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 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, 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 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? (May 14 to 21)
- Challenge: Keep of Honed Edges
- Entrance: Harbinger’s Seclude (Rheasilvia)
How to find and complete the Keep of Honed Edges Ascendant Challenge in Destiny 2
The Keep of Honed Edges Ascendant Challenge is located deep within Rheasilvia, in the Harbinger’s Seclude. Head to the central area of the Dreaming City and go through the large building on the other side of the entrance, which will lead you into the right area.
Follow the hallways of Harbinger’s Seclude until the end, leading you into a bridge with a Techeun statue. If you’ve taken your Tincture of Queensfoil, look for a portal above the statue’s head, and find an invisible platform to the right of the walkway to start climbing into it.
Once inside, Keep of Honed Edges is one of the more straightforward Ascendant Challenges. It’s time to use the Hive’s Sword Logic against them (well, the “sword” part, anyway). Take the enemies out, then pull the sword in the middle of the room and use it against the enemies that spawn. This includes the Hive Knights that were just sitting there calmly. Heavy attacks can stagger enemies and your Super can be a boon, so use both to gain an edge.
Once you’ve finished taking down the Knights and their minions, a portal will appear far across from you. Use your newfound Hive instrument to sword-fly across the gaps, but pay attention to the floating rocks that can wipe you. Reach the ledge with the Portal, loot the chest, and you’re done.
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.
