How to complete each week's Ascendant Challenge in the Dreaming City.
Our Destiny 2 Ascendant Challenge guide contains an overview of how Ascendant Challenges work and will be updated with how ways to complete Ascendant Challenges each week.
If you manage to complete the Awoken quest line and reach Forsaken’s endgame area, the Dreaming City, then you’ve reached the tip of the iceberg. It’s an enormous space that’s Bungie has filled to the brim with secrets, puzzles and activities which will keep players discovering content over the next few weeks, months and maybe even years.
Among the Dreaming City’s elusive secrets are Ascendant Challenges. These are weekly tasks hidden away in the depths of the city and require a special item to even have a chance of stumbling into one. That’s right, you’re not even given the challenge, so much as thrown into it when exploring and fulfilling the right conditions.
Below we’ve put together a guide which contains each week’s Ascendant Challenge and the various ways of completing them all.
Make sure you check out our Ace of Spades Quest guide if you want to get your hands on Cayde’s Exotic Hand Cannon!
UPDATE: We’ve overhauled this article with “how-tos” for every Ascendant Challenge currently in Destiny 2, along with the weeks they’ll be active.
How do Ascendant Challenges work?
There are total of 6 Ascendant Challenges which rotate each week, and we’ve broken down how they work just below.
- To access Ascendant Challenges, you will need to have gained access to the Dreaming City. If you’ve not done so, our Awoken Quest guide has you covered on this front.
- Once you’ve gained access, you’ll need to visit Petra and accept her Ascendant Challenge Weekly Bounty.
- Next, you’ll a special consumable item called the Tincture of Queensfoil. It’s a random item that can drop from chests in both the Dreaming City and throughout the game world in general. There seems to be a higher drop rate from Region Chests in the Dreaming City, so this is your best bet.
- When you use these Tincture potions, you’ll be able to see special secrets and portals that’ll lead to these Ascendant Challenges within the Dreaming City.
- Complete an Ascendant Challenge and you’ll be rewarded with Powerful Gear.
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 6
Weeks Available
- 1st January – 15th January reset
- 19th February – 26th February reset
- 2nd April – 9th April reset
To complete the final Ascendant Challenge in the weekly rotation, you’ll need to head on over to Rheasilvia, which is over to the north of the Dreaming City.
As per usual, pop a Tincture of Queensfoil and locate the portal in the first area which is tucked behind a large circular arena filled with Hobgoblins.
Jump through and you’ll reach the Cimmerian Garrison. Run and platform your way along the largely linear route, being careful not to fall off or get caught out by large mobs. Take your time and pick them off from a distance, or opt to zip past them – it’s your call.
Once you’ve reached the end, you’ll need to eliminate an Ascendant Knight. We’d recommend popping your Super straight away and letting loose on the boss and the mobs which’ll spawn in. Switch to a power weapon to finish it off, wait for the chest to spawn and collect your reward!
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 5
Weeks Available
- 25th December – 1st January reset
- 12th February – 19th February reset
- 26th March – 2nd April reset
For this challenge you’ll need to head to the Bay of Wishes which is located just behind the primary landing zone in the Dreaming City. Once you’ve landed, pop your Tincture of Queensfoil, turn around and head into the nearby Lost Sector.
Just make your way through the Lost Sector as normal and keep an eye on your right for the portal. Don’t worry about clearing enemies here, it’s better to just run and jump past them all considering you’re main aim here isn’t Lost Sector completion.
Once you’re inside the Ascendant Realm, the whole challenge revolves around following the orb of light all the way down to the bottom. It’s actually pretty simple, just take your time and make sure each of your jumps are all nicely timed to avoid falling to your doom. Some of the later platforms rotate slowly, so don’t get too hasty!
When you’ve reached the bottom, you’ll face off against some powerful Wizards so pop your Super and whip out a Shotgun or Power Weapon to clear the area quickly.
KackisHD’s video is a perfect video guide to Week 5’s Ascendant Challenge. If you found it helpful, do make sure you give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to the channel for more insightful Destiny 2 content.
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 4
Weeks Available
- 18th December – 25th December reset
- 5th February – 12th February reset
- 19th March – 26th March reset
To complete Week 4’s Ascendant Challenge you’ll need to head over to Harbinger’s Seclude, pop a Tincture of Queensfoil and scale quite a finicky statue in order to jump through the usual portal.
Once you’re in the Ascendant Plane follow the floating orb and hop across the platforms until you reach a large circular arena containing a number of strong hive enemies. First off, you’ll need to eliminate a wave of Wizards, Thrall and a number of Acolytes. Trigger this encounter by attacking any of the enemies in the centre.
We’d recommend either staying on the move, or taking refuge on one of the side paths that branch off from the main arena as all the enemies will funnel towards you and make it easier spray them down.
Complete this step and you’ll be prompted to pick up a Hive Relic Sword from the centre of the arena. Be warned, as once you do this you’ll trigger the final boss wave. All of the yellow bar Hive Knights will spring to life, as well as the usual mobs of Hive too. Time to start swinging!
The key here is to keep on the move and take swings when you’ve got enough armour and health to afford being static for a second or two. Thankfully sword swings stagger the knights, so don’t be afraid to get up close and personal and chain big hits to chunk their health bars fast.
Once you’ve cleared the room, you’ll then need to do a bit more platforming and slashing, except this time it’ll be a much easier to fall into the abyss below. Time your jumps right, and even go about changing your glide or equipping boots that’ll give you maximum air time to avoid any mishaps.
Open the chest at the end and you’ll be done! Make sure to check out the video by Esoterickk as it’ll give you a complete walkthrough of what to do and where to go. It’s also worth subscribing to their channel as it’s filled with brilliant Destiny content.
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 3
Weeks Available
- 11th December – 18th December reset
- 29th January – 5th February reset
- 12th March – 19th March reset
This week’s ascendant challenge is located in the Spine of Keres. Remember the introductory mission to the Dreaming City? Well, we want to double back all the way to this starting area before popping your Tincture of Queensfoil.
Dive into the portal and you’ll notice a large spire with a broken spiral staircase leading all the way to the top. Your aim is to race your way to the top, avoid the bombs and eliminate the Taken Phalanx at the peak – and that’s it!
Honestly, just ignore all the enemies on the way to the top and pop your Super once you’ve reached the boss. Simple.
PlanetDestiny’s got a great video outlining the process which we’ve linked above. Do make sure you give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing if you found it useful!
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 2
Weeks Available
- 4th December – 12th December reset
- 22nd January – 29th January reset
- 5th March – 12th March reset
Courtesy of Arekkz, here’s how to complete this week’s Ascendant Challenge. We’ve linked his video down below, so if you found it helpful, do make sure to give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing if you’re after more content like this.
For those of you who can’t watch the video for whatever reason, here’s a quick breakdown of all the important steps:
- Speak to Petra and purchase her Ascendant Challenge Weekly Bounty. It reads, “At the overlook’s edge, the garden grows onwward”.
- Spawn into the Dreaming City, head right into the cave and upon exiting the cave take another right. This’ll lead you up a long winding path into the Gardens of Esila.
- Pop the Tincture of Queensfoil item.
- The portal you need to go through is nestled on the left side of this area. Keep an eye on the cliff edge and you’ll spot it eventually.
- You’ll spawn in a vast space with three Orbs dotted around the edge and a huge blight in the centre. Your aim here is to grab each of the orbs and dunk them in the middle of this area.
- Be mindful of the Blight fields as they’ll slow you down.
- Once you’ve dunked all the orbs it’ll spawn a bunch of powerful Taken Knights who are capable of one-shotting you if you’re not 520+ Power Level. However, a big pool of light will spawn in the centre of the room which will recharge your Super in seconds. Dip in and out of this, clear the room and you’ve completed the challenge!
Ascendant Challenge: How to complete Week 1
Weeks Available:
- 15th January – 22nd January reset
- 26th February – 5th March reset
Credit goes to both mrwhizkid97 and Houndish for all the info.
- There’s a Lost Sector located to the East of Petra’s location in the Strand. It’s just behind her, below the cliff edge where she stands.
- Pop your Tincture potion and move inside. You’ll bump into a Taken Portal, so hop in!
- You’ll be transported into a darkened room called Ouroborea. It’s filled with pillars and a number of floating crystals at first glance, but turn around and you’ll see a number of Taken Blights.
- Destroy 4 Taken Blights which are all located in the corners of the room. Once you’ve done so, a message will pop up in the bottom left corner of your screen which says “ A seal breaks. An opportunity.”
- At this point, move towards the middle and begin destroying the crystals in the centre. Once all the crystals are destroyed, you’ve completed your first Ascendant Challenge!
- A chest spawns in the centre of the room and should contain a piece of powerful Dreaming City gear – very nice indeed.
