Solstice of Heroes Guide

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Destiny 2’s annual Solstice of Heroes event is back! With it, we’ve received the new European Aerial Zone (EAZ) playlist, an empowered elemental mechanic for players, and another set of Solstice Armor to grind.

Visit Eva in the Tower

You begin this in-game event by visiting Eva Levante in the Tower to collect your first piece of Solstice armor. The first thing you’ll want to do is equip this green helmet and complete a run of the newly unlocked EAZ. After doing so, you’ll visit Eva again to purchase Solstice bounties and to receive the remaining armor set pieces. There are five new bounties with each daily reset, each tied into the featured daily element. These daily bounties reward you with Solstice Key Fragments. You use 15 of these Key Fragments to unlock Solstice Packages, which you earn by completing runs of the EAZ. Eva also has one weekly bounty requiring you to collect Elemental Orbs. This weekly bounty rewards you with one piece of Powerful Gear.

European Aerial Zone

This new zone consists of a small grouping of floating islands stranded above the EDZ, using Trostlands’s assets. Upon loading into the zone, you’ll be directed to find and eliminate mini-bosses up to a limit of 21 with only a certain amount of time to do so. You can face a different enemy race type each time you load into the EAZ.

Upon reaching the end of your initial timer to hunt for mini-bosses scattered across the area, you’ll next need to fight and eliminate a final boss to unlock an initial treasure chest. Once you loot this chest, a short timer will count down, at the end of which a number of chests corresponding to the number of mini-bosses your fireteam defeated beforehand will spawn at different locations across the EAZ area. The markers for the chests disappear after a few seconds, so it’s important to try and remember the locations.

It’s important to note that during your battle with the final boss a public-event style Taken boss can also appear and be defeated for a bonus treasure chest.

Empowered Elements

The Solstice event also introduces a new empowered elemental mechanic for players. During this event, enemies in every playlist (excluding Gambit Prime and Competitive Crucible) will drop Elemental Orbs based on the elemental type of the weapon and subclass the player uses to defeat them. Using a matching subclass and elemental weapon will cause enemies to drop more of the respective Elemental Orbs than using unmatching subclasses and elemental weapons. For example, a Solar Subclass Warlock using Luna’s Howl will be able to collect many more Solar Orbs from enemies than they would using Recluse, a Void weapon.

Players can pick these orbs up and stack them to 30 to activate an Empowered elemental effect. This stacking is counted as the “Elemental Charge” buff on your user interface in game. This mechanic is specific to one element for the day (Solar, Arc, and Void in that order) and grants players significant advantages while active for 30 seconds. It’s important to note that you can only gain stacks of Elemental Charge from the featured daily elements. So, picking up Void Orbs on a Solar Empowered day won’t provide you with any stacks of Elemental Charge.

Those advantages change based upon the daily Empowered Element, but each will drastically increase the duration of your corresponding elemental roaming super. Other effects include the following per element:

  • Solar: Emit a burning wave of energy that damages anything around you
  • Arc: Move with enhanced speed and deal greater melee and Sword damage
  • Void: Crouch while empowered to become invisible and gain Truesight and enhanced ability regeneration

Solstice Armor

Players will need to visit Eva in the Tower to start the quest for this years green, Drained Armor sets. Eva will give you your first piece of the Drained armor, a helmet, which will require you to equip this helmet and complete one playthrough of the new EAZ playlist. You’ll also have to earn a number of precision kills and a certain number of kills of a unique enemy race dependent upon which class you’re playing. I strongly suggest playing through the EAZ immediately after earning your helmet piece to unlock the rest of your Drained armor, which Eva will give you after your first run.

Here is a list of all the different Drained armor sets and their requirements based on your class:

Upgrading Drained Armor Sets

Hunters

  • Helmet: Complete runs through the EAZ, score precision kills, and defeat Fallen opponents.
  • Gloves: Complete playlist strikes (from the Vanguard Strikes Playlist, not as individually selected strikes from planetary directories), collect Solar orbs in Gambit or the Crucible, and unlock Solstice Packages.
  • Chest: Loot EAZ chests, collect any Elemental Orbs, and defeat enemies in the EAZ with a Solar subclass.
  • Boots: Complete public events on the planet Nessus, complete Solstice of Heroes bounties, defeat enemy Guardians in the Crucible or Gambit
  • Cloak: Complete Adventures, collect Arc orbs from Strikes, and complete either Crucible of Gambit matches

Titans

  • Helmet: Complete runs through the EAZ, score precision kills, and defeat Hive opponents.
  • Gloves: Loot EAZ chests, complete Solstice of Heroes bounties, and defeat enemies in the EAZ with an Arc subclass
  • Chest:, Complete Adventures, collect Solar orbs from Strikes,and complete either Crucible of Gambit matches
  • Boots: Complete public events on the planet Nessus, gather Void orbs in either the Crucible of Gambit playlists, and unlock Solstice packages
  • Mark: Complete Playlist Strikes, collect any type of Elemental Orbs, and complete either Crucible of Gambit matches

Warlocks

  • Helmet: Complete runs through the EAZ, score precision kills, and defeat Cabal opponents.
  • Gloves: Complete Playlist Strikes, collect any type of Elemental Orbs, and defeat other Guardians in Gambit or Crucible matches
  • Chest:, Complete Adventures, collect Arc orbs in either Crucible of Gambit matches, and unlock Solstice packages
  • Boots: Loot EAZ chests, gather Solar orbs in Strikes, and defeat enemies in the EAZ using a Void subclass
  • Bond: Complete Public Events on Nessus, complete Solstice bounties, and complete either Crucible or Gambit matches

Upgrading Renewed Armor Sets

Hunters

  • Helmet: Complete bounties, open chests in the EAZ, and defeat enemies with Arc elemental weapons.
  • Gloves: Complete Heroic Public Events on any planet, collect Arc orbs in Strikes, and defeat Cabal using a subclass that corresponds with the daily featured element.
  • Chest: Complete Gambit matches, collect Elemental Orbs which match the featured daily element, and defeat enemies with Void grenade abilities.
  • Boots: Complete Challenges (Daily and Weekly Milestones), defeat enemies in Strikes as a team using an element which matches the daily featured element, and kill opposing Guardians in Gambit and/or Crucible with Void Weapons.
  • Cloak: Complete Patrols in the EDZ, collect any type of Elemental Orbs in the EAZ, and defeat minibosses in the EAZ.

Titans

  • Helmet: Complete Gambit matches, collect Elemental Orb, and defeat opposing Guardian in the Crucible or Gambit with Arc weapons.
  • Gloves: Complete Heroic Public Events on any planet, complete Challenges (milestones), and defeat minibosses in the EAZ.
  • Chest:, Defeat enemies in the Strikes Playlist using the featured daily elemental subclass, open chests in the EAZ, and defeat Fallen enemies using the featured daily elemental subclass.
  • Boots: Complete bounties, gather Void orbs from Strikes, and defeat enemies with Solar melee ability kills (Solar swords without ammo will count for this).
  • Mark: Complete Patrols on the planet Io, collect any Elemental Orbs in the EAZ, and defeat enemies with Solar weapons.

Warlocks

  • Helmet: Defeat enemies in the Strikes playlist using a subclass that corresponds to the featured Daily element, collect any kind of Elemental Orbs in the EAZ, and beat minibosses in the EAZ.
  • Gloves: Complete bounties, collect Elemental Orbs of any kind, and defeat Guardians with Solar weapons.
  • Chest:, Complete Gambit matches, complete Challenges, and score Void final blows.
  • Boots: Complete Heroic Public Events, collect Solar orbs in Strikes, and defeat Hive.
  • Bond: Complete Patrols on Titan, open chests in the EAZ, and score Arc Super final blows.

Masterworking Majestic Armor Sets

Every set of Majestic Armor requires the same accomplishments, regardless of class.

  • Helmet: Complete a Nightfall with a score of over 200,000.
  • Gloves: Complete Playlist Strikes with clanmates.
  • Chest: Complete the Shattered Throne dungeon with two or fewer members in your fireteam.
  • Boots: Reset your Season Seven Valor (this can be completed retroactively, just be sure to load up into one Crucible match after earning your Majestic boots).
  • Class Item: Defeat “challenging” enemies.

That’s all we have for our 2019 Solstice of Heroes guide. Let us know what you think of the EAZ activity and armor quest.

Thanks for reading!