Contact is the new public event added in Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals. Think of it as similar to Gambit except, well, it’s in a patrol zone. There’s no matchmaking involved, so try to hope that you do end up with other players in your instance. There are also some additional mechanics as well as a means to turn it into a heroic public event to gain additional Umbral Engrams. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: For more information about the other activities and content for this season, check out our Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals guides and features hub.
Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals – Contact public event guide
The first time you’ll partake in the Contact public event in Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals is after you’ve finished the introductory mission. It’s a banger of an experience, and one that moves the story forward.
Anyway, after a few cutscenes, you’ll need to speak to the Drifter who’ll tell you about “containing the Darkness.” This is where the Contact public event comes in because it’s just another way of doing Gambit. So, just head over to Io, rally the flag, and interact with the Pyramid Scale.
Classes and loadouts
If you end up with a lot of Guardians surrounding you, then you can succeed with almost any subclass and loadout (you’ll get carried like a blueberry, though). My preferences, just to improve DPS and utility would be the following:
- Warlocks – 1x Well of Radiance; everyone else can just go Dawnblade or Voidwalker for the supers.
- Titans – Top or bottom-tree Striker with Insurmountable Skullfort.
- Hunters – Top-tree Nightstalker with Orpheus Rig.
- Any weapon will do, but swords tend to be very effective especially when chopping down some of the bigger mobs. Likewise, heavy grenade launchers like Swarm of the Raven are still great for burst damage.
- Champions will spawn during this activity (related to heroic mode), so, in case the rest of the blueberries aren’t paying attention, you might want to have some anti-champion mods. I find that it’s the Unstoppable champions that tend to be a pain to deal with.
Contact mechanics
There are two spots that the Pyramid Scale could spawn in Io’s Lost Oasis zone. Depending on the spot, you’ll encounter waves of Cabal or Vex enemies. Whatever the case may be, you’ve got three minutes to eliminate as many of these mobs, pick up the motes, and then bank them.
Each time you fill-up the bank to 100%, you’ll have a transition phase where Taken blockers start spawning. You can spot Taken goblins, ogres, knights, minotaurs, and more. The goal is to eliminate all of these Taken mobs so that the next wave starts and everyone can bank motes again.
Once you’re done with all four waves, a Taken boss will spawn. Don’t worry, it’s not a Primeval, so you can just burst it down. For your troubles, you could get rewards such as Umbral Engrams. In fact, the first time that you do the Contact public event will also be the first time you’ll spot an Umbral Engram that drops on the ground. This opens up the Prismatic Recaster feature in the Tower.
Heroic mode
In order to turn the Contact public event into its heroic mode version, you’ll have to do something extra. First, take note of a notification on the bottom-left corner of your screen regarding “Concentrated Darkness.” When you see this, there should be a beam that emanates from the bank going towards an area on the map. Follow it and you’ll spot a glowing circle surrounded by some Taken mobs and a champion.
Killing this champion will let you pick up the orb in the middle called a “Bloom.” You should pick up the Bloom and bank it since it also adds an extra 25% to your progress bar. Since there are four waves, players will need to pick up and bank the Bloom each wave.
Alternatively, you could wait for the champion to pick up the Bloom by itself. It’ll beeline straight for the bank and then off to the side where it’ll despawn after a while. You need to kill it immediately, or the Bloom will disappear and you won’t be able to turn it into a heroic public event.
Heroic boss encounter
The heroic boss will be slightly beefier than the one from the normal version of the Contact public event. Sure, you could burst it down quickly enough, but it’ll pop an immune shield a couple of times. In order to break its shield, look for the Taken blight that spawns on the map and destroy it. The Taken blight will have some high-level mobs surrounding it, so be careful.
If you complete the heroic mode version of the Contact public event, you’ll get two Umbral Engrams.
Cheese time
It’s also possible to cheese the Contact event to make it easier for you to reach the heroic version. Remember what you’ve done before in Pit of Heresy when you’re duping orbs? Yes, you can do that here as well:
- Wait for the “Concentrated Darkness” notification, then kill the champion and pick up the Bloom.
- Stand next to the bank and interact with it. Before you bank the orb, drop the mote by switching weapons (ie. scrolling down on your mouse wheel).
- Congratulations! You’ve duped the orb and you can continue doing that to fill up your progress bar a lot faster.
You can watch the video below from Destiny 2 YouTuber AntonP35:
Update: More Contact public event heroic bosses
Here are the Contact public event bosses for succeeding weeks:
Week 2: Taken Monstrosity – This ogre will periodically summon wizards that’ll heal and make it immune. If you take them out quickly, you’ll be able to annihilate the boss.
Week 3: Taken Howler – Two knights will spawn – one is the boss and the other is a smaller knight called a Bond Brother. Both will be immune at the start. They need to be moved closer together (ie. pushing them with swords or luring them) to remove their immunity shields.
Once the shields are down, you should wail away on them before they move further apart. If you’re unable to kill the Taken Howler in one go, another smaller knight will spawn so you’ve got to keep them in close proximity once more to take out their shields.
Destiny 2: Season of Arrivals is available on Steam. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
