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The latest episode of Destiny 2
has brought a fan-favorite location back into the spotlight. Guardians will need to investigate the derelict Dreadnaught to uncover hidden secrets and complete difficult challenges.
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Most of this season’s rewards are unearthed in The Nether, a true roguelike experience that trades HP recovery for RNG boons. If you can handle the strange buildcraft restrictions in this mode, you can walk away with some fantastic new weapons and important upgrades for Heresy’s new Tomb of Want. This guide will cover the basics of Nether, including its unique modifiers and a brief overview of its most common encounters.
The Nether Modifiers
The Nether is Destiny 2’s first attempt at a proper roguelike mode. Unlike past activities that featured some roguelite elements, The Nether is built entirely around roguelike mechanics, including limited healing sources and RNG buffs. Here are the keynotes that are present in all Nether playlists
-
You do not regenerate health. Enemies periodically drop Healing Orbs that, when grabbed, restore a sliver of HP instead.
- Most sources of healing are significantly less effective than usual or don’t work at all.
- Encounters grant boons. These are buffs that greatly enhance your build. Some come with penalties.
- Famine: Ammo drops are significantly reduced. You’ll need to rely on mods and destructible pots to recover your ammo.
- Extinguish: This activity has revive tokens. Dying with zero revive tokens will prematurely end the run.
Restoring HP In The Nether
That first modifier is easily the most transformative. You cannot regenerate health, period. Sources that restore HP are significantly less effective due to your Guardian’s inflated health pool, making passive sources of HP like Warlock Rifts and Phoenix Dive virtually useless. Anything that restores HP in chunks—Devour, Recuperation, Cure, etc.—tend to perform better.
To get your health back, you’ll want to keep an eye out for Healing Orbs dropped from slain enemies and destructible pots. They’re fairly common but don’t heal much of your health pool. We highly recommend you spec your build for damage resistance to help mitigate the limited healing sources. And above all else, try to avoid incoming damage. Amplified is incredibly strong in this activity for that reason alone.
There are a few sources of healing that don’t seem to have been adjusted for The Nether. This includes the Unrelenting perk, Crimson, Rat King if you have its Catalyst installed, and the Knockout Aspect for Titans.
Pressure Encounters
While patrolling the Dreadnaught, you will periodically see notifications that the pressure inside the Dreadnaught is building. After roughly two minutes, a wipe mechanic will initiate. You must destroy all three Taken Blights in the zone or else your fireteam will wipe. These Blights are fairly easy to destroy and aren’t defended, but you’ll only have two minutes to break all three of them. Completing pressure encounters should take top priority.
Nether Difficulty Variants
The Nether has two difficulty variants: Advanced and Expert. Advanced is the intended experience and features matchmaking and private variants. Expert is a more difficult variant that features Champions, Banes, Overcharge, and no matchmaking.
|
The Nether Modifiers Advanced |
|
|---|---|
|
Power Level |
Starts at 0; -5 penalty per room |
|
Nether Rules |
Health recovery is disabled. Healing Orbs occasionally spawn. |
|
High Pressure |
Limited revives. Pressure events will occur periodically. Complete them or die. |
|
Famine |
Ammo drops are reduced. |
|
The Nether Modifiers Expert |
|
|
Power Level |
Starts at 0; -5 penalty per room |
|
Champions |
Barrier, Overload, Unstoppable |
|
Overcharge |
Enabled |
|
Banes |
Enabled |
|
Nether Rules |
Health recovery is disabled. Healing Orbs occasionally spawn. |
|
High Pressure |
Limited revives. Pressure events will occur periodically. Complete them or die. |
|
Famine |
Ammo drops are reduced. |
Additionally, an exploration playlist is also available and is tailored for solo players. Pressure mechanics are disabled in this variant, although all other mechanics remain in place. You cannot matchmake in the exploration playlist; you’ll need to find Guardians elsewhere or play the dedicated Nether playlist instead.
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Nether Activity Walkthrough
Down to its bare essentials, The Nether is a three-phase roguelite where you must complete objectives aboard the Dreadnaught and uncover secrets. It’s similar to Deep Dive and The Coil from previous seasons, although the objective structure is non-linear here.
Each section of the Dreadnaught is broken up into three objectives, all of which you can complete in any order. These aren’t marked on your HUD by default, but if you pull out your Ghost, the closest objective will be marked with a white diamond on your HUD. If you ever get lost, use your Ghost.
Encounters in the Dreadnaught will depend on which part of the ship you’re on, but there are some common encounters in each room:
- Defend the objective: A couple of plates or marked defense locations need to be captured. Stand in the area and fight against waves of Dread.
- Deposit relics: Grab any floating relics in the area and deposit them at nearby statues.
- Subjugator duo: Defeat a pair of Subjugators defending an area. Only one will be vulnerable at a time.
- Spore destruction: Look for orange spores on the wall and destroy them.
- Tormentor boss: Collect Darkness shards to make the Tormentor vulnerable, then defeat the boss.
Don’t focus solely on encounters while you’re exploring. Aboard the Dreadnaught are a plethora of hidden chests, materials, and other hidden secrets that award seasonal weapons. Any chest you open will award Sigil Shards. These are used to upgrade your Tome of Want, this season’s main progression system that offers permanent buffs to your Nether runs. For now, just know that these Sigil Shards are important and you should be grabbing them.
You’ll also find resource nodes aboard the Dreadnaught that grant Metasized Essentia, a resource you can exchange for seasonal loot at Eris’ apartment in the Last City. You must successfully complete the Nether run to extract these materials.
Every run lasts for three rooms and ends with a boss fight. The final boss isn’t timed or has any wipe mechanics, but you will be swarmed by adds and projectile attacks. Stay behind cover whenever possible; don’t play too aggressive. Defeat the boss to claim your final chest of rewards and return to orbit.
The Nether Rewards
Completing runs of the Nether award reputation with the Essence of Desire in Eris’ apartment, this season’s vendor. Chests you open during the run also award Sigil Shards, a new currency type that you can use to purchase permanent upgrades for your Nether runs. And as with all seasonal content, successful clears of this activity award Heresy seasonal weapons, armor, and upgrade materials.
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