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Bungie has completely overhauled the layout ofDestiny 2with its latest Edge of Fate expansion. Named the Portal, this new UI has effectively replaced the Director with a collection of playlists that make finding activities much easier. You no longer need to memorize destination layouts to find an activity.
Whether you’re a new or returning Destiny 2 player, this new Portal system can be intimidating to use. It’s a massive change for Destiny, but fortunately, it’s easy to use once you understand how its playlist system works. Today, we’ll be giving a general overview of how Portal works, what each playlist contains, and give a brief rundown of how the new difficulty system works.
What Is The Portal?
The Portal is a new landing page that serves the same purpose as the previous Director map.From the Portal menu, you can queue up any activity in Destiny 2, from current expansion content to older activities reprised for the current expansion.To be clear, not every old piece of sunset content is now playable; only select activities have been brought back.
When you open up Destiny, you’ll see an “Open Portal” button that has replaced the previous Director map. Opening this up will present a menu with an array of options:
If you’re brand new to Destiny 2 and are unsure what to do, you generally want toplay the latest expansion first, then farm one of the playlists for better gear.Expansions tend to include new subclass features, gear archetypes, and titles to chase. When your inventory gets full, go visit the Tower to decrypt any Engrams you’ve earned and add any valuable items to your Vault.
Playlists
Veteran players will notice that Destiny 2’s notable activities—Vanguard content, lost sectors, dungeons, and raids—are absent here. That’s because they’ve been recategorized intoplaylistsat the bottom of the Portal UI.Activities in Destiny 2 are now categorized under playlist types.
Notes
Solo Ops
Remixes of lost sectors, empire hunts, and strikes intended for solo play.
Fireteam Ops
Previously Vanguard Ops. Includes strikes, battlegrounds, empire hunts, and seasonal content.
Pinnacle Ops
Lengthy, non-matchmade activities. Includes Exotic missions and difficult seasonal content like The Coil.
Crucible
Player versus player (PvP). Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner are tied to this playlist.
When you enter the Portal, selecting any of these playlists will bring up a grid of available missions. Selecting any of these activities will set up a lobby for matchmaking and, if applicable, a difficulty card you may tune before the activity starts. We cover difficulty modifiers in the next section.
For most players, the place to be isFireteam Ops, a rebranded version of Vanguard Ops. This playlist includes virtually every piece of matchmade content in Destiny 2 that’s intended for all skill levels. This includes strikes, battlegrounds, and older seasonal activities likeSavathun’s Spire. Seasonal content available through this mode will rotate with each quarterly update.
All four playlists offer completion rewards that are tied to the given activity. For example, playing the Crucible playlist will award PvP gear as its completion rewards.Completion rewards arealwaysPower increases for your character, so feel free to farm any playlist you like; there’s no more weekly time-gating.
Seasonal Hub
Completing daily and weekly challenges under the “Seasonal Hub” tab of Portal will unlock account rewards, including Strange Coins, Seasonal Gear Engrams, and tokens you can redeem for items at Zavala.
The reward track resets weekly and has replaced the Seasonal Challenge system.
Where Are Raids And Dungeons?
Raids and dungeons are currently not tied to any playlist as of launch. They will most likely be added to the Pinnacle Ops playlist at a later date. But for now,you can find dungeons and raids in their respective destinations on the “World” map,previously called the Director. If you’re a new or returning Guardian, you can find these activities in the locations listed below.
Difficulty Modifiers
Excluding PvP,nearly every activity in the Portal menu has access to difficulty modifiers.This is an elective difficulty system that allows you to adjust the Power Level, boons, and banes present throughout the activity. Adding modifiers to the activity will allow you to hit a higher score target, which is then converted into rewards. The higher score you get, the better-quality loot you’ll receive—notably items of highergear tiersand additional drops.
Before you start an activity, select the “Customize” button to bring up the difficulty modifiers page. This will let you select your Power deficit to set the base score of the activity. You can then modify this further withChallenge ModifiersandBoon & Event Modifiers.Use these to ramp up your score to maximize the quality of loot you receive. We’ll have a more thorough breakdown of how this difficulty system works in a companion guide that will be up in the coming days.
