Solstice of Heroes: Getting Started
First things first, you’ll need to speak with Eva Levante. She’ll hand you a green/uncommon helmet that’s part of the “Drained” set. Nobody wants greens in Destiny 2 so you’ll need to upgrade that soon.
Eva will tell you to head to the European Aerial Zone (EAZ) which is a new Destiny 2 world space for up to three players via matchmaking or premade groups. Watch the video below from YouTube user iiDutchboyy:
Note: For every Destiny 2 activity you tackle, you don’t need to have the full set of Solstice of Heroes armor equipped. However, you do need to have that particular piece that requires that activity. So, if you’re doing Gambit and it’s required for both the helmet and chest, you’ll need to have both equipped to gain progress.
The European Aerial Zone (EAZ)
What exactly is Destiny 2‘s European Aerial Zone (EAZ)? Well, it’s a fairly large area with lots of enemies from different races. The emphasis here is on verticality since you can head to the rooftops and floating platforms, and there are even Fallen teleporters that’ll spawn you high up in the air. Each EAZ run has three different objectives:
Objective 1 – Defeat the minibosses (Timer: 5 minutes)
There will be minibosses (yellow bar mobs) that are marked on your map. Kill them and more minibosses will spawn. You have five minutes to kill as many as you can.
Objective 2 – Defeat the boss (Timer: N/A)
An ultra/giant boss will spawn in the EAZ. It’ll be dependent on the enemy race that you’ve been fighting the entire time. Some of them have fairly simple scripts such as:
- The Hive Wizard boss in the EAZ is similar to the one from the Broodhold strike. She’ll split into a couple of “shade versions” when her health gets lower.
- The Hive Ogre boss remains shielded. You’ll need to take out the other nearby regular ogres to remove its immunity shield.
- The Fallen Servitor boss will split into multiple medium-sized servitors, and then into little servitors.
- The Fallen Captain boss stays up on the rooftops. At various intervals, he’ll start teleporting to new areas and you’ll have to chase him down.
- The Cabal Incendior boss, uh, does nothing special.
- The Cabal “Val Ca’uor/Spire of Stars” bosses can help you cheese the “100 EAZ minibosses” requirement for an armor piece as long as you don’t kill them. They spawn a Psion Engineer every minute or so that can be killed, and these psions will count as minibosses too.
While fighting the boss, there might be a Primatic Taken mob that’ll also spawn as an optional target. You have two minutes to take it out. You don’t have to worry about the main EAZ boss since there’s no timer for the actual fight.
Objective 3 – Treasure Hunt (Timer: 2 minutes)
When the main EAZ boss has been killed, go ahead and open the treasure chest to get your reward. But, the run doesn’t stop there. You still need to do a Treasure Hunt.
There will be additional chests that’ll spawn around the EAZ at random locations. The number of chests that’ll spawn is dependent on the number of minibosses you killed from the first objective. It’s possible to get 10 or more minibosses killed, and 10 or more chests looted per run — if you’re lucky and fast enough.
Anyway, the locations for the additional treasure chests will flash momentarily when the Treasure Hunt begins. After that, the only way you can spot them is from a faint glow, or from the markers that’ll only appear if you’re in close proximity. The markers also appear at the final 10 seconds before the activity ends.
Solstice Packages and Solstice Key Fragments
After your first EAZ run, head back to the Tower and access the Solstice of Heroes statue to gain the full Drained armor set. Speak to Eva again and she’ll give you some Solstice Key Fragments and bounties.
Before we discuss the armor grind, let’s first look at the Solstice Packages and Solstice Key Fragments:
- Solstice Packages drop from the EAZ boss chest and additional chests during the Treasure Hunt. They require 15 Solstice Key Fragments to open. Once opened, they’ll reward you with random items from unflattering uncommon gear, some planetary materials, or masterwork cores. Low-tier Solstice armor might require you to open a number of Solstice Packages for progression, and that’s okay. However, later on, you’ll want to save these until you reach the legendary/Majestic Solstice armor set. The Majestic pieces become part of the package’s loot pool, allowing you to get the desired rolls for certain pieces.
- Solstice Key Fragments, meanwhile, can also be obtained from the additional chests during the Treasure Hunt objective in the EAZ. They also drop at the end of each activity (you’ll get roughly 15-17 from strikes or Gambit matches). Eva Levante’s bounties also award these keys.
Daily Elemental Burn and Elemental Orbs
Now, let’s talk about the Elemental Orbs. This is one of the major mechanics that you’ll have to remember during Destiny 2‘s Solstice of Heroes event.
First, the Daily Burn or Daily Singe. Everyday, there’ll be a specific element that’ll do bonus damage to enemies in the EAZ. You can fine out what this is from your character panel or from the EAZ’s matchmaking panel. Take note of the daily element because it’ll be a requirement for some Solstice armor pieces.
Next up, the Elemental Orbs are things you can generate depending on your elemental subclass and elemental weapon loadout. For instance, kills with a Solar subclass equipped or kills with Solar weapons will, obviously, generate Solar Orbs. These are also major components of Solstice armor progression.
Lastly, you’ll have the Elemental Orb Empowerment. This happens in conjunction with the Daily Burn. When you’ve obtained 30 Elemental Orbs that match the Daily Burn, you’ll see certain effects:
- Solar will have a burning aura surrounding you that damages enemies.
- Arc will boost movement speed, melee, and sword damage.
- Lastly, Void will grant you Truesight (see through walls) if you crouch, as well as increased ability recharge rate.
Solstice of Heroes: Welcome to the grind
This next part is where the grind happens and it’s going to be a doozy. Again, every piece of Destiny 2‘s Solstice of Heroes armor will have several requirements that you’ll need to complete. You’ll need to have the specific armor piece equipped when doing certain activities or runs to gain progression.
One armor piece might have a certain requirement that you can also do for another armor piece. That’s when time management comes into play so you don’t need to keep redoing everything. The end goal, of course, is to masterwork your set to finally get the MMXIX title down the road.
Note: Some Solstice armor requirements will ask you to complete a certain number of bounties. Make sure you have the actual armor piece equipped prior to turning them in. Otherwise, those bounties won’t count.
For this section of this Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes guide, I’ve split up the requirements per class, not per armor tier. Ideally, you’d want to focus on one class at a time since that’ll also make it faster for you to get the MMXIX title. Head on over to each page for the class you want to start your grind with, or, once you’re done, check out how to get the MMXIX title:
- Hunter Solstice armor
- Warlock Solstice armor
- Titan Solstice armor
- MMXIX Title and Moments of Triumph
- Eververse New Solstice Items
