It's the summertime, which means that Eva Levante is back in the tower and the annual Solstice festival has arrived! There are a lot of changes to this year's Solstice, with the introduction of the Portal alongside The Edge of Fate. Nonetheless, Solstice is looking to be incredibly exciting this year with lots of interesting modifiers and a lot of loot to be earned.
On top of this, the Flamekeeper title is back, as well as the traditional Solstice Forge and the Kindling system to get and imbue this year's solstice armor. So, get stuck in now, and read our guide to find out what activities you'll be able to do and what gear you'll be able to earn in this year's Solstice festival.
What is Solstice in Destiny 2?
Overview
Solstice is a two-week long Summer event that comes around once every year. You'll be working towards re-kindling your Solstice Armor set, which has some Solar-related Armor Perks this year for the new Armor 3.0 Update, and three new weapons to seek out.
This year, the Bonfire Bash game-mode has been retired; instead you'll have plenty of Solar-themed Modifiers to use across Portal activities, and a new Crucible playlist: Scorched, where you'll be able to use a Scorch Cannon to defeat your fellow guardians in the Clash, Control and Rift game-modes.
Accessing Solstice
To access the Solstice activities, you'll need to complete the 'Celebrating Solstice' quest, which you can access by speaking to Eva Levante in the Tower. This quest will introduce you to the wide array of Event Portal Modifiers, the Scorched Crucible Ops playlist, and the Solstice Forge, allowing you to redeem your Solstice Armor.
You'll be able to access the Solstice Event Page from the Portal, where you'll find the daily & weekly missions, alongside the Event Pass and Rewards Shop, all of the solstice specific gamemodes, and a page to track your progress with the Flamekeeper title.
Portal Modifiers
During the two weeks of Solstice, there will be a variety of Solstice Modifiers to use throughout any PvE Portal activities:
- Hot Potato: Defeated combatants occasionally drop Solar Flares. Passing it between players increases the amount of damage it will do to a source.
- Firesprite Fancy: Picking up a Firesprite spawns a Scorching Solar aura around you. Picking up more Firesprites increases the size.
- Dreaming Brighter: Solstice Weapons with the 'Dream Work' Origin Trait deal increased damage.
- Class Healing: Your class ability heals you.
- Fired Up: By dealing damage or final blows with any Solar source, you'll raise a heat meter. Once full, all of your weapons will cause Solar explosions.
- Igniter: Precision hits against Scorched combatants cause them to ignite.
- Radiant Joy: While Radiant, final blows spawn Firesprites, which will Cure you once collected.
- Solar Slide: Sliding after sprinting for a short amount of time releases a Solar Wave, scorching combatants.
Hot Potato will remain active daily in all PvE Portal Modes for the two-week period. In all Quickplay or Matchmade modes, these modifiers will rotate out on a daily basis; In non-matchmade Portal activities, you'll be able to choose from any of these modifiers as you wish.
Rewards
Event Pass
During the two weeks of Solstice, there's plenty of rewards to claim in the Event Pass, with 30 ranks to climb:
- 'Flutterby' Holochip
- Solstice Weapon Engram
- Reroll Chip
- Vaporwave Wave Ghost Projection
- Fiery Spirit Transmat Effect
- Five Enhancement Cores
- Reroll Chip
- Nine Strange Coins
- 'The Luster' Emblem
- Twin-Hull Ghost Shell
- Three Enhancement Prisms
- Nine Strange Coins
- Reroll Chip
- Ascendant Shard
- Fortunate Star Bow (Holo-Foil)
- Five Enhancement Cores
- Reroll Chip
- Solstice Weapon Engram
- Doubled Outrigger Sparrow
- Festival Flight Breech-Loaded Grenade Launcher, Holo-Foil
- Nine Strange Coins
- Five Enhancement Cores
- Reroll Chip
- Kismet Skim Ship
- Yeartide Apex Submachine Gun, Holo-Foil
- Three Enhancement Prisms
- Nine Strange Coins
- Reroll Chip
- Ascendant Alloy
- 'Interference' Shader
Solstice Engrams
Solstice Weapon Engrams can be claimed through the Event Pass and the Rewards Shop, or found as Bonus Rewards in several Portal Activities as 'Distorted Engrams'. They will contain one of three weapons:
- Fortunate Star
- Yeartide Apex
- Festival Flight
These weapons will drop at a higher-level rank than expected for the next two weeks (one level higher than predicted), so if you're looking to farm some Tier 4-5 gear, this is the perfect time.
Fortunate Star
Type: Bow
Ammo Type: Primary
Element: Void
God Roll: Dragonfly + Destabilising Rounds
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fortunate Star is a really nice bow, and takes the place of Episode: Heresy's Anamnesis in being the best Void bow in the game. The god roll is unsurprising, with it being a double AoE perk selection, but there are a few interesting perks such as Demoralize and the new ammo generation perk, Impromptu Ammunition.
Note: Right now, the bow is bugged and is listed as a Precision Frame bow when it's meant to actually be Lightweight, but isn't receiving the benefits of either. So, as time goes on, it'll be far better in this sense and you'll actually be able to take advantage of it being a lightweight bow.
Yeartide Apex
Type: Submachine Gun
Ammo Type: Primary
Element: Solar
God Roll: Attrition Orbs/Heal Clip + Chaos Reshaped/Burning Ambition/Incandescent
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This SMG might be the best one we've ever gotten in this slot. With the Salvations Edge perk Chaos Reshaped returning, Yeartide Apex has some really cool survivability/utility rolls in both being able to roll Attrition Orbs and Heal Clip, as well as the traditional Heal Clip + Incandescent if required. It's definitely worth getting your hands on.
Festival Flight
Type: Breech-Loaded Grenade Launcher
Ammo Type: Special
Element: Strand
God Roll: Demolitionist/Blast Distributor/Envious Assassin + One for All/Elemental Honing/Attrition Orbs
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Area-Denial Frames are only going from strength-to-strength right now, and Festival Flight is no exception. With a huge amount of great perks, from classics like Demolitionist and One for All to the new Blast Distributor, this grenade launcher is versatile in a number of roles. And, if you really want one (even though they've gotten a lot worse), you can grab Attrition Orbs on this if you missed Velocity Baton from Vesper's Host.
Lustrous Armor
During the Solstice Activities, you'll be working towards re-kindling a full set of Armor; which once complete will have a cosmetic shine and better stats and abilities. You'll get your first set of 'Lustrous' Solstice Armor from completing the Celebrating Solstice quest; from there you can upgrade it to Sublime Armor, and imbue it with Incandescent Ingots to re-kindle the piece.
Here are the Armor Set Bonuses for the Lustrous set:
- 2 Piece - Photogalvanic: Receiving Healing temporarily grants your Solar weapons increased flinch resistance, handling, and reload speed.
- 4 Piece - Cauterize: Rapid Solar final blows heal you.
Rewards Shop
By participating in the Solstice activities, you'll gain Event Tokens which you can use to redeem goodies in the Reward Shop:
- Glimmer: 1 Event Token
- Pile of Glimmer: 5 Event Tokens
- Large Pile of Glimmer: 25 Event Tokens
- One Enhancement Core: 7 Event Tokens
- Five Enhancement Cores: 35 Event Tokens
- Enhancement Prism: 75 Event Tokens
- Ascendant Alloy: 60 Event Tokens
- Solstice Armor Engram: 60 Event Tokens
- Solstice Weapon Engram: 75 Event Tokens
- Festival Flight Grenade Launcher: 100 Event Tokens
- Yeartide Apex Submachine Gun: 100 Event Tokens
- Fortunate Star Bow: 100 Event Tokens
- Exotic Cipher: 300 Event Tokens
- Ascendant Shard: 300 Event Tokens
- Reroll Chip: 100 Silver
- Three Reroll Chips: 300 Silver
All of the options in the Reward Shop have a limited amount of purchases, so make sure to spend carefully. The tiers of the Weapons and Armor purchased in the shop is related to your current Guardian Rank, up to a maximum of Tier 4; you'll be able to see your estimated drop rank in the top-right corner of the weapon.
Flamekeeper Title
The Flamekeeper Title is back with this year's Solstice. To unlock the title, you'll need to complete these four quests:
- Like A Phoenix: Unlock your first piece of Solstice armor during the "Celebrating Solstice" Quest.
- Forged in Sunlight: Unlock all of the Lustrous armor for your class.
- Knight of the Solstice: Reach Event Rank 15.
- Solstice With Yourself: Complete Solo Ops activities with any Solstice modifier active.
- Solstice Vacation: Complete Fireteam Ops or Pinnacle Ops activities with any Solstice modifier active.
- Heat of the Crucible: Complete Solstice Scorched activities in the Crucible Ops playlist.
- Around the Sun: Complete activities with all 7 unique Solstice modifiers active.
- Beneath the Sun: Achieve at least a B grade performance in any Portal activity with at least one Solstice modifier active.
Here are the quests to guild the Flamekeeper title:
- Sublime Glow: Imbue a full set of Sublime armor with Incandescent Ingots.
- Hero of the Solstice: Reach Event Rank 30.
- Sunlight 'Em Up: Wearing a complete set of Lustrous armor imbued with Incandescent Ingots, complete a dungeon, raid, or Portal activities at Master or higher difficulty, or win rounds in Trials of Osiris.
- A Sunny Score: Achieve an A grade performance in any Portal activity with at least one Solstice modifier active.
Closing Time
Solstice is full of exciting activities in the Portal and loot to grind, so go out there and make Eva proud! Enjoy your Tier 4s and 5s, and make sure to get your Lustrous Armour kindled too to make the most of the Solstice Event.
If you're looking for more great Destiny 2 content, check out Destiny2Zone. Our articles are here to help players of any skill level, and we've got you sorted with guides to everything that you need to know about playing Destiny in the Year of Prophecy.
In any case, thank you for your time, and I'll see you in the Forge.
