Destiny 2’s Ascendant Challenges are among 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 you a ton of treasure to hunt for—if you’re brave enough to dive into the Ascendant Plane in search of riches. Destiny 2 has six Ascendant Challenges, which rotate every week. They’re 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 you can get your hands on an extra drop if you 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 you can get six pieces of Dreaming City gear from Ascendant Challenges alone.
To find the entrance to the Ascendant Challenge, you must consume an item called Tincture of Queensfoil, available from Petra Venj for five Legendary Shards or found in chests throughout the Dreaming City.
Each Ascendant Challenge has its own special entrance, and though the challenge changes every week, its entrance remains in the same spot whenever it pops up.
What is this week’s Ascendant Challenge in Destiny 2? (April 16 to 23)
- Challenge: Cimmerian Garrison
- Entrance: Chamber of Starlight (Rheasilvia Lost Sector)
How to find and complete the Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenge in Destiny 2
You need to go to Rheasilvia for the Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenge, but don’t forget to stop by Petra Venj in the Divalian Mists to grab her bounty. Head inside the Chamber of Starlight and kill the enemies that appear. If the second part of the Lost Sector is bugged, backtracking until you get a “the seam between realities begins to weaken” message usually fixes it for us. Don’t forget to drink a Tincture of Queensfoil before heading in.
The Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenge feels like an obstacle race, and that’s pretty much how you get through it. You’ll have to elude the Knights that follow you while defeating or avoiding the enemies in your way—which is thankfully easy to do since Forsaken content is easier than it was back in the day.
We recommend bringing a weapon or Exotic that lets you move more quickly, as well as an Eager Edge sword and an Indebted Kindness. There’s a boss at the end, but it’s so squishy you can probably get it down with one Super and some shots, so we’re aiming for mobility.
The biggest threat here is in the Shriekers that appear early on (which aren’t that dangerous), but Indebted Kindness takes them down in a shot or two. Keep on progressing through until you reach a cliff with Toland the Shattered (the floating ball of light) on it. From there, it’s a platforming race until you get to the island at the end. Some of the rocks move, so be careful when jumping on them. If you need to kill the Acolyte’s Eye that spawn, do so from solid ground. Eager Edge also helps here if you need a longer jump.
Get to the end, kill the boss, and get your Ascendant Chest.
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 (though its new power delta makes it more of a slog than before), and some Season of the Wish activities can also drop the reissued weapons.
Petra offers a weekly bounty for completing the Ascendant Challenge if you want to earn Dreaming City gear from exploration, awarding you an extra piece of gear for your trouble. Each week, she also offers a bounty that costs Dark Fragments and yields an Offering to the Oracle. Taking the reward to the Oracle in the Spine of Keres gives you an extra drop and, on weeks where the Curse is strongest, lets 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 awards gear, as seen in its tooltip. Finishing eight daily bounties and doing Petra’s weekly quest will yield Dreaming City gear if you purchase 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.
