Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Nightfall matchmaking and scoring explainer

Destiny 2’s new Shadowkeep expansion is full of new features, but some of the best ones are more subtle. Among these quieter changes is the addition of matchmaking to certain Nightfall Strikes.

Nightfall Strikes are Destiny 2’s hardest endgame Strikes. Often some of the game’s most powerful rewards are locked behind their completion. Until the launch of Shadowkeep, Nightfalls required a full Fireteam of three players to complete them (unless you liked making a difficult challenge even harder and going in with just one or two players).

Shadowkeep’s launch updated Nightfalls, though. They’re now called Nightfall: The Ordeal, and includes four difficulty modes. The lowest two difficulties both include matchmaking. These lower-difficulty Nightfall: The Ordeal Strikes have a Light requirement of 750 — the lowest possible light for Shadowkeep — and 920 for the one above it. They also have fewer modifiers than the higher Light Strikes and don’t give as much progress toward the weekly powerful reward. But you can still use them to complete anything that needs a Nightfall to unlock, from bounties to quests.

The one exception to this are the missions that require a certain score — usually 100,000. Because there are fewer modifiers on the lower difficulty Nightfalls, you also get lower scores from them. This means that the easiest and most consistent way to reach 100,000 will be with a coordinated team in one of the harder Nightfall: The Ordeal difficulties.

The two hardest versions of Nightfall: The Ordeal, which have recommended Lights levels of 950 and 980, will remain matchmaking-free for now. This means that players who want the additional challenge will still have to find teammates. But the addition of matchmaking to the lower difficulty Nightfalls should make the content more accessible to make sure that everyone is able to try them out.