Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes 2021 guide: EAZ overview, armor upgrades, event rewards

Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes event has once again returned. Here’s everything you need to know about the European Aerial Zone, Solstice Armor sets and their elemental Glows, and all the rewards you can claim during the summer event.

Hot on the heels of Destiny 2’s spring event, the Guardian Games, Bungie has ushered in Beyond Light’s summer celebration: the Solstice of Heroes.

While the event will certainly be familiar to Destiny 2 veterans, Beyond Light’s iteration of the summer extravaganza offers new gear to chase, cosmetics to obtain, and a brand-new Legendary shotgun to acquire.

The event is in fully swing, but there’s still plenty of time for Guardians to soar across the EAZ, upgrade their Solstice armor sets, and try to obtain a perfectly rolled Compass Rose. Here’s everything you need to know about Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes event.

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Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes overview

Beyond Light’s version of the Solstice is quite similar to years past, and revolves around completing runs in the European Aerial Zone, upgrading your Solstice armor sets, and obtaining Solstice Key Fragments to exchange with Eva Levante for Solstice Packages.

To get the party started, check in with Eva in the Tower and pick up “The Solstice Begins” quest. Eva will provide you with a Renewed Solstice helmet for your character, and direct you to complete a run in the EAZ with that piece of armor equipped.

After reacquainting yourself with the EAZ and its gameplay loop, head back to Eva to pick up the rest of your Renewed armor set. At this point, your Solstice grind will truly begin — here’s everything you need to know about how to power through the event.

European Aerial Zone Overview

The EAZ — a stunning gameplay arena that features a level of verticality seldom found in other parts of Destiny 2 — is only available during each year’s Solstice of Heroes event.

As you jump, glide, or lift your way across the EAZ, you will face off against Fallen, Hive, Cabal, and even Taken, but your main objectives will remain the same regardless of which enemy you’re facing:

• Defeat as many mini-bosses as possible before the time limit expires
• Defeat the final boss
• Locate and unlock the chests scattered across the EAZ before the time limit expires

The more mini-bosses you defeat during the first part of each run will determine how many chests are available at the end, and unlike previous Solstice events, the containers are — thankfully — marked on your screen, so you know exactly where your rewards can be found.

If you plan on farming the EAZ heavily, the most efficient plan for doing so is simple: defeat as many mini-bosses as possible, spread out and loot as many chests as possible, then rinse and repeat until you’re satisfied with the loot you’ve acquired.

Elemental Orbs and Elemental Empowerment

Another core part of the EAZ experience are Elemental Orbs, and the buffs they provide. Each day, a specific element — Solar, Arc, Void, or Stasis — will be specified as the element of the day.

Each time you defeat an enemy with a matching elemental weapon or ability, they’ll spawn an elemental orb that you can collect.  After acquiring 30 matching orbs, you’ll receive a substantial Empowerment buff. Here’s a breakdown of what each elemental buff provides:

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• Solar: while empowered, Guardians emit a burning wave of energy that damages anything around them
• Arc: while empowered, Guardians move with enhanced speed and deal greater melee and Sword damage
• Void: crouch while empowered to become invisible and gain Truesight plus enhanced ability regeneration
• Stasis: this buff hasn’t been confirmed by Bungie, so you’ll need to jump into the EAZ to find out for yourself

In addition to the various elemental days, there are also Prism days, during which you can acquire any of the elemental buffs, but you’ll need to make sure you’re only collecting orbs that match each specific element.

Although matching your weapon and ability damage to the element of the day isn’t a requirement for participating in the Solstice, you’ll be missing out on these buffs by not doing so, and it’s usually worthwhile to use the proper damage type.

Solstice Packages and Solstice Key Fragments

Similar to other seasonal events in Destiny 2, the Solstice of Heroes has a specific currency and corresponding packages that are only available while the event is live.

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As you complete runs in the EAZ, you’ll be rewarded with Solstice Packages and Key Fragments. You’ll need to spend 15 Fragments to open each Package, which will provide a variety of gear and materials, along with new rolls of the event’s Compass Rose shotgun.

While Solstice Packages are obtained by completing EAZ runs, you can acquire more Key Fragments by participating in other activities like Crucible matches, patrols, and public events, and Eva Levante has a variety of repeatable bounties that provide Key Fragments as well.

Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes armor upgrades

As in years past, the main focus of the event is upgrading your Solstice of Heroes armor sets — starting with Renewed, then Majestic, then Magnificent — and finally, activating the elemental glow effects on each armor piece.

While Solstice of Heroes was slammed in previous years for being an absolute grind-fest, Bungie has significantly reigned in this year’s quest steps.

Here are the steps you’ll need to complete for each class in order to upgrade their respective sets of Solstice armor, and obtain the elemental glows for each piece of your Magnificent gear.

Solstice of Heroes Renewed Armor Set Objectives

After acquiring your Renewed armor set from Eva Levante, you’ll need to complete several objectives to upgrade the rarity (and more importantly, the look) of your Solstice armor sets. Here’s each objective you’ll need to knock out along the way:

• Titan
  • Helmet: complete an EAZ run, collect elemental orbs, do 20 Finishers
  • Gauntlets: complete a playlist activity, open 10 Solstice packages, defeat 200 Hive
  • Chest: complete two public events, collect Arc and Stasis elemental orbs in playlist activities, defeat 30 enemy Guardians
  • Boots: complete a Patrol, pick up 50 Orbs of Power, get 50 Super kills
  • Mark: complete three Lost Sectors, pick up 100 Solar Orbs, get 100 precision kills
• Warlock
  • Helmet: complete an EAZ run, collect elemental orbs, do 20 Finishers
  • Gauntlets: complete a playlist activity, open 10 Solstice packages, defeat 200 Cabal
  • Chest: complete two public events, collect Void and Stasis elemental orbs in playlist activities, defeat 30 enemy Guardians
  • Boots: complete a Patrol, pick up 50 Orbs of Power, get 50 Super kills
  • Bond: complete three Lost Sectors, pick up 100 Arc Orbs, get 100 precision kills
• Hunter
  • Helmet: complete an EAZ run, collect elemental orbs, do 20 Finishers
  • Gauntlets: complete a playlist activity, open 10 Solstice packages, defeat 200 Fallen
  • Chest: complete two public events, collect Solar and Stasis elemental orbs in playlist activities, defeat 30 enemy Guardians
  • Boots: complete a Patrol, pick up 50 Orbs of Power, get 50 Super kills
  • Cloak: complete three Lost Sectors, pick up 100 Void Orbs, get 100 precision kills

Solstice of Heroes Majestic Armor Set Objectives

After obtaining your Majestic Solstice armor, you’ll need to run through another five objectives across each character to bump your gear up to the Magnificent level. Here’s what you’ll need to complete in order to do so:

• Titan
  • Helmet: defeat five minibosses in the EAZ before the boss is summoned three times, collect 500 elemental orbs, rapidly defeat 100 enemies
  • Gauntlets: complete Altar of Sorrow runs or Override missions, earn 20 elemental empowerment buffs, kill 200 enemies with Solar weapons
  • Chest: complete Blind Well runs or Wrathborn Hunts, collect 50 Solstice Key Fragments, defeat 100 enemies with Arc Grenades
  • Boots: complete Public Events on Europa or Battlegrounds, collect 100 Void or Stasis orbs in playlist activities, defeat 50 enemies with a melee while using an Void subclass
  • Mark: complete three competitive PvP matches or Nightfall Strikes, collect 50 Arc orbs in the EAZ, defeat 50 Powerful Hive
• Warlock
  • Helmet: defeat five mini-bosses in the EAZ before the boss is summoned three times, collect 500 elemental orbs, rapidly defeat 100 enemies
  • Gauntlets: complete Altar of Sorrow runs or Override missions, earn 20 elemental empowerment buffs, kill 200 enemies with Arc weapons
  • Chest: complete Blind Well runs or Wrathborn Hunts, collect 50 Solstice Key Fragments, defeat 100 enemies with Void Grenades
  • Boots: complete Public Events on Europa or Battlegrounds, collect 100 Solar or Stasis orbs in playlist activities, defeat 50 enemies with a melee while using an Solar subclass
  • Bond: complete three competitive PvP matches or Nightfall Strikes, collect 50 Void orbs in the EAZ, defeat 50 Powerful Fallen
• Hunter
  • Helmet: defeat five mini-bosses in the EAZ before the boss is summoned three times, collect 500 elemental orbs, rapidly defeat 100 enemies
  • Gauntlets: complete Altar of Sorrow runs or Override missions, earn 20 elemental empowerment buffs, kill 200 enemies with Void weapons
  • Chest: complete Blind Well runs or Wrathborn Hunts, collect 50 Solstice Key Fragments, defeat 100 enemies with Solar Grenades
  • Boots: complete Public Events on Europa or Battlegrounds, collect 100 Arc or Stasis orbs in playlist activities, defeat 50 enemies with a melee while using an Arc subclass
  • Cloak: complete three competitive PvP matches or Nightfall Strikes, collect 50 Solar orbs in the EAZ, defeat 50 Powerful Cabal

Solstice of Heroes Magnificent Armor Set Glows

After you obtain your Magnificent armor set, the final part of the Solstice grind involves unlocking the glow effects for each piece of gear. Here are the final objectives you’ll need to complete in order to unlock your glows, which happen to be the same for each character:

• Titan/Warlock/Hunter
  • Helmet: complete a Nightfall on Master or Grandmaster difficulty
  • Gauntlets: complete any raid
  • Chest: complete any dungeon
  • Boots: defeat 15 Champions or 15 Guardians in Competitive Crucible game modes
  • Mark/Bond/Cloak: complete Legendary or Master Lost Sectors

While this year’s Solstice grind is still substantial, you do gain double progress towards objectives after completing one armor set, and triple progress after completing two, so your best bet is to knock out one character at a time in order to maximize those extra gains.

Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes rewards

The most important part of any Destiny 2 activity are the rewards you can obtain from it, and the Solstice of Heroes is no different. In addition to the armor sets and glows that Guardians have come to expect, this year Bungie introduced a farmable weapon: the Compass Rose shotgun.

Although Shotguns received a substantial nerf in Season of the Splicer, their precision frame variant (which the Compass Rose is one of) has shot to the top of the shotgun hierarchy, especially in PVP activities.

With a perk pool that includes fan-favorites like Smallbore, Accurized Rounds, Quickdraw and Snapshot Sights, this weapon is definitely worth farming, especially for any Crucible veterans looking to fill the gap left behind by the shotty nerf in Season 14.

And there you have it, everything you need to know about the Solstice of Heroes event in Destiny 2. Make sure to max out your Solstice armor sets, obtain those coveted glows, and grab yourself a god-roll Compass Rose before the event ends on August 3.

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