Destiny 2: Rite of the Nine Event Guide

Rite of the Nine Vendor, Gift from The Nine, and Currency

At the event destination, you’ll find a floating vendor named The Emissary, who “speaks for the Nine.” There are a few things available for purchase from them. The most important are the event bounties, which grant XP and Nonary Manifolds (more on those later). You can also find the rewards for completing various challenges here, which include the Astrograph shader and two emblems. There are also some quests to pick up from them, which simply prompt you to complete the dungeon encounters in exchange for more rewards. Make sure you come here and grab these before going straight into the dungeons.

Also available on this destination is a “Gift from The Nine.” This chest can be found directly to the left of The Emissary and grants you max level (2020) gear so you can go into the event at maximum level. This is great for returning players who haven’t gotten to the max level this season and new players who are just starting out as well. Plus it has the Izanagi’s Burden Exotic sniper and some Exotic armor as well.

And lastly, let’s take a look at the currency for this event. It’s called Nonary Manifolds, and you can get it by completing bounties and from event dungeon encounters themselves. You can then exchange these Manifolds for weapons, which I’ll discuss in the next section.

How to Farm Event Weapons

To farm event weapons, all you’ll need is the Nonary Manifolds currency. Once you have some of those, just head to the right of The Emissary and check out the chest over there. From this chest, you can purchase weapons for 250 Manifolds each. However, you can also attune weapons to increase the chances of getting what you want from the chest. It’s not quite a 100% chance, but the odds are really high that you’ll get the attuned weapon.

You can also get adept weapons from the chest, which give you adept mods and better stats. Honestly, I’d say that while the adept versions are obviously better, there isn’t a huge difference in the normal and adept versions. They’re worth having, but I wouldn’t spend countless hours farming for an adept if I get the normal one I want first. That being said, adept weapons might get changes with the next expansion, so if you have the time, then it might be worth farming for them specifically.

Dungeon Schedule and Changes

The biggest part of this event is the fact that the featured dungeons will be slightly changed from their original versions when you play them at higher difficulty levels. We don’t know the exact schedule for which will be featured each week, but we do know that Spire of the Watcher is first and Ghosts of the Deep and Prophecy are coming up next.

The changes in these dungeons are pretty significant, but they don’t change the encounters entirely. In Spire of the Watcher, most of the changes were just a couple new minibosses sprinkled throughout the encounters and a new mechanic which requires you to activate nodes (and shoot Akelous’ eyes) in a specific order. In general, these mechanics are pretty easy to figure out by using the symbols provided during the dungeon, but it can take a while to get used to. It adds some extra stress, but once you get the hang of the symbols, it’s a breeze.

I’ll come back and add some more information for the other dungeons once we get access to them in future weeks.

Dungeon Modifiers and Difficulties

The last thing to take a look at are the modifiers for each dungeon. There are three difficulties to try out, each with increasing difficulty.

Explorer Difficulty

Explorer difficulty is the easiest of the three. The only modifier is one called “Explorer Mode”, which basically makes everything easier. It features fixed power, no darkness zones (no wipes if your whole team dies), and enemies are weaker. It also grants a damage bonus when your fireteam has less than three members, so it’s much easier to solo in this mode than the normal dungeon. The only downside is that you can’t progress triumphs or gain the dungeon Exotic in this mode. It’s a great way to learn the encounters, though, and there’s matchmaking too. There aren’t any changes to the actual encounters here, though, so you’ll still have to learn the new changes in the harder difficulties.

Eternity Difficulty

Eternity is the middle difficulty and has the following modifiers:

• Eternity Mode: More difficult, but completing an encounter with less deaths grants better rewards.
• Boosts Gained: Higher chance to get dungeon Exotics.
• Brawn: Health is increased but does not regenerate. You can defeat challenging combatants to restore health.
• Randomized Banes: Enemies are granted random banes.
• Shocker: Goblins spawn Arc pools that deal damage to you over time.
• Shielded Foes: Some enemies have Arc and Void shields.

Ultimatum Difficulty

Ultimatum is by far the hardest difficulty and has the following modifiers:

• Ultimatum Mode: The hardest difficulty. Completing encounters with less deaths grants better rewards, and you can also receive adept weapons.
• Notswap: Swapping Exotic armor or ammo type in the Kinetic or Energy slot drains all ability energy.
• Ultimatum from the Nine: Activity is at a fixed, very high difficulty.
• Boosts Gained: Increased chance to get dungeon Exotics.
• Scorched Earth: Enemies throw more grenades.
• Randomized Banes: Enemies have random banes.
• Galvanized: Enemies are harder to stun and have more health.
• Shocker: Goblins spawn Arc pools upon death.