Destiny 2 Solstice 2023 guide

Getting started in the Solstice in Destiny 2

The Solstice begins with an introductory quest that serves an introduction to the core event mechanics. To get started, visit Eva Levante in the tower. She will assign you the Celebrating Solstice Quest, and present you with a full set of Sunlit armour.

The steps for this quest are:

• Equip a full set of Sunlit armour
• Visit Eva Levante in the Tower
• Complete the Bonfire Bash Activity to transform your Silver Leaves into Silver Ash
• Visit Eva Levante
• Open your Event Card and claim your first Event Challenge
• Open the details screen of any Sunlit Armour, and add the Kindling under armour mods.
• Imbue a piece of Sunlit armor with Embers - You can do so from the armor mods of the Sunlit armour
• Visit Eva Levante in the Tower

Once you’ve finished these steps, you’ll be given the quest A Guardian in Shining Armor:

• Collect Silver Leaves by completing activities during Solstice with your Sunlit armour equipped
• Transform your Silber Leaves into Silver Ash by completing the Bonfire Bash
• Collect Kindling by completing Event Challenges that award them
• Add Large Kindling to a piece of Sunlit armor
• Imbue a piece of Sunlit armour with Shining Embers. You can do so from the armour mods of the Sunlit armour
• Visit Eva Levante in the Tower

Finishing both questlines will leave you with one piece of Sunlit armour that has been fully upgraded, and with the Incandescent Glow applied.

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!

How to collect Silver Leaves, Silver Ash, and Kindling in Destiny 2

Eva Levante’s quest and upgrading gear both require using the seasonal currencies of Silver Leaves, Silver Ash, and Kindling. Kindling and Silver Ash are used to improve Sunlit armour stats, while Silver Leaves are used to, well, get Silver Ash.

Silver Leaves are earned by completing activities while wearing at least one piece of Sunlit Armour. The rewards don’t increase for wearing more pieces, so feel free to fashion the rest of your gear however you like. Completing activities generally means doing content in the Playlist, like Vanguard Ops, Crucible, or Gambit. Doing any of these will generally reward three to five Silver Leaves for completion. The best strategy for farming Silver Leaves seems to be public events. As usual, the EDZ is a great spot for this. Just load into any area with a Public Event, complete it, and then fast travel to another location with a Public Event. Each one award three or four Silver Leaves, and they generally only take a few minutes. A small amount of time invested in this rotation can fill your pockets with Silver Leaves in no time.

Earning Silver Ash requires you to convery Silver Leaves using the Bonfire Bash Event. The way it works is simple; at the end of Bonfire Bash a certain amount of Silver Leaves become Silver Ash. Performing better in the event converts a greater amount of Silver Ash. Approximately 25 Silver Leaves seems to be the limit for how many you can consume, so it’s probably best to have at least that many on hand. Each leaf seems to converts to between 2-4 Silver Ash.

Kindling can only be acquired by completing challenges on the Solstice Event Card. There are 19 total challenges, most award one or two Kindling. The Challenges on the card are:

• Banishing Success - Complete the Bonfire Bash Activity
• Good Ignite - Defeat Ignition Carriers in the Bonfire Bash
• Torch the Taken - Defeat Prismatic Taken in the Bonfire Bash
• Fuel for the Fire - Stoke the flames in the Bonfire Bash
• Ash Tray - Collect Silver Ash
• Fuel for the Fire II - Stoke more flames in the Bonfire Bash
• Fuel for the Fire III - Stoke even more flames in the Bonfire Bash
• Like Wildfire - Defeat targets anywhere in the System. Defeating Guardians awards bonus progress
• Superlative - Defeat targets with Super abilities
• Forged in Flames - Defeat opposing Guardians in any activity
• Hand Lighter - Defeat targets with Hand Cannons, Shotguns, and Rocket Launchers
• Burn Them Down - Defeat bosses anywhere in the system
• Raking the Coals - Complete playlist activities to earn Silver Leaves
• Dare to Dream - Complete runs of the Blind Well or Dares of Eternity to earn Silver Leaves
• Brightfall - Complete Vanguard Ops or Nightfalls to earn Silver Leaves
• Fires of Competition - Complete matches in Crucible or Gambit playlists to earn Silver Leaves
• A Spark in the Dark - Complete rounds of Altars of Sorrow or Salvage to earn Silver Leaves
• In the Hot Seat - Complete Activities on Neptune to earn Silver Leaves
• Flamekeeper - Claim Flamekeeper Title

Flamekeeper, the final challenge on the card, awards an Ascendant Shard and Ascendant Alloy instead of Kindling.

How to complete the Destiny 2 Bonfire Bash event

The featured event of the Solstice of Heroes is the Bonfire Bash. This three person activity takes place in the European Ariel Zone, and features waves of enemies, simple objectives, and a boss fight. The goal is to stoke the bonfire as high as possible and slay the boss. The greater the bonfire, the greater the rewards at the end, and the more Silver Leaves will be converted to Silver Ash.

There’s a blight at the center of the area when you initially load in. Destroy this to start the activity. An eight minute timer will appear, heralding the arrival of the Heat-Drinker, the boss of Bonfire Bash.

There are three phases to the Bonfire Bash. Most of the time will be spent trying to stoke the large flame at the center of the map. You do this by killing groups of enemies until an Ignition Carrier appears. Once slain, they drops three orbs called Igniters with short timers. Pick these up and throw them into the bonfire to stoke the flames. The tracking in the Igniters is very aggressive, as long as your throw is in the rough vicinity of the bonfire then they’ll get sucked right into it. Any igniters that aren’t picked up before their timers expire will disappear.

Occasionally you’ll be interrupted by Taken Interference, preventing you from stroking the bonfire until you find and clear a group of Taken enemies and a Blight. As soon as they are gone you can resume hunting for Igniters.

When the timer reaches zero, or 30 Igniters have been consumed, the Heat-Drinker will appear. Take them out, and the activity will be complete. Grab any engrams around the bonfire, and celebrate victory by throwing your fellow guardians an accolade for their time.

How to upgrade, kindle, and maximize Sunlit armours in Destiny 2

If there’s one thing Guardians should take away from the Solstice this year it’s that the Sunlit Armor has the potential to be fashioned into very high stat rolls in whatever categories you want. These are the ultimate prize for many build crafters, and easy to take advantage of if you know how.

The Sunlit Armour has a handy feature where it’s stats can be rerolled in exchange for Silver Ash. Even better, you can focus what stats to improve. There are two special mod slots on the armour. The Kindling socket consumes Kindling, and the Ember socket consumes Silver Ashes.

The Kindling socket raises the armour through three different tiers, and must be completed in order. The Ember socket follows, and is focused on equipment stats. Small Kindling allows you to slightly raise stats by socketing Glowing Embers, and consumes 1 Kindling. Large Kindling consumes 2 more, and allows you to access to upgrade to Shining Embers, further increasing base stats. Fully Rekindled consumes three Kindling, allows you to spend Silver Ash to reroll with one stat focused to be especially high, and enables the glow effect on the Sunlit armour.

Once you kindle a piece, all future Sunlit armours of the same type will be upgraded to the same level, allowing you to spend ashes for focusing, but not invest in further Kindling. It also works in conjunction with the Armorer mods on your Ghost. If you want armour that is high in Resilience and Discipline, for example, you can assign one to your Ghost, and focus towards the other.