With a month to go before The Witch Queen expansion launches, now is the perfect time to get your characters ready for Destiny 2's upcoming DLC. With so much content to play through, it can be daunting to figure out the best way to spend your time preparing.
That's what this guide is for. We're going to give you ten tips to help you prepare for The Witch Queen, most of which don't require hours of your time. We'll cover how to clean out your Vault, stock up on materials, obtain some great armor rolls each week, and much more.
Updated January 27, 2022: To help you further prepare for the upcoming Witch Queen expansion and all that it will entail, we've included a video guide to illustrate our most important tips.
10 Clean Your Vault
A new expansion comes with new weapons and armor to chase, some of which you'll want to keep in your Vault. If you've been playing Destiny 2 for a few seasons, you might not have much Vault space to work with. That's why it's important to clean out your Vault now before The Witch Queen releases.
Clearing out a Vault that's nearly full can be a real challenge, especially if you're a PvP player. We have a few tips to make this process somewhat easier:
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Ask yourself, "Am I ever going to use this item?" If you don't care for it now, you won't miss it when it's gone.
- The exception to this is if the item is sunset or it holds sentimental value to you.
- Use Destiny Item Manager or D2ArmorPicker to make armor loadouts with stats you want. Delete any spare armor once you've done this.
- If an armor piece has a stat total of less than 60, delete it.
- If a weapon is sunset and it holds no value to you, delete it.
- Should your Vault be filled with materials, consider spending them at Spider or Banshee-44 to free up some space.
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Don't keep weapons in hopes they'll get buffed in the future. You'll never have Vault space if you do this.
- In general, keep one good roll of every weapon type (ignoring bad weapon frames), preferably one Kinetic and one Energy. That's about two pages worth of guns. Excess guns can be deleted.
9 Complete Every Seasonal Challenge
Seasonal Challenges are a great source of XP and Bright Dust. XP is useful if you still haven't finished the Season Pass, and Bright Dust is something you'll want a large supply of to purchase any new cosmetics that release with The Witch Queen expansion. That's why we recommend you complete at least 75 Seasonal Challenges now while there's still time.
Completing 75 Seasonal Challenges will grant 4,000 Bright Dust in addition to what each challenge individually grants. Besides ritual vendor weeklies, this is your best source of Bright Dust.
You can find our guides for each week of Seasonal Challenges below:
8 Complete Your Exotic Collection
The Witch Queen expansion will release with a rework to all Void subclasses, each now using the Aspects and Fragments system introduced with Stasis. Buildcrafting is going to become more important than ever, so you'll want to complete your Exotic collection to ensure you can jump straight into making builds when the expansion goes live.
Your best source of Exotics is Legendary Lost Sectors. Each day, two Lost Sectors will be given either a Legend of Master variant that features tougher foes. Completing these Lost Sectors solo has a chance of giving you an Exotic. Be sure to equip an Armorer mod on your Ghost Shell to bias the stats that drop on these Exotic armor pieces.
It's hard to predict this with complete accuracy, but here are our predictions for Exotics that will be quite powerful in The Witch Queen:
Hunter
- Orpheus Rig: Shadowshot will likely get some buffs in Witch Queen. Orpheus Rig will let you fire Shadowshot more frequently.
- Graviton Forfeit: This could have some powerful synergies with certain melee abilities and subclass options that focus on invisibility.
Warlock
- Felwinter's Helm: Finishers and charged melee kills inflict Weaken on targets. This might have some powerful synergies with certain Void Fragments.
- Nothing Manacles: Two grenade charges could let you spam Handheld Supernova or any overcharged grenade effects.
Titan
- No Backup Plans: These gloves will be much more versatile, activating Defensive Strike for a whole range of builds.
- Heart of Inmost Light: This is a great Exotic for improving your ability cooldowns.
7 Stock Up On Materials
Nothing feels worse than jumping into a new expansion and realizing that your Guardian is broke. Before you spend hours optimizing your loadouts and fashion, be sure your Guardian is stocked up on Upgrade Modules, Glimmer, and Masterwork Materials. You'll want Upgrade Modules to level your items throughout the campaign, Glimmer to reset the seasonal Artifact in case you make a mistake, and Masterwork Materials to Masterwork any new weapons or Exotics you like.
Guides for obtaining these materials can be found below:
- Upgrade Modules Guide
- Glimmer Guide
- Legendary Shards Guide
- Enhancement Cores Guide
- Enhancement Prisms Guide
- Ascendant Shards Guide
6 Finish Seasonal Content
If you own any seasons released this year, now is the time to finish any quests or Triumphs associated with those seasons. All Year 4 seasons are going away when The Witch Queen releases, so finish them now.
Season Of The Hunt
You'll want to finish the Harbinger mission to get your hands on Hawkmoon, an Exotic Hand Cannon. You might want to farm Wrathborn Hunts to get your hands on a good Deafening Whisper, arguably one of the best PvE Grenade Launchers in the game.
Season Of The Chosen
Finish the Presage mission to get your hands on Dead Man's Tale, arguably the best PvP Primary in Destiny 2 right now. If you care about lore, you'll need to clear this mission 12 times to complete the Captain's Log lore book. You should also upgrade the War Table at the H.E.L.M. to unlock this season's set of Elemental Well mods. There are six in total, two of which are available weekly. Obtaining every Elemental Well mod from this season will take three weeks.
Season Of The Splicer
Once you upgrade your Splicer Servitor, run Corrupted Expunge three times a week to get your hands on some high-stat armor, focused Umbral Engrams, and currency needed to focus even more Umbral Engrams into high-stat armor. For solo players, this is arguably the best high-stat armor source in the game. Take advantage of that before it's gone.
You'll also want to complete the As Prophesied quest. Completing this quest gives an Ascendant Shard, and it can be completed on each of your characters.
Season Of The Lost
Obtain Ager's Scepter and its Catalyst before this season ends.
5 Farm For High-Stat Armor
After the ability balance pass that occurred in December, min-maxing your stats is more important than ever for getting the most out of your builds. Farm for high-stat armor now before The Witch Queen releases to be prepared. We have a complete guide on farming high-stat armor if you want more information on various farms, but we'll briefly mention a few good sources:
- Corrupted Expunge – This is the best high-stat source for casual players, bar none. Run this three times a week.
- Prophecy – Farm the final boss with a friend to get some good armor drops.
- Legend Dares of Eternity – If you can get a team for this, the armor drops from this are almost as good as Master VoG.
4 Unlock Every Elemental Well Mod
Elemental Wells have opened the floodgates to some absurdly powerful builds this season, and that trend will likely continue with the release of The Witch Queen. Unfortunately, we don't what will happen with Elemental Well mods once The Witch Queen releases, so it's best to get them now before they're gone.
Here's how you get them:
- Chosen: Acquired from the War Table vendor. This will take three weeks due to a time gate.
- Splicer: Earn Decrypted Data to increase your rank with the Splicer Servitor, unlocking Elemental Well mods with each rank.
- Lost: Earn reputation with the Wayfinder's Compass by completing quests and spending Parallax Trajectory. This will take three weeks due to quest time gates.
And if you've never messed with Elemental Well mods before, check out the links below for more information on this mechanic and Combat Style mods in general:
- A Complete Guide To Combat Style Mods
- Elemental Wells Explained
- An In-Depth Look At Every Elemental Well Mod
3 Earn Seasonal Titles
Seasonal titles are some of the easiest titles to earn in Destiny 2, making them a great pursuit for newcomers or bored veterans. The Warden, Chosen, Splicer, and Realmwalker titles will be unobtainable when The Witch Queen launches. If you care about titles at all or want an excuse to play Destiny during this waiting period, now's the time to complete these seals.
If you haven't started the title grind or need some tips, check out our title guides below:
- How To Earn The Warden Title
- How To Earn The Chosen Title
- How To Earn The Splicer Title
- How To Earn The Realmwalker Title
2 Farm For A Good Hawkmoon And Dead Man's Tale
For those who own Season of the Hunt and/or Chosen, farm for a good Dead Man's Tale and Hawkmoon before The Witch Queen releases. When that expansion launches, both weapons will be moved to the Exotic Kiosk. These two weapons are the only Exotic weapons in Destiny 2 that have random rolls. We have no idea how Hawkmoon and Dead Man's Tale are going to be treated when they're moved to the Kiosk, so it's best to farm for good rolls now before it's too late.
If you haven't farmed for these weapons yet or don't know what rolls are worth chasing, consult the guides listed below:
- Harbinger Mission Guide (Hawkmoon)
- Presage Mission Guide (Dead Man's Tale)
- The Best Hawkmoon Rolls
- The Best Dead Man's Tale Rolls
1 Save Bounties
When a new season begins, Guardians will be given a new Artifact and Season Pass to level up. Both of these progression systems are vital for getting the most out of a new expansion, which is why it's a good idea to save bounties beforehand. When a new expansion releases, you'll be able to turn in your bounties to get a massive chunk of XP, kickstarting your Artifact and Season Pass progression.
In general, you want to keep bounties sold by any of the Tower's ritual vendors—Zavala, Shaxx, the Drifter, and Banshee-44. You want to complete seven daily bounties from each vendor. This will give you progress towards that vendor's respective milestone weekly when The Witch Queen launches to help with leveling. Don't finish eight bounties. Turning in eight bounties won't give full credit, but seven bounties will. For excess bounties, grab daily bounties from planetary vendors—Eris, Devrim Kay, Failsafe, etc.
Also, it's important to note that you don't want to turn in your bounties until you've obtained the seasonal Artifact. You don't get it by default when a new season begins; you typically have to finish some introductory quest to receive it. Once you have the Artifact, slap on a Ghost Shell with an XP mod before turning in your bounties to give yourself a headstart.