Destiny 2 is getting the Dreadnaught back with its third episode, Heresy, next week, but the area has changed quite a bit. Oryx’s old ship brings bigger obstacles, some secrets, and rewards like Adept episodic weapons for taking bigger challenges.
The Dreadnaught’s return in itself is no surprise, but today’s Heresy livestream outlined a bit of what awaits guardians when they brave the depths of the spacecraft. The Nether, Heresy’s flagship seasonal activity so far, takes place inside the Dreadnaught and borrows roguelite mechanics and modifiers from previous seasons, like Deep Dives and the Coil (from seasons 21 and 23, respectively), plus a little bit of Contest of Elders’ Brawn.
Buffs, debuffs, and modifiers are the quickest way to increase or decrease how challenging your runs are, but Heresy also boasts a few difficulty options to customize your runs.
The regular version of the Nether is matchmade with a baseline difficulty set to Advanced, which shouldn’t be particularly tricky. On the flip side, challenge seekers can queue up to the Expert version of the Nether, which doesn’t have built-in matchmaking.
If you’re more of a solo player or want a relaxed experience, there’s The Nether: Exploration, a more “patrol-esque” version of the activity, senior designer Ryan Harris said on the broadcast. Revives are more plentiful, and enemy spawns and boss damage are tuned down. This is more suited to low-stakes gameplay or for secret hunting.
Regardless of your difficulty, completing a part of the map has chests with loot, and Destiny 2 devs estimate it should take between eight and 12 minutes on average to complete one of them in the base difficulty. This counts as a “loot checkpoint,” but finishing the entire activity grants more drops.
The apex of seasonal rewards is the “Heretical” versions of Heresy weapons—Adept weapons with a different look, similar to Into the Light’s BRAVE Arsenal. They have more perks per column and even boast an extra origin trait, with the stream showcasing Runneth over from the King’s Fall weapons.
Community manager Dylan Gafner was a bit cryptic about how to get them: “you’re gonna be going into these activities, you’re gonna be exploring the Dreadnaught and looking for these.” Acquisition for it takes into account the failure of Revenant’s Tonic system, with the team introducing the Tome of Wants mechanic—far from Tonics, but seemingly closer to Attunement than Focusing.
Adept weapons are usually reserved for Grandmaster Nightfalls, Master raids, and Trials of Osiris, but Bungie is extending that treatment to the Heresy weapons. Adept versions usually have advantages, like some mods, a slight stat bump, and potentially multiple perks.
There’s still not much detail on how to acquire the Heretical versions of episodic weapons, but players can start looking for them when Heresy kicks off next Tuesday, Feb. 4—alongside a new Star Wars collab.
