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 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 that 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. These weekly objectives are also a prime target for stacking bounties since you can have up to six weeklies total–one for each Ascendant Challenge.
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, consume an item called Tincture of Queensfoil, available from Petra Venj or found in Dreaming City chests.
Each Ascendant Challenge has a 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? (Aug. 13 to 20)
- Challenge: Agonarch Abyss
- Entrance: Bay of Drowned Wishes (Divalian Mists Lost Sector)
How to find and complete the Agonarch Abyss Ascendant Challenge in Destiny 2
The Agonarch Abyss Ascendant Challenge brings another platforming section for players who want to take on the Dreaming City’s secret activities. Start at the Divalian Mists landing zone and turn around to enter the Bay of Drowned Wishes Lost Sector. Pop a Tincture of Queensfoil and progress through the area until you spot the portal above the sands.
Once inside, Agonarch Abyss is a downward jumping puzzle. Warlocks and Titans have easy ways to bypass this with Heat Rises with Dawnblade and Lion Rampant with sword-flying. Hunters can also skip a lot of the puzzle, but it likely takes some shatterskating.
The goal is to get to the gazebo at the end of the Ascendant Challenge. Once you’re there, you must face a couple of (squishy) bosses to wrap up this objective.
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).
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.
