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 that 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 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? (Sept. 26 to Oct. 3)
- Challenge: Ouroborea
- Entrance: Aphelion’s Rest (Strand Lost Sector)
How to find the Ascendant Challenge
The entrance to the Ouroborea Ascendant Challenge stands in the Aphelion’s Rest Lost Sector on the Strand, which is fairly easy to find. You’ll find the entrance to it below the large gazebo close to the exit to Rheasilvia. Get inside and look for the Ascendant Portal on the slope leading to the boss room.
Once you’re inside Ouroborea, you’ll have to destroy the Taken Blights spread all over the area. This will lift the shields from the crystals in the middle room, which will let you destroy them. Once all the crystals are destroyed, the portal will open, allowing you safe passage back into the Dreaming City.
You can always use an Eager Edge sword and turn up your brightness if you’re struggling to traverse the area or even see it in the first place (ah, the joys of the Ascendant Plane).
How to get Dreaming City gear
While Dreaming City gear used to have limited sources, Bungie has opened up a few different ways to get those pieces after they were reissued and with the addition of a few new elements to Destiny 2. The Blind Well will drop Dreaming City loot on completion, and in weeks where the Shattered Throne dungeon is the featured raid, players can get loot every time they clear an encounter.
If you want to earn Dreaming City gear from exploration, though, Petra Venj 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.
