Destiny 2’s Ascendant Challenges are one of the several moving parts involving the Dreaming City’s intricate Curse, which envelops the area in a three-week time loop.
The curse ranges from weak to strong to strongest, and each cycle brings players a ton of treasure to hunt for—if they’re brave enough to dive into the Ascendant Plane in search of riches. Destiny 2 has a total of six Ascendant Challenges, which rotate every week. They are a surefire source of Dreaming City gear, including reissued versions of Waking Vigil, Tigerspite, and Twilight Oath. Finishing an Ascendant Challenge grants a piece of Legendary gear, but players can get their hands on an extra drop if they have Petra Venj’s weekly bounty.
Ascendant Challenges yield one piece of gear each week, plus another from Petra’s bounties. Those objectives are character-based, meaning players can get six pieces of Dreaming City gear from Ascendant Challenges alone.
To find the entrance to the Ascendant Challenge, players must consume an item called Tincture of Queensfoil, available from Petra Venj for 50 Baryon Boughs or found in chests throughout the Dreaming City. Each Ascendant Challenge will have its own entrance, and though the challenge itself changes every week, its entrance will remain in the same spot whenever it pops up.
What is this week’s Ascendant Challenge in Destiny 2? (Dec. 19 to 26)
- Challenge: Ouroborea
- Entrance: Aphelion’s Rest (The Strand Lost Sector)
How to find the Ascendant Challenge
Ouroborea is located within the Aphelion’s Rest Lost Sector in the Dreaming City. From the Divalian Mists landing zone, head to the Strand and find the large gazebo where Petra is every three weeks. The entrance to Aphelion’s Rest is below it, and you can find the Ascendant Portal in the ramp leading to the boss.
Enter the portal to spawn in an area filled with crystals protected by shields. You’ll have to destroy Taken Blights spread across the area, which are somewhat hard to spot in the darkness of the Ascendant Plane. Turn up your brightness if you have to, then destroy the Blights. Once you’ve taken them down, the shield around the crystals will dissipate. Destroy them all and you’ll wrap up another Ascendant Challenge.
How to get Dreaming City gear in Destiny 2
Dreaming City gear got another revamp with Season of the Wish, making those weapons even more relevant. While they still performed decently, perks like Voltshot on Waking Vigil can give them even more of a fighting chance. Blind Well continues to be a good source of the new gear, and some Season of the Wish activities can also drop the reissued weapons.
If you want to earn Dreaming City gear from exploration, though, Petra offers a weekly bounty for completing the Ascendant Challenge, which will award you with an extra piece of gear for your trouble. Each week, she’ll also offer a bounty that costs Dark Fragments and yields an Offering to the Oracle. Taking the reward to the Oracle in the Spine of Keres will give you an extra drop and, on weeks where the Curse is strongest, will let you visit Queen Mara Sov’s throne room. You can also find an Ahamkara Bone there if you’re hunting for Cursebreaker.
In addition, check out Petra’s bounties every day for a daily objective that gives out gear, as seen in its tooltip. Finishing eight daily bounties and doing Petra’s weekly quest will also yield Dreaming City gear if you have bought the objectives.
Like Ascendant Challenges, these are on a weekly lockout per character; you can accomplish them more than once a week as long as you’re not on the same Guardian.
