Destiny 2: Guardian Games Guide (2024)

What Are the Guardian Games?

The Guardian Games are a competitive, community-driven event that pits each class against one another. It requires you to pick a class to participate with as you earn Medallions and complete mini-quests to help your class reign supreme (you can also play on all three classes, but it’s best to just pick one unless you plan on playing a ton). It’s a free event for all Destiny 2 players that adds additional pursuits for PvP, PvE, high-tier activities like Raids, as well as limited-time Guardian Games playlists.

If you’re interested in what’s new this year, look no further! Here’s a brief rundown of the new additions to the Guardian Games formula this year.

For details on any of these additions, check the section for them further down in this article!

Click below to navigate to them.

• New Vehicle Type – Skimmer 🠗
• New Guardian Games Weapon 🠗
• New Playlist 🠗

How to Access the Guardian Games

You won’t be able to immediately jump into the Guardian Games activities. Instead, you’ll need to complete the “Best in Class” quest from Eva Levante. This will give you the new class item for this year and walk you through the basics of participating in the event. Here’s how to complete it:

1. Speak to Eva Levante at the Tower

Head to the Tower and speak to Eva to kick off the quest and collect your class item. When you speak to her, she’ll give you the “Best in Class” introductory quest. You’ll have to complete this quest before jumping into the rest of Guardian Games, but luckily it’s really easy.

2. Complete the “Best in Class” Quest

There are two objectives to this quest. The first is to complete any Guardian Games activity with your new class item equipped. Pretty simple stuff. The second objective is to acquire a Guardian Games Medallion. These can be obtained in Guardian Games playlists, and you only need to earn one for this part of the quest. You can get both objectives done in one run without much difficulty.

Chat with Eva once again to receive the Medallion Case, which allows you to store Medallions earned in Guardian Games playlists. From here, Eva will ask you to speak to Zavala and Shaxx to get the next two quests you’ll need, “Shoot to Score” and “Vying for Supremacy” (more on these in a moment). To finish “Best in Class”, just collect those two quests and return to Eva for a reward. The reward is the new Strand Scout Rifle, Taraxippos. If you want more info on that weapon, just check a bit further down for a full breakdown!

3. “Shoot to Score” and “Vying for Supremacy” Quests

These two quests aren’t really quests at all. They’re more of a scorecard for Guardian Games. Each quest has 15 steps, broken down into three sections. There are three weeks total to Guardian Games, and each week we’ll be able to complete 5 steps of these quests. These steps are also very simple and shouldn’t take long to complete. All you have to do is reach certain score thresholds within Guardian Games activities (bronze, silver, gold, and platinum tiers). Once you get to platinum in an event, you’ll have to wait until the next week to progress the quest any further.

The “Shoot to Score” quest is tied to the Guardian Games: Competitive playlist. The other one, “Vying for Supremacy”, is associated with the Supremacy PVP mode (more on that just below as well).

4. Getting Ready for the Games

Once you have access to “Shoot to Score” and “Vying for Supremacy”, you’re ready to get started in the Guardian Games! Keep reading for info on the different playlists, currencies, rewards, and more that you can expect from this event.

Medallions

As mentioned before, Medallions are basically the points you earn to help your Class compete. You’ll also earn specific rewards whenever you deposit them, with the chance for legendary weapons.

Now, there are several types of Medallions that you can collect based on the activities you decide to play. The easier it is to earn, the less valuable it is. The order (from least to most valuable) is bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.

To earn these Medallions, you’ll just have to continue playing Guardian Games activities. You can earn them from completing Eva’s bounties and contender cards, playing activities, completing event challenges, and more. Focus on the higher-tier Medallions when possible, but don’t forget to make frequent Tower trips to deposit the less valuable ones. Those Bronze Medallions stack up quick and you can only hold 5 at a time.

Contender/Platinum Cards

Completing Contender and Platinum cards is the best method to gain Medallions. You can acquire them from Eva Levante at the Tower, and there are several to choose from. The only differences between these cards is that Platinum Cards are generally harder and give Platinum Medallions, while Contender Cards are easier but give Gold Medallions. It’s also worth noting that these cards just appear as bounties in-game. Once you claim them, they go into the bounties section with all the others.

When you go to select a card from Eva, all you’ll know is what activity you will have to complete the card in. For Platinum Cards, the options are Trials, Nightfall strikes, raids, Neptune activities, seasonal activities, and lost sectors. For Contender Cards, you can choose from Vanguard, Crucible, Gambit, seasonal activities, or Neptune activities.

Be sure to stick with Contender Cards that you can complete quickly and hit areas of the game that you want to play. Other than that, just swing by often to pick up more Cards whenever you complete another one. This is easily the best way to collect Medallions.

Playlist Options

This year’s Guardian Games has more options than last year, so it’s even more complicated than before. When you look at the Tower, you’ll see three nodes for Guardian Games activities. These are Supremacy, Guardian Games: Recreational, and Guardian Games: Competitive. Let’s take a look at all three and their various options.

Guardian Games: Competitive and Recreational

These are the main two Guardian Games playlists for PVE content. The competitive version features a single Nightfall strike with modifiers and everything you would typically expect from a Nightfall. It also has strike scoring, which forces players to actually fight enemies instead of speed-running. To get the Platinum score threshold, you’ll have to clear all the adds, kill all the Champions, and do some emoting to get there. If you emote before finishing an enemy, you get the Insult to Injury medal. It gives a lot of points and it’s the easiest (and funniest) way to farm points.

The recreational playlist also grants Medallions, but doesn’t require you to complete a Nightfall-level strike. Instead, it features all the strikes currently available in the Vanguard Ops playlist. It’s easier, but gives less rewards. It’s more beneficial overall to run the Competitive playlist, but if you’d prefer easier clears, the recreational one is great for that.

Both of these playlists also have several options to choose from with only minor differences. Competitive has the standard competitive mode which forces each team to include one of each class, a normal version that has standard matchmaking, and a non-matchmade version for pre-made teams. The recreational playlist has the same options, except no non-matchmade option. For both playlists, you will receive one extra Bronze Medallion if you play the Guardian Games special matchmaking version (the one with class-based matchmaking).

Supremacy (Crucible)

Supremacy is a pretty simple game mode. It’s essentially a team deathmatch mode, but you have to pick up “crests” dropped by defeated enemies to score points. You can also pick up the ones your teammates drop to deny your opponents points. It’s the same as Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty, if you’re familiar with that franchise.

This is a great option for collecting fast medallions if you’re skilled at Crucible, and it’s also a ton of fun. There isn’t much reason to hate Supremacy really, unless you just dislike PVP in general.

Gambit: Class vs Class

If you like a bit of both PVP and PVE together, Gambit joins the Guardian Games playlist this year for a good mixture of both. It’s still just Gambit (which I personally think still has potential, but not unless Bungie actually pays attention to it), but more options for farming are always welcome. It would have been nice to get some real Gambit reworks or updates to go along with this, but maybe we’ll get those another time (with a huge emphasis on “maybe”).

Event Challenges

Event challenges are extra objectives to complete across all the activities in Destiny 2. They give various rewards, from currencies to Medallions. These challenges are also the same ones required for the “Champ” title, so you can get both done at once! Here’s a quick list of each event challenge for Guardian Games 2024.

• In It to Win It – Earn a Medallion from activity completions.
• Bronze – Bank Medallions at the podium at the Tower to gain progress.
• Silver – Bank Medallions at the podium at the Tower to gain progress.
• Gold – Bank Medallions at the podium at the Tower to gain progress.
• Platinum – Bank Medallions at the podium at the Tower to gain progress.
• In the Cards – Complete Contender/Platinum Cards.
• Medal Mania – Earn Vanguard medals.
• Elements of Victory – Defeat enemies with elemental abilities or weapons.
• Good Games – Defeat targets in any Guardian Games playlists.
• Class Pride – Complete Guardian Games activities with special class-based matchmaking.
• Friendly Rivalry – Complete Gambit, Crucible, or Supremacy matches.
• Worlds Championship Tour – Complete activities on destinations such as Blind Well, Altars of Sorrow, Empire Hunts, Wellspring, Partition, and Terminal Overload.
• Circuit Training – Complete runs of Dares of Eternity, Vanguard Ops playlist activities, or seasonal activities.
• Crest Collector – Collect Crests to score points in Supremacy. Complete runs of Dares of Eternity, Vanguard Ops playlist activities, or Defiant Battlegrounds.
• Champ – Complete all Guardian Games 2023 event challenges.

How to Get the Skimmer

By far, the most exciting part of this year’s Guardian Games is the newly-added Skimmer. The Skimmer is the first alternative to the traditional Sparrow that we’ve ever gotten, so it’s a big deal. The Skimmer functions like a hoverboard, and it’s much more stylish and flashy than its counterpart. While I personally doubt the Skimmer will fully replace the Sparrow, it’s great to finally have a new kind of vehicle to drive around. It’s a lot more fun to traverse old areas in a new way, so something like this is definitely a welcome addition to the game.

If you want to get the Skimmer, all you have to do is complete the “Best in Class” quest (details on that quest are available further up in this article). However, there is also an Exotic version that you can unlock by completing the “Drop In” quest. To do that, all you have to do is complete one of the three following objectives (not all three):

• 1200 Medallion Score
• Earn a top 10% score in Nightfall challenges
• Open 3 Focus Activity winner packages

Hullabaloo

This year’s new weapon is a fun one to say. Hullabaloo is an Arc Grenade Launcher with an interesting set of perks that allow for builds that feel very different from one another. Chain Reaction is by far the best PVE perk in the second slot, but for the first, Auto-Loading or Voltshot works great. Auto-Loading Holster allows you to avoid reloading entirely, and Voltshot gives you buffs every time you do so. You can take your pick, but I personally find Auto-Loading the more consistent option for most Grenade Launchers, especially since Chain Reaction already handles most of the adds that Voltshot would be hitting anyway. There’s no PVP roll here unfortunately, but most Grenade Launchers aren’t cut out for the Crucible anyway, so that’s not a huge surprise.

PVE God Roll:

• Chain Reaction
• Auto-Loading Holster or Voltshot
• High-Velocity Rounds
• Volatile Launch or Confined Launch

Taraxippos

Taraxippos is a Scout Rifle that looks almost identical to Hung Jury, with a slightly different pattern. While it might not look that unique, though, it’s a welcome addition to the game. It was the first Strand Scout Rifle we got, and it’s a solid weapon for any content. It has a nice mix of PVE and PVP perks, including some standouts like Keep Away, Hatchling, Explosive Payload, and others. Here’s both the PVE and PVP god roll for Taraxippos!

Taraxippos PVE God Roll

• Explosive Payload or Precision Instrument
• Fourth Time’s the Charm or Enlightened Action
• Tactical Mag, Appended Mag, or Flared Magwell
• Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake, or Chambered Compensator.

Taraxippos PVP God Roll

• Kill Clip or Explosive Payload
• Zen Moment, Keep Away, or Moving Target
• Accurized Rounds
• Corkscrew Rifling, Arrowhead Brake, or Hammer-Forged Rifling

The Title

Returning from last year’s Guardian Games, we have The Title. This version of The Title is much more fitting for its role as a handy Void weapon for add-clear. Since it has the Destabilizing Rounds + Repulsor Brace combo, it’s perfect for tearing through mobs at light-speed and staying alive with ease while doing it. While it’s not likely to be the at the top of the meta, I think we’ll still see a lot of people with really awesome The Title builds in raids. Plus, this version is also slightly better in PVP since it has better perk options.

The Title PVE God Roll

• Destabilizing Rounds
• Repulsor Brace
• Alloy Mag, Ricochet Rounds, or Armor-Piercing Rounds
• Arrowhead Brake or Chambered Compensator

The Title PVP God Roll

• Rangefinder
• Dynamic Sway Reduction or Perpetual Motion
• Ricochet Rounds or Extended Mag
• Arrowhead Brake or Chambered Compensator

Heir Apparent 

The Heir Apparent Exotic Machine Gun and Catalyst make a return with this year’s games. Thankfully, there’s a specific quest you can take on to unlock the weapon. Heir Apparent is one of the coolest Exotics in the game, thanks to the massive shield you get while spinning it up. It’s great in certain PVE activities, and it’s amazing in PVP since the shield makes you almost unkillable. I highly recommend picking this one up while it’s here, otherwise you’ll be locked out of unlocking it for a whole year.