Destiny 2 Activities: how you unlock and complete Flashpoints, Lost Sectors, Milestones, Challenges and more

By Brenna Hillier

Destiny 2 has a wider variety of stuff to do than the original. Here’s how to get at it.

Like the first game, Destiny 2 is an open world shooter in which the story campaign is just the start of the fun, as well as the start of your journey to the Power cap.

Destiny 2 drops you right into the story when you first create or import a character, and does a good job of guiding you onwards through the campaign with badged missions on your Director (map). But what if you want to do something else?

On this Destiny 2 guide page we’ll list all the available Activities, and explain what they are, how to get at them, and how to complete them. We’ve put it in alphabetical order to make it easy for you to find the information you want.

This page is part of our Destiny 2 guide, and is subject to change and updates as Bungie rolls out new content and features.

Adventures

Adventures are side quests: narrative-driven missions available in each location which are not necessary for completing the main Red War questline. Adventures usually reward a bit of loot and XP upon completion, as well as a whack of region reputation to help you claim engrams from the region vendor. Once all Adventures in a region are completed, the region vendor will offer a daily selection of four Adventures you can repeat for XP and loot.

Call to Arms

Roughly equivalent to D1’s weekly Crucible quest, Call to Arms is a weekly Milestone. It is played out in PvP, and issued by Lord Shaxx once he appears on the Farm during the course of the main story campaign. The quest merely requires Crucible match participation – not wins! – in either playlist. Completion percentage seems to depend on performance, so the better you do, the more quickly you’ll be finished; about four to five matches is standard. Rewards a Luminous engram each week.

Challenges

Roughly equivalent to D1’s bounties, Challenges are daily tasks you can complete for extra vendor tokens and XP. Each Destination and most major Activities have its own set of three Challenges daily for each Destination. For example, each day offers three Challenges on Titan, three in Quickplay Crucible, three in the Strike playlist – and so on. These are refreshed at daily reset, and there’s a meta-Challenge each day, which you can view in the Milestones menu, and usually pertains to the latest event or content. Challenges unlock after you bring Ikora Rey to the Farm during the Red War story campaign. You don’t need to do anything to activate them; just bring up your Ghost when you enter an activity to see what’s on offer each day.

Clarion Call

A new type of Activity set to debut before the end of Season 1, Clarion Call grants special bonuses such as double XP and extra Bright Engrams to Guardians who play in fireteams rather than solo. It will only be open to Clans at debut, but will gradually become available to anyone. Clarion Call was detailed in Bungie’s Destiny 2 Seasons debut, and we expect more information soon.

Crucible

The Crucible is Destiny 2’s competitive multiplayer (PvP) environment, and takes place across eight dedicated maps. Choose from quickplay or competitive playlists, depending on whether you’re looking for fun or want to challenge yourself over longer matches. Quickplay is best for solos while pre-formed groups will enjoy competitive. There are a variety of different modes, all played in teams of 4v4. Here are the ones we know about so far:

• Clash
  Classic team deathmatch. No further objectives.
• Control
  Hold territory across three capture points to earn points.
• Countdown [NEW]
  One team must deliver a payload to an objective and guard it through a timer, while the other defends.
• Supremacy
  Kill Guardians, then capture the crests they drop – if you can! – to earn points. Reclaim allied crests for points, too.
• Survival [NEW]
  Teams can only revive each other a certain number of times, after which deaths are permanent through the end of the round.

The Dawning

Returning from D1 Year 3, The Dawning is a winter holiday event that will debut in Destiny 2 shortly after Season 2 kicks off. In 2017, The Dawning brings a Mic Drop emote, as well as new armour, Ships, Sparrows and Ghost Shells to Destiny 2. We do not yet know what gameplay the event may involve, but expect an update soon.

Faction Rally

Faction Rally is a new event Bungie has promised will return regularly. Players pledge loyalty to one of three factions, and earn glory in that group’s name for everything they do while the event is active. This also provides a new source of engrams, and at the end of the event, one faction offers an exclusive weapon for sale – with a hefty discount for its loyal supporters. Everything you need to know about Faction Rally has been handily summarised – how convenient!

Flashpoint

A weekly Milestone challenging players to complete public events in a specific Destination in return for endgame loot. Unlocks after you return Cayde-6 to the Farm during the story campaign. Rewards a Luminous engram each week.

Iron Banner

Iron Banner is a PvP event which we expect to roll out on a monthly schedule. It offers unique armour not found in other activities but otherwise is much like standard Crucible. The first Iron Banner of Destiny 2 started October 10. Bungie will make changes to the Iron Banner loot system in Destiny 2 Season 2.

Lost Sectors

Marked on your map and in the world by an arch symbol, these short dungeons feature a mini-boss who must be defeated in order to claim a cache key for the nearby loot chest. The map icon will be greyed out slightly after initial completion, but the Lost Sector will repopulate with loot and enemies after some time, or immediately if a quest calls for entry. Loot rewards are suitable for midgame, but peter out once you hit The Plateau.

Meditations

After completion of the Red War Story campaign, you can visit Ikora and participate in Meditations, which basically means replaying story missions to earn loot, XP, and Ikora’s faction reputation; cash in Vanguard Research tokens with her to earn Legendary loot. This provides yet another path to engrams for primarily PvE players. At this stage it looks like there’ll be four Meditation missions available each week.

Milestones

This Director sub-menu tracks the goals you need to pursue in order to unlock content and become stronger. Pre-endgame, it is populated with quest and story goals as well as the the regular weekly Milestones Call to Arms, Flashpoint, Nightfall and Clan XP. Weekly milestones reward Luminous engrams and are a key step in levelling up and getting more Power in Destiny 2.

Nightfall

A more challenging version of a Strike, modified to present extra difficulties – or open windows for opportunities. Requires a pre-formed fireteam, but accessible for solos via Guided Games. One of the weekly Milestones, awarding a Luminous Engram. Also available in Prestige difficulty if you’re amazing and have a good team.

Patrols

Short, non-story missions you can pick up while wandering in Destinations. Unlocked by a short quest, given after Cayde-6 arrives on the Farm during the main story campaign, and thereafter freely available at beacons on any destination as long as you’re not already in a story quest or Adventure.

Public Events

Tougher-than-average encounters that spawn in Destinations on a set timer, and which anybody in the vicinity can attempt to complete. Some are fairly straight forward battles, while others include objectives such as deactivating shields to gather weapons, defeating bosses or following enemies between waves. Public Events award region reputation and goodies via a chest that spawns when the event is completed or the timer expires, as well as loot drops earned during the fight. If you’re clever and organised, you can trigger a Heroic objective and earn even better loot. See our page on Destiny 2 Public Events, Heroic objectives and the best loot for more on that.

Raids

Long, very challenging missions designed for six player teams. No matchmaking, but Guided Games will help solos find groups. An endgame activity with unique loot sets. The first Destiny 2 raid, Leviathan, opened on September 13. We recommend you get your Power as high as possible (at least 260) before making the attempt.

Raid Lairs

Inbound with Curse of Osiris, the first Destiny 2 expansion, Raid Lairs are shorter, more challenging experiences thematically tied to a Raid. The first Raid Lair is called Eater of Worlds, and takes places in the Underbelly area of the Leviathan ship, setting for Destiny 2’s first raid. A second Leviathan Raid Lair is coming with Expansion 2.

Region Chests

Region chests are special loot chests marked on your Destination map. Hunt them down for a bit of minor loot, but more importantly a stack of region reputation tokens. The map icon will be greyed out slightly after initial completion. Chests reset daily so you can farm them for region reputation – but beware the farming lockout, which will result in empty chests for a period of time if you go at it too hard.

Scannable Objects

Some objects in the world can be scanned with your Ghost to yield a snatch of lore or dialogue. Listen for the soft clicking chime your Ghost makes when one is nearby, then bring up your Ghost and look around for an object marked with a silver mesh. Focus on it and follow the button prompt. No known rewards.

Seasons

Every calendar quarter, Destiny 2 resets with a new Season. Each Season brings new equipment ornaments, emotes, ships, Sparrows and armour; Bright Engram content will refresh as a result. Clan rewards also reset, and must be earned anew, and major patches will be delivered. Seasons also include multiple regular events such as Iron Banner, Faction Rally and Clarion Call as well as calendar-based events such as Season 2’s The Dawning. Find out more about Seasons in Destiny 2 here.

Strikes

Lengthy co-op missions designed for three players, with a matchmaking queue. Accessible via the Strikes playlist node on the Director (map). Unlocks as you progress through the story campaign. Strikes will reward you with Vanguard Tactician tokens which can be traded with Commander Zavala for faction reputation, eventually leading to Legendary loot.

Treasure Maps

Unlocked at the end of the Red War story campaign. Each week, Cayde-6 will offer a selection of treasure maps from a featured Destination – presumably the one featured in the Flashpoint. Purchasing one marks your map with an Ace of Spades symbol indicating the location of one of Cayde-6’s stashes. These contain random loot which can range up to high level Legendaries or even Exotics, and sometimes also include rare lore-related drops you can return to Cayde-6 for rewards.

Trials of the Nine

A weekly PvP challenge. You need a pre-formed fireteam, but don’t need to win big to access unique loot and visit the pretty new social space. You can find out more about going Flawless, the loot and more on our dedicated trials of the Nine page. Please note that as of late October Trials of the Nine went offline until November 3, when it will return on consoles and debut on PC.

World Quests

Each of the four Destinations has a one-time World Quest, three of which lead into an Exotic weapon quest upon completion. These cannot be repeated. To unlock a World Quest, you need to complete the Red War story campaign and reach level 20. Upon doing so, view the Destination map and lock for a dark blue icon with a crown on it. This will begin a quest chain, each of which we suspect leads into a future Destiny 2 storyline.

Is there anything we’ve missed in Destiny 2 that you want to know more about? Let us know.