Solstice of Heroes: Armor Progression Guide

Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes event doesn’t start until next Tuesday, the 31st of July, but thanks to some API information that’s already been added to support the event, we can take a look at the requirements for progressing the armor set unique to the four-week-long celebration.

If you don’t yet know about Solstice of Heroes, Bungie’s post announcing the event is here.

What You’re Grinding For

The gear central to Solstice of Heroes is a full set of armor for each class. When the event starts, you can obtain your uncommon-rarity set from the Statue of Heroes, which will be located in the central spawn area of the Tower.

The set has four levels of progress:

An uncommon-rarity set that looks like the destroyed armor set from the opening missions of the Destiny 2 campaign, and is fixed at 200 Power;
A rare-rarity set that has the silhouette of the starting (non-destroyed) armor set from the opening of the Destiny 2 campaign, is completely white in color, and is fixed at 340 Power;
A legendary-rarity set that has additional ornamentation and patterns and is fixed at 400 Power; and
That same set, upgraded to be Masterworked. You cannot Masterwork this armor set using Masterwork Cores.

When you unlock a new tier, the previous tier of armor becomes available as a permanent cosmetic ornament. All Solstice armor sets can also unlock armor glow effects, which we’ll talk about in a later post on Eververse and Solstice of Heroes.

You must upgrade the armor one full set at a time. Armor upgrades are earned per-class.

You aren’t required to upgrade the armor at all or participate if you don’t want to. The event is optional. However, if you are chasing the maximum score in the Moments of Triumph for Year One, you’ll need to:

Raise one class’s set of the armor to legendary; and
Raise one armor piece to Masterworked.

What to Grind

For each level of armor upgrade, you’ll have a different set of objectives to complete. Up through the Masterworks steps, these goals are somewhat similar from class-to-class and can be obtained through most gameplay activities, though you will have to engage in specific activities for some of the armor pieces.

Requirements are per-class.

Let’s lay out the requirements based on attempting to upgrade the entire set from one tier to another, and attempt to provide a strategy for doing so. First, we’ll look at the requirements necessary for an entire set to move from one tier to the next, and then provide some strategies for optimization and helping others with accomplishing their armor progression.

Pre-Masterwork, you’ll need to:

Wear the entire armor set to generate Elemental Orbs, which are a new kind of drop that has not yet been announced or defined. The instructions for the initial helmet pieces indicate you’ll need to wear the full set to generate them at all.
Complete Redux Story Missions, which are a set of five specifically-chosen replay missions from the Destiny 2 campaign, with new enemies and higher difficulty.
Collect Elemental Orbs, sometimes in specific locations.
Score kills in Crucible PvP and win Crucible matches.
Defeat enemies, sometimes in specific activities or with specific abilities or weapons.
Complete Patrols, Strikes, Heroic Strikes, Nightfall Strikes, Heroic Public Events, Meditations, Adventures, and Challenges.

To complete the Masterworks, you will need to:

Complete the Prestige Nightfall at or above the bonus threshold. (The bonus threshold is 100,000 points.)
Complete Heroic Strikes in a fireteam that includes at least one clanmate.
Complete the Prestige raid “Leviathan.”
Achieve Legend in Valor Crucible ranks.
Defeat Ultras. (I think; the requirement says “bosses.”)

Only the Legend Crucible rank goal is retroactive. To obtain it, you’ll need to wear the full Legendary armor set and then complete one Crucible match for the requirement to “register.”

From Uncommon to Rare

To upgrade an entire set from uncommon to rare rarity, you’ll need to do the following:

Complete each Redux mission once.
Complete one Meditation.
Complete 10 Patrols.
Complete 10 Heroic Public Events.
Collect 150 orbs each from two of the three elements.
Collect 90 orbs from one element specifically in Strikes.
Collect 90 orbs from one element specifically on Earth.
Defeat 50 “minibosses.” (I am assuming these are Majors: un-named yellow health bar enemies.)
Score 10 kills by any method in PvP.
Score 30 kills specifically with your Super in PvP.

We can break these down into two classes of goals:

Specific activities you need to accomplish
Specific orb or kill counts you need to attain

The optimal way to accomplish this, especially in a group, will likely be:

Complete all Redux missions.
Complete the Meditation.
Complete the Patrols and Heroic Public Event goals in the EDZ.
Play PvP until you have completed the PvP requirements.
Run Strikes until you have completed the Strike-specific orb requirement.

As you run these activities, you should switch elements and subclasses as you need to for the generation of Elemental Orbs to gain ground on those tasks as well. Once you have completed the specific activity requirements, you can earn the remaining Orbs in any zone or method you choose.

Clans wishing to organize this step should break into:

Story mission fireteams
Patrol fireteams
Strikes fireteams
Crucible fireteams

From Rare to Legendary

To upgrade an entire set from rare to legendary rarity, you’ll need to:

Complete each Redux mission once.
Complete three Heroic Strikes.
Complete one Nightfall Strike.
Complete 10 Adventures.
Complete 20 Challenges. (This requirement is Hunter-only in the game text and may be an error.)
Defeat 500 enemies.
Defeat 200 enemies with a specific subclass’s Super.
Defeat 160 enemies with an Energy weapon of a specific element.
Defeat 120 enemies with a Grenade ability of a specific element.
Defeat 80 enemies with a Power weapon of a specific element.
Defeat 60 enemies with a Melee ability of a specific element.
Win 5 non-private Crucible matches.

This is the final list of tasks you will need to earn the 50-point Moment of Triumph for progressing one entire armor set to legendary rarity.

The optimal way to accomplish this based on the available information will likely be:

Complete all Redux missions.
Complete the Heroic Strikes.
Complete the Nightfall Strike.
Win 5 Crucible matches.
Complete 10 Adventures. (You can replay Adventures by visiting a specific location’s vendor.) While you are doing Adventures, you should attempt to complete that location’s Challenges for the day. Once you have completed a location’s Challenges, you should rotate locations for a new set and do Adventures there.
Complete the remaining of the 20 Challenges, if any.

As you run these activities, switch weapons and subclasses to use the ones prescribed by your class’s armor requirements. The elements are different for different classes.

Once you have finished the specific activity goals, you can complete the remaining ones in any order or method you like. Strikes or Lost Sectors combined with Public Events are probably very good activities to run that will give you ample opportunity to both stay topped up with ammo and give you things to shoot.

Clans wishing to help others through this step should break into:

Story mission fireteams
Strikes fireteams
Crucible fireteams
Patrol/Adventure fireteams

Any fireteams that have purposes overlapping with the previous tier should be able to successfully group together for purposes of sharing the activities and supporting each other.

Masterworks

The grind to Masterworks mostly revolves around pinnacle activities in Destiny 2.

Each piece of armor has a separate requirement.

Helmet: Complete the Prestige Nightfall at or above the bonus threshold. The bonus threshold is currently 100,000 points.
Arms: Complete 5 Heroic Strikes with at least one clanmate.
Chest: Complete the “Leviathan” raid on Prestige difficulty.
Legs: Achieve the Legend rank in the Valor Crucible rankings.
Class Item: Defeat 10 Bosses.

The easiest goal to accomplish for most players will be the Class Item, which requires killing 10 bosses. (These are unique-named yellow health bar enemies.) This goal can be accomplished solo.

The hardest goal for some players will be completing Prestige Leviathan, while the most time-consuming goal will be achieving Legend in Valor Crucible rankings.

Clans wishing to help their members with these requirements should break into:

Prestige Raid fireteams
Crucible fireteams
Strikes fireteams

More Information and Sources

Did you like this post or find it useful? Consider following me on Twitter or Twitch so you know when new guides have been posted. If you have corrections or questions, you can hit me with a reply on Twitter.

If you’d like to know more about the additional Moments of Triumph bounties that are releasing on July 31st, you can read my previous guide to them.

The data for the Solstice of Heroes armor pieces is easily-digestible at light.gg here, in the records for the Statue of Heroes vendor.

Bungie’s post announcing Solstice of Heroes can be found here, and their help page for the same event can be found here as well.

If you want to track your progress with the armor, Destiny Sets is likely to be helpful in doing so. I use it to track my progress with armor ornaments for all activities, and it updates more or less in real-time.

Need a group to run activities with? A good place to start is the100, which will try to sort you into a group automatically based on your play preferences and available times, and has a fantastic public LFG system. Find out more at this link.

Ryan Markel