Destiny 2 Faction Rally: How to get Renown and which Faction is best to choose from Dead Orbit, Future War Cult and New Monarchy
Advice on how to decide between Dead Orbit, Future War Cult and New Monarchy in the third Faction Rally.
Destiny 2 Faction Rally returns for Season 3, giving the players a choice of supporting one of three Factions in order to be rewarded with discounts from their unique wares.
What Faction to choose isn't an easy question to answer, but those who played the original game will recognize the three in question - Dead Orbit, Future War Cult and New Monarchy - so you may already have a preference.
Season 3 also introduces a new mechanic - Renown - and some of the best rewards yet, including a unique Exotic armour ornament and Catalyst.
On this page:
Destiny 2 Faction Rally explained and how to choose a Faction
Between July 17 to July 24, players can align themselves with one of three Factions, who are recruiting Guardians to help them "gather supplies and destroy enemy resources".
Doing so will give you Tokens, which can be used to level up their Faction like any other in Destiny 2.
At the end of the week, the Faction who has redeemed the most Faction Packages will be deemed the winner, who will then sell a specific weapon to every player in the game.
However, if you are part of that winning Faction, it'll be available at a significant discount:
- Weapon cost for members of winning Faction: 1,000 Glimmer
- Weapon cost for players of other Factions: 50,000 Glimmer
The weapon in question for this Faction Rally are the following:
You will of course earn other weapons and gear from your Faction as you redeem Faction Packages. As part of Season 3, this now includes unique Exotic Ornaments and Exotic Catalysts, available as Faction rewards:
- Dead Orbit (Eye of Another World Ornament, Graviton Lance Catalyst)
- New Monarchy (Crest of Alpha Lupi Ornament, Sweet Business Catalyst)
- Future War Cult (Knucklehead Radar Ornament, Sunshot Catalyst)
These, alongside the other item sets, are dropped upon cashing in your Tokens. They are also made available upon certain ranks. The above Ornaments and Catalysts are available once you hit rank 50, for example. And don't worry about hitting rank 50 in a single week - you have all season to do so, with a total of three Faction Rallies available.
It's worth noting gear your receive from these Factions will drop below your level - and not at max Power level cap like end game activities Nightfall and the Raid.
How to choose a Faction
Note there are spoilers for Destiny 2's end game, so skip the below if you have yet to complete the story.
Once you have completed the game's story, travel to the new Tower social space and you will be prompted to join a Faction by visiting one of the three Faction vendors, who are in the following locations:
- Dead Orbit: Hangar, turn left to the north side
- Future War Cult: Hangar, turn left as soon as you go in and up the stairs
- New Monarchy: Bazaar, in the far south west corner
After visiting all three, you'll then have to choose one to join.
If you did Faction Rally first time round, then you don't need to do the tour - just visit the Faction you want to join. So while you cannot change Faction after choosing in a given week, you can change allegiances between Faction Rally events.
Note if you are running multiple characters, each one can be of a different Faction, according to Bungie.
How to earn Renown in Faction Rally and level up your chosen Faction
Something new for Season 3 is a 'Renown' buff, giving you more Tokens for your performance. After you pledge to a Faction, this will come into effect as you start to undergo certain activities in public events:
- Patrol mission (1 Renown)
- Yellow bar enemies in public spaces (1 Renown)
- Standard Public Events (2 Renown)
- Heroic Public Events (3 Renown)
You can also earn an additional 1 Renown per activity while wearing a full set of Faction armour.
The higher the Renown, the more Tokens you'll earn for running Lost Sectors. The buff will stack a total of five times, giving you a total of 10 tokens for completing the Lost Sector (you'll also receive an extra 15 as part of a Daily Challenge.)
There is a risk reward, however, as dying will reduce Renown by one level. Fast travel, meanwhile, will remove it entirely. Additionally, the higher the buff, the difficulty will increase in the following ways:
- Health regeneration is reduced, though enemies have a chance to drop health orbs
- Player damage is decreased
- Incoming damage is increased
- Player agility is decreased
Completing a Lost Sector, no matter your Renown, will reset it back to zero, so you'll have to build it up again before taking on another Lost Sector and earning additional rewards.
The best way to play it, it seems, is to do that week's Flashpoint, building up your Renown to the maximum, then taking a break to tackle Lost Sectors. Once the Milestone is done, you can take your activities to other planets.
Ideally, you'd also play with a friend - taking on a Lost Sector with a fully build-up Renown solo can be particularly difficult, so doing so in a Fireteam is advised!
As a little cosmetic bonus, you'll also showcase your chosen Faction when viewed in third-person, as seen above. Whether you decide to hold Guardians of a rival Faction against them is entirely up to you!
Thanks to awesomedoscious on the Destiny subreddit for filling in gaps with the above details.
How else do you level up your Faction?
As well as the Renown system, there are a number of ways to earn Tokens and earn rewards. You can do so from the following activities:
- Completing Public Events, as well as newly-added enemy resources to capture in Patrol areas
- Completing Lost Sectors, and getting extra Tokens from bonus scannables
- Completing Strikes
- Completing the Raid
- Completing Crucible Matches
- Daily Faction Rally Milestones
Remember you can level up your Faction all the way until the Weekly Reset.
The Season of the Deep is here alongside the Into the Depths quest. You can know go fishing too! Don't forget to keep an eye on the Lost Sector and King's Fall challenge rotation schedule!
Which Faction is best to choose from Dead Orbit, Future War Cult and New Monarchy
As with Pokémon Go's three Teams, there is no right or wrong choice of Factions on offer. Though their individual weapon rewards are unique, they all have a spread of the same weapon and gear types that you can also receive from Faction reward drops.
Perhaps the most compelling reason is what gear you find the most attractive, and so it's worth having eyes on each Faction's range of wares, which are as follows:
Dead Orbit
Future War Cult
New Monarchy
Other possible considerations include:
- What your friends or clanmates are part of
- Who has won in previous Rallies (Dead Orbit and New Monarchy have dominated so far - with finally Future War Cult finally winning the most recent Faction Rally) to give you a better chance of success of getting the discounted 'winning' item
- Your choice in the original Destiny
Or it could be one chosen at random. Ultimately it's a decision that shouldn't keep you up at night; no matter what Faction you choose, you'll be able to purchase the 'winning' weapon, provided you have enough Glimmer saved up - and at the rate you earn it, it shouldn't be too difficult.