With Destiny’s April Update, it’s time to tackle the next challenge Bungie can offer up, which means it’s time to dive headlong into the aptly named Challenge of the Elders. An updated version of the Prison of Elders from House of Wolves, Challenge of the Elders is a 3-person, 320 light level endgame activity that puts a unique spin on the original wave smashing goodness.
While the traditional Prison of Elders itself has received a level 41, 260 light level rebalancing, Challenge of Elders is its own beast. Forgoing the original format, Challenge of Elders pits guardians against only three rooms of enemies, but each room features its own boss.
Bungie has said that there will be 16 unique combinations of bosses and modifiers. Though unclear as to exactly how many of each that actually means, the fact Challenge of Elders is meant to be at least a little different each week is obvious.
How to Score Points
Before getting into the action, everyone has to pick up an Elders’ Sigil, a scorecard of sorts. Much like the scorecard for Trails of Osiris, you can find it in the Reef. Visit Varicks, and the Elders’ Sigil will be right near the top of his offered items. When you first pick it up, the scorecard will list 0/30,000 High Score and 0/90,000 Cumulative Score.
And that’s what makes Challenge of the Elders just a bit different from any of the other endgame tasks Destiny has featured. In order to get loot, it’s not just about surviving or killing everything. It’s instead about surviving, killing everything, and scoring well.
Everything you do in Challenge of Elders will give you points. Assists give the fewest, then normal kills, then higher amounts of points for melee kills, grenade kills, and super kills. Even dropping orbs gives you points. Each week, a different modifier will give a specific boost to a certain type of kill. While it remains to be seen what the future modifiers will be, the first week grants a point bonus for precision kills, offering substantially more points for each one you can pull off. Additionally, the number of points given for each action increases with each of the three rooms you enter.
Be careful, though. Wiping and even taking too long on any of the three bosses will result in points being taken away. If that happens, a notification will come up in the lower left hand corner of the screen explaining that Varicks is becoming impatient and your score will decrease if you take any longer.
How to Get Loot
Scoring systems are good and all, but how does that equal loot? This is where the Elders’ Sigil comes in. At the end, after making it through all three bosses, the usual treasure room doesn’t open up. Instead, it comes down to if you completed the High Score and Cumulative Score portions of your card.
While the in-game score screen does show individual scores, it’s actually only the full fireteam’s score that counts. Each time you finish the Challenge of the Elders, your score is measured against the highest score any fireteam you have been a part of has achieved that week. This determines your High Score. If any run results in a score of over 30,000 you can return to Varicks and he will present you with a new weapon with the chance of up to a 335 light level.
Just running through and killing the bosses, however, is not enough to guarantee 30,000 points. Making sure to kill as many adds as possible in the ways that give the most points is the only way to grab the high score. Considering each room ends when the boss dies, a viable strategy is to get the boss down to very low health and just kill adds until Varicks warns he is becoming impatient.
Also, due to the fact that it’s the full team score that matters, making sure every member of the fireteam gets as many assists as possible will bring in more points than each individual member killing enemies on their own. If one player kills an enemy while the other two both get assists, it results in roughly twice as many points as your team would have gotten for that specific kill otherwise.
Since the awarded points change with each successive room, it can be hard to gauge your progress. A good set of benchmarks to aim for is at least 5,000 points in the first room and 15,000 by the end of the second, leading, hopefully, to a solid 30,000 when all is said and done.
Even if it’s more time consuming, the 90,000 Cumulative Score is much easier to reach on the other hand. Unlike the High Score, it carries over from run to run, even across different fireteams. Say you try Challenge of Elders twice, scoring a total of 25,000 both times. Changing to a different fireteam, you then run it a third time and knock it out of the park with a whopping 40,000 points. Not only would the 40,000 satisfy the High Score requirement, but it would match the 90,000 Cumulative Score requirement when added to the 50,000 you already had. Return to Varicks and a new high-level piece of armor will be waiting.
Scores will reset each week, meaning Varicks can give each character only one weapon and one piece of armor. Even if you delete your Elders’ Sigil and pick up a new one, your scores still persist.
As we continue to explore the new content introduced in Destiny’s April Update and embark on the long road to 335, you’ll find everything you need to know right here on Twinfinite.
More on Destiny
- Destiny: How to Get a Taken Sword, The Dreadfang
- Destiny April Update: How to Get the Exclusive Sparrow
- Destiny April Update: How to Start the New ‘At the Gates’ Quest
- Destiny April Update Trailer Highlights New Challenges and Rewards
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