There’s so much to do in Destiny 2 that it’s easy to get lost, especially for new players. That’s part of why Bungie’s loot shooter automatically throws players into new events once they go live, like this season’s Dares of Eternity activity. For some new players, however, it means their first experience in Destiny is loading into a mission they’re not strong enough to beat. Now, veteran players are trying to save them.
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As first reported by Forbes writer Paul Tassi, some ill-fated newbies have been getting trapped in Dares of Eternity, an expansion tk added back in November as part of the Bungie 30th Anniversary update. That’s because Destiny 2 starts players at a power level of 1,000, but Dares of Eternity is rated for 1,150. It also has Champions, special enemy types with shields that can only be broken by weapons with the corresponding artifact mods. The result creates matches where new players bang their heads against the wall until they eventually give up.
“Dares of Eternity may be a fun playground for veteran users, but for New Lights, it’s like a burning hell,” wrote one player in a post that blew up on the Destiny subreddit. So they and some other long-time players have taken it upon themselves to seek out these newcomers and shepherd them through the matchmaking purgatory. This new player-driven questline even has a name: “The Rescue.”
Even very high power players can temporarily bring their level closer to 1,000 by pulling starter gear from the collections menu and pairing it with a zero power mask from the recent Festival of the Lost event. Doing so makes it more likely for them to be paired with new players encountering Dares of Eternity for the first time, at which point they can re-equip their powerful gear and lend a helping hand.
“Queuing for Dares of Eternity for a few hours to help New Lights is the most fun I’ve had in Destiny in a while,” wrote one veteran on Reddit who answered the call. “I did my best to help all the New Lights get through it, stood around the rally flags and chests and gave/got lots of hugs.”
At the same time, The Rescue has also called into question the wisdom of forcing players to queue for seasonal activities the first time after they go live. It can always be abandoned by going back to orbit, but new players in particular might not be aware of that option, as it’s buried behind a small sequence of button presses. It’s also a reminder that there’s really no reason to still have new players start at such a low power level now that Destiny 2 effectively has no main story campaign.
In the meantime, it’s a fun way to play good space samaritan for players who have already maxed out the rest of this season’s grind.
“We’ve got some emails out to the team about this,” one of Bungie’s community managers for the game wrote on Reddit. “Cheers to all who are hopping in to help New Lights in need.”
Update – 1/6/2022, 4:37 p.m. ET: Bungie is now calling this community driven event “Operation: Save the New Lights” and encouraging more players to participate. “While this issue impacts some new players, it’s also hitting some who’ve taken lengthy breaks from Destiny 2 and are at low power,” community manager Dmg04 wrote on Twitter. “We’ve got some fixes in the pipe, but not for this week.”