I thought I knew what was coming in Destiny 2’s reset yesterday, but I was only half right. For a while now, Bungie has been talking about this new thing called “Vanguard Alerts,” which seemed to be its replacement for Nightfalls, going back to making very hard strikes with unique loot. That is what happened, but there’s something else past that, and I’d argue it’s more important for the game.
So yes, Nightfalls are back. They are -50 power, which is as hard as they were a long time ago, but given how the sandbox works now, you’re still dealing and receiving tolerable amounts of damage. The prize this week is a unique Horror’s Least with new perks and a special origin trait.
However, there’s something else in the Vanguard Alerts system, namely a pair of new playlists that feel like they’ve made half The Portal obsolete. There is a Fireteam Ops and Arena Ops Vanguard Alert playlist. If you run three of those each, per account, you will be guaranteed a special version of a Renegades-era weapon with that special origin trait. This week, it’s a new rocket pulse rifle, which is very good.
That’s not all though. I was playing through these playlists, which are exceptionally easy given that they are on Normal difficulty full of enemies and bosses that almost instantly fall over, and I realized at the end of these runs, I was getting loot dumped on me. At the end of each run, which is no more than 10-15 minutes, I’ve been getting:
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- At least 4-5 pieces of Tier 5 loot per run
- Additional rocket pulses after the guaranteed one, sometimes
- 2-3 Enhancement Prisms
- 1-2 Ascendant Shards
This is…almost every run. At the easiest difficulty in the game. I’m not sure if this is even intentional, as this many rewards don’t even match what the previewed drops say, but it feels great.
In many ways, this seems like simply going back to the old Destiny system of randomized PvE playlists, but more rewarding. It also feels like it solves the puzzle. No stacking annoying modifiers for letter grades, no Fireteam finding. The Portal has always had a matchmaking system for Fireteam and Arena Ops, but it was effectively guaranteed to give you trash loot. The same playlist in Vanguard Alerts now gives you a frankly astonishing amount of great loot and needed materials. I thought maybe this just lasted for the nine total “challenge” missions you’re shown on the page, but no, I just did my tenth and I’m still getting just as much loot as ever.
To get to Vanguard Ops, because it’s not very visible, you go to the Portal page, then the narrow Seasonal button on the right side, then at the top there is a Vanguard Alerts tab. The playlists are in there. There’s a Crucible one as well that will guarantee you a maxed Hand Cannon, but I’m not sure about the other rewards for that one.
I recommend Arena Ops because it’s non-stop fighting and no boring strike traversal sections. And things die so fast that it often takes less time too. At the same time, I’m constantly swapping out weapons to complete loads of Vanguard Orders. If I have one complaint about all this, it’s that maybe it’s too easy. As in, you simply cannot play easier content in the game right now outside of patrol public events, or something like that. It’s frankly a bit bizarre.
I don’t know how long this is going to last. Bungie may think the rewards are way too good compared to the effort, but I don’t know anyone who isn’t happy with this playlist compared to what we’ve had in The Portal for months now. Go farm it while you can.
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