Destiny 2’s Solstice of Heroes summer event gets a big rework next week

It’s summer time, which means Destiny 2’s usual summer event — Solstice of Heroes — is about to make its triumphant return. Starting July 19, the Tower will become host to flowers, topiaries, and everyone’s favorite space-grandma/holiday vendor, Eva Levante. Solstice is a two-week period that will last until Aug. 9. Destiny 2’s 18th season.

Solstice of Heroes is expected to help you upgrade your armor. The armor will glow white at the end, with players able to use real money for colored glows.

Solstice of Heroes this year will feature two new features, the event card, and high-stat armour rolls.

Image: Bungie

Bungie had already announced the Event Card system in January, and Solstice 2022 is the first holiday that will implement it. The Event Card is free for all players, lives in the quest menu (or at Eva Levante), and it houses all the challenges and triumphs for the event — it also houses the new Solstice of Heroes 2022 seal, which will eventually lead to a yearly holiday seal in 2023. Guardians will be able to use Event Tickets and special rewards from these challenges in order to buy other rewards.

There is a catch: the Event Card has a paid track. By purchasing the Event Card for 1,000 Silver, players will get a special bundle of summer-themed items (like the alarming “Hot Dog Eating Champ” emote seen above) and the ability to spend their Event Tickets on exclusive rewards.

Image: Bungie

Another big shift is in armor upgrading. Players will still spend their time evolving their armor as usual, but once they’ve fully leveled up their Solstice gear, they’ll be able to re-roll their armor for more desirable stats. It involves several steps.

1. Complete Event Card Challenges to earn Kindling, a currency that Guardians can use to gain a brand new currency called Kindling
2. This Kindling can be used by players to increase their Solstice armor’s potential stat threshold of up to three.
3. To re-roll their upgraded armor, players will need to earn Silver Leaves from Destiny’s usual activities and then transform the leaves into Silver Ash via the Bonfire Bash activity
4. Guardians can use their Silver Ash to re-roll individual armor pieces until they’re perfect
5. You can repeat the steps with different pieces or only steps 3 and 4 for pieces within the same slot.

The new system represents a major departure from Solstice of Heroes previous years. Veteran players should find the event easier and more interesting. It’s impossible to know just how easy it’ll be to get perfectly rolled armor until the event launches next week, but this sounds like Guardians’ best bet at stocking up on stats before Destiny 2: Lightfall’s launch sometime next year.