Guardian Games is not the only major event set for Destiny 2 this year, as next July comes another big one; to shine a light on it, Bungie has released the Destiny 2 Solstice event preview, letting players know what’s coming to the game in terms of new content, activities, and more on July 19.

Destiny 2 Solstice Event Preview:

That’s right, we dropped the “of Heroes” from the name of our summer event and are just going with “Solstice.” While we’ve got a new name and will have some beautiful new floral arrangements adorning the Tower during the event, those familiar with Solstice events from the past should still feel right at home. As in previous years, there will be an awesome set of armor to pursue; only this time, instead of completing armor objectives and collecting keys and packages consumables, you’ll be completing Event Challenges (more on those in a bit) to make progress towards your ultimate glowing masterpiece of bodily protection.

One of the biggest changes you’ll notice with Solstice is we’ve changed the armor experience a lot. Players will only upgrade one set of Solstice armor throughout the event. While you can get multiple instances of a helmet, for example, upgrading armor will allow you to reroll its stats and the stat potential of the armor will be shared across those drops.

Another new feature coming to Solstice is an activity in the European Aerial Zone called Bonfire Bash, where Guardians will be building and stoking what can only be described as “paracausal bonfires” while the enemies of summer fun (including the Taken, Cabal, Hive, and Fallen) will be attempting to crash the party and extinguish the fires. In your mission to guard the flames from wave after wave of incoming enemies, we’ve made it easier to transverse the EAZ, adding floating islands and removing building-barriers for maximum maneuverability.

Look for more details on Solstice armor upgrades and Bonfire Bash as we get closer to the launch of Solstice.

With our Solstice event, we’re introducing a new feature called the Event Card. In much the same way that Seasonal Challenges introduces an easy-to-understand (and find) list of goals you can complete in a Season, the Event Card does the same for Destiny 2’s annual events. When Solstice begins, players will gain access to this Event Card which includes new points of interest to explore, including:

• Event Challenges
• Event Seals and Titles
• Unique Event Rewards

Every Event Card will be available for free to all players and can be accessed by interacting with Eva Levante in the Tower or via the Quests tab (right next to Seasonal Challenges). Event Cards and their associated challenges and rewards can be accessed for the entire event before disappearing once their corresponding event ends.

Let’s take a look at some of the individual parts of the Event Card in order to better understand how they tie into events overall.

Like Seasonal Challenges, Event Challenges are objectives that players can complete to earn rewards. Certain Event Challenges will award players with familiar items such as event shaders, emblems, or other gear, and they’ll also grant Event Tickets.

Every Event Challenge will be available for players to complete right when the event starts, so you won’t need to wait until the next week for additional Challenges to become available. Event Challenges can be completed in any order and at any point while an event is active.

In addition to Event Challenges, we’re also going to be introducing event Seals and titles that you can earn. There are two types of event-based Seals that players can work towards:

• Individual Event Seals
• A New Multi-Event Seal

Starting with Solstice this year, each Destiny event will come with a seal that players can complete as well as gild. Completing these event Seals is as simple as completing all the Event Challenges on its Event Card. Finishing every Event Challenge will automatically earn you Seal progress and unlock the title for that Seal. Gilding event Seals will require completing additional Triumphs that will only become available once the standard Seal has been completed—gilding lasts until the event begins again the following year. Progress on individual event Seals can be tracked directly in the Event Card by hovering over the card on the left-hand side of the screen or by viewing the event Seal from the Triumphs page.

There’s also a new multi-event Seal that event-loving players will be able to work toward. Starting with Solstice, players can complete a certain number of Event Challenges in each of the four yearly Destiny events to complete this Seal. This means that the earliest players can complete the multi-event Seal will be in Guardian Games of next year and doing so will also earn them a unique event title.  You’ll also be able to gild this new Seal after completing the standard version and we’ll be sharing more details on how to do this in the coming year.

A new event means new event-themed cosmetics for Guardians to customize their experience. While those items have traditionally been part of the Eververse store, with the upcoming Solstice event, we will curate a collection of these items as unique rewards through the Event Card itself. These rewards will only be available through the Event Card during their initial release but, like most of our cosmetics, there’s always a chance they’ll become available again via Eververse at a future date.

While the Event Card and Event Challenge rewards are free for all players, acquiring these extra cosmetic rewards will require players to purchase the upgraded Event Card. Upgrading the Event Card will cost 1000 Silver and immediately grants players an Exotic reward bundle. Players can then acquire even more rewards by spending the Event Tickets they collect from Event Challenges.

The overall value of the upgraded Event Card will vary somewhat but is expected to regularly exceed 3000 Silver.

Hint: If you aren’t sure whether you will complete the event, wait until the last week to make the purchase and see how many Event Tickets you have accumulated! But don’t wait until the very last minute because Event Tickets will expire once an event ends and the Event Card goes away.

The Solstice event will debut sometime during Season 7, which is set to arrive next Tuesday, May 24. To check out some of the upcoming changes, you can take a look at the patch notes preview for it here.

Source: Bungie