earn the special Circumflex Diacritic Emblem.
Starhorse wishes to express gratitude to those helping New Lights in Dares of Eternity.
Complete the activity between now and January 18 to earn the special Circumflex Diacritic emblem. Distribution will take place at a later date. pic.twitter.com/uPzrZfOTsS
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 7, 2022
Over the last few years, puzzles and community events have marked the start of the calendar year in Destiny 2. While we’re still holding out hope that such an event is still on the cards (especially with the 30th Anniversary on the go) this accidental community event feels great.
It also gives us a reason to continue running Dares of Eternity long after we’ve earned all of the cosmetic rewards available.
