Destiny 2 will buff Menagerie loot, but only if players kill a metric butt-load of Hive

News
By published

Hive season starts September 3, and participating players will get a special emblem

(Image credit: Bungie)

Bungie's rolling out a few extra Destiny 2 events this summer to help fill the small void created by the Destiny 2 Shadowkeep delay. With the Hive-themed expansion now arriving on October 1, the studio's officially declaring Hive hunting season open from Tuesday, September 3 through September 10. Players will have a week to complete several community-wide challenges, kill a butt-load of Hive, and earn some unique seasonal rewards in the process, including improved Menagerie loot for the remainder of the Season of Opulence.

As Bungie explained in a recent blog post, the Destiny 2 community will face five challenges come September 3. Those are:

  • Defeat 175,000 Wave 7 Escalation Protocol bosses
  • Defeat 300 million Hive on Mars
  • Defeat Nokris in the Strange Terrain Nightfall Strike 150,000 times 
  • Defeat Xol in the Will of the Thousands Nightfall Strike 100,000 times 
  • Use 300,000 Override Frequencies on Mars 

That is a lot of Hive, and quite a lot of Nightfalls as well. Destiny 2 Twitch streamer Gladd shared some quick math on Twitter to show how much work, on average, individual Guardians will need to put in to clear these goals within a week: 

The thing is, at this point in the game, most players are pretty good for powerful gear and Strike-exclusive drops, meaning running Nightfalls isn't that appealing. The Escalation Protocol weapons can't be modded and the activity won't start dropping Destiny 2 Armor 2.0 gear until after Shadowkeep arrives, so it isn't terribly rewarding either. 

With that in mind, Bungie's sweetening the deal with a unique emblem (pictured below) available to anyone who completes at least one Mars Nightfall during Hive week. More importantly, it's offering greatly improved Menagerie chest rewards. 

(Image credit: Bungie)

"If the community reaches all the above goals, Calus will unlock additional rewards for successful Menagerie completions," Bungie says. "Starting when goals are met, players will be guaranteed two rewards when slotting their runes and opening the chest, and an additional reward will be added each Friday for the remainder of the Season."  At that rate, players could receive up to five drops from the Menagerie chest by Friday, September 27, which is pretty comparable to the activity's buggy but glorious heyday. If you're planning to get back into the Menagerie grind, check out our guides to the best Destiny 2 Menagerie weapons and all the Destiny 2 Menagerie rune combos and recipes. 

This'll be an interesting experiment for the Destiny 2 community. It's sort of like a Kickstarter, but instead of money, Bungie's collecting dead Hive. Wow, that came out more gruesome than I'd planned. Anywho, there's no denying hardcore players are kind of strapped for new things to do, and together with stuff like Iron Banner weeks and activity reputation boosts, this could be a nice tide-me-over for Shadowkeep. 

Here's everything you need to know to set up Destiny 2 cross save and prepare for the Destiny 2 Steam transfer. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.