Destiny 2: Lightfall's inaugural season kicks off today with a new playlist activity called Defiant Battlegrounds. Like previous Battlegrounds activities, Defiant Battlegrounds task three-man fireteams with taking on hordes of Cabal and Taken in a mini-Strike filled with champions, mechanics, and a couple of new currencies.
If you need some help figuring out the ins and outs of this new activity, here's everything you need to know about Defiant Battlegrounds: how to complete them, how to earn Defiant Engrams and Defiant Keys, and how to generate Awoken Favors.
The Defiant Battlegrounds playlist has a recommended power level of 1770, but note that your level will be raised to 1760 upon entering the activity. In Lightfall, seasonal activities will have a -5 power differential, meaning that you will reach max effectiveness for this activity at 1765.
Keep in mind that your weapon, armor mods, artifact mods, aspects, and fragments all have a huge impact on your ability to fight and survive, so if you need some help with your build check out one of our handy guides.
Updated March 6, 2023: We've updated this guide to include a handy video that breaks down everything you need to know about Defiant Battlegrounds in Destiny 2: Lightfall.
Defiant Battlegrounds Walkthrough
You can access Defiant Battleground: EDZ once you finished the first campaign mission of Lightfall and have visited Mara Sov on The Farm in the EDZ. After completing the story version of the mission, you can access the playlist from the H.E.L.M. Defiant Battleground: EDZ is similar to other battlegrounds, but there are some new mechanics here that are important to know.
There are three distinct phases of the Defiant Battleground. First, your task is to simply clear forces as you make your way toward the Pyramid ship. You won't be able to progress until you've eliminated every single enemy, so make sure you don't skip past any of them as you make your way forward. When you get to the platform overlooking the lake, multiple waves of Cabal will spawn repeatedly. Clear them out quickly, then walk across the lake until you reach the checkpoint. Activate the portal, then venture into the Ascendant Plane to start the next leg of the mission.
In the Ascendant Plane, make your way forward while eliminating the Taken in your way. This zone is filled with floating traps and energy pulses that will deal explosive damage to you and boop you off of the map, so take heed to avoid them while you make your way forward. Eventually, you'll come to a group of Taken standing under a blight dome. Enter the dome and attack the core until you destroy it, which will leave behind a big puddle of corruption.
Use your interact in the center of it and you'll cleanse the corruption and create a new path forward. Next, you'll reach a boss fight against a Chimera. Here you'll need to destroy blight domes and cleanse the corruption just as you did before in order to start the damage phase against the boss. You'll repeat this process three times, making the Chimera vulnerable to attack each time you cleanse the corruption.
The most dangerous part of this fight comes when the third blight dome spawns. There will be Taken Vandel standing on high pillars sniping at you, so make sure you look up and take care of them. Once the Chimera falls move forward to leave the Ascendant Plane and begin the final encounter.
There are Overload and Unstoppable Champions in this activity. Keep in mind that under the new mod system, you do not need to equip Champion Mods anymore. Just having the unlocked in the seasonal artifact is enough. Once you've unlocked a Champion Mod, all you have to do is use the corresponding weapon type to get the buff. There is no cost to reset your artifact and no lockout on the Battleground, so make sure you move your mods and weapons around as necessary to ensure you can deal with the Champions you encounter here.
Once inside the Pyramid, you'll make your way to the final boss, AKA the Warden. The mechanics a slightly different here, though you'll still be cleansing corruption, on the ground. After eliminating the first chunk of the Warden's health, enemies will spawn around the room. Killing the Champion will cause two Taken Anomalies (wizards) to spawn on either side of the room. You need to kill the anomalies and pick up the essence they drop, then deposit it in the area you cleansed.
This will turn the essence into an orb, which you should immediately through at the boss to chunk off a segment of its shield. Repeat the process until the shield breaks, then the damage phase begins. After the second phase, you'll need to move deeper into the room and cleanse a new puddle of corruption. Repeat the process once more and you'll complete the mission.
Defiant Engrams And Defiant Keys
Completing the battleground will earn you a Defiant Engram, which is a new type of seasonal engram you'll use to focus seasonal weapons and armor. Unlike Umbral Engrams, Defiant Engrams are not kept in your personal inventory. When you visit the Wartable for the first time this season, you'll receive an Engram Tracker that tells you how many Engrams you have of each type.
Once you unlocked the ability to focus specific weapons and armor pieces through the War Table, you can spend two Defiant Engrams on armor or four Defiant Engrams on weapons. Alternatively, it only costs one Defiant Engrams for a random piece of gear from each pool.
As you complete activities outside of Defiant Battlegrounds, you will have a chance of receiving Defiant Keys. At the end of each Defiant Battleground, a chest will appear, and you can use a Defiant Key to open the chest and collect a piece of seasonal gear, as well as the standard Defiant Engram.
There is a Wartable upgrade in the third row called Battleground Riches which gives you a chance to earn additional Defiant Engrams whenever you use a Defiant Key. This upgrade is available immediately, and since you get to choose up to three upgrades this week, it might be worth getting this one right away to increase the number of Defiant Engrams you have access to.
Awoken Favor
Through War Table upgrades you will gain access to Awoken Favor within the Defiant Battlegrounds. These are similar to the Starhorse Favors you'll find in the Dares of Eternity activity that provide a boost of ability energy. There are three different Awoken Favor upgrades available at the war table. Once acquired, you'll need to secure final blows with specific damage types in order to spawn Favors:
|
Exemplar of Justice |
Ability final blows |
Creates Favor that improves melee recharge |
|---|---|---|
|
Exemplar of Grace |
Special ammo final blows |
Creates Favor that improves mobility |
|
Exemplar of Zeal |
Heavy ammo final blows |
Creates Favor that improves grenade recharge |
Even with the corresponding damage type, Favors still spawn rarely. Wearing seasonal armor provides a buff called Queen's Favor that generates Awoken Favors in Definat Battlegrounds with fewer final blows. The buff stacks up to four times, so the more seasonal armor you wear, the better. Collecting Awoken Favors is a requirement for progressing certain steps in the seasonal campaign, We Stand Unbroken, so make sure you're trying to spawn as many Favors as possible while in the battleground activity.