Destiny 2 guide: Guardian Games 2022

Destiny 2’s Guardian Games 2022 is shaping up to be quite similar to its 2021 predecessor, as Guardians compete to see which class will reign supreme and earn bragging rights for the next year. This year’s event runs for three weeks, from May 3-24.

As was the case in 2021, players can purchase specialty quests from “space grandma” Eva Levante to earn medals and help earn points for their specific class. Whichever class ends the day with the most points wins, and the class with the most wins by the end of Guardian Games 2022 will be declared the winner.

In this Destiny 2 Guardian Games 2022 guide, we’ll teach you how the event works, and all the various rewards you can get from it.

How Guardian Games 2022 works

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The main goal for Guardian Games 2022 is to earn medals — Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum — and turn them in to your class’ podium in the middle of the Tower. These medals each have a point value.

• Bronze: 1 point
• Silver: 2 points
• Gold: 5 points
• Platinum: 15 points

An easy way to earn medals — at least initially — involves Triumphs. There are several Guardian Games triumphs in Destiny 2 now, and you can access them by going to Triumphs > Season of the Risen > Guardian Games. Depending on the difficulty of the Triumph, you can pick up Bronze, Silver, Gold, or even Platinum as a reward.

Note that if you click on a Triumph that you’re working on, the game will track it for you, making it easier to check your progress.

However, if you only focus on Triumphs as the source of your medals, you’ll eventually run out. To continue earning medals for your class, you’ll need to complete Contender Cards from Eva. And to purchase Contender Cards, you’ll need Laurels.

Contender Cards and Laurels

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Laurels are a Guardian Games-exclusive currency that drop in Strikes, Gambit, and Crucible — note that your character will need to physically run over Laurels to pick them up in Strikes.

You’ll generate Laurels by getting ability kills or defeating tougher enemies. Note that you must be wearing your Guardian Games 2022 class item if you want to pick up or generate Laurels. Your special class item is the first thing you’ll pick up from Eva, so you can’t miss it. If you accidentally delete it, you can buy a new one from her in the Tower.

Once you’ve collected 100 or more Laurels, return to Eva in the Tower. You can trade Eva 100 Laurels for a Contender Card, angled toward Strikes, Gambit, Crucible, Savathun’s Throne World, or Psi-Ops. You can also give her 200 Laurels for a Platinum Card, angled toward Nightfalls, Trials of Osiris, raids, Lost Sectors, difficult Throne World activities, or high difficulty Psi-Ops. Completing a Contender Card will earn you a gold medal and Platinum Cards offer platinum medals.

These Cards give you a random objective for the activity you selected. A Strike Contender Card may ask you to defeat enemies in Strikes with Solar or Stasis damage, for example. When you complete your card, you’ll automatically get a medal deposited into your medallion case — an item in your quest inventory that displays how many medals and Laurels you’re currently carrying.

Once you have medals you want to turn in, return to the podium in the Tower and deposit your medals at your class’ designated section — Titans are red, Warlocks are yellow, and Hunters are blue.

You’ll get a few random items each time you turn in a medal.

Strike Scoring

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A new feature in the 2022 Guardian Games event is strike scoring via the Guardian Games: Recreational Playlist, the Guardian Games: Training Playlist, and the Guardian Games: Competitive Playlist. The Training Playlist is only available Tuesday through Thursday, with the Competitive Playlist replacing it the rest of the week. The Recreational Playlist is always active.

In all of these playlists, you can earn points and earn medals while playing the Strike. The higher your points, the higher your rank. By scoring in these playlists, you’ll earn various buffs that carry forward until the next weekly reset. Earning these buffs will also allow you to light torches around the tower and gain special glows on your character.

It’s not entirely clear what these buffs are or how they work yet, as the Competitive Playlist won’t be active until the weekend.

We’ll update this guide once we know more about this new feature.

The rewards

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Glory for your class is nice, but what about tangible rewards?

The Title submachine gun is the new hotness with Guardian Games 2022 and you can get it in a variety of ways. You’ll get your first one by completing Eva’s introductory quest, Best in Class. This is the tutorial Guardian Games quest, so just follow the instructions and the explanations above.

The Title was initially bugged, but has since been fixed. It now drops randomly when you turn medals into the podium. The more points the medal is worth, the more likely you are to earn another roll of the submachine gun.

As for why you’d want this Void submachine gun: It has a unique origin perk called Classy Contender, which causes kills to give Class energy.

Note: As of this writing, The Title is bugged and not dropping

Next, Guardian Games is still the best time to pick up the Heir Apparent Exotic machine gun. Bungie first added this Exotic during Guardian Games 2020, but it was tough to get. It now has a quest you can complete, and we have a guide to get you through it.

Once you have the Heir Apparent, you can also unlock the Heir Apparent Catalyst during Guardian Games 2022. Check out our guide for the Heir Apparent Catalyst.

The new Unauthorized Departure Exotic ship is the long-term reward for Guardian Games 2022 this year. To earn it, you’ll need to complete the Medallion Stallion Triumph. This multi-tiered Triumph will require you to turn in a lot of medals over the course of the event, and higher tier medals will earn you more progress.

Those are all the Guardian Game specific rewards for this year’s event. You’ll need to claim all of these rewards before May 24, when the event — and the season — ends.