What is Onslaught? Destiny 2’s horde mode, explained

Destiny 2 pulled a horde mode out of the hat for the Into the Light update. While fans theorized a wave mode might be coming based on promotional art, Bungie officially confirmed a horde mode in a livestream on March 19, showing it off live.

Onslaught will be released alongside Into the Light, and the broadcast showed off the mode’s basics. Though some questions—such as its drop pool—are still up in the air, the studio showed off more than enough for fans to learn it’s a good change to regular Destiny 2 gameplay, especially if coveted weapons such as Midnight Coup make the cut.

Here’s a breakdown of the Onslaught mode, how it works, and what you need to know before jumping into it on April 9.

How does the Onslaught horde mode work?

Warframe players may recognize similarities from Void Armageddon missions, but Onslaught colors in the broad strokes of any wave defense or horde modes in other games. The goal is to protect a defense unit called the ADU from an assault by the Witness’ forces.

Onslaught takes the form of wave defense, so players can face up to 10 waves in the playlist version and up to 50 in the Challenge version. The core objective of the mode is defending the ADU, and failing to do so will cause a wipe. Guardians can restore the ADU’s health by using pickups from enemies.

The Guardian isn’t the only weapon in Onslaught, though. Players can use a new resource called Scrap to buy and upgrade tools such as tripwires, decoys, and turrets, which will aid in protecting the ADU.

Onslaught has Lord Shaxx as a vendor, though it’s not the Crucible version of Lord Shaxx. This wouldn’t be the first time an NPC had two jobs: Xûr sells his goods on weekends, but he’s also the permanent host of Dares of Eternity.

How many players can fit in Onslaught?

Onslaught is a three-person horde mode, so bring your Nightfall squad or matchmake with two other guardians. There are a few different ways to approach it, with a regular, shorter Onslaught playlist and a challenge mode.

How many rounds are in Onslaught and how long do matches take?

A regular match in the Onslaught playlist has 10 waves, with a boss at the end. Challenge mode, on the other hand, goes up to 50 waves (or five groups of 10 waves, as Bungie called it). In the showcase stream, it took Bungie devs around 40 minutes to get to wave 35, so players can expect Onslaught to run on the longer side. With the success of the Coil (and, to a lesser extent, Deep Dives), the studio could explore longer activities, developers said at a press event in January.

This time, boss fights also have “augments” in them: secondary objectives that will make the fight easier if you complete them. The stream showed off a few: pools of Light that increase the damage you deal to the boss, Reinforcement that sends turrets to aid you if you capture areas, and even a variant of Rift in which dunking the Spark deals a chunk of damage to the boss.

The difficulty will climb as you make your way through the waves, with an onscreen message visible every 10 waves signaling the increase. This can go as high as Grandmaster level, Bungie said on the broadcast, so players must be prepared for a challenge if they make it all the way. After 30 waves, the area becomes a Darkness zone (so players can’t respawn unless revived by a teammate), and the Extinguish modifier is also active in the Challenge version. If the team is wiped, they’ll be sent to Orbit instead of retrying, so a failure means the end of that run.

Onslaught rewards, drops, vendor, and more

Onslaught takes place under the leadership of Lord Shaxx, who will have his space as a designated vendor for the activity. This is different from the regular Shaxx in the Crucible since his reputation in Onslaught is called Hype. The horde mode is also fundamentally different from the Crucible, so it makes sense to have different roles for Shaxx.

While the drops aren’t clear yet, players can expect the beloved Midnight Coup (Leviathan) to return, as confirmed on stream. The stream also showed developers getting drops of the immortal Hung Jury, which has been reissued more times than Taniks at this point. The details of Hung Jury’s return, as well as the fate of Midnight Coup, are still unknown, though Bungie will likely answer these questions in a subsequent stream.

What maps does Onslaught have?

So far, the stream showed off Midtown (using the eponymous Crucible map) and the inside of a Pyramid, which appeared to reuse Darkness areas already in-game (such as the corridors in Birthplace of the Vile). The developers teased that there will be more information coming in the next streams.