The yearly class warfare event in Destiny 2 known as the Guardian Games is back for 2022 and things are slightly different this time around.
Bungie has built on the marginal success of last year’s event with an expansion of the Guardian Games playlist. This playlist is still limited to Strikes but this time around you can participate in what we’re calling Lite Nightfalls. More on that in a moment.
To begin the event you will need to visit Eva Levante and pick up the Best in Class quest. This quest will see you needing to pick up a Contender Card which in turn asks that you earn Medallions while playing playlist activities. These Medallions can be earned by dispatching large groups of enemies, getting multi-kills with certain weapons and using abilities. Simply put, slay out and earn Medallions.
The Best in Class quest can be easily completed in a single Strike in the Vanguard Ops playlist while Laurens are earned through ability kills and defeating enemies with a yellow or orange health bar.
Once you have completed that quest you will open up the Guardian Games playlist which takes two forms.
The Guardian Games Recreational Playlist is just like the normal Strike playlist but the Competitive/Training Playlist is more akin to a Lite Nightfall. While you will still need to contend with Champions, the enemies aren’t as aggressive as they are in Master or Grand Master Nightfalls.
As mentioned last week, Competitive Playlists will be active from Friday to Monday but you can complete the Training playlist right now to earn buffs you can take into that Competitive playlist. So far we’ve earned the Gold Contenders Boon which grants weapon damage on ability kills but these buffs are understandably only available in the Guardian Games playlist.
For the most part you will jumping between these two playlists unless you’re completing Contender Cards.
These cards cost 100 Laurels and only one can held at a time. The cards ask players to complete objectives in one of the following activities:
- Vanguard Ops
- Crucible
- Gambit
- PsiOps Battlegrounds
- Savathun’s Throne World
- Trials of Osiris
- Nightfalls
- Raids
- Savathun’s Throne World (higher difficulty activity completions)
- PsiOps Battlegrounds (higher difficulty activity completions)
- Legend/Master Lost Sectors
Each of these cards asks a player to defeat enemies with a specific Elemental damage type and for this reason we recommend sticking with what you’re good at. If you don’t enjoy PvP, don’t do a Crucible Contender card as it will take you longer to complete than say a Strike.
Remember, you also need to earn Medallions so you’ll want to stick to Strikes, Nightfalls and PsiOps Battlegrounds for the best chance at earning those.
Why do you want Medallions? Well for one these improve your progress for your class overall but they also contribute to the Medallion Battalion quest. Collecting Medallions and depositing them will make this quest progress and once a threshold is reached you can jump to the relevant Torch at the Tower and light it to earn rewards and a special glow for the week.
As for Laurels, you can earn these by equipping a Guardian Games class item and dispatching enemies. As mentioned, red bar enemies don’t drop Laurels unless defeated with an ability and orange and yellow bars will drop Laurels on defeat with any sort of damage.
We found the fastest way to earn Laurels was at the entrance to the Grasp of Avarice Dungeon. As this is DLC content, the next best stop for those without the DLC might be Blind Well in the Dreaming City as it is packed with enemies.
Finally, as regards rewards, there appears to be a problem with drop rates of The Title Sub-Machinegun. We aren’t sure if there is an issue or this weapon is tied to the packages you unlock at Eva Levante but some players report going three hours without a single drop. Here’s hoping Bungie can adjust this or fix the bug soon.
Hey, Guardians, quick heads up! We are aware of reports of The Title SMG for Guardian Games not dropping, follow @BungieHelp for more as the team investigates.
Let us know if you've gotten it to drop and if you haven't, how long have you been playing? The more info, the better! pic.twitter.com/kEUZkG4pef
— Liana Ruppert ➡️ GDC (@DirtyEffinHippy) May 3, 2022
And that is that for Guardian Games 2022. There are Triumphs to earn, microtransactions for cosmetics and a general air of competitiveness that feels good given the current down-time in the Destiny season.
Now, we know that Warlocks are streaks ahead of other classes after day one of the event and this may lure folks into switching classes to even things up. We’re here to tell you to push those urges aside (unless you’re on another class) and stick with Warlock. We can and will win this year’s competition.
Guardian Games 2022 is live now until 24th May.
