Destiny 2 Dares of Eternity Explained — Bungie 30th Anniversary 6-Player Activity

Human Made

Penned by Kody Wirth

Kody is our expert Destiny 2 and shooter genre writer. He lives in Oregon.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

The Bungie 30th Anniversary Event is in full swing and is already blowing expectations out of the water. It features one of the best Dungeons released in Destiny 2, a slew of excellent weapons and armor referencing iconic Bungie titles, and of course, the new six-player activity — Dares of Eternity. 

While most six-player activities follow a somewhat similar formula, Dares of Eternity takes the best of previous events and adds a bit more flair. And there are plenty of bounties and rewards to keep you coming back for more. Here’s everything you need to know to get the most out of Dares of Eternity in Destiny 2. 

Popular Destinations..

Destiny 2 Waystone | Navigation Page

Destiny 2 Events Calendar: PvE, PvP, Lost Sectors, Weekly Loot, Xur (The Final Shape, Episode II)

What is Dares of Eternity?

Dares of Eternity is a six-player matchmade offensive activity that has you running through a Guardian gameshow hosted by Xur and Starhorse. It’s one of the most randomized events in recent memory, with each new round including different scenarios, buffs, enemies, and potential bonuses by the end. It’s made up of three action-based rounds, with a few instances of puzzle-solving platforming in between each major firefight. 

The best part of this whole thing is how Xur treats it like a game show. You’re spinning wheels, collecting bonuses, dealing with randomized encounters, and getting to know Starhorse. All in all, it’s a far more unique spin on what a matchmade activity can be, and there’s so much that goes along with it.

How to Complete Dares of Eternity

Dares of Eternity follows much of the same setup as Astral Alignment in Season of the Lost. It’s a set series of different offensive-based activities that lead up to a final boss encounter. However, unlike the Seasonal Activity — which has some randomized elements building to a final battle that cycles out every week — Dares of Eternity has a wider variety of randomized encounters it cycles through. It also features arcade-like buffs, which can provide speed, ability, and even health boosts.

Here’s what to expect at every stage, including what your potential options will be. 

1. Spin the Wheel

You’ll kick things off in the new social area that houses Xur, Starhorse, and all of the different chests you can unlock. You and your team can immediately head through the portal and enter a vibrantly colored area highlighted by a white landscape that’s strangely reminiscent of Europa. Take out the small amount of Taken in the area to have Xur introduce the enemy wheel.

Activate the wheel to see which enemy faction you’ll battle in this phase. You’ll have to defeat two waves of enemies within the time limit, the first being a regular horde-style fight and the second being an objective activity that changes based on the enemy type. Here are the different enemies you may fight and what your objective will look like.

• Fallen: Defuse a series of Fallen Mines by standing within the circles before their respective time limits run out. This should be familiar for those who have played the Warden of Nothing Strike or the original Prison of Elders activity.
• Hive: Destroy crystals by spawning Hive Wells to activate the Resonance buff. These can be created by defeating specific enemy types and require you to stand within a given range of the status effect circle.
• Cabal: Defeat Bombtenders to collect data cores that can deactivate the shields of Cabal Commanders. Eliminate all present Commanders to proceed.
• Vex: Defeat Headbearers to collect weapons that produce a continuous laser beam. Use these to destroy Gatekeeper shields and eliminate all enemies present.
• Taken: Destroy the Taken Blight by spawning and tossing Paracausal Energy. These are created simply by killing enemies.

2. An Obstacle Course

Once you’ve passed the first round, Xur will activate a traction cannon that launches you into the next area. This will kick off a platforming obstacle course filled with spinning platforms and pillars split into roughly three sections. You can’t die here — instead, if you make it all the way through without falling, you’ll earn the Starhorse’s Favor buff, which is simply an increase in defense and refilled Heavy Ammo.

3. The Wheel Goes Round and Round

The end of the platforming section will lead you into another room with yet another wheel. Activate the wheel to spawn the same types of enemy encounters from the first wheel, but with a second round that requires you to kill a miniboss by completing the same objectives. Unlike the beginning, this area is more enclosed and feels somewhat familiar to the Hive temple areas found on the Moon.

4. Pick a Door

Pass both waves and you’ll come across three doors with three faction options that you can choose from by standing in one of the circles on the floor. One of them will be the boss that you face — if you guess correctly, you’ll earn the Starhorse’s Favor buff once again. Just know that this part is completely random and there’s no secret or hint that will help you choose correctly. Walk on through the open door, complete a second shorter obstacle section, and enter the boss arena.

5. Final Boss

The final boss fight will have you take on a legacy enemy that Xur states is lost in time and space. What’s awesome about this is that each encounter will adopt gameplay features from their original boss encounter. Here’s who you can expect to fight and what each boss battle entails.

• Crota, Son of Oryx: This classic Hive Raid boss returns with the tried and true — take out a Knight, collect a sword, and start whaling on Crota. Eventually, Crota will summon multiple versions with separate health bars that you’ll have to take out separately. You can also take out Edgekeepers for an additional damage buff, but this isn’t required to defeat the boss.
• Zydron the Gate Lord: This Vex boss battle is all about avoiding being captured and breaking down the Gate Lord’s shields. This will spawn two Minotaurs which once destroyed will allow you to take down Zydron. It’s fairly straightforward and maybe one of the least challenging of the bunch as long as you don’t get caught in the Walls of Detainment too often.
• Valus Ta’aurc: Whether you wanted it or not, this Cabal boss is back. Immediately attack him until he spawns a shield and requires you to take out a bunch of Cabal Majors. Two shield generators will spawn and require you to toss explosive orbs that are dropped by eliminating enemies. This will drop his shield and allow you to start whaling on Valus until he drops. 

What is the Lightning Round in dares of Eternity?

Once you finish the final boss battle, you have the chance to randomly start a Lightning Round. This seems to be entirely random, with some players thinking everyone needs to make it through the obstacle sections without falling, everyone guessing the correct door, or potentially defeating a special enemy. None of this seems to stick as a consistent method, so your guess is as good as ours.

This final round has a slightly shorter time frame to complete and has you run through one of the objective-based rounds from before. Complete it and you’ll snag three additional chests as a bonus.

Destiny 2 Dares of Eternity Rewards

Completing Dares of Eternity nets you the following:

• Strange Favor (Xur XP)
• 1 Treasure Key
• Random assortment of Strange Coins
• Random piece of 30th Anniversary Gear

The Strange Favor XP system is basically a recreation of how it works for all other Vendors. The more you level up, the more rewards and bonuses you’ll unlock. You can also complete bounties from Xur to boost your XP increase.

Strange Coins are currency used to make purchases from Starhorse. This includes Starhorse Bounties which are activity-specific objectives that you can only hold one of at a time. These will reward you with additional XP and a Paraversal Haul that contains additional gear, Treasure Keys, and Strange Coins. You can also exchange them directly for resources, but it does require more Strange Coins than other purchases.

Treasure Keys are the items you really want to go after. These will open all of the chests scattered around the new social area that Xur and Starhorse are hanging around. Some are locked behind reputation levels as well, so try to stock up on as many as possible to keep unlocking chests as quickly as possible.

Is There a Higher Difficulty for Dares of Eternity?

Dares of Eternity does have a secondary difficulty mode known as the Legend difficulty. This version does not include matchmaking, requires you to be at least level 1320, and features Challenging Enemies that require Armor Mods to deal with. Aside from this slight difficulty increase and requirement to bring enough of your friends along to pass through, you can expect some fairly valuable rewards.

First, you get extra completion benefits toward Starhorse Bounties. Second, the armor you earn, known as Artifice Armor, rolls with higher base stats that feature an extra mod slot. These can be crucial when needing to stack seasonal mods to take on Barrier, Unstoppable, or Overload enemies.

Join the High Ground

Dares of Eternity represents the best of the best when it comes to offensive round-based activities in Destiny 2. It’s dynamic, challenging, requires cooperation, and is still quick enough to complete to run multiple times without getting bored. Plus, the reward system makes it well worth coming back to and fully unlock.

Be sure to let your Fireteam know what to expect from this new game mode by sharing this article on your favorite social channels, and sign up for our newsletter for the latest on Destiny 2. 

Happy gaming!