Destiny 2 guide: What is the weekly reset?

Destiny 2, like many massively multiplayer online games, operates with a weekly reset of progression and rewards for certain activities. But if you’re new to the game — or new to the MMO genre, or MMO-style games — you might not be familiar with the concept. And there are some quirks to the way Destiny 2 handles the setup, so let’s dive in and explain it all!

When is Destiny 2’s weekly reset?

Destiny 2 actually has a daily reset for a few activities. The daily reset time will change depending on whether daylight saving time is active. From March to November, during daylight saving time, the reset will occur at 10 a.m. PDT. From November to March, while daylight saving time is not in effect, the reset will occur at 9 a.m. PST.

The weekly reset will occur at those times every Tuesday.

Why do these reset schedules exist?

Yes, Destiny 2 is a game focused on grinding: repeating certain activities so you can get better and better loot, and therefore raise your character’s power level higher and higher. But Bungie wants to put some limits on repeating these activities, because it evens out the endgame grind.

Bungie/Activision

Think about it: If you could do the Nightfall strike five times in a single day and get high-level gear every time, you would (A) reach the power level cap within a few days, which Bungie doesn’t want, and (B) quickly burn yourself out on Destiny 2. Plus, this system would create a further distance between players who have all the free time in the world and those who can’t afford to invest every waking hour into the game.

What changes at the daily reset?

Progression and rewards for challenges and replayable Adventures will reset every day.

Challenges are essentially the replacement for Destiny’s bounties — goals like “complete three Patrol missions on [insert world here].” At the daily reset, you’ll get new ones for each destination, and for activities like strikes and Crucible matches.

Adventures are basically side quests. Once you’ve completed all of the Adventures on a particular world, you’ll be able to replay up to four of them per day by visiting that destination’s vendor. The selection of missions is what will change at the daily reset, and of course, you’ll be able to get more loot by playing the next day’s quests.

What changes at the weekly reset?

For much of Destiny 2’s post-campaign phase, you’ll be doing activities like Lost Sectors, Public Events and strikes to raise your power level. But once you get to a high enough power level — above 260 — you’ll have a relatively limited variety of worthwhile exercises available to you, if you care about continuing to raise your power.

Bungie/Activision

The high-level activities in Destiny 2 are guaranteed to drop Powerful Gear — weapons, gear and engrams of a legendary (purple) or exotic (yellow) rarity. Once you’re at 260 power, these items will drop at a power level of at least 265, so you’ll want to do these activities as often as possible.

Progression and rewards associated with the following activities will reset every week in Destiny 2:

• weekly milestones: “Call to Arms” Crucible milestone, destination Flashpoint milestone, Clan XP milestone, weekly challenges milestone
• Meditations for Ikora Rey (the set of campaign missions that you can replay)
• Eververse Bright Dust inventory (the stuff Tess Everis sells for Bright Dust)
• Clan XP rewards (the ability to receive loot when other members of your clan complete certain activities)

Note that legendary engrams from destination vendors like Devrim Kay will always scale to your power level. You’ll be able to earn them whenever you have enough destination tokens to turn in; they’re not tied to the weekly reset.

Bungie/Activision

The weekly reset is when a new strike will be chosen as the Nightfall, and when a new destination will be chosen as the setting for that week’s Flashpoint. Cayde-6’s treasure chests will move to a different world, and you’ll be able to get loot from them once again. In addition, the Well Rested buff, which triples your XP gains for the week’s first three levels — i.e., the first three bright engrams you earn — returns at the reset. It’s also when the weekend exotic vendor, Xur, will depart from the game, and when Trials of the Nine, the weekend Crucible event, will end.

• Xur: arrives at daily reset on Friday, leaves at weekly reset
• Trials of the Nine: begins at 10 a.m. PT on Friday, ends at weekly reset

Of course, the weekly reset also applies to Destiny 2’s raid, Leviathan. If you’ve completed any sections of the raid that drop loot, you can replay them at any time, but you won’t get loot again for doing so until after the next weekly reset. Speaking of which, raid progress is wiped out with the weekly reset. So if you’ve gotten through some of the raid but haven’t finished it by Tuesday morning, you’ll have to start from the beginning after the reset.

In addition, any keys you’ve earned from raid chests — e.g., a Drain Key or Engine Key — will disappear from your character’s inventory at the weekly reset. Note that this does not apply to Emperor Calus Tokens, which drop from raid chests and are used to buy raid gear at the raid vendor; they don’t expire.

Update (Jan. 8, 2018): Bungie changed the reset times in early December 2017 with the release of Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris. We’ve now edited the article to reflect this.