How to use the Hammer of Proving in Destiny 2: Season of the Chosen

The Hammer of Proving is the new seasonal tool in Destiny 2. Similar to Season of the Hunt, you’ll be using the Hammer of Proving to get yourself some Season of the Chosen gear and targeting specific items. And like the Lure from Season of the Hunt, it’s a bit complex to wrap your mind around at first.

Here’s a quick look at how Season of the Chosen and the Hammer of Proving work.

Getting some gold

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The Hammer of Proving needs charging. Once you pick it up from the season’s opening quest, you’ll need to find some Cabal Gold to charge it and start the cycle.

You get Cabal Gold by completing a variety of activities in Destiny 2 — namely Strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit. A Strike will net you about 14 Cabal Gold near the start of the season, while a Crucible match starts off giving eight. You’ll earn nine from Gambit. This number will increase over the course of the season and you’ll unlock some new perks that offer bonus Cabal Gold.

With 14 Cabal Gold in hand, you can place a Medallion into your Hammer by interacting with it. Before upgrading the Hammer of Proving, you’ll only have access to the Etched Challenger Medallion.

Once you’ve spent your Cabal Gold on a Medallion, it’s time to dive into Battlegrounds.

Into the Battleground

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Battlegrounds are the new seasonal activity in Season of the Chosen. It’s a short, two-objective activity that pits you against a massive army of Cabal. You’ll need to clear out an area, throw some bombs at a generator, and then defeat a big boss. They take about 10 minutes and they’re a ton of fun.

Once you beat the boss, four chests will appear. The first chest is like the chest at the end of a Strike — relatively worthless. But you can only open one of the other three chests per run — each member of the Fireteam gets their own chest — and only if you have a Medallion slotted into your Hammer.

With your Medallion in place, slam the Hammer of Proving through the box and you’ll get a few things: a Season of the Chosen piece of loot and a Hammer Charge.

Spending your Hammer Charge

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Depending on how upgraded your Hammer is, you can hold several Charges at once. You’ll use these Hammer Charges to focus loot at the Prismatic Recaster in the H.E.L.M.

After you find an Umbral Engram (a completely random drop, as far as we can tell) take it to the Prismatic Recaster in the H.E.L.M. If you’re looking for a piece of random loot you can find in the world, you can refocus your Umbral Engram into a Worldly Weapons or Worldly Armor engram (requiring just a handful of Legendary Shards). You can even get a Chosen Implements Engram for free, but it will randomly choose between a Chosen weapon or armor piece.

If you specifically want a weapon or a piece of armor, you’ll need those Hammer Charges. With an Umbral Engram in hand, you can spend some Legendary Shards and a single Hammer Charge to focus that Umbral into a Chosen Arms or Chosen Regalia Engram. The Arms Engram will drop a Season of the Chosen weapon, while the Regalia Engram will drop Season of the Chosen armor.

But you can also reduce the loot pool even further. Tier 2 focusing requires you to complete certain objectives, but allows you to focus an Engram so it’s only one of two items, or a specific stat on a piece of gear. For example, if you kill 750 enemies with either the Season of the Chosen bow or sniper rifle, you can focus an Umbral Engram to be a Far and Fatal Engram. This Far and Fatal Engram costs three Hammer Charges, but it’s guaranteed to drop either the Season of the Chosen bow or sniper rifle.

By completing secondary objectives (like 2,100 enemies with the sniper or bow) you can unlock Tier 3 focusing for the Umbral Engram of your choice. These cost five Hammer Charges, but they come with a perk choice in the final column — meaning you could choose if you wanted something like Frenzy or Vorpal Weapon, depending on the activity you were running.

The armor pieces also offer Tier 2 and Tier 3 focusing, but it’s mostly just for a specific piece of armor in a certain slot or giving your armor a good stat roll in something like Intellect.

With your Hammer of Proving out of Charges — or if you run out of Umbral Engrams — you can start the cycle all over again. Get gold > run a Battleground to get loot and a Hammer Charge > focus on Umbral Engram with your Hammer Charges > repeat.

What are the best upgrades for the Hammer of Proving?

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To upgrade your Hammer of Proving, you need War Table Reputation for the H.E.L.M. War Table Reputation is time-gated, meaning you can only get so much a week, unless you fall behind. You get War Table Reputation from the new Seasonal Challenges system. Open your quest menu and you’ll see it at the very top.

During Season of the Chosen’s first week, there are three War Table Reputation Challenges, and you upgrade your Hammer of Proving three times by completing them all. They’re relatively easy, like collect 100 Cabal Gold or getting 75 rocket launcher kills after completing the main quest. When you complete these Challenges, you’ll earn War Table Reputation, level up your War Table, and gain a point to spend on your Hammer of Proving.

To upgrade your Hammer of Proving you need to go to the War Table. You’ll have to start with the middle perk, but then you can move right or left depending on the upgrades you want. We recommend moving right first, as you’ll get upgrades that let you hold more Cabal Gold and Hammer Charges at once. Once you’ve finished all your Seasonal Challenges that grant War Table Reputation, you’re done upgrading your Hammer of Proving until the next week.

Note: You cannot miss out on these Challenges. Bungie will add more Challenges over time but the Seasonal Challenges do not expire until the end of the Season.

And that’s the cycle for the Hammer of Proving. Complete your Seasonal Challenges to make the Hammer more powerful, and just play Destiny to gather up your Cabal Gold. Eventually you’ll unlock the ability to focus more Umbral Engrams into the loot you want with your powerful Hammer of Proving.