Destiny 2 Court of Blades seasonal activity: Everything you should know ahead of Heresy Act II

Destiny 2 Dreadnaught (Image via Bungie)

Court of Blades will be the featured seasonal activity for Destiny 2 Heresy Act II, joining The Nether. Both these activities will drop seasonal weapons, allowing players to farm them repeatedly, until another Act comes along. As many might have guessed, the name "Court of Blades" seems to be an homage to the fan-favorite "Court of Oryx" from Destiny 1, as the entirety of Episode Heresy is taking place on the Taken King's Dreadnaught.

This article focuses more on the details of the "Court of Blades" seasonal activity revealed for Heresy Act II via the developer livestream. The Act is scheduled for release with the March 11 reset, featuring the activity, Guardian Games, and multiple new gear pieces.

Destiny 2 Court of Blades explained

1) How it works

Based on the official footage gathered from the developer's livestream, it seems the Court of Oryx will act like a mini boss rush mode, with rogue-like features, and multiple encounters with escalating difficulties. The developers claim this specific activity is to let players go in, slaughter everything in front of them, take the loot, and get out.

While The Nether can take about an hour for a full run, the Court of Blades is expected to take 10 minutes, alongside a seasonal reward at the end. Other additions to the activity include "Augments" that bring in challenges, or "Armaments" to counter the Augment challenges.

2) Augments

Augments are challenges you can pick in the middle of each encounter. Each Augment will add a challenge on top of the existing difficulty/mechanic in an encounter, and you must fight through the challenges and defeat the final boss. Note that Augments stack from one encounter to another, so keep this in mind while you select them.

Augmentation, as shown in the Destiny 2 Heresy developer's livestream (Image via Bungie)

Some of the Augments revealed via the livestream include

Augmentation Banish: Defeat Casters quickly to prevent banishment, or fight your way back to reality.
Augmentation Sharpen: Confront immune Bladebearers to obtain Swords to strip a challenger's protection.
Augmentation Bulwark: Destroy small blights to reveal a protector whose Taken Essence can damage the main blight.
Augmentation Swarm: Defend against swarming foes.
Augmentation Descend: Damage falling blights before they descend fully or suffer consequences.
Hazard Gaze of the Deep: Avoid the Gaze of that which spreads Suffocating Terror.

You can either follow the mini-objectives presented by the Augments or just kill the boss quickly and be done with the encounter.

3) Armaments

Armaments, on the other hand, are special buffs to counter the Augments. These will come in different tiers and can be purchased using a currency called "Rune Tier" of the same tier. These buffs come in the middle of each encounter, same as Augments, and some of them have been revealed.

Armaments, as shown in Destiny 2 Heresy livestream (Image via Bungie)

They are as follows:

Tier III Ascendant Slayer: Weapons and abilities deal additional damage to bosses.
Tier II Hive Sword: Equip a Hive Sword relic to use in battle.
Tier I Ritual of Greed: Collect three Pyramid shards without dying to gain a permanent increase in energy regeneration rate.
Tier I Void Transmutation: Defeating enemies with Void damage provides a chance to transform them into Ruinous Effigy spheres.
Tier II Dark Slayer ammo generation: Defeating challenging enemies creates a small shower of ammo bricks for all Guardians.
Tier III Vanguard Turrets: Allied support turrets appear in all future encounters.

How exactly one gains Runic Tiers from Court of Swords is unknown. However, a small counter at the left side of the screen in the developer's livestream stated "Tier I Reciprocal Rune," followed by a blue bar.

One instance of the livestream showed a player getting +2 Runes after defeating the main boss of an encounter.

Hence, one can assume players might have to defeat the final boss of an encounter, get the blue bar to fill up, and then reach the next tier. Each tier requires five Rune progressions.

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Edited by Angad Sharma