A new Destiny 2 season is right around the corner. Not much is known about Season 18 itself, but we do know it'll launch with the highly-anticipated Arc 3.0 rework and come with a reprised raid from the Destiny Content Vault.
One week to prepare isn't much, but it's more than enough for players looking to get a head start. If you're looking to dive into Arc 3.0 or Legendary PvE content at launch, now is the time to start preparing your Vault, builds, and much more. Here are eight things you can do to prepare for Season 18 of Destiny 2.
List entries are in no particular order.
8 Get These Items For Arc 3.0
Arc 3.0 will be released with Season 18, overhauling all Arc subclasses to use the Aspects and Fragments system from other specs. As with most subclass overhauls, Arc will undoubtedly have some unique synergies with certain weapons and Exotic armor pieces. Here's what we recommend you farm for before the season drops:
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Weapons
- Trinity Ghoul – Hits like a truck and has great add-clearing potential when Masterworked.
- Riskrunner – Grants damage resistance while Arc Conductor is active, likely stacking with Amplified and other Arc buffs.
- Salvager's Salvo – A certain Arc Fragment causes Special weapon kills to create a blinding AoE explosion. Pair this with Salvager's Chain Reaction perk for a good time.
- One-Two Punch Arc Shotguns – One-Two Punch is going to be a sought-after perk this season. Arc Shotguns like Dead Weight and First In, Last Out will have excellent synergy with Arc 3.0.
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Exotic Armor
- Hunter – Liar's Handshake (hard-hitting melee followup), Fr0st-EE5 (good synergy with Amplified), Assassin's Cowl (go invisible after every charged melee kill).
- Titan – Heart of Inmost Light (good ability uptime), An Insurmountable Skullfort (refunds melee on melee ability kill), ACD/0 Feedback Fence (getting buffed to work with Glaives).
- Warlock – Crown of Tempests (absurdly short ability cooldowns), Getaway Artist (Arc Soul uptime without needing the Aspect), Claws of Ahamkara (lets you chain Lightning Surge).
7 Clean Your Vault
Another season gives you the perfect opportunity to clean out your Vault. The Gunsmith will be giving additional reputation for dismantled goods next season, so you might not want to go fully scorched earth on your Vault before then. Still, many players end up keeping dozens or even hundreds of items that they never end up using.
In general, if you haven't used something this season, is it worth keeping? Dismantling your Vault will give you space for future gear and a hefty sum of Legendary Shards.
6 Optimize Your Armor Stats
Arc 3.0 is all about weaving abilities and gunplay during combat, jolting your foes while moving at blinding speeds. To make the most out of Arc 3.0 and your other subclasses, you'll want to start creating armor builds that maximize your stats.
In general, you'll want armor that focuses on Resilience and Discipline for PvE. Crucible mains prefer to spec for Recovery and Discipline, although this can vary depending on your playstyle and available mods. Arc 3.0 places major emphasis on melee abilities, so you might want to create an armor build that emphasizes Strength.
If you've never dabbled with Destiny 2's armor system or don't know where to start, give our Armor 2.0 guide a look to cover the basics. And for those who want perfect stat distributions for their builds, we can't recommend D2ArmorPicker enough. This tool lets you filter your entire collection of armor based on stat tiers you wish to achieve, allowing you to create min-maxed armor builds with minimal effort.
5 Stock Up On Glimmer
When a subclass gets overhauled, not everything is unlocked by default. You'll need to speak with Ikora Rey at the Tower to unlock the rest of Arc 3.0's Fragments and abilities, requiring you to spend Glimmer on each unlock. Purchasing all grenades and Fragments can cost an entire reserve of Glimmer, let alone doing this for multiple characters. Stock up on Glimmer now before the season ends.
4 Farm For Upgrade Materials
Unless Bungie decides to overhaul the Power Leveling system next season, there's a good chance you'll need to spend a few weeks grinding for Pinnacle Gear. Nothing is worse than using gear you don't like for the first part of a season, so we recommend you stock up on Masterwork materials and Upgrade Modules now.
Upgrade Modules allow you to infuse higher-level gear into items you frequently use. If you got a perfect Austringer roll this season and can't play Destiny 2 without it, have some Upgrade Modules ready to infuse your weapon to next season's Pinnacle cap. And for those looking to make new builds centered around Arc 3.0, farming GM Nightfalls for Ascendant Shards is a good idea; GMs won't be available for a few weeks once Season 18 begins.
3 Finish Your Seasonal Challenges
Seasonal Challenges can be incredibly rewarding if done in bulk. These weekly Triumphs grant a massive boost to your Season Pass ranks and periodically give Bright Dust. If you haven't completed the Season Pass yet, now is the perfect time to finish your Seasonal Challenges to make short work of your remaining levels. These challenges grant a ton of Bright Dust as well, something you'll need if you want to buy next season's Eververse set or other cosmetic goods.
2 Bounty Prep
This is overkill for most players, but if you want to unlock most of your Artifact mods during the first week of Season 18, hold onto any completed bounties. Content creators and hardcore Destiny players will prepare for a new season by completing weekly and daily bounties near the end of a given season. These bounties roll over when a new season begins and can be redeemed for a large chunk of XP.
That XP can be useful for kickstarting your Season Pass ranks, but the real value of bounty prep is the XP contributes to your Artifact unlocks. Turning in these bounties at the start of a new season will give you progress towards Artifact unlocks, allowing you to unlock a full suite of Champion mods and other goodies right out of the gate. If you plan on farming Legendary Lost Sectors or Nightfalls at the start of next season, now's the time to start farming bounties.
1 Start Theorycrafting
Solar 3.0 was originally seen as underwhelming when it launched, partly due to Bungie dropping it on the community's collective lap with no explanation of how its keywords function. That's not the case with Arc 3.0. Bungie dropped a hefty blog post that covers the basics of Arc 3.0. In other words, we have a pretty good idea of how Arcstrider, Stormcaller, and Striker are going to work next week.
Now is the time to start theorycrafting. We know all Arc 3.0 Aspects and a handful of Fragments, so now is the perfect opportunity to start thinking about Exotic synergies, weapon loadouts, and Combat Style mods to enhance your overall gameplay. Check out our hub page for references on buildcrafting, sample builds, and much more.