Iron Banner Guide

Iron Banner is a regularly recurring week-long live event in Destiny 2. It arrives at 17:00 GMT on the Tuesday of the first reset week of each month and continues until the same time next week. While it is active, all PvP activities give twice or thrice as much progress towards Valor ranks. However, the event’s main selling point is a new Crucible mode that is also called Iron Banner, which is based on Control but modified to be more challenging and dynamic. Like Trials of Osiris, it is a power-enabled activity, meaning that Power levels are allowed to affect gameplay. Also like Trials, it offers a wide range of unique rewards, obtained both by participating in matches and by completing special objectives.

How to Enter

The special mode is open to all players. You don’t have to own Beyond Light or any other expansion. There are no level-based restrictions either. To become eligible, you will simply need to play through the New Light introductory quest until you meet Lord Shaxx, who will introduce you to the Crucible. Afterward, whenever Iron Banner comes around, you would simply need to track down Lord Saladin in the Tower Courtyard so you could access the mode as one of the Crucible playlists. Note that you can play as part of a full pre-made team or through the solo queue.

Rules of the Game

The rules of Iron Banner are fundamentally similar to Control, which may be used effectively for PvP coaching before the main event. Two teams of six Guardians fight over three zones. The teams earn points by taking over zones and killing enemy players, with the number of points received for both activities based on the number of zones under their control. To capture a zone, Guardians from one team must stand inside it for a few seconds while keeping their enemies out. The first team to get the maximum amount of points wins, with a mercy rule letting the match end early if one team reaches 60% of the required score before the other team can get 20%.

That said, there are some differences from Control:

•  When one team controls three zones, the match enters a 25-second Hunt period during which zones can’t be captured and the team that controls them gets more points per kill. After the Hunt ends, all zones reset and can be captured again;
• All gear is influenced by Power: higher-level weapons do more damage and higher-level armor offers more protection. However, the Seasonal Artifact’s Power bonus does not apply;
• The final score goal is 125 points rather than 150, resulting in shorter games.

The score goals are as follows:

Tokens and Prizes

Iron Banner includes several prize mechanisms providing Powerful or Pinnacle rewards. The main one revolves around special Iron Banner Tokens, which may be earned in different ways. Simply participating in a game until its end will give you three such tokens, while a victory will yield five. You may submit every 20 tokens you earn to Lord Saladin, receiving an Iron Engram that you may decrypt to acquire Legendary items. Possible rewards include unique weapons such as The Steady Hand or special armor or cosmetics.

Another way to earn rewards is through weekly Iron Banner bounties. Each month features four bounties drawn from the standard pool of seven. The bounties give additional, often very challenging objectives to complete during the matches. Every bounty provides the same recompense on completion: Season Pass XP, 50 Iron Banner Tokens, and a random Pinnacle Reward. Completing all the bounties should also give you an Emblem.

Finally, Lord Saladin offers a multi-stage quest that offers more distinctive rewards. Every season has its own quest, which may be pursued over several months until that season’s end. For the Season of the Chosen, the quest is Saladin’s Gauntlet. In addition to a shader and new weaponry earned over the course of this mission, every step also provides a piece from the current Iron Banner Armor set (namely Iron Truage). Finishing the quest will allow you to collect a full set. While completing the quest used to be a prerequisite for turning in tokens, this is no longer the case – it merely adds alternative versions of the pieces to the pool.

Best Tactics

Victory in Iron Banner depends on several considerations, most crucially:

• Equipment: Obviously, lower-level gear will put you at a major disadvantage, but it’s also important to pick the right loadout. Special ammo weapons, particularly shotguns like Heritage and launchers such as Witherhoard, can be especially effective on this battlefield due to their area control potential. They also aren’t as strongly affected by the level disparity, so you can give them a try if you are low on Power or want to progress through certain bounties faster. That said, heavy weapons and long-range rifles have their place as well, depending on your playstyle;
• Coordination: Effective teamwork is more important than usual due to the higher stakes and more dramatic swings. Going into battle with a premade team and using voice chat should greatly improve your chances of winning. Make sure to cover each other as you advance to take zones and call out enemy counterattacks as quickly as you can. You will definitely want to cooperate smoothly if the match ends up going to a Hunt, whether you hold the advantage or not – the course of the game will depend on swift actions to take advantage of the score bonus and retake the zones;
• Strategy: While capturing zones is critical, you shouldn’t bite off more than you can chew. Going for the Hunt, while tempting, is a risky move that should only be taken if you’re sure that it will give you a decisive advantage in the match. Instead, you should usually concentrate on taking and holding two zones. Ideally, your team should spread out between them to prevent enemies from slipping through. Defense works best if it is proactive, whether that means advancing on enemies with assault rifles like Suros Regime or striking them from a distance with a sniper rifle like Beloved. What probably won’t work is staying in the zone, as that just makes you a target.

Iron Banner is a somewhat controversial mode these days. Critics point to it being lopsided – one team can secure an early lead too easily, resulting in either a quick mercy win or a protracted uphill battle for their enemies. Its bonus objectives have also been attacked for being too grindy, especially in the light of the mercy win issue. Although the developers have made some changes over the months to address those issues, so far it has been only a partial fix. That being said, at its best Iron Banner can be an exciting test of team play skills. It is generally more accessible than Trials of Osiris, making it a welcome destination for high-Power PvP fans. Furthermore, its Pinnacle rewards and unique items recommend it as a powerleveling opportunity. Provided you understand its rules, it can be a very rewarding pastime.