Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes 2019 armor guide: How to upgrade armor efficiently and get all the Solstice rewards

The Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes 2019 event is now in full swing. It'll continue through Tuesday, August 27, so you've got less than a month to grind out its special armor sets. And I do mean grind - getting a full set of Legendary Solstice armor is no joke, to say nothing of Masterworked armor or multiple sets. With that in mind, in this guide we'll go over everything you can earn in the Solstice of Heroes and the most efficient ways to upgrade your armor. 

What do I get from the Solstice of Heroes? 

The Solstice of Heroes is all about armor. If you grind your pants off, you'll wind up with a set of stunning Masterworked Legendary gear which you can further upgrade with spiffy neon ornaments sold at the Eververse store. And if you get Legendary armor on all three classes - you absolute maniac - you'll also unlock the new Solstice sparrow.

Notably, this armor will be compatible with the Armor 2.0 system coming in Destiny 2 Shadowkeep. As Bungie said previously, if you earn the armor now, you'll receive an updated set of armor from the Gunsmith when Shadowkeep arrives. This will give you a head start on the new expansion, and it'll help you get used to Armor 2.0, so it's well worth getting at least one full set. 

The Solstice of Heroes armor is also tied to the Moments of Triumph event. The last two Triumphs require you to fully upgrade one set of armor to Legendary (Majestic) quality and Masterwork one piece of it. So if you want the MMXIX Seal and Title, you'd best get on the armor grind. 

On top of those achievements, once you obtain a set of Majestic armor, you can grind out additional pieces in the hopes of rolling Enhanced perks. It's unclear how the rolls on your Solstice armor will affect the Armor 2.0-compatible set you receive in Shadowkeep, if at all, but I'll never turn down enhanced perks.  

How do I get the Solstice of Heroes armor? 

To start your armor grind, talk to Eva Levante in the middle of the Tower. She'll give you a Drained Helmet. You need to finish the helmet's objectives to get the rest of the Drained armor set, so knock them out ASAP. They'll vary slightly depending on which class you play, but they're all pretty easy. Once you finish them, return to Eva to pick up the full Drained set.  

What's this European Aerial Zone thing? 

The European Aerial Zone is the new activity in Solstice of Heroes, and it's essential to armor upgrades. You can access the EAZ from the Tower Directory. It's a timed, three-player, matchmade activity set in a reworked version of the EDZ. When you load in, mini-bosses will start spawning around the map. Split up and use the Fallen transmat beacons to get around quickly, that way you can maximize your mini-boss kills. Once the timer runs out, a big boss will spawn in the middle of the map. After you kill it, a chest will spawn in the middle of the map and then more chests will spawn throughout the map - one for each mini-boss you killed. Everyone gets loot whenever a chest is opened, so split up and open as many chests as possible before time runs out. 

In a nutshell, the EAZ is about killing mini-bosses as fast as possible, melting a boss, and then opening chests as fast as possible. Don't bother with the normal enemies - you can kill those in other activities, namely ones that don't have timers. Just focus on boss DPS and learning the map. You're going to need to do a lot of EAZ to upgrade your armor, and you'll need to do even more afterward if you want to grind for more armor pieces with different or Enhanced perks. 

How do I upgrade the Solstice of Heroes armor?  

Each piece of armor has multiple objectives attached to it, only some of which involve the EAZ. Remember, you need to be wearing the armor to get credit for objectives, so I'd advise keeping armor pieces equipped until they're finished. Once you finish a piece, you can swap in your normal gear or your favorite Exotic without fear of missing progress. 

Once you complete all the objectives on all of your current armor pieces, head to the Tower and Meditate at the statue next to Eva. This will upgrade your set to the next tier, at which point the grind starts all over again. You'll start with Drained armor, then move onto Renewed armor, then finally you'll get Majestic armor which you can then Masterwork. 

Armor objectives differ slightly between classes, but they're basically just the same challenges rearranged and with their elements changed. Most of them are also self-explanatory, but some have a few caveats to them or are less clear than others. Let's go over those first: 

• Open Solstice Packages: these are obtained from the chests in the EAZ, and can be opened using the key fragments awarded from virtually any activity. 
• Complete Solstice of Heroes bounties: these are sold by Eva Levante - five per day, plus one weekly bounty. 
• Do X as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn: the Elemental Burn is shown in your character screen under buffs.  
• Defeat mini-bosses in the EAZ: you have to damage the boss to get credit for the kill, so counterintuitively it's best to stick with your teammates for this objective. 
• Collect X Elemental Orb type: the subclass you have equipped and the element of your weapon determines which type of Elemental Orb you generate on kills, so match your loadout to your objectives. You must pick up orbs to get credit, not just generate them - and grab them fast because they disappear stupid fast. 
• Do X in Gambit or Crucible: Elemental Orbs will not drop in Gambit Prime or Competitive Crucible, so go for normal Gambit and Quickplay. 
• Complete any bounties: the Renewed sets require you to turn in bounties, so grab all your bounties - Vanguard, Crucible, Gambit, Dreaming City, hell even planetary bounties - when you first get your Drained set, and then turn them in once you have the Renewed set. 
• All objectives: playing with people who are working on the same objectives as the same class will create more Elemental Orbs for everyone, so group up if you can. 

With that out of the way, here are all of the Solstice of Heroes armor objectives for each class:  

Hunter - Drained 

• Helmet: Complete EAZ runs / Get precision kills / Kill Fallen 
• Arms: Complete playlist Strikes  / Collect Solar Orbs in Gambit / Open Solstice Packages 
• Chest: Open chests in the EAZ / Collect any Elemental Orbs in any activity / Kill EAZ enemies as a Solar subclass
• Boots: Complete Nessus Public Events / Complete Solstice of Heroes bounties / Kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit
• Class: Complete Adventures / Collect Arc Orbs in Strikes / Complete Crucible or Gambit matches

Hunter - Renewed 

• Helmet: Complete any bounties / Loot EAZ chests / Get Arc weapon kills
• Arms: Complete Heroic Public Events / Collect Arc orbs in any Strike / Kill Cabal as a Subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn
• Chest: Complete Gambit matches / Collect Elemental Orbs as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / Get Void grenade kills 
• Boots: Complete daily or weekly challenges / Kill enemies in playlist Strikes as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / As a team, kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit with Void weapons 
• Class: Complete EDZ Patrols / Collect any Elemental Orbs in the EAZ / Defeat mini-bosses in the EAZ

Warlock - Drained

• Helmet: Complete EAZ runs / Get precision kills / Kill Cabal
• Arms: Complete Playlist Strikes / Collect any Elemental Orbs in any activity / Kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit 
• Chest: Complete Adventures / Collect Arc Orbs in Crucible or Gambit / Open Solstice Packages
• Boots: Open chests in the EAZ / Collect Solar Orbs in Strikes / Kill EAZ enemies as a Void subclass
• Class: Complete Nessus Public Events / Complete Solstice of Heroes bounties / Complete Crucible or Gambit matches 

Warlock - Renewed 

• Helmet: Kill enemies in playlist Strikes as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / Collect any Elemental Orbs in the EAZ / Defeat mini-bosses in the EAZ
• Arms: Complete any bounties / Collect any Elemental Orbs as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / Kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit using Solar weapons 
• Chest: Complete Gambit matches / Complete daily or weekly challenges / Get Void weapon kills
• Boots: Complete Heroic Public Events / Collect Solar Orbs in any Strike / Kill Hive as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn 
• Class: Complete Titan Patrols / Loot EAZ chests / As a team, kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit with Arc Supers

 Titan - Drained 

• Helmet: Complete EAZ runs / Get precision kills / Kill Hive
• Arms: Open EAZ chests / Complete Solstice of Heroes bounties / Kill EAZ enemies as an Arc subclass 
• Chest: Complete Adventures / Collect Solar Orbs in Strikes / 
• Boots: Complete Nessus Public Events / Collect Void Orbs in Crucible or Gambit / Open Solstice Packages
• Class: Complete playlist Strikes / Collect any Elemental Orbs in any activity / Complete Crucible or Gambit matches 

Titan - Renewed 

• Helmet: Complete Gambit matches / Collect Elemental Orbs as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / As a team, kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit with Arc weapons 
• Arms: Complete Heroic Public Events / Complete daily or weekly challenges / Defeat EAZ mini-bosses 
• Chest: Kill enemies in playlist Strikes as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn / Open EAZ chests / Kill Fallen as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn 
• Boots: Complete any bounties / Collect Void Orbs in any Strike / Kill enemies with Solar melee attacks 
• Class: Complete Io patrols / Collect any Elemental Orbs in the EAZ / Kill enemies with Solar Weapons 

All classes - Masterwork objectives 

Note that you can complete the Masterwork objectives on the Solstice armor at any time. You have until August 27 to upgrade the armor to Majestic, but you can Masterwork the armor at any point after that. 

• Helmet: earn 200K points or more in a Nightfall Strike (crank the modifier to 4.5 or higher and kill every enemy) 
• Arms: complete playlist Strikes with clanmates
• Chest: clear Shattered Throne with two or fewer players (Shattered Throne will be available from August 6 to August 12)
• Boots: reset your Valor (Quickplay) rank in Crucible 
• Class: defeat orange- or yellow-bar enemies 

OK, that looks really grindy. How can I upgrade my armor efficiently? 

The key to the Solstice of Heroes is multi-tasking. Look at all of your armor objectives - and inspect each piece for more details - and group your objectives together according to what they require and how they relate to your bounties. 

For the Titan Renewed set, for instance, it would be efficient to play Gambit using a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn with a Solar energy weapon and an Arc heavy weapon. This will enable you to progress multiple objectives simultaneously: complete Gambit matches, kill Guardians in Crucible or Gambit with Arc weapons, kill enemies with Solar weapons, and collect Elemental Orbs as a subclass matching the daily Elemental Burn. 

Let's look at another example, assuming you're done with your Gambit matches. For the EAZ steps on the Titan Renewed armor, we could match our subclass to the daily Elemental Burn depending on what other objectives we have, or we could focus on getting Solar melee attacks while prioritizing mini-boss kills and opening as many chests as possible. 

Likewise, for the Drained sets, while completing Heroic Public Events on Nessus, we should watch for high-value targets for one of the Solstice bounties, and we could even run an Adventure if there are no Public Events active. Similarly, it makes sense to save some easy daily challenges for the Renewed set, and maybe save your Nightfall run until you have the Majestic armor so you don't have to run it multiple times to hit that 200K mark. 

Ultimately, just stay on top of your bounties, progress multiple armor objectives wherever possible, and combine the armor grind with your daily and weekly challenges to make the most of your play time.